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An Israelite Princess

Athaliah (pronounced Ataliyah) was a young Israelite princess who married into the Davidic dynasty and rose-up to the prominent position of Queen Mother in Judah with first her husband and then her son ruling over the kingdom. What makes Athaliah’s position unique from other women is that for a period of seven years, she actually ruled and reigned from Jerusalem as the supreme monarch.

The Marriage-Alliance

The royal Israelite House of Omri was accustomed to making political alliances with other countries by arranged marriages. For example King Omri’s son Ahab was married to a Sidonian princess by the name of Jezebel. Likewise Ahab’s sister, Athaliah, was married to the crown prince of Judah, Jehoram, in a marriage that put to end over fifty years of hostilities between the kingdom of Israel since the division of Solomon’s kingdom.

A Betrayal in the North

Athaliah became Queen of Jerusalem through her marriage to Jehoram, and again Queen Mother when her son Ahaziah began to reign after the death of her husband. Her position at this stage was largely ceremonial although in the absence of her husband her influence in court must have increased due to her relation with the current king. This position changed dramatically however when her son was murdered while visiting his cousin the king of Israel in the north. Her son and the Israelite king were killed along with those who were descendants of the Davidic and Omride dynasties living in the north, in a huge elaborate plot set into play by an ambitious military commander by the name of Jehu.

A New Monarch in Jerusalem

With the sudden death of her son Athaliah found herself in a precarious position. It would not be long before a new male heir from the Davidic dynasty would be nominated to the empty throne. She would no longer hold the title of Queen Mother and her political role and authority would come to a rapid end. Thus in order to secure absolute power she preceded to follow the same route that the usurper Jehu the new King of Israel had implemented; the assassination of all the royal family. She sought out and murdered all the surviving male heirs of the legendary King David- and in her success reigned unhindered for seven years from Jerusalem.

The Temple Produces an Heir

Her reign was not supported by all those in Judea however. She was an Israelite Princess who had gained the throne by murdering the Judean Royal Family. Those in the Temple in particular were opposed to her introduction of Baal worship to the area, and there with some in the military who wished for a return to a Judean way of life, and a Judean king on the throne. It was at this point that the High Priest revealed a young boy, Joash, who had been reared as a child within the Temple, and declared him to be the grandson of Athaliah- a boy rescued and sheltered when the assassination in Jerusalem began. As in a day Athaliah came to the throne, so too in a moment she left it. The priests and the citizens of Judah rallied around the young boy and deposed and killed Athaliah as she stood in the Royal Palace. Her grandson was installed as king and Judah regained not only its monarchy, but its Judean way of life.

Ancient Man’s View of the Heavenly Realms

For the average ancient man it was common to envision the godly entities of the heavens in pairs. These pairs normally consisted of a husband-wife ratio which essentially reflected the importance of the family unit in ancient times. For it was the help and patronage of the family and clan that protected and eased people’s daily hardship. One example of this husband-wife pair comes from the Syrian city of Ugarit (modern day Ras Shamra) where from the 14^th century BCE onwards we have a rich deposit of religious literature that has revealed ancient worshippers outlook on the gods. These people worshipped a variety of gods, of whom the high god was called El and his consort was called Athirat.

A Divine Marriage in Judah & Israel

A similar picture has been suggested in regards to the early religious life of the Israelites and Judahites. There exists some evidence from archaeology that many people also worshipped the god Yahweh with a female consort called Asherah. (See Kuntillet Ajrud and the Khirbet el-Qom Inscriptions). In fact it is not just extra-biblical evidence that can be cited in support of this older version of how the heavens were ordered, but the bible itself reveals a picture that seems to place Asherah in a legitimate position of worship early on in the religion of the nation. For example we are told that Asherah (generally believed to by a stylized tree or pole, possibly a date palm) was installed in the Temple of Jerusalem and in other sanctuaries around Judah at different times (2 Kings 18:4; 21:7).
Some have suggested that even the decorations used inside the Temple, the “cherubim, palmettes and calyxes” (1 Kings 6) helped to legitimize her position since she was worshipped in the form of a tree, and the decorations inside the Temple upheld the ancient motif of the Tree of Life flanked by two guards (like in the Garden of Eden story). This picture from Judah is likewise reflected in the northern kingdom of Israel. King Jehu who was a great religious conservative, destroyed the worship of Baal that had sprung up in Israel, but did not destroy the Asherah that was installed in his capital city of Samaria. This particular story seems to reveal that early religion in Israel was pro-Asherah and that such a position was in step with being a conservative follower of Yahweh.

Yahweh stands Alone

However this idea did not retain its legitimacy as time moved on. Another idea began replacing it, an idea that Yahweh was alone in his dealings with human kind, and that he was almighty and none other existed besides him. This ideology that is found so eloquently expressed in the book of Deuteronomy, naturally takes an aggressive stance to anything else that may attempt to steal or share Yahweh’s glory. It is thus not surprising to see the high anti-Asherah rhetoric in the bible that stems from this increasingly developed theology of Yahweh.

It is in this vein of thinking that we see religious reforms carried out in the land of Judah under Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Kings 18 & 23). They removed and destroyed the symbol of Asherah wherever she was found in the country- and in so doing proved to be more radical and innovative in their approach to how the world and the heavens were ordered.
They broke tradition with the ancient religious beliefs that had been so normative in their area of the world and in the worship of Yahweh in its early stages, and they struck a new path that led to the monotheistic religion of today.