Book Recommendation - Jerusalem's Queen

My most recent read was Angela Hunt's "Jerusalem's Queen: A Novel of Salome Alexandra". If you're like me, you didn't even know that Jerusalem ever had a queen, let alone what her name was. Salome Alexandra ruled Judea just before the time of Christ. Her death preceded his birth by about a generation. This book is book 3 in Ms. Hunt's series "The Silent Years", which spans the 400 years between the old and new testaments. Having not read much of anything in this time-frame, I've found this series absolutely captivating. Book 1 was the story of Cleopatra. Book 2 was the story of Judah Maccabees. While those stories did not tie in together at all, this one referenced both of them, as Salome Alexandra was a descendant of the Maccabees and was likely able to come into power because of women in the surrounding nations like Cleopatra, already in power.

 I loved this story, which was told from the viewpoint of both Salome Alexandra and her lady's maid, Kissa. It was fascinating to see how she might have come into power and her reign was actually described later as "Judea's Golden Age.". I love how Ms. Hunt used real people and real circumstances and inserted fiction where fact was not known. Having read Mark Batterson's "The Circle Maker", it was exciting to see Honi make an appearance in this book. I felt like I knew something other people might now know. Since he did his circle drawing in that time frame, it would make sense that the queen and the circle drawer may have crossed paths.

Having done the Christian fiction scavenger hunt last week, which this book was a part of, I got a bit of an inside scoop from Angela Hunt:

Q. I must confess, I’d never heard of Salome Alexandra, Queen of Jerusalem, before encountering your book. Who was she?

A. I’d never heard of her, either, until one of my theology professors mentioned her. Not much information is available on her, and what little information there is often contradicts itself. For instance, most Jewish history books say that she was the widow of Judah Aristobulus, who then married his brother, Alexander Jannaeus, but that couldn’t be possible because the high priest had to marry a virgin. And we know that Judah Aristobulus married Salina, not Salome. Most people assume they were one and the same, but they were not.

Q. What made this woman worthy of a book? What did she do that was so unusual?
A. She was a good queen, and honestly followed God. Her husband, Alexander Jannaeus, was high priest and king, and he was horrible. He had purges, he crucified hundreds of Law-following Pharisees and made his victims watch their families being murdered, he kept concubines—in short, he was not a righteous man. But Salome Alexandra was a righteous woman, and after her husband died she reigned in his place and cleaned things up. She made sure girls were educated as well as boys, she changed the way marriage contracts were negotiated (so women were provided for), and she blessed her people. The Jews said the years of her reign were golden years, when God blessed Judea.

Q. Why didn’t those golden years continue after her death?
A. Because she had two sons—one who was like her, the other very much like her husband. The wild one attacked her heir right after her death, and their bloody war caused the Romans to invade, establishing, in the long run, Roman rule. Judea became a Roman province, the Romans named Herod king, and the last kings from the Hasmonean dynasty were killed.

Q. What surprised you most as you researched this period? What was it, fifty years before Christ’s birth?
A. Salome Alexandra died in 67 B.C., and the thing I found most fascinating was that many of the Jews of that time professed a real interest in studying Bible prophecy. The Torah scholars had a sense that one epoch had concluded with the return from Babylonian exile, and a new one was about to begin. The Essenes, in particular, were looking for a messiah—or two, since they saw clear signs that God was getting ready to send a king and a high priest. They were looking for Christ, but they hadn’t quite figured out that the king/priest would be one person, and that God would send him as a tiny baby who was born to die . . . so we might be born again.

Q. Why should a modern Christian care about a Jewish queen? 
A. Because we Christians have been adopted by God into His chosen family, and our Messiah was Jewish! Studying the four hundred years between the Old and New Testaments—the intertestamental period—will help you better understand the situation of the Gospels. And Salome Alexandra is a fascinating woman! I think you’ll enjoy learning about her as much as I did.

This book releases November 6th and is available for pre-order wherever you buy books. Coming up next to finish out this series is "The King's Shadow", which will release sometime in 2019.

My review is included below:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2575336799