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Does Jadis the white witch portray Jezebel?

Kururu
(@kururu)
NarniaWeb Newbie

I have recently thought of the relationship between the characters in Narnia and the characters in the bible. When it came to Jadis, my instinct told me that she must be the Bible equivalent to Jezebel, the evil queen who seduced the king and made the whole nation worship Baal, but does she merely represent Jezebel?

Jadis was described as being purely evil, yet possessing extreme beauty. Jezebel was equally as evil, as seen in Revelation 2:20-23 and 1 Kings 16

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel,who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds,and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

Jadis suffered a terrible death, either being flung by Aslan in the book or being crushed entirely by Aslan in the movie. Jezebel undeniably also had the same fate as described in 2 Kings 9:30-37. In short, she was thrown off a window and her flesh was devoured by dogs.

The character of seduction is equally prevalent. While Jezebel seduced Ahab to do unfaithful works, Jadis tempted Edmund into betraying his siblings by feeding his Turkish delight. 

However, I also found some differences, like how Jadis appeared at the start of Narnia (which I suppose alludes to the real world), but in the bible Jezebel did not appear long until the rule of Ahab. Jadis also served the role of tempting Digory into eating the apple from the tree of life. However, it was the role of Satan in the bible to tempt Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. Jadis also did not practise sexual immorality but she was evil in the way that she forced every one in Narnia into submission.

So I have thought of the possibility of Jadis being the combination of Jezebel and Satan? But if so, she would have duplicated roles with Tash, as Tash was depicted as the ultimate evil, the ultimate idol tantamount to Satan. 

Maybe the 'deplorable word' has something to do with this question? What do you think?

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Topic starter Posted : January 6, 2026 4:25 pm
Pete, Narnian78 and DavidD liked
Courtenay
(@courtenay)
NarniaWeb Fanatic Hospitality Committee

Hi @kururu — haven't seen you here before! Welcome to NarniaWeb. Wave  

The short answer to your question is actually no. C.S. Lewis made clear, in a number of comments he made on his Narnia stories (mainly in letters to fans), that he wasn't taking specific people from the Bible and representing them directly as characters in Narnia.

The one exception of course is Aslan, who is Lewis's imagined concept of how Jesus Christ might appear if there was another world that needed saving, and the same Saviour who came to our world came to this other world in a different form. But apart from Aslan, he adamantly did not intend for there to be a one-to-one correspondence between characters or events in the Bible (or elsewhere in Christian history), and characters or events in Narnia. 

Some aspects of the stories may remind readers of things in the Bible, because the books are suffused with Christian ideas and imagery. But they aren't meant to be those things. That's not what the author was trying to do and not how he intended these books to be read.

There was a good article in the news section of NarniaWeb a few years ago that covers these issues in more detail — it comes down to whether or not Narnia is meant to be "allegory", which is the type of story in which every character and event is directly symbolic of something in a hidden "meta-story" — including a number of Lewis's own statements on why Narnia isn't meant to be understood in that way. You can read it here if you're interested:

Why C.S. Lewis Said Narnia is "Not Allegory at All"

"Now you are a lioness," said Aslan. "And now all Narnia will be renewed."
(Prince Caspian)

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Posted : January 7, 2026 1:18 am
icarus, DavidD, Pete and 2 people liked
waggawerewolf27
(@waggawerewolf27)
Member Hospitality Committee

Jadis is a fictional character, who makes wrong decisions and ruins her world as a result. She believes that as she has a high and lonely destiny, she is above keeping the rules. I hope you enjoy reading The Magician's Nephew, and for more information, read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to see how she was defeated. Smile  

Jezebel, by contrast, was a real, historical person, even though the usually reliable Wikipedia, seems to see her as mythical. Therefore, I've preferred to use the Encyclopaedia Britannica on which to base my answer. She was the daughter of the priest-king Ethbaal, ruler of the coastal Phoenician cities (now in Lebanon) of Tyre and Sidon, introducing Canaanite gods, like Baal, Moloch & Asherah, worshipped by the Phoenicians as well as the Philistines, nearer Egypt. I've linked to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which explains that she married King Ahab of the North kingdom of Israel, who ruled c. 874–c. 853 BCE. 

Now, the Phoenicians were great traders, who sold expensive purple dye (Herodotus tells us that the Greek word for purple is related to the name of the Phoenicians). They also, together with the Israelites, invented the first alphabets, and King David of a united Israel, had sought Hiram of Tyre's help when he wanted to build a palace to live in, about 1000 BCE. The Phoenicians had colonies in Carthage, in now Tunisia, in the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain), Sicily, in Sardinia, even sailing as far as Cornwall, where they could find tin to make bronze, before iron came to be more useful. So, it isn't surprising that Jezebel wanted to expand her father's influence and domination, by promoting the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart, a nature god. 

Jezebel tried to destroy those who opposed her; most of the prophets of Yahweh were killed at her command. These cruel and despotic actions provoked the righteous wrath of Elijah; according to 1 Kings 17, he accurately prophesied the onset of a severe drought as divine retribution. Sometime later Elijah had the Baal priests slain, after they lost a contest with him to see which god would heed prayers to ignite a bull offering, Baal or Yahweh. When Jezebel heard of the slaughter, she angrily swore to have Elijah killed, forcing him to flee for his life (1 Kings 183). Yes, you can find out about Jezebel in 1 Kings,16-19, when the ancient Israelites, once they united under King David, did keep chronicles and other records.

There is also the Mesha Stele, put up by Mesha, the Moabite King at the time, who was thanking Chemosh for helping him to see out King Ahab, killed in a battle in Ramoth Gilead, whom he didn't like very much & whom he said oppressed Moab. That stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, can be seen in the Louvre museum, in Paris. 

I guess that both the fictional character and the historic person do have some similarities, mainly in arrogance. 

This post was modified 15 hours ago by waggawerewolf27
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Posted : January 7, 2026 3:59 am
DavidD and Pete liked
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