Bible Synapse
Was Asa Abijam’s son or his brother, when both their mothers are called Maachah?
Hard question · Genealogies · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Abijam reigned three years; “his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom”.
Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
Abijam died and was buried in the city of David, “and Asa his son reigned in his stead”.
And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.
Asa reigned forty-one years; “his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom”.
And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
Asa removed “Maachah his mother” from being queen, because she had made an idol, and burnt it by the Kidron.
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.
The objection
1 Kings 15:8 says that Asa was Abijam’s son. Yet 1 Kings 15:2 and 15:10 give the same mother, “Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom”, to both kings, which would make them brothers, or else make Abijam the husband of his own mother. Critics say the chapter contradicts itself.
The answer
Asa was Abijam’s son, and Maachah was his grandmother. Hebrew ʾab, ‘father’, is freely used of a grandfather or forefather: the same chapter says that Asa did right “as did David his father” (1 Kings 15:11), though David was his great-great-grandfather. ʾEm, ‘mother’, is used of Maachah in the same broad way. Here it also carries a title. Verse 13 says that Asa removed Maachah “from being queen”, Hebrew gebirah, the queen mother, who held an official place at the court of Judah. Keil and Delitzsch explain, following Ephrem the Syrian and the rabbis, that Maachah kept this rank after her son Abijam’s short reign, perhaps because Asa’s own mother had died young, until Asa deposed her for her idolatry.
So when 1 Kings 15:10 names Asa’s ‘mother’, it names the queen mother of his reign, the most powerful woman at his court, as the books of Kings regularly do at a king’s accession. That is why the two notices are worded alike. Abijam is called Asa’s father in 1 Kings 15:8 and 2 Chronicles 14:1, and Matthew’s genealogy agrees: “Abia begat Asa” (Matthew 1:7).
Other answers Christians give
A Greek reading
The Septuagint of 1 Kings 15:10 calls Asa’s mother ‘Ana, daughter of Abessalom’. Some think this preserves the name of a different woman; but most take the Hebrew as it stands and explain it as above.
Still open
Why Maachah, not Asa’s own mother, held the place of queen mother is not stated; the suggestion that his mother had died is a reasonable guess. (For the separate question of who Maachah’s father was, see the question on Abijah’s mother.)
From the classic commentators
Maacah, the mother of Abijam, continued during Asa's reign to retain the post of queen-mother or הגּבירה, i.e., sultana valide, till Asa deposed her on account of her idolatry (1 Kings 15:13), probably because Asa's own mother had died at an early age.C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Kings 15:10 (1866–1891)