Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Naboth and Jezebel, at Jezreel

Last December I discussed Jehu "ben Omri", suggesting a power-struggle between the nephew and the queen. Paul Davidson had, beforehand, discussed the queen.

Most of our lore is contested between the traditions of 1 Kings in the MT, 3 Reigns in the "LXX" Greek, and the Chronicler. The Chronicler has no stake in the Jezebel lore. This whole bit in Greek would fall within the 3 Reigns 2:12ff γγ section. This episode survived the "kaige" revisions, revisions which hit other books at Naḥal Ḥever / R-Text. But not γγ: so our story retains early features, likely preMT. (3 Reigns 22 onward gets KAIGE'd again.) UPDATE 9/4/26: γγ if "a-kaige" is now considered post-; all of it. Some find 3 Reigns 22+ to be a γδ subset of γγ, pulling back from but γγ's shenanigans, but still post-.

Jezebel probably did exist. All the royals of the time would have needed strong internal relationships against Shalmaneser. Somebody was getting married to a Lebanese in Psalm 45. 1 Kings 16:31 survives uncontested in the crossover verses MT/LXX. If the Chronicler ignored this, it wouldn't matter.

Paul D is saying that had all that Jezebel / Naboth lore featured in the original, the Chronicler couldn't have ignored it like he could ignore stray 1 Kings 16:31. Somebody was spinning tales during the late Persian era. Paul D notes parallels to the Bathsheba episode... which in Greek falls in Kaige, so we haven't a "second opinion" on that. Nonetheless Paul D thinks the Bathsheba lore be early.

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