Book asserts Jezebel was anything but a prostitute

Few historical characters rival Jezebel for negative stereotypes.

Today, “she’s a household word for badness,” says one scholar, portrayed as a brash, sexually provocative woman wearing too much makeup.

So in her new book, “Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen” (Doubleday, $24.95), Lesley Hazleton strives to set aside the stereotypes.

“She was a magnificent, proud, powerful queen of Israel,” says Hazleton. “She was anything but the harlot and the slut of legend.”

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess whose marriage to Israel’s King Ahab was one of political convenience. She ran into trouble with the prophet Elijah when she brought her many gods to monotheistic Israel.

After a 31-year reign, she died a gruesome death, pushed out of a window and trampled by horses, then eaten by dogs – everything except her skull, hands and feet, that is.

In today’s society, Jezebel practically means prostitute, an association Hazleton said springs from the “dismaying literalism” with which people have read an Old Testament metaphor.

Biblical authors, not unlike modern writers, knew they could get their readers’ attention by sexualizing their material, Hazleton said. And so, they used the term “harlot” to describe people who abandoned Israel’s God to pursue foreign gods – even if no sexual impropriety was involved.

Hazleton, who lives in Seattle, wrote her book after living in Israel from 1966 to 1979. “Jezebel,” sprinkled with transliterated Hebrew words and geographical descriptions, reflects the influence that her time in Israel had on her.

She conceded that the new book, coming on the heels of her 2004 release, “Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother,” may shock some readers.

But the two women, she said, aren’t that different: Both have frequently been deprived of their humanity.

“They’ve been forced into really narrow … categories in order to serve other people’s purposes,” she says.

Liz Curtis Higgs, who wrote “Bad Girls of the Bible” in 1999, agrees that Jezebel had a powerful personality and strong leadership abilities, but does not put the queen in such a good light in her book.

“Hers is a tragic story when you get right down to it, because she had so much potential,” Higgs said. “But she was working for the wrong God.”