Category:Salome Alexandra--history (subject)

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Overview

Azariah de' Rossi (16th century Jewish-Italian Writer) is one the first interpreters of Salome Alexandra. He writes: "It is stated that of the Hasmoneans, Johanan the first, also Hyrcanus, was the father of Jannaeus Alexander, the husband of Queen Alexandra. On his deathbed, he advised her to transfer her allegiance from the Sadducees to the Pharisees who would be supportive of her rule. … It would seem that it is to these stories about the man and his wife, which the sages’ statement in tractate Sota refer: “Jannai the king said to his wife, ‘Do not fear the Pharisees or the non-Pharisees, but rather the hypocrites.’” (Joanna Weinberg, trans. The Light of the Eyes [Yale University Press, 2001).

In 1892 rabbi Henry Zirndorf devoted to the Queen a chapter of his book on “Some Jewish Women.”

In 1972 Solomon Zeitlin emphasized the many similarities between the fictional character of Judith and Salome Alexandra. Zeitlin however did not see any major political event in the life of Alexandra that could have prompted such a connection.

The revised edition of Schurer in 1973 also reiterated the view that "no political events of any importance occurred during her reign."

In 2005 Samuel Rocca first suggested that the story of Judith could contains echoes of the crisis generated by the invasion of the Armenian King Tigranes the Great. The argument was taken up in 2009 by Gabriele Boccaccini who drew attention on the Armenian and Roman sources that seem to confirm the chronological and geographical details provided in the Book of Judith about the military campaign of the new "Nebuchadnezzar," Tigranes the Great.

Tal Ilan has recently published a book that examines rabbinic accounts of Salome Alexandra, and the various spellings of her name in antiquity. Ernst Axel Knauf has recently proposed that Salome Alexandra’s reign is reflected in canonical Psalms 148 and 2, and that the latter contains an acrostic that mentions her and her husband.

Select Bibliography (articles)

• Queen Salome and King Jannaeus Alexander: A Chapter in the History of the Second Jewish Commonwealth / Solomon Zeitlin / In: Jewish Quarterly Review 51 (1960-61) 1-33.

• Queen Salamzion Alexandra and Judas Aristobulus I's Widow. Did Jannaeus Alexander Contract a Levirate Marriage? / Tal Ilan / In: Journal for the Study of Judaism 24 (1993) 181-190

• The Book of Judith, Queen Sholomzion and King Tigranes of Armenia: A Sadducee Appraisal / Samuel Rocca / In: Materia Giudaica 10.1 (2005) 1-14

• The Salome No One Knows: Long-Time Ruler of a Prosperous and Peaceful Judea Mentioned in Dead Sea Scrolls / Kenneth Atkinson / In: Biblical Archaeology Review 34 (2008) 60-65, 72-3.