Women with a Story to Tell: Athaliah and Jehosheba in Western Culture.

 Last Sunday at the end of the service, we sat in the pews for the Postlude, as we always do because we have a wonderful organist. The organ rang with a rather bombastic song, so I looked to see what he was playing. It was the March from Athalia by F. Mendelssohn. 

 Now, any other time in my life I probably would have shrugged my shoulders, said “That’s nice,” then walked back to greet the pastor. Instead, when I got up and walked toward the front, Teresa said, “Where are you going?” 

 I was going to take a look at the sheet music and talk with our organist. I was surprised to see the title and had found the march rather jarring and discordant in parts. He acknowledged that the music was dramatic, but he also admitted that did not know the story behind it.

 If you have been reading the last three weeks, you know the story of Queen Athaliah who tried to kill every child who was heir to the throne of Judah. If successful, she would then bring an end to King David’s lineage. That’s the lineage that leads to the birth of Jesus centuries later. 

 That diabolical plan pushed another woman into action. Jehosheba was the wife of the High Priest Jehoiada who fully supported her intrigue against the government. Also standing by her side was yet another woman, the nurse of the child in question. For six years, they hid Joash, just as Anne Frank was hidden from the Nazis. Then the High Priest organized a coup, revealed the child, used the temple guard to capture Athaliah, and finished it all by crowning Joash as king of Judah.   

 It is quite a dramatic story with the heritage of David hanging in the balance. God was with them because Athaliah was leading the people in the wrong direction. An altar for the worship of Ba’al was even set up in the temple. The struggle was not just about which god should be worshiped, it was about the character of the god they worshiped. People become like the god or man that they worship. Don’t you see it every day? Worshiping YHWH through proper obedience, the people of Judah would become loving, gracious, and faithful. Instead, worshiping ‘the lord of the flies’, they would become greedy, transactional (what’s in it for me?), and liars at every turn? Every nation faces this choice whether following idols, ideals, or ideologies. 

 Crossing paths with this musical piece by Mendelssohn raised a question for me. What has been the place of these two women in Western history since this time? How have we handled this reminder of the struggle between good and evil?

 Jean-Baptiste Racine (1639-1699) was a French playwright, a contemporary of Molière, who primarily wrote dramas based on classical subjects. On his parents’ deaths, he was raised by his grandmother. His plays often have a dominating woman as a central character along with some twist in the story. For example, Phaedra is about a queen of Athens who becomes enamored of her stepson though he flees her advances. 

 The theme of conflicting passions also plays out in his work Andromaque. She is the widow of Hector who was killed in the Trojan War. She is suspected of wanting to kill Achilles’ son in revenge. So, several of his plays have a strong female lead and the tensions of conflicting relationships. His play Athalie is like that, and you know why.

 Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) worked in his homeland Germany and also extensively in Great Britain writing oratorios, operas, and concerts. Handel is known to us for his Messiah which includes the majestic ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ that we sang with volunteers of about 40 each sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses every Christmas season at Asbury Theological Seminary. We do the same at church now here in Delray Beach. But perhaps we are not as familiar with well over 100 works in different genre that Handel produced over his lifetime. Among them are works with women as the lead character (Deborah, Esther, Susanna, Theodora, and Berenice, for example). 

Winton Dean in his survey of Handel’s Oratorios (1959) claims that “Athalia is the first great English oratorio” (quoted by Kate Shaw, 2019, https://handelfriendsuk.com/2019/01/01/the-first-great-english-oratorio-handels-athalia/). As in the Messiah, Handel picks up on the tragedy that is unfolding, the struggle within and between the two women, and the way that God leads in the end to preserve David’s line.

 Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), also worked in Germany. Like Handel, he composed in several genre of music including symphonies, concertos, and oratorios. His work that you would instantly recognize is the “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as opposed to “Here Comes the Bride” from a work by Richard Wagner). On one occasion, Mendelssohn was commissioned by King Frederick William IV of Prussia to compose music to accompany a showing of Racine’s play in Berlin. The end of Athaliah’s story involves “a series of harsh deceptive cadences (that) foreshadow the ‘dead end’ of the evil Queen’s story” (Timothy Judd, “Mendelssohn’s ‘Athalie’ Overture: Triumph Over a Villainous Queen.” 2026. Mendelssohn’s “Athalie” Overture: Triumph Over a Villainous Queen – The Listeners' Club). 

 And that is what I heard on Sunday morning at the end of the service. Mendelssohn ends the story with the arrival of God who settles the matter in the favor of the young king Joash and his aunt Jehosheba who gathered him as a mother hen gathers her chicks to protect them. 

 What points do I take away? For all of Europe’s foibles and violence, the Bible still had an impact, and the Bible’s stories called the people back to God’s way just as Jehosheba and Jehoiada called the people of Judah to follow the ways of YHWH, not the ways of ‘The Lord of the Flies’. Judah did not always listen; neither did Europe. 

 On a more bothersome note, the attention given to this story of Jehosheba and Athaliah several hundred years ago highlights something that I have noticed is lacking in our contemporary culture. I have yet to find a modern Christian, other than a seminary professor, who recognizes this story. Why?