Jezebel in the OT

How Bad Was Jezebel?

Read Janet Howe Gaines's full article about Jezebel in the Bible and later depictions as it appeared in Bible Review

Janet Howe Gaines   •  05/06/2013

Who Was Jezebel?

Israel’s most accursed queen carefully fixes a pink rose in her red locks in John Byam Liston Shaw’s “Jezebel” from 1896. Jezebel’s reputation as the most dangerous seductress in the Bible stems from her final appearance: her husband King Ahab is dead; her son has been murdered by Jehu. As Jehu’s chariot races toward the palace to kill Jezebel, she “painted her eyes with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK/Bridgeman Art Library

For more than two thousand years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation as the bad girl of the Bible, the wickedest of women. This ancient queen has been denounced as a murderer, prostitute and enemy of God, and her name has been adopted for lingerie lines and World War II missiles alike. But just how depraved was Jezebel?

In recent years, scholars have tried to reclaim the shadowy female figures whose tales are often only partially told in the Bible. Rehabilitating Jezebel’s stained reputation is an arduous task, however, for she is a difficult woman to like. She is not a heroic fighter like Deborah, a devoted sister like Miriam or a cherished wife like Ruth. Jezebel cannot even be compared with the Bible’s other bad girls—Potiphar’s wife and Delilah—for no good comes from Jezebel’s deeds. These other women may be bad, but Jezebel is the worst.1

Yet there is more to this complex ruler than the standard interpretation would allow. To attain a more positive assessment of Jezebel’s troubled reign and a deeper understanding of her role, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen. Furthermore, we must reread the narrative from the queen’s vantage point. As we piece together the world in which Jezebel lived, a fuller picture of this fascinating woman begins to emerge. The story is not a pretty one, and some—perhaps most—readers will remain disturbed by Jezebel’s actions. But her character might not be as dark as we are accustomed to think ng. Her evilness is not always as obvious, undisputed and unrivaled as the Biblical writer wants it to appear.
 

for the rest of the article, see the url below:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/how-bad-was-jezebel/

petra jordan

Excavating Ancient Pella, Jordan

Archaeology Investigates the Jerusalem Christians’ Escape to Pella

Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/26/2013

In ancient Pella, Jordan, archaeology can take you back over 8,000 years of history. The Civic Complex at the base of the mound of ancient Pella includes a large columned church from the Byzantine period. But many of the first modern explorers to visit Pella, Jordan, were looking for evidence of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella from Jerusalem in the first century. Did it really happen?Photo by Hershel Shanks

The fourth-century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella, Jordan, from Jerusalem just before the latter city was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Did this miraculous event occur? Is there evidence of first-century Christians at ancient Pella, Jordan?

As ancient Pella’s current excavation director Stephen Bourke explains in the May/June 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, at Pella, Jordan, archaeology can transport you back through over 8,000 years of history, so you have to be interested in every period. That wasn’t exactly true of ancient Pella’s first modern explorers, however. Their focus was on finding remains of the first-century followers of Jesus who reportedly fled from Jerusalem to Pella, Jordan.

The first settlers at ancient Pella arrived in the Neolithic period, around 7500 B.C., and the site’s occupation continued for thousands of years. When it came to first-century A.D. settlement at Pella, Jordan, archaeology surprisingly produced practically no remains. It seems that no one was living there at the time. Soon after, the Romans resettled ancient Pella in the second century and developed it into a thriving economic center.

for the rest of the article, read below:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/excavating-ancient-pella-jordan/

mikvah discovered

Mikveh Discovery Highlights Ritual Bathing in Second Temple Period Jerusalem

Bible and archaeology news

Noah Wiener   •  04/12/2013

Archaeologist Benyamin Storchan at the newly-discovered mikveh. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli archaeologists recently uncovered a mikveh (a Jewish ritual bath) in Jerusalem’s Qiryat Menachem neighborhood that dates back to the Second Temple period (538 B.C.E–70 C.E.). Small pools used for ritual cleansing, known as mikva’ot (singular, mikveh), were built to strict specifications: According to the Mishnah, the earliest rabbinic code of law, they must be of a certain size and filled with “living” water—water that has not been transferred from a vessel but has flowed directly into the bath from a river, spring or rainwater collector.

The recently-discovered Jerusalem mikveh features a unique water supply system designed to preserve every possible drop of rainwater collected in the arid Jerusalem environment. Water ran into the mikveh from three collecting basins (otzar) hewn out of the rock on the mikveh’s roof, following kashrut laws dictating that the water be carried in naturally and without human contact. In addition, the mikveh was paved with plaster, following the Jewish law that water from the mikveh not seep into the earth.

While the area was used for quarrying after the mikveh went out of use, Jerusalem archaeologists are working with the neighboring community and the Israel Antiquities Authority to preserve the site of this unique Second Temple period mikveh.

The mikveh from above, showing the three collecting basins hewn into the roof of the mikveh. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Read more http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/mikveh-discovery-ritual-bathing-in-second-temple-period-jerusalem/?mqsc=E3502704&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=BHDDailyNewsletter&utm_campaign=E3B415

city of UR

New Monumental Structure Uncovered Near Ur

Bible and archaeology news

Noah Wiener   •  03/29/2013

The Standard of Ur

After nearly 80 years, archaeologists have returned to one of the world’s most prolific archaeology sites. While the site was initially excavated in the 1850s, Sir Leonard Woolley’s well-publicized 20th-century excavations exposed valuable artifacts and thousands of years of the Sumerian city-state’s history, spurring on associations with Abraham’s birthplace, the Biblical Ur of the Chaldees.

Archaeologists returning to Iraq have uncovered a massive structure on the ancient banks of the Euphrates River, ten miles from the city center. The recent discovery’s monumental size—with nearly nine-foot-thick walls—suggests that it was a palace or a temple. The team, led by University of Manchester archaeologist Jane Moon, employs techniques not available to Woolley and his team. Moon identified the structure in satellite images, and so far her team has only exposed a small section of the monumental complex. While Woolley’s excavations were famous for producing lavish artifacts including the Standard of Ur (pictured above, right), Moon’s modern archaeological toolkit will allow her team to reconstruct the economy, diet, climate and daily life at the Sumerian capital.

Read more.

turin shroud

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Shroud of Turin went on display for a special TV appearance Saturday amid new research disputing claims it's a medieval fake and purporting to date the linen some say was Jesus' burial cloth to around the time of his death.

Pope Francis sent a special video message to the event in Turin's cathedral, but made no claim that the image on the shroud of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Christ was really that of Jesus. He called the cloth an "icon," not a relic — an important distinction.

"This image, impressed upon the cloth, speaks to our heart and moves us to climb the hill of Calvary, to look upon the wood of the Cross, and to immerse ourselves in the eloquent silence of love," he said.

"This disfigured face resembles all those faces of men and women marred by a life which does not respect their dignity, by war and violence which afflict the weakest," he said. "And yet, at the same time, the face in the Shroud conveys a great peace; this tortured body expresses a sovereign majesty."

for the rest of article, see url:

http://news.yahoo.com/shroud-turin-goes-display-amid-research-164019211.html