Ithobaal I | |
---|---|
King of Tyre | |
Predecessor | Phelles (8 months, 879 BC) |
Successor | Baal-Eser II (Balazeros, Ba‘l-mazzer II) 846 – 841 BC |
Born | 915 BC Tyre, presumed |
Died | 847 or 846 BC |
Issue | Jezebel and Baal-Eser II |
Dynasty | Began house of Ithobaal/Ithobalus |
Father | Ahiram? |
Mother | unknown |
Ithobaal I [lower-alpha 1] is the name of a 9th-century BCE king of Tyre mentioned in the story of Jezebel from the Hebrew Bible, and in a citation by Josephus of a list of the kings of Tyre put together by the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus (2nd century BCE).
Primary information related to Ithobaal comes from Josephus's citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Against Apion i.18. Here it is said that the previous king, Phelles, “was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two years, and lived sixty-eight years; he was succeeded by his son Badezorus (Baal-Eser II).”
The dates given here are according to the work of F. M. Cross [1] and other scholars [2] [3] who take 825 BC as the date of Dido's flight from her brother Pygmalion, after which she founded the city of Carthage in 814 BC. See the chronological justification for these dates in the Pygmalion article.
Ithobaal held close diplomatic contacts with king Ahab of Israel. 1 Kings 16:31 relates that his daughter Jezebel married Ahab (874 – 853 BC), [4] and Phoenician influence in Samaria and the other Israelite cities was extensive. In the First Kings passage, Ithobaal is labeled king of the Sidonians. At this time Tyre and Sidon were consolidated into one kingdom.
Tyre is not mentioned as an opponent of Shalmaneser III at the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC, [5] but twelve years later, in 841, [6] Ithobaal's son Baal-Eser II gave tribute to the Assyrian monarch.
For decades, it was believed Ithobaal was mentioned in the inscription found on the Ahiram sarcophagus as the titular king's heir; [7] however, more recent [8] [9] transcriptions of the text reconstruct the heir's name as Pilsibaal and not Ithobaal — which has raised questions about Ithobaal's paternity and historicity.
Ahab was the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon according to the Hebrew Bible. He was widely criticized for causing "moral decline" in Israel, according to the Yahwists. Modern scholars argue that Ahab was a Yahwist and introduced Yahweh to the Kingdom of Judah via imperialism. This mostly occurred in the latter half of his reign.
Dido, also known as Elissa, was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage, in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre who fled tyranny to found her own city in northwest Africa. Known only through ancient Greek and Roman sources, all of which were written well after Carthage's founding, her historicity remains uncertain. The oldest references to Dido are attributed to Timaeus, a Tauromenian, who was active around 300 BC, about five centuries after the date given for the foundation of Carthage.
Hiram I was the Phoenician king of Tyre according to the Hebrew Bible. His regnal years have been calculated by some as 980 to 947 BC, in succession to his father, Abibaal. Hiram was succeeded as King of Tyre by his son Baal-Eser I. Hiram is also mentioned in the writings of Menander of Ephesus, as preserved in Josephus's Against Apion, which adds to the biblical account. According to Josephus, Hiram lived for 53 years and reigned 34.
Pygmalion was king of Tyre from 831 to 785 BCE and a son of King Mattan I.
Athaliah was the daughter of either king Omri, or of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel; she was queen consort of Judah as the wife of King Jehoram, a descendant of King David, and was later queen regnant c. 841–835 BCE.
Ahaziah was the eighth king of the northern Kingdom of Israel and the son of Ahab and Jezebel. Like his father, he reigned from Samaria. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 850–849 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 853–852 BC.
The King of Tyre was the ruler of Tyre, the ancient Phoenician city in what is now Lebanon. The traditional list of 12 kings, with reigns dated to 990–785 BC, is derived from the lost history of Menander of Ephesus as quoted by Josephus in Against Apion I. 116–127. Josephus asserts that Menander had drawn his list from the chronicles of Tyre itself. Menander-Josephus also contains a list of 9 kings and judges, with reigns dated to 591–532 BC in Against Apion I. 154–160.
Jezebel was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel, according to the Book of Kings of the Hebrew Bible.
Belus was a legendary king of Tyre in Virgil's Aeneid and other Latin works. He was said to have been the father of Dido of Carthage, Pygmalion of Tyre, and Anna. The historical father of these figures was the king Mattan I, also known as MTN-BʿL, which classicist T. T. Duke suggests was made into the name Belus as a hypocorism.
Mattan, Matan, or Mittin ruled Tyre from 840 to 832 BC, succeeding his father Baal-Eser II.
Baal-Eser II, also known as Balbazer II and Ba'l-mazzer I was a king of Tyre, the son of Ithobaal I, brother of Jezebel and brother-in-law of Ahab.
The Ahiram sarcophagus was the sarcophagus of a Phoenician King of Byblos, discovered in 1923 by the French excavator Pierre Montet in tomb V of the royal necropolis of Byblos.
Menander of Ephesus was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander's list of kings of Tyre in his apologia for the Jews, Against Apion (1.18).
Phelles was a King of Tyre and the last of four brothers who held the kingship. The only information available about Phelles comes from Josephus’s citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Against Apion i.18. Here it is said that Phelles slew his brother Aserymus (Astarymus) and then “took the kingdom, and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte.” He and the three preceding kings were brothers, sons of the nurse of Abdastartus, according to Menander.
Astartus was a king of Tyre and the first of four brothers who held the kingship. The information about him has been inferred from Frank M. Cross’s reconstruction of Josephus’s citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Against Apion i.18. In the text as it now stands for the passage in Josephus/Menander, Astartus is the name and Deleastartus the patronymic of the second of the four brothers to receive the kingship, while the first brother, the one who killed Abdastartus to start the dynasty, is unnamed. Cross restores Astartus as the name of the first brother and posits the supposed patronymic as the name of the second. For a further explanation, see the Astarymus article. Cross’s reconstruction for these kings has been followed by William Barnes and is used in the present article.
Abdastartus was a king of Tyre, son of Baal-Eser I (Beleazarus) and grandson of Hiram I. The only information available about Abdastartus comes from the following citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Josephus's Against Apion i.18:
Upon the death of Hirom, Beleazarus his son took the kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years: after him succeeded his son Abdastartus; he lived twenty-nine years, and reigned nine years. Now four sons of his nurse plotted against him and slew him.
Baal-Eser I was a king of Tyre. His father, Hiram I, was a contemporary of David and Solomon, kings of Israel. The only information available about Baal-Eser I comes from the following citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Josephus's Against Apion I.121:
Upon the death of Hirom, Beleazarus his son took the kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years: after him succeeded his son Abdastartus.
Valerius Josephus Coucke was a Belgian scholar and priest who was professor at the Major Seminary, Bruges in the 1920s. His importance to modern scholarship comes from his writings in the field of Old Testament chronology. His study of the methods of the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles led him to conclusions that were later discovered, independently, by Edwin R. Thiele. His approach was distinctive for the use of citations in classical authors to obtain fixed dates in biblical history, most notably the date for the beginning of construction of Solomon's Temple.
1 Kings 5 is the fifth chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter belongs to the section focusing on the reign of Solomon over the unified kingdom of Judah and Israel. The focus of this chapter is the reign of Solomon, the king of Israel.
1 Kings 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. 1 Kings 12:1-16:14 documents the consolidation of the kingdoms of northern Israel and Judah. This chapter focusses on the reigns of Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and Ahab in the northern kingdom during the reign of Asa in the southern kingdom.