Are Women As Powerless As They Appear?
- Part 2 -

Bienhome Muivah *

What great impact Bathsheba leaves in the lives of so many people whom she closely associated with?

Did she slip out of the scene, never to appear again after the Adonijah's incident/request which culminated in the loss of his own life?

A host of questions can be raised. Partly, her role in Solomon's succession is concluded, and nothing more need to be said.

But she did leave a mark on all future kings. They would always be mentioned with the names of their mothers. Even an individual like Jeroboam, not from the royal line but destined to become king, was introduced with his mother's name.

"So far two royal mothers have been named in I Kings, Solomon's and Adonijah's, both in the context of their son's potential for becoming king. Later, as we shall see, whenever a king succeeds to the throne of David, his mother's name will be given. Naming Jeroboam's mother here is a subtle prefiguring of his royal destiny".

This literary device stands as a tribute to Bathsheba and the pivotal role of a queen-mother work out for the worse. If Bathsheba's role worked out for the better, that of another queen-mother worked for the worse. We turn our attention to Athaliah, another influential female figure in the succession of kings. The daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, she married Jehoram, king of Judah, probably in a marriage of political expediency. Ahab and Jehoram's father, Jehoshaphat, had been good friends. Athaliah subsequently distinguished herself as the only queen to rule Judah. Like her mother Jezebel, she worshipped the god Baal, a foreign deity which both women imported from abroad and promoted in Israel and Judah.

Powerful Women

Jehoram was killed in the battle and their son Ahaziah reigned briefly with Athaliah as queen-mother. When he died prematurely from battle wounds, she seized power and proceeded to eliminate the entire royal family. What kind of a woman was she to murder her own grandchildren? Was it necessary since she could easily have continued as queen-mother? But her ambition to be queen and sole ruler blinded her to reason and robbed her of all human feelings. During the reign of her husband, she was probably the instigator behind the murder of his brothers. During the reign of her son, she was no doubt the influence behind his desecration of the temple and his promotion of Baal worship.

Ironically, her lust for power would be thwarted by another woman: Jehosheba, the daughter of Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest. She rescued Ahaziah's youngest son, Joash, the sole survivor of the massacre, and hid him. Athaliah's reign lasted six years during which her brutality wearied the people. Her rule ended when the priest presented Joash as the rightful heir to the throne, and no one stood with her when she cried, "Treason! Treason!"

Like her mother, she met an ignominious death.

"In her miserable end, Athaliah bore a resemblance to her mother Jezebel, who was abandoned to the dogs. Athaliah was left in a horse-path, to be trampled upon. Like her mother she died a queen, but without a hand to help her or eye to pity her".

Athaliah and Bathsheba represent a breed of women who wield power, overtly or covertly, over men. History would tell similar stories of such women.

Cleopatra ruled with her father Ptolemy XIV. But ruling as queen only whetted her appetite for the ultimate power base in Egypt-She eventually assumed the throne as sole Pharaoh. To consolidate her position, she forged a liaison with Julius Caesar, and later with Mark Anthony. Her influence straddled the power blocs of her time, Egyptian and Roman. The way she charmed and conquered one man after another led the philosopher Blaise Pascal to muse, "Cleopatra nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed".

Do we not see resemblances in these women with Bathsheba and Athaliah? We may add women like Helen of Troy, part human and part goddess, over whom a war was fought and by whose face a thousand ships were launched.

Then there is Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he divorced, presumably because she bore him no children despite numerous affairs, divorce and remarriage, the emperor's last words as he lay dying in exile in St. Helena were: "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Josephine".

Anonymous Women

But women need not be prominent to exert influence Biblical women such as Bathsheba and Athaliah are given considerable attention in scriptures which ensures the memory of their names. In contrast there are women who appear silently and disappear anonymously.

Throughout the narrative in the Bible, Jeroboam's wife remains unnamed and unheard. She utters not a word, while the men speak: Her husband speaks to her, telling her what to do; the prophet speaks to her, telling her what to say to her husband. She acts as a silent messenger, moving back and forth, in mute compliance to their instructions. The narrative makes no attempt to name her, or to tell us what she thought of how she felt. In fact, in the story, she plays her role as a woman in disguise, hiding her identity.

But her anonymity belies her role. She carries the voice of God's prophet back to her husband, declaring the death of their son, the end of his dynasty, and indeed the eventual collapse of the entire kingdom. Though she says nothing in the narrative, what she says to Jeroboam means everything to all of us. We now know what God is going to do, and how the whole story will end. Could there be an underlying message as to the role of women in the Bible: Wordless, yet bearing the Word of God; nameless, yet achieving God's purpose?

Though the opening story of Bill and Hillary Clinton may be fictitious, it encapsulates the truth about the role of women in the lives of men. Many achievers today dedicated/acknowledge their wives for their success, declaring that they could never have done it without their other halves. Women deserve such accolade but they must guard against the desire for vicarious power through their men. The mother of John and James came to Jesus, asking for them to be seated at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus when He established His Kingdom. She reminds us of queen mother's like Bathsheba and the Empress Dowager who sought their sons on the throne.

Women feature more significantly in succession stories than we choose to remember or care to admit. A man's rise to power or a fall from it may result from the words of a woman. Perhaps a Spanish proverb says it best: "A woman's advice is a little value, but he who does not take it is a fool". The words of Bathsheba to the dying king David provide ample proof of such a paradox.

"A VIRTOUS WOMEN IS FAR ABOVE RUBIES"
BLESSED SUNDAY!