Jehosheba

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Jump to: navigation, search

Jehosheba or Jehoshabeath (Hebrew, YHWH is an oath) (fl. 884-878BC according to Ussher, or 841-835BC according to Thiele) was a princess of the House of David with two important distinctions:

  1. She married a Levite who later became High Priest of God, and
  2. She saved alive an infant king when that infant's grandmother sought to kill him.

Contents

Family

She was the daughter of King Jehoram of the Southern Kingdom, and half-sister to King Ahaziah, Jehoram's son, who reigned only one year after his father's death. She married Jehoiada, a prominent Levite who eventually became High Priest in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Role in the Accession of Joash

In 884 BC (Ussher) or 841 BC (Thiele), General Jehu seized the throne of the Northern Kingdom and killed every prince of the House of Omri that he could find. King Ahaziah was in Jezreel at the time, and Jehu killed him, too, along with several of his cousins who were traveling with him.

King Jehoram's most prominent wife Athaliah had been the power-behind-the-throne ever since the death of old King Jehoshaphat five years earlier (or eight according to Thiele). Now that Ahaziah was dead, Athaliah determined to seize the crown for herself. To that end she hunted down and killed every remaining member of the royal family that she could find.

But Jehosheba would not allow this to happen to Ahaziah's infant son, Joash. So she took Joash and his nurse out of the palace and hid them in a bedroom in the Temple complex. There they stayed for six years while Athaliah ruled.

Eventually Jehoiada recruited his own bodyguard force from among the Levites and had Joash crowned in the Temple. Athaliah screamed that everyone present was a traitor, and Jehoiada had her taken out of the Temple and executed.

Commentaries

In 1997, J. David Hoke [1] commented that Jehosheba is a metaphor for all those in any form of ministry who seek to preserve the lives of children, both spiritual and physical, from the campaigns of those who seek to destroy those lives by one means or another. But the Alabaster Jars ministry [2] suggests that perhaps Jehosheba acted as she did primarily because she was Athaliah's political opponent--and thus serves as an example of those who do the "right" things because those things serve their self-interests.

References


Browse


See Also

Facts about JehoshebaRDF feed
Daughter of Jehoram  +
Sister of Ahaziah  +
Wife of Jehoiada  +
Retrieved from "http://creationwiki.org/Jehosheba"
Personal tools