3-Week SASA Reading Group: From Harlots to Heroines: Royal Women in the Hebrew Bible

In the biblical texts in which they appear, royal women are often overshadowed by royal men. The purpose of this reading group is to focus on how three royal women – Jezebel, the female lover in the Song of Songs, and Esther - are portrayed in the Hebrew Bible and what this might tell us about how queenship was perceived in ancient Israel and Judah. The group will begin by reading the primary sources for these royal women: the narratives of Jezebel (scattered throughout the Books of Kings), followed by the Song of Songs, and finishing with the Book of Esther. The purpose is to identify how royal women appear in these texts, with a specific focus on how their gender is constructed and what this might tell us about the writers’ biases toward female royalty. Female royalty is not static in the Hebrew Bible, as highlighted by the fact…