The other day as I was leaving the clinic, after having prayed the rosary aloud, one of my Protestant friends called out to me "Queen Mother isn't capitalized in the Bible, you know." I asked what he meant, and he indicated that the rosary was wrong (and giving too high an honor to Mary) because it called her the "Queen Mother" and that doesn't appear in the Bible.
N.B. The rosary doesn't actually call her "Queen Mother" that I know of. I think he was referring to "Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy" which is actually two separate titles ("Hole Queen" and "Mother of Mercy"). Rather than get into defining those two titles I thought I would address the issue of "Queen Mother", which is also an acceptable title for Mary.
We had had a similar conversation before about calling Mary queen, and I had urged him to read about the "Gebirah" (Hebrew), or Queen Mother in the books of Kings. I take it he did, and that was what he found, hence our conversation.
I had to go, but I noted to him that the original Hebrew wouldn't have capitalized anything, a point which I think only confused matters. As I left I promised that next week I would come back armed with a bunch of scripture references to show my point. The rest of this blog post is my intended reply to this gentleman.
What I meant when I
was talking about the Old Testament being written in Hebrew is that
ancient Hebrew had no upper and lower case letters. So saying “queen
mother” isn't capitalized in the Bible just means the translator
didn't capitalize it – it says nothing about the original text. For
that matter, although the Bible is the inerrant word of God, the
translator was just a fallible man, and so your English Bible can
have mistakes in the sense that it doesn't convey the correct meaning
of the original perfect text. That's why when arguing about the
authority of Scripture it is important to understand not only what
King James says, but what the Sacred author actually wrote.
But on to the
subject at hand – is Mary the “Queen Mother”?
We are told Jesus sits on the throne of David (Luke 1:32 - He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God
will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.) - so we should
look at the kings of Israel to find out what is meant by that. One of
the things characterizing the kingdom of Israel (and most ancient
kingdoms) was the Gebirah (in Hebrew
×’ְּבִירָ×”)
, or Queen Mother (sometimes translated as “Great Lady”).
The Gebirah, the
Queen Mother of the Kingdom of Judah, was an official position held
by the mother of the Davidic kings. The Hebrew word gebirah is
found 15 times in the Old Testament. In Genesis 16:4, 8, 9 it refers
to Sarah (Abraham's wife, who is promised to be the mother of kings).
In 1 Kings 11:19 it is used to refer to the queen of Egypt.
In 1 Kings 15:13 we see Asa, descendent of David, restoring God's
rule to Judah after his father Abijam, had don evil. The Bible says
“And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen,
because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol,
and burnt it by the brook Kidron.” Well, he could hardly remove his
mother as queen if she were not the queen. The same event is
described in 2 Chronicals 15:16 “And also concerning Maachah the
mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she
had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped
it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.”
In 2 Kings 10:13 the
brethren of Ahaziah go to meet “the children of the King and the
children of the queen” - they wouldn't have to meet the children of
the queen if she were the king's wife – they would also be the
children of the king. And it is important that they meet both,
because their intention was to slay them all, and if they had only
slain the children of the king then the children of the queen (the
kings' brothers and sisters) would inherit the throne, and they
wanted to eradicate the royal line.
In 1 Kings 2,
Scripture says the Gebirah sat a throne alongside her son and had
a role as counselor and intercessor to the king (see also 2
Chronicles 22:3):
19 Bathsheba
therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah.
And
the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat
down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's
mother; and she sat on his right hand.
20 Then she
said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say me not
nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not
say thee nay.
In times of conquest, both the king and his mother both represented
royal power (2 Kings 24:12 – 12 “And Jehoiachin the king of Judah
went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his
servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon
took him in the eighth year of his reign.”). Note that his wife is
not mentioned, but his mother is.
In Sacred Scripture
the mother of the Davidic king is listed along with her son in the
books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles when he assumes the
throne. The only queen mothers not listed are those of King Jehoram,
who married wicked Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel of Israel
(2 Kings 8:17-18); King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:2-3); and King Asa (1 Kings
15:10). In the case of Jehoram and Ahaz, their mothers may have died
prior to their sons assuming the throne of David, and in the case of
Asa, his grandmother is named as the Gebirah, his mother
having died or perhaps his grandmother, the former Gebirah,
did not relinquish her power and authority upon the succession of her
grandson.
Note that when
Israel splits into Israel (north) and Judah (south), the northern
kings abandon the gebirah (and God – they eventually become the
pagan Samaritans) while the Davidic line passes to Judah, who are the
chosen of God (where we get the name Jews). Here are the kings of
Israel/Judah:
|
1. Rehoboam
930-913 BC
|
Son of Solomon
Mother: Naamah the Ammonite
|
1 Kings 11:42-14:31
2 Chronicles 9:31-12:16
|
|
2. Abijam (Abijah)
913-911
|
Son of Rehoboam
Mother: Maacah (Micaiah)
descendant of David's son Absalom
|
1 Kings 14:31-15:8
2 Chronicles 13:1-23
|
|
3. Asa
911-870
|
Son of Abijam
Gebirah = grandmother Maacah
|
1 Kings 15:8-24
2 Chronicles 13:23-16:14
|
|
4. Jehoshaphat
870-848
|
Son of Asa
Mother: Azubah
|
1 Kings 15:24' 22"41-51
2 Chronicles
17:1-21:1
|
|
5. Jehoram
848-841
|
Son of Jehoshaphat
Mother: ?
|
2 Kings 8:16-24
2 Chronicles 21:1-20
|
|
6. Ahaziah
841
|
Son of Jehoram
Mother: Athaliah
|
2 Kings 8:24-29; 9:14-26
2 Chronicles 22:1-12
|
|
7. Athaliah (Queen Mother)
841-835
|
Daughter of Ahab and Jezebel of Israel
|
2 Kings 11L1-20
2 Chronicles 22:1-15
|
|
8. Jehoash (Joash)
835-796
|
Grandson of Athaliah and son of Ahaziah;
Mother:
Zibiah (Beersheba)
|
1 Kings 11:1-12:21
2 Chronicles 22:10-23;
24:27
|
|
9. Amaziah
796-781
|
Son of Jehoash
Mother: Jehoaddan
|
2 Kings 14:1-22
2 Chronicles 26:1-23
|
|
10. Uzziah
781-740
|
Son of Amaziah
Mother: Jecoliah
|
2 Kings 15:1-7
2 Chronicles 26:23-27:9
|
|
11. Jotham
740-736
|
Son of Uzziah
Mother: Jerushah
|
2 Kings 15:32-38
2 Chronicles 26:9-27:9
|
|
12. Ahaz
736-716
|
Son of Jotham
Mother:?
|
2 Kings 15:38-16:20
2 Chronicles 27:9-28:27
|
|
13. Hezekiah
716-687
|
Son of Ahaz
Mother: Abijah
|
2 Kings 16:20; 18:1-20:21
2 Chronicles
28:27-32:33
|
|
14. Manasseh
697-642
|
Son of Hezekiah
Mother: Hephzibah
|
2 Kings 21:1-18
2 Chronicles 32:33-33:20
|
|
15. Amon
642-640
|
Son of Manasseh
Mother: Meshullemeth
|
2 Kings 21:18-26
2 Chronicles 33:20-25
|
|
16. Josiah
640-609
|
Son of Amon
Mother: Jedidiah
|
2 Kings 21:26-23:30
2 Chronicles 33:25-35:27
|
|
17. Eliakim/Jehoahaz
609
|
Son of Josiah
Mother: Hamutal
|
2 Kings 23:30-34
2 Chronicles 36:5-8
|
|
18. Jehoiakim
|
Brother of Eliakim
Mother: Zebidah
|
2 Kings 23:34-24:6
2 Chronicles 36:5-8
|
|
19. Jehoiachin
598-597
|
Son of Jehoiakim
Mother: Nehusta
|
2 Kings 24:6-17
2 Chronicles 36:8-10
|
|
20. Mattaniah/Zedekiah
597-587/6
|
Parental uncle of Jehoiachin and son of
Jehoiakim
Mother: Hamital
|
2 Kings 24:17-25:30
2 Chronicles
36:10-13;
Ezekiel 17:13-16
|
The Gebirah was clearly the most important woman in the Kingdom of
Judah; a king had many wives, but only one mother. The
Gebirah
of the eternal Davidic Kingdom of Jesus Christ is Mary of Nazareth.
She appears in this role in Revelation 12:1 - “And there appeared a
great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” - this
is clearly a reference to Mary because we see in verse 5 “And she
brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”
which is clearly Jesus.
Thus according to
the Bible it is correct to use the title Gebirah, or Queen Mother,
for Mary.
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