Ἰεζαβήλ

From the study of Revelation 2:20

Range of meaning

A personal name from Hebrew ʾIzevel, the Phoenician princess, daughter of Ethbaal king of Sidon, who married Ahab of Israel (1 Kings 16:31). In Israel's memory she stood for royal sponsorship of Baal and Asherah worship (1 Kings 18:19), for persecuting the LORD's prophets (1 Kings 18:4; 19:2), and for abusing power, as when she had Naboth murdered (1 Kings 21).

Against the English

All English versions transliterate the name. In modern English, though, 'a jezebel' is a common noun meaning a shameless, sexually forward or manipulative woman, and that meaning gets read back into the verse.

How it drifted

From about the 16th century onward, English usage made 'Jezebel' a byword for painted, wanton women. The reason was the scene in 2 Kings 9:30 where she paints her eyes before her death, read as seduction, though it is more likely a queen dressing to meet death with royal dignity. The biblical charge against her was promoting false worship.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 16:31–33; 18:4, 13, 19, where the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 of Asherah 'eat at Jezebel's table'; 21:1–25; 2 Kings 9:22, where Jehu speaks of 'the harlotries and sorceries of your mother Jezebel' and harlotry is the prophetic image for idolatry; 2 Kings 9:30–37. Revelation uses Old Testament code-names the same way elsewhere: 'Balaam' at Pergamum (2:14), 'Babylon' for Rome (17–18).