Journal 3 in 2003
Macht und Verantwortung

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Benthe Groth
Female Regents in Biblical Time

The Bible does not recognize any royal Israelite wife as queen. To understand why this is so, we have to look at the roles accorded to women. It soon becomes clear that women were regarded as a threat to the right beliefs of men, or at least to the scribes who wrote the Bible. (I will not go into the question of who they were, and when the different strains and sources came into existence.) But does the Bible give us a correct picture, or does it maybe present an idealistic, or in the case of women, a prejudiced one? At this point it seems useful to cite the British anthropologist Edmund Leach, who states that: “The observer must distinguish between what people do and what people say they do; that is between normal custom as individually interpreted on the one hand and normative rule on the other.” (Leach 1982, p.130). This principle may also be applied when we study the Bible, if we keep in mind that the Bible was written by male scribes of a certain social class – not by the people. What we read is what those ancient scribes wanted their readers to think or believe – a presentation of their own ideology.

There was most likely a difference between their normative picture of Israelite religion, and the role of women presented in the Bible, and what really took place. There is much evidence that the type of religion promoted by the scribes and prophets was not widely accepted by the people, or even by the royal family during the rule of the kings. The idea of pure monotheism took a long time to spread and take a firm hold. The American archaeologist, William Dever, states that we should ”reconstruct religion on the basis of its extant remains: belief through texts, cult through material culture” (Dever 1987, p. 220). This distinction seems to me to be too sharp; in ancient cultures, belief and ritual were most likely two sides of the same thing. On the other hand, you could possibly take part, or be present, in/at the official state cult on one level, and practice some kind of goddess-worship in the home and/or in local holy places. This multilevel cultic participation seems to have been the case in Ancient Israel. This is important for our subject, because women repeatedly are accused of worshipping “foreign” gods and goddesses. Why would that be?

The writing of the texts and the later editing took a long time. Scholars still do not agree on how, or when, this process took place or who wrote the different texts. So let us look at the texts as they are, but remember that the scribes may have condemned practices that were accepted by a large part of the population. Any way we look at it, women seem to have presented a problem for the writers in whose worldview the male was the real human. Women tend to be presented as stereotypes, either as good wives and mothers, or as dangerous sexy temptresses and whores, and they are often accused of serving the goddess. Women are irresponsible and their actions must be controlled by laws.

Real women faced many hardships and restrictions, but their problems fade when we compare them with the fate of the metaphorical women constructed by some of the Prophets, who choose to use unfaithful wives as metaphors for Israel and Judah. These unfortunate women are described in the most hostile and degrading ways – as unfaithful and sex-crazed wives who have to be punished harshly before being forgiven by their husbands. As Athalia Brenner points out, parts of the book of Jeremiah can only be described as pornography. (Brenner&Van Dijk-Hemmes Chapter. IV) Most metaphor theory will postulate that metaphors only “work” if they find resonance in the receiver. This means that these strange ideas about women’s sexuality must have been common either among Israelite men, or among scribes. These male pictures of women seem to have a lasting durability; they are still alive today.

The main purpose of biblical women seems to be the making of sons. The Bible also presents active and independent women, but independent acting is only accepted when it serves the family, especially upholding a male line – or when it seems necessary to save the nation. Women outside the control of men were considered dangerous, especially the divorcee or widow. Women with formal power were also considered a threat, and so were foreign women. This would cause a problem in the royal family, where political alliances often caused the king to take foreign wives. The foreign wives of Salomon were accused of introducing foreign worship, and therefore of the later partition of the kingdom. In the neighbouring countries royal women were also high priestesses and took an active part in royal intrigues and plots. As far as we know, women had no cultic functions in the official cult in Temple in Jerusalem or in the rule of the country. Why was that?

The Hebrew God:
The God of the Bible is not part of nature like the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt; he stands outside of creation and has no form. He is not represented by statues in human or animal form. (It is important to realize that neither in Mesopotamia nor in Egypt were the statues though to be the gods. The real Egyptian god Amun/Ra was invisible and his real name was secret, not unlike the Hebrew God.)

The Hebrew God was/is not supposed to be either male or female, but the metaphors used in the Bible are male, and so are most of his actions. God is therefore usually conceived as a male who rules and creates without female assistance – something quite extraordinary in the ancient Middle East where male gods needed female cooperation in creation, and often also in upholding and ruling the universe. Apart from violent creation stories like Enuma Elisha, where man is created from a dead minor god´s body (Kingu), it is a common conception that the human form was made of clay, sometimes on the potter’s wheel. But the breath of life was blown into the new creation by a goddess (Hathor). In the Bible a male God does both (Gen. 2:7) The first women, Eve, is created from male human´s rib – not very natural and not a very promising beginning for women.

What else can we learn from the creation story? Why did the role of women develop in the way it did? Let’s look at the story about Eve. In the middle of the Garden of Eden God placed two special trees – the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. The tree of life is an ancient symbol in the Middle East, usually connected to a fertility goddess, like Inanna/Ishtar, or the Egyptian goddess Hathor. The ancient Israelites probably knew this symbol since migrations, business and war led to cultural exchange.

The tree of knowledge of good and bad is the only tree whose fruit is forbidden to men. Before creating Eve, God tells Adam that eating from this tree would cause death. It looks as if God wants man to take care of his garden, not to develop morality and culture. (This is very strange when we think about the importance of knowledge in later Judaism.) Is it a coincidence that knowledge and culture was often the domain of women in Middle Eastern mythology? In Ancient Sumer the “Mes” (the principles of culture and society) were taken from a male god and brought to the city of Uruk by the goddess Inanna. In Egypt both Isis and Hathor represented culture and knowledge. In the Genesis story it is the woman, Eve, who on the suggestion of the snake (also an ancient female symbol), breaks a divine prohibition for the purpose of obtaining wisdom. Adam only more or less mindlessly follows her lead. Then he blames his wife. He is punished by having to work hard to obtain food.

As a divine punishment Eve is promised painful births and a future where she will be ruled over by her husband – the same husband who just had just been led or tempted by her.

This was to be the model in times to come. Women in neighbouring countries were protected by powerful mother goddesses, especially in dangerous situations like pregnancy and childbirth. In ancient times menstruation and childbirth were considered dangerous and secret, connected to magic and secret “powers”, a time where one needed the helping hand of the goddess. In the Bible, a male God closes and opens the womb of women, it is he who decides who is barren and who is fertile and he does not usually talk directly to women. When the national god promised suffering, not help, it should come as no surprise to learn that Israelite homes and graves show that Middle Eastern symbols of renewal, goddess figurines, amulets, pendants etc. were popular amongst the Israelites.

But there was also another important consequence of their disobedience. After eating the apple, Adam and Eve felt their nakedness and sex; they needed clothes, something that symbolises culture in Middle Eastern myth. The first connection between woman and (sinful) sex is made and man has to protect himself from her temptations – an idea that proved to have long lasting impact on the construction of female stereotypes. This idea was not new. In the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh epos, Enkidu (the wild man of nature) is introduced to sex and culture through a servant of Ishtar. In the Bible, as well as in later Jewish and Christian tradition, Eve has been blamed for transgressing God’s will and thereby causing sin and death to enter the world. But it is important to remember that her curiosity also caused culture to be born.

Women’s worship
In due course the menstrual taboos were added, making women a potential threat of pollution. These taboos may be one of the reasons that women, as far as we know, didn’t take an active part in the sacrificial cult. But that does not mean that they did not take part in any worship at all either in the Temple or in the home. The Israelites are admonished not to marry the women of other nations living in the land. Ex. 34:15–16 gives as a reason that “their daughters will lust after their gods and will cause your sons to lust after their gods.” Women were subjected to their husbands but were still regarded as important enough to be a threat. “To serve Baal and Ashtarot” seems to be a kind of formula, and there is much evidence that the goddess Ashera was worshipped in the home and in alternative cult sites. At times she may also have had a place in the temple. In 2. Kings. 23:7 we hear about women weaving tents (hangings [batim])) for the Ashera, and in Ezek. 8:14 they are weeping for the (Babylonian) god Tammuz. Could the Temple also have been a place where alternative cults took place – cults that had roles for women? Jeremiah 44:15–21 tells about women baking cakes for the Queen of Heaven in the streets of Jerusalem. This seems to have been a “family-cult” where the women were active participants. We don’t know the exact identity of this goddess, but the baking of cakes for the goddess known from the Ishtar cult in Mesopotamia. Jeremiah (in exile in Egypt) puts the blame for the fall of Judah on the women who practised this and other “foreign” cults, but the people were of a very different opinion. In Jer. 44:15–19 the people tell him that everything had been good as long as the kings, nobles and fathers worshipped the Queen of Heaven. The scribes probably included these texts to show how depraved the people had become, but maybe they tell us something about the great span of practice in Ancient Judah. What does all this tell us?

Queens and ruling women:
The royal women are identified by their relationship to husbands or sons. The Bible does not recognise Israelite royal wives as queens, not even Bathseba, wife of king David and mother of Salomon. At least as far as we know, the king’s wife had no important role to play at the court – at least this is what the Bible wants us to believe. It is an interesting fact though, that stamps and seals do show female, usually Egyptianized, symbols connected to both kings and royal servants. The Bible does, however, recognize that foreign countries had queens, both ruling queens and kings’ wives. The only possibility for women to obtain power seems to have been through a son. (Maybe the beginning of the Jewish mother status?) But in three cases an influential mother is bestowed the title Lady (Gevira). In the modern Jewish Bible this word is translated as queen mother. We don’t know for sure what eventual privileges that title could bestow, or what influence in official state or religious affairs. But two of them are accused of worshipping other gods and goddesses.

Maybe the best-known woman to have obtained this title is Jezebel (2. Kings, 10:13), whose reputation is very bad. Jezebel is what we understand as a real queen, taking part in the rule of the country at the side of her husband Ahab. How was this possible, and why does the Bible more or less admit the fact? First of all, Jezebel was not an Israelite women, she was a princess from the neighbouring country of Tyre (Zur) and Sidon. Her father was the king Ethbaal. She worships Baal and Ashera like her compatriots, but so did many other Israelites at that time. She is therefore not under control of the Israelite priesthood and has no respect for the popular prophet Elijah. King Ahab, Jezebel’s husband, is accused of building a temple to Baal in Shomron, as well as putting up an Ashera, possibly a statue of the goddess. In the text this follows the information that he married a foreign princess. One is left with the impression that he did this to please his wife, and/or for political reasons.

Athalia Brenner, in “The Israelite Women,” asks: Was Jezebel a priestess of Baal? Being a priestess was one of the roles of royal women in the neighbouring countries. Brenner also points out that such women were educated and able to communicate with both the religious and secular branches of government. If this is the case it is no wonder she was looked upon as something out of the ordinary amongst royalty, and with suspicious eyes by the scribes. In the story of Naboth’s vineyard, where Jezebel helps her husband in obtaining a property he desired through murdering the rightful owner, we hear that God condemns Ahab, but puts the main blame on Jezebel. She was the one who led her husband into sin, according to the Bible.

In the famous story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel (1 Kings. 18:19), we hear that 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashera eat at her table. This must mean that she had her own income and fortune and kept her own court. Ahab kept prophets of YHWH at his end of the court. When the prophets of Baal are all killed (1. Kings 22.6), Jezebel becomes angry and threatens the prophet Elijah – with the result that he runs away to Beer Sheba (1. Kings. 19:2) – which means that she must have been a woman to be feared. Just as interesting is, however, the fact that the prophets of Ashera seem to have been spared. Does that mean that even Elijah did not dare to touch the cult of Ashera? Fifty years later, under Joakas, the Ashera is still standing, possibly in the Temple in Shomron (2. Kings. 13.6).

The Bible tells us about Jezebel having her own seal, (1 Kings. 21:8), and a seal with the name JZBL on it has been found in excavations. The seal is dated to approximately the time of king Ahab, and could be the real seal. In the end Jezebel is murdered by men. She is accused of both “harlotry” and sorceries (2. Kings 9:22). A little bit later in the text we hear that she puts kohl on her eyes, dresses her hair, and looks out the window. Here we have a clear association to the role of the prostitute: only prostitutes put on make up and stood at the window. She is then murdered by Jehu’s men (eunuchs).

The other two gevirot are the mother of Jehoiachin (Jer. 29:2), who was exiled to Babylon together with her son, and the mother of Asa, called Maaca (1. Kings. 15,13). Her son removed the title after accusing her of making “an abominable thing for the goddess Ashera.” This shows two things – that royal women had the power to get a statue (Miphletzet l’Ashera) put up in the Temple, and that the son could have the statues removed and then remove his mother’s title.

Athalia
Only in the southern kingdom of Judah do we know of a real and official ruler, but she, too, is denied the title of queen. Athalia was either the sister or daughter of King Ahab of Israel (2. Kings. 8:18; 2. Kings. 8:26; 2 Chronicles 22:2), which means she may have been the daughter, stepdaughter or sister in law of Jezebel herself. She was married to King Jehoram of Judah, and we don’t know much about her life at the court as his wife. This changes when her husband dies and her young son, Akasha (22), becomes king – and then dies after only one year. His mother takes over as regent, since her grandson is still only a child. She is then accused of getting all the rest of the royal house killed – not unusual in the royal houses in Ancient Israel. Athalia ruled for 6 years. The Bible wants us to believe that she was both sinful and unpopular, but six years was quite a long time; she was probably both popular and powerful – except possibly among the priests. According to the text, her small grandchild had been saved by his nanny, and later wants to become king – with the assistance of the priest Jehoiada. Athalia was lured into Temple, probably into a part that was forbidden to women, and killed by the army, on order of the priests. The people then proceeded to the temple of Baal in order to destroy it.

This story shows that women with power either supported priests and prophets of other gods or goddesses, or were accused of such support. They did not have the support of the official priesthood or prophets of YHWH. The question we should ask is, what is fact and what is prejudice in these stories? Why are kings also accused of turning to other gods, and condemned in the strongest terms, but women in power are murdered for it?

Shlomzion
After Athalia’s death it took 764 years before another women took power in Israel. I am referring to Salome Alexandra (Shlomzion ha’Malka), the wife of Alexander Jannai, who took over after his death. (76–67) During her rule there seems to have been a comparatively peaceful times in the land.

Esther
Most of you will now ask: What about Esther? Esther is an interesting figure, for many different reasons. She is, however, in a somewhat different category than the others. First of all she is most likely not a historical person, but the heroine of a literary novel. Esther is the head wife of the Persian king, but is otherwise confined to the harem. Her name is however, very interesting, being a variation of the name of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. The Purim festival, that is the result of Ether’s intervention, resembles the feasts of Ishtar. Both are celebrated in the spring, both are connected to merrymaking, drinking wine, wearing costumes and turning things upside down. But it is Vashti that most strongly resembles Ishtar in character in that she refuses to fulfil the king’s wishes. Apart from telling the story of the fate of early diaspora Jews, the story also shows that the writer must have been familiar with Middle Eastern culture in general.

Bente Groth - Cand Philol, professor for the history of religions at the University of Oslo (Norway), specialised on religions of the Middle East, Judaism and religion & gender, author and editor of various books on Judaism