Definition
The Hebrew title gebirah, "great lady", for the mother of the reigning king of Judah. Kings had many wives but only one mother, so it was she, not a wife, who held the office of queen. She wore a crown (Jeremiah 13:18), sat enthroned at the king's right hand, and acted as advocate for petitioners (1 Kings 2:19). The office could be lost, as when Asa deposed Maacah (1 Kings 15:13). The New Testament applies the pattern to Mary, mother of the Son of David.
Start here
Begin with who the queen was in David's kingdom, then the four marks of the gebirah, then "throne, not seat" in 1 Kings 2:19.
From Jewish Roots of Mary
- 1.A kingdom needs a queen — the four marks of the gebirah
The gospel is the arrival of a kingdom — 'the empire of God' — and God promised David a throne 'for ever.' Jesus is not only a new Adam and a new Moses but a new David, so the question follows: 'If Jesus is the new Davidic king, then who is the new queen?' Pitre answers from the Old Testament's portrait of the queen mother (gebirah, 'great lady') under four heads: the queen is the king's mother, not his wife; she reigns with the king; she is a powerful intercessor; and she appears in the prophecies of the future king. He then imagines first-century Jewish women asking not only 'Who will be the mother of the Messiah?' but 'Who will be the new queen mother?'
- 2.In David's kingdom, who was the queen — and why?
Not the king's wife (kings had many) but the king's mother — the gebirah, 'great lady.' Solomon rose, bowed, and set Bathsheba on a throne (Hebrew kisse', the very word used of Solomon's own throne in the previous verse — 'seat' in some translations undersells it, p 69) at his right hand, and she carried petitions to him. Almost every king of Judah is introduced with the name of his mother (p 75).
- 3.'Throne,' not 'seat' — kisse' and thronos in 1 Kings 2:19, and the Bathsheba reversal
Some English versions say Solomon had a 'seat' brought for his mother. The Hebrew is kisse', the Greek thronos — 'the exact same word used in the previous verse to describe Solomon's throne.' 'It is hard to overestimate the significance of this passage.' Pitre also sets it beside 1 Kings 1: while David lived, Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king and called him 'my lord'; once her son reigns 'the roles are reversed' — the king rises, bows to her, and enthrones her at his right hand. The obvious implication is that the king's mother, not his wife, is queen.
- 4.The right hand means shared authority — Psalm 110:1, the crown of Jeremiah 13:18, an office not a title
The queen mother 'held an official position in the kingdom, second in rank only to the king himself.' Two symbols show it. She wore a crown: Jeremiah tells 'the king and the queen mother' together to humble themselves, for their crowns are coming down. And she sat or stood at the king's right hand, as Psalm 45 pictures the queen 'in gold of Ophir' — Old Testament scholars agree this queen is the king's mother. The right hand means 'a share in his authority,' just as the king who sits at God's right hand (Psalm 110:1) shares in God's authority. After the monarch himself, she has 'the place of highest honor.'
- 5.Whoever Immanuel is, his mother is the queen mother — and Micah 5 as the oldest reading of Isaiah 7
Pitre steps around the old debate over Isaiah 7:14 — the meaning of the 'sign,' the sense of 'almah, whether the child is Hezekiah or a future king — with one observation: 'However one interprets the prophecy, the maiden is the mother of the future king. As such, the mother of Immanuel would by definition also be the queen mother.' Then Micah: several scholars hold that Micah's prophecy of the woman who 'gives birth' to the Bethlehem ruler is based on Isaiah 7, which makes it 'the most ancient Hebrew interpretation of the birth of Immanuel that we possess' — and it reads Isaiah 7 of the Messiah, whose origin is 'from days of eternity' and whose human mother is 'she who gives birth.'
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