Jewess i'lovcaia), a woman of Hebrew birth, with- out distinction of tribe (Acts xvi, 1 ; xxiv, 24). It is
JEWETT
915
JEZEBEL
spplied in the former passage to Eunice, the mother of Timothy, who was unquestionably of Hebrew origin (conip. 2 Tim. iii, 15), and in the latter to Drusilla, the wife of Felix and daughter of Herod Agrippa I. — Smith. See Jew.
Je^w•ett, William, a Jlethodist Episcopal minis- ret, was born in Sharon, Conn., in the year 1789. At the age of seventeen he was converted, commenced preaching the year following, and travelled a circuit by direction of a presiding elder. In 1808 he joined the New York Annual Conference. His ministerial labors were uninterrupted from 1807 to 1851, a period of forty- four years, during nineteen of which he held the office of presiding elder. His appointments were Middlctown, Conn.; Poughkeepsie, New York City, and from 1832 on the Hudson River, White Plains, Newburgh, Pough- keepsie, and Rhinebeck districts. The last six years of his life he sustained to the Conference a superannuated relation. As a man, Mr. Jewett possessed many estima- ble traits of character. As a Christian, he was distin- guished for a marked decision and firmness of character. As a preacher, he was plain, simple, and eminently prac- tical. As a pastor, he was wise, diligent, faithful, and unusually successful, leaving behind him, wherever he went, a holy influence. As a presiding elder, he com- manded the confidence and respect of his brethren. He died at Pougldvccpsie, N. Y., June 27, 1857. (G. L. T.)
Je-wett, William D., a Jlethodist Episcopal min- ister, was born at Ballston, N. Y., about 1788; was con- verted in 1811; was licensed to preach in 1821, and preached much, and was ordained deacon previous to entering the Genesee Conference in 1830; was superan- nuated in 1845, and died at Huron, N. Y., Nov. 10, 1855. Mr. Jewett was a man of "unobtrusive piety, and a pat- tern of ministerial fidelity." He labored with all faith- fulness and love until his strength failed him. At death he left his property, about $3000, to the Bible and Mis- sionary societies, and the superannuated brethren of his own Conference. — Minutes of Conf. vi, 102. (G. L. T.) Jewish (lovSaiKoQ), of or belonging to Jews: an epithet applied to the Rabbinical legends against which the apostle Paul wanis his younger brother (Tit. i, 14). — Smith. See Jkw.
JEWISH CHRISTIANS. See Judaizers. Jew'ry (1!in% reAi?fr,Chald.,Dan.v,13,last clause; "Judrea" in Ezra v, 8; elsewhere "Judah;" 'lovSaia, Luke xxiii, 5; John vii, 1; elsewhere "Judica"), the nation of the Jews, i. e. the kingdom of Judaii, later JuD.EA. "Jewry" also occurs frotiueiitly in the A.Y. of the Apocrvpha (1 Esdr. i, 32 ; ii, 4; iv, 40 ; v, 7, 8, 57 ; vi, 1 ; viii, 81 ; ix, 3 ; Bel 33 ; 2 Mace, x, 24). JeTws. See Jev/.
Jezani'ah (Jcr. xl, 8 ; xlii, 1). See JAAZAxiAir, 4. Jez'ebel (Hebrev.- Ize'hel, b^lPX, not-cohabited, q. d. dXoxoQ, compare Plato, p. 249; Lat. Agnes, i. e. iiitacta, chaste ; an appropriate female name, remarks Gesenius. and not to be estimated from the character of Ahab's queen; com\x Isabella ; Sept. 'I=J«/3£\ ; N. T. 'l£sa/3/;X, Rev. ii, 20 ; Joseph. 'laJf/icAtc, Ant. ix, G, 4 ; Ynlg. Jez- o&e/), the consort of Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kings xvi, 31), was the daughter of Ethbaal (q. v.), king of Tyre and Sidon, and originally a priest of Astarte (Joseiihus, Apion, i, 18). This unsuitable alliance proved most dis- astrous to the kingdom of Israel ; for Jezebel induced her weak husband not only to connive at her introducing the worship of lier native idols, but eventually to l)e- come himself a worshipper of them, and to use all the means in his power to establish them in the room of tlia God of Israel. The worship of the golden calves, ■which previously existed, was, however mistakenly, in- tended in honor of Jehovah ; but this was an open alien- ation from him, and a turning aside to foreign and strange gods, which, indeed, were no gods (but see Tat- ke, Bibl. Theol. i, 406). Most of the particulars of this bad but apparently highly-gifted woman's conduct have
been related in the notices of Aiiab and Elijait. From the course of her proceedings, it would appear that she grew to hate the Jewish system of law and religion on account of what must have seemed to her its intoler- ance and its anti-social tendencies. She hence sought to put it down by all the means she could command ; and the imbecility of her husband seems to have made all the powers of the state subservient to her designs. The manner in which she acquired and used her power over Ahab is strikingly shown in the matter of Naboth, which, perhapsj-more than all the other affairs in whicli she was engaged, brings out her true character, and dis- plays the nature of her influence. B.C. cir. 897. When she found him puling, like a spoiled child, on account of the refusal of Naboth to gratify him by selling him his patrimonial vineyard for a " garden of herbs," she taught him to look to her, to rely upon her for the accom- plishment of his wishes; and for the sake of this im- pression, more perhaps than from savageness of temper, she scrupled not at murder imder the abused forms of law and religion (1 Kings xxi, 1-29). She had the re- ward of her unscrupulous decisiveness of character iu the triumph of her policy iu Israel, where, at last, there were but 7000 people who had not bowed the knee to Baal, nor kissed their hand to his image. Nor was her success confined to Israel; for through Athaliah — a daughter after her own heart — who was married to the son and successor of Jehoshaphat, the same policy pre- vailed for a time in Judah, after Jezebel herself had per- ished and the house of Ahab had met its doom. It seems that after the death of her husband, Jezebel main- tained considerable ascendency over her son Jehoram ; and her measures and misconduct formed the principal charge which Jehu cast in the teeth of that unhappy monarch before he sent forth the arrow that slew him. The last effort of Jezebel Avas to uitimidate Jehu as he passed the palace by warning him of the eventual rewards of even successful treason. It is eminently characteristic of the woman that, even in this terrible moment, >vhen she knew that her son was slain, and must have felt that her power had departed, she dis- played herself, not with rent veil and dishevelled hair, " Init tired her head and painted her eyes" before she looked out at the window. The eunuchs, at a word from Jehu, having cast her down, she met her death be- neath the wall [see Jehu]; and when afterwards the new monarch bethought him that, as "a king's daugh- ter," her corpse should not be treated with disrespect, nothing was foimd of her but the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet : the dogs had eaten all the rest (1 Kings xvi, 31; xviii,4,13,19; xxi, 5-25; 2 Kings ix, 7, 22, 30-37). B.C. 883.— Kitto.