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THE STORY OF BATHSHEBA

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What the story is about:

Bathsheba and King David

The Struggle for the Throne

Summary

The Reigns of Saul, David and Solomon

Women's Lives in the Era

Activities and Focus Questions

Bathsheba: Bat 'daughter of', sheba 'abundance, plenty'. The Book of Chronicles, written long after she died, changed her name to Bathshua, since sheba might link her with the sibitti, the Seven Spirit Demons of Babylonian mythology, or the constellation of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades - both important in the fertility cults. The writer of Chronicles tried to distance Bathsheba from a connection with them by calling her Bath-shua.
Solomon, Hebrew 'shelomoh', means ‘his replacement’, perhaps referring to Bathsheba’s first baby who died soon after birth.
Uriah means ‘Yahweh is my light’.
David means ‘beloved’.

The Nebra Disc, dating from about 1,600BC, the earliest image of the Pleiades stars  whose position in the sky at a certain time of year signaled the beginning of the harvest  
    

What the story is about:
Bathsheba was the beloved wife of King David and the most powerful woman during the period of the monarchy. After his death she occupied the most prestigious position a woman could hold, Queen Mother. She took part in court intrigues and influenced political events that gave the succession to her son Solomon. (See end of this page for historical background to this story and information about women's lives.)

The story of Bathsheba has special significance for Christians. In the gospel of Matthew, four women are included in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:2-17). Bathsheba is the fourth of these women.

Her father and husband were stationed at Jerusalem, directly under the control of the king. They were David’s personal bodyguards, his champions, renowned for their bravery. She was thus a member of an elite warrior family, something like the wife of a high-ranking samurai. Since her grandfather, father and husband were close allies of David's, it is safe to assume that she and David had already met before the famous scene where David sees her bathing.

Ancient Greek armor of about the same period as Uriah, 
and a Canaanite Bronze Age sword

It happened late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite”. So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.’
Read 2 Samuel 11:2-4.

Bathsheba was most probably on the house's flat roof, a tented area often used by the women of the family for a variety of tasks. In this case she was washing herself after her menstrual period.  The text makes a point of this post-menstrual purification, to show she was not carrying Uriah’s child, but was at the stage in her menstrual cycle when she was likely to conceive. 

King David was on the roof terrace of the palace above, looking down - windows of palaces were often screened by latticework (the mother of Sisera in Judges 5:28 watched the road through a lattice, and a statue found in the northern city of Ugarit shows a woman at a latticed window). 

When David saw  Bathsheba bathing he may have been screened from sight by a lattice, so that she did not know he was there. Or she may have been quite aware she was being watched. In any case, David saw her young body and desired her. At the time, Bathsheba’s husband Uriah was away, fighting with the army - something David knew.

Bathsheba was summoned to the palace. She went. Did she go willingly? Feminist literature likes to think she was a victim taken to the palace against her will, but the text gives a clue that she went willingly. The sentence reads '...David sent messengers to get her, and she went....', suggesting that, though young, she was ambitious and strong-willed enough to seize her chance - even though it must have meant ignoring the pleas of the other women of Uriah's household.

While she was at the palace she and David had sexual intercourse. Afterwards, she returned to her home, and we hear no more until a few months later, when she realized she was pregnant. She sent a message to David to tell him, and David responded by sending for Uriah. When the soldier-husband arrived in Jerusalem and reported to David, the king told him to down to his home and wife. He hoped that Uriah would make love to his wife, and that the child might be passed off as Uriah's.

‘But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.’
Read 2 Samuel 11:6-13.
Uriah seems to have known what was going on, and why he had been summoned. There were plenty of people who could have told him - outraged family members who had seen Bathsheba go to the palace, soldier-friends who had watched her pass through the guard-house at the entrance of the palace - the events of that night would have been known to many people.

But Uriah did not confront David with what he knew. Instead, he took the line of passive resistance. He told David he would not break the rules of soldiers on active service - ancient people believed that sexual intercourse robbed a man of some of his physical strength, so during active service soldiers were required to abstain from sexual intercourse. Uriah would not visit his wife and have intercourse with her, since he was still technically on active service.
Despite every inducement, Uriah stuck to this line of behavior, and David found himself backed into a corner. Enraged, he secretly ordered that Uriah be killed in battle. When, soon after Uriah had returned to the army, he was sent into battle to storm the walls of a city. Under secret instructions from their commander, the soldiers around him pulled back and left Uriah alone, so that he was cut down by the enemy. 
‘When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him.'

Did Bathsheba know that David had arranged to have her husband killed? Did she mourn for the death of a good man? Or was her mourning just pretence? It is impossible to tell. The story of Bathsheba's seduction as we have it in the Bible was edited by court story-tellers during the reign of her son Solomon, and doubtless influenced by Bathsheba and her son. This is why it is so hard to tell what really happened: we only know two things: what Bathsheba wanted us to know, and what she was forced to concede because it was already public knowledge. 

With Uriah now dead, David married Bathsheba and she went to live in the harem of the palace - a relatively small harem, since Israel at the time was only an emerging power. The baby she was expecting died soon after birth, but she had a second son whom she named Solomon, ‘his replacement’ - a replacement for the baby who died, or for her murdered husband? The choice of name is ambiguous.
 Read 2 Samuel 11:14-27, 12:15-25.

A room from the harem complex in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul 
The harem that Bathsheba lived in would have been richly decorated 
but much smaller than the one illustrated here

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE THRONE

(1 Kings 1:1-37, 2:10-25)
Years passed, and Bathsheba and King David grew older. We hear nothing about Bathsheba's life during these long years, and know only that she lived in the royal harem and produced a number of children to David. 

Eventually, concerns arose about the king’s continuing virility - in ancient Middle Eastern societies the sexual potency of the king was closely linked with the state of the nation. If the king was no longer able to have sexual relations, it was a bad omen for the well-being of the country.
‘So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found  Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful.’
Read 1 Kings 1:1-37.

'David's Promise', Frederick Goodall

When, despite her beauty, the king could not have sexual relations with Abishag, it was considered time for a co-regency. This meant that someone would rule alongside David, to help him. Most people took it for granted that this co-regent would be the next  king. David’s oldest surviving son was Adonijah, a young man impatient for power. Not waiting for David to die, he proclaimed himself king and was accepted as such by many people. The text implies this was done without David's knowledge. It was a palace coup. 

Bathsheba and Solomon did not support him, because if Adonijah became king they would almost certainly be killed. Solomon must also have been seen as a contender for the throne, and in this particular grab for power, the loser would die. But Bathsheba was not going to give in without a struggle.

‘So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. She bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said “What do you wish?” She said to him “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne. But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it”.’
Read 1 Kings 1:15-40.

Working with her chief adviser Nathan, Bathsheba warned David what was happening behind his back. In a brilliant speech, she made him suspicious of Adonijah by describing the young man's support among the army. She told him that almost alone among his children, Solomon remained loyal. She appealed to his protective nature by telling him she feared for her own life. And she astutely reminded David that he, not Adonijah, was king.

David roused himself from senility and swore to her that her son Solomon would rule as king. He ordered this to be announced to all the people. 
With the authority of a royal command and the backing of David's well-disciplined mercenary troops, Bathsheba outmanoeuvred Adonijah in his attempted coup d’etat and secured the throne for her own son. 

After David’s death Solomon became king and Bathsheba accepted the title of Queen Mother - the most powerful position a woman could hold and the first woman in the history of Israel to hold this title. 

                                                                                                The Throne of Tutankhamon

Solomon's hold on the throne was not initially strong enough for him to kill his half-brother outright, though this would have to be done if Solomon was to have a firm grasp on power. So after he ascended the throne, Solomon allowed his half-brother Adonijah to live - for the time being. But the situation had to be resolved, and no-one knew this better than Bathsheba. The text at this stage contains an episode that is, at the very least, hard to believe.

Adonijah approached Bathsheba with an odd request: to help him get Abishag as his wife. 

On the surface, this seems a harmless thing to ask. But  Abishag was considered one of David’s wives, and marriage to a widow of the previous king was a way of making a claim on the throne. It is hard to believe Adonijah would have made such a request, to Bathsheba of all people. She knew only too well that Adonijah was very dangerous and could never marry Abishag. 

The whole episode seems to be an invented pretext to execute Adonijah. Solomon may have been reluctant to do this (or have wished to appear so) and it may have taken a public accusation of treason, made by Bathsheba, to give him a reason for killing his half-brother.

‘So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. He rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right.’
Read 1 Kings 2:10-25.

Prodded into action by his mother, Solomon snuffed out the threat posed by his half-brother by ordering his death. There was no trial, just a swift execution. This is the last we hear of Bathsheba. Her son was secure on the throne and her own position was safe. She could rest on her laurels.

Summary
Bathsheba was capable, subtle, and gifted. She produced a son, Solomon, whose wisdom and intellectual brilliance would be known throughout history. Her son presided over a court famous for its literature, culture, wealth, architectural achievements, and consolidation of Israel as a nation-state. Bathsheba should receive a good share of the credit for the fact that Solomon reigned at all.

                                          Canaan/Israel, as divided among the Twelve Tribes

David, waiting in the wings, took over as leader of the Israelite people. He was a subtle, brilliant and unscrupulous man: a military leader, poet, musician, schemer and diplomat. Much of his reign was spent in fighting to gain territory and incorporate newly acquired lands into the kingdom of Israel. 

David used a combination of military power and diplomacy to lessen the threat of the Philistines and to take over Canaanite towns. At certain times in his reign he held the territories of Ammon, Moab, Edom, west of the Jordan, and Damascus. He made treaties with those regions he did not conquer.

The extension of territory demanded a control center and Jerusalem soon replaced Hebron as the capital of David's kingdom. Here he established a religious, political and military center, so that Jerusalem became the unifying focus for the Israelites.

Under Solomon, son of Bathsheba and David, Israel became an established kingdom, with a codified system of laws, a governing bureaucracy, and extensive foreign connections. Trade was promoted, mineral wealth was exploited, and the army was enlarged and modernized.
The notion of the ‘wisdom of Solomon’ probably arose from the heightened intellectualism at the court of Solomon: literature, historical chronicles and poetry flourished. We should thank the court recorders for the stories from this period - but be aware of their bias as well.

 The loose tribal confederation that had governed the Jewish people since the original settlement in Canaan (by Abraham and Sarah) was replaced by
    - a centralized government located in Jerusalem, and
    - a dynastic monarchy, kingship now passing from father to son - previously it had been by popular acclamation.

The centralized government and extended administrative structure all cost a great deal of money, and the burden of taxes fell on the common people -

For additional information on the lives of women in the Bible, see links to 

ACTIVITIES AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

What Is Truth?
The story of Bathsheba as we have it was probably written for court records during the reign of Solomon - when Bathsheba was still alive. It is therefore biased in her favor, and omits any details or events that might have cast her in a bad light, only including them if they were common knowledge and could not be disputed.
Re-write Bathsheba's story from a different, less sympathetic perspective, for example from the viewpoint of Uriah's sister, or Adonijah's mother.

Focus Questions
1. What are the most interesting moments in the story? Why do these particular moments appeal to me?

2. In the story, who speaks and who listens? Who acts? Who gets what they want? If you were in the story, which person would you want to be friends with? Which person would you want to avoid?

3. What is God's interaction with the main characters? What does this tell you about the narrator's image of God? Do you agree with this image?

4. What is happening on either side of the story, in the chapters before and after it? Does this help you understand what is happening?

5. The narrator/editor has chosen to tell some things and leave other things out. What has been left out of the story that you would like to know?

6. Are the characteristics and actions of the people in the story still present in the world? How is the story relevant to modern life, especially your own?

Reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon
Details of the Palace of Solomon where Bathsheba lived can be found in 1 Kings 7. As well as the throne room, it contained the royal apartments. Here the harem lived in rooms surrounding an interior courtyard. It was a magnificent building, decorated with costly Lebanese cedar, gold, bronze and ivory.

The Temple of Solomon has completely vanished, but it is still possible to estimate the details of its construction. Using libraries or the Internet, find out information about the Temple. Look at
·    the description given in 1 Kings 5, 6 and the end section of 7
·    archaeological remains of temples built in surrounding cities
·    modern reconstructions of the Temple.
Using this information
·     write a full description of the Temple, or
·     make a detailed drawing of it, or
·     build a scale model of it.
Your presentation should include information on
·     its dimensions and measurements
·     the types of building materials used
·     possible decoration
·     different areas and what they were used for
·     the constraints the architects/builders had to deal with, for example, site, building materials, and purpose of the building.

A modern reconstruction of the interior of Solomon's Temple.