Angela Hunt. Jerusalem’s Queen: A Novel of Salome Alexandra. Bethany House, 2018. See here to purchase the book.
Jerusalem’s Queen is the third book of Angela Hunt’s “Silent
Years” series, which is about the period between the Hebrew Bible and
the New Testament. The first book is about Cleopatra VII, and the second
book concerns Judah the Maccabee. This third book is about Salome
Alexandra. Salome Alexandra was the queen of Judea in the early first
century BCE. She empowered the Pharisees.
Jerusalem’s Queen alternates between the perspective of
Salome Alexandra, originally called “Shelamzion,” and Kissa, her servant
from Egypt. The book goes from the reign of John Hyrcanus I, through
the oppressive reign of Alexander Jannaeus, to the death of Salome and
the rivalry between her sons, which led to the Roman takeover of Judea
and the end of Jewish political independence. In the book’s moving
ending, one of the characters encounters Simeon, the man in Luke 2 who
saw Jesus Christ before his death.
Overall, the book effectively explores theological issues, as
Sadducees dialogue with Pharisees, and Essenes get into the discussion.
Honi the circle-drawer has a cameo. Shelamzion questions her uncle John
Hyrcanus’s Hellenism and the royal airs he puts on as high priest.
Political tensions recur in the book, and powerful personalities
encounter powerful personalities. Hunt makes use of ancient sources,
such as Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and rabbinic literature, and she
presents her critical assessment of the sources in an appendix.
Reading about Salome, there are additional stories that Hunt could
have included, which may have rounded out the book a little more, but
Hunt chose as she did. I disagree somewhat with something she says in
the appendix. She presents Shelamzion and Kissa together in the
Jerusalem temple, and she says that this is plausible because, prior to
Herod’s temple, there were only two courts: one for the people, and one
for the priests. There was not yet a “Court of the Women” or “Court of
the Gentiles.” Yet, Antiochus III’s decree in 200 BCE (Josephus, Ant.
12.145–46) presumes that Jewish law forbids Gentiles to enter the
temple enclosure. That should factor into the discussion somewhere.
Incidentally, I do not remember the scene in which Shelamzion and Kissa
are together at the Jerusalem temple—only the scene in which they are at
the Heliopolis temple. If Kissa was a slave when she was at the
Jerusalem temple, perhaps she would have been allowed at its enclosure,
since slaves were considered part of Israelite households (Genesis
17:12; Exodus 12:44).
The book has an evangelical perspective, which influences the issues
that are placed on the table. In one part of the book, a Pharisee was
saying that the Messiah would be a king and a priest, like a Christian
would. (Elsewhere in the book, an Essene says that there would be two
Messiahs, one priestly Messiah and one royal, and that is what is in the
Dead Sea Scrolls.) I wondered how plausible the Pharisee’s speech was,
or if Hunt was placing evangelical beliefs into the mouth of the
Pharisee. I suppose it is not impossible that a Pharisee would say that,
since the Hebrew Bible does sometimes depict David as a priest-king (II
Samuel 8:18; Psalm 110:4), and perhaps a Pharisee could pick up on
that. On whether such a sentiment occurs in rabbinic literature, that is
a question that deserves further research.
The book’s evangelical perspective does lead to an interesting
discussion: is obeying the rites of the law sufficient to be righteous,
or is something further than that necessary? In a poignant scene, Kissa
acknowledges that she obeys the law as part of Shelamzion’s household,
yet she does not feel a connection with God.
There is an intriguing statement on page 305. An Essene Torah teacher
is responding to Shelamzion’s question of whether the Messiah will
overthrow her husband Alexander Jannaeus. The Torah teacher replies:
“The Teacher of Righteousness has called your husband ‘the wicked
priest,’ but I do not believe he considers Alexander Jannaeus the wicked
priest described in the text. Your husband does not rule Egypt and
Syria.” Shelamzion then sighs and says, “So we should not expect the
Messiah until later?” At the moment, I do not know where the Dead Sea
Scrolls say that the Wicked Priest rules Egypt and Syria. But there have
been different ideas about the identity of the Wicked Priest, and
whether there was only one.
This is my favorite book in the series thus far.
I checked this book out from the library. My review is honest.