East to attain a prominent position, their present deg- radation being the result of Mahommedanism. Mir- iam, Deborah, Abigail, are instances from the Bible, and Dido was not far removed from Athaliah, either in birthplace or date, if Carthage was founded B.C. £61 (Josephus, c. Apion. i, 18). In order to remove all rivals, Athaliah caused all the male branches of the royal family to be massacred (2 Kings xi, 1) ; and by thus shedding the blood of her own grandchildren, she undesignedly became the instrument of giving completion to the doom on her father's house, which Jehu had partially accomplished. From the slaughter of the royal house one infant named Joash, the young- est son of Ahaziah, was rescued by his aunt Jehosheba, daughter of Jehoram (probably by another wife than Athaliah), who had married Jehoiada (2 Chron. xxii, 11), the high-prbst (2 Chron. xxiv, 6). The child, under Jehoiada's care, was concealed within the walls of the Temple, and there brought up so secretly that his existence was unsuspected by Athaliah. But in the seventh year (B.C. 877) of her bloodstained and evil reign, Jehoiada thought it time to produce the lawful king to the people, trusting to their zeal for the wor- ship of God, and loyalty to the house of David, -which had been so strenuously called out by Asa and Jehosh- aphat. After communicating his design to five "cap- tains of hundreds," whose names are given in 2 Chron. xxiii, 1, and securing the co-operation of the Levites and chief men in the country-towns in case of necessi- ty, he brought the young Joash into the Temple to re- ceive the allegiance of the soldiers of the guard. It was customary on the Sabbath for a third part of them to do duty at the palace, while two thirds restrained the crowd of visitors and worshippers who thronged the Temple on that day, by occupying the gate of Sur (T'O, 1 Kings xi, 6, called cf the foundation, *PC?, 2 Chron. xxiii, 5, which Gsrlach, in loco, considers the right reading in Kings also), and the gate "behind the guard" (Vulg. porta gum est post habitaculum scuta- riorurn), which seem to have been the N. and S. en- trances into the Temple, according to Ewald's descrip- tion of it (Geschichte, iii, 306-7). On the day fixed for the outbreak there was to be no change in the ar- rangement at the palace, lest Athaliah, who did not worship in the Temple, should form any suspicions from missing her usual guard, but the latter two thirds were to protect the king's person by forming a long and closely-serried line across the Temple, and killing any one who should approach within certain limits. They were also furnished with David's spears and shields, that the work of restoring his descendant might be associated with his own sacred weapons. When the guard had taken up their position, the young prince was anointed, crowned, and presented with the Testi- mony or Law, and Athaliah was first roused to a sense of her danger by the shouts and music which accom- panied the inauguration of her grandson. She hurried into the Temple, but found Joash alreadj' standing " by a pillar," or more properly on it, i. e. on the tri- bunal or throne apparently raised on a massive column or cluster of columns, which the king occupied when he attended the service on solemn occasions. The phrase in the original is ^^'"b", rendered i—l rov (ttuXov by the Sept., and super tribunal in the Vulgate, while Gesenius gives for the substantive a stage or pulpit, (('omp. 2 Kings xxiii, 3, and Ezck. xlvi, 2.) She arrived, however, only to behold the young Joash standing as a crowned king by the pillar of inaugura- tion, and acknowledged as sovereign by the acclama- tions of the assembled multitude. Her cries of " Trea- son !" failed to excite any movement in her favor, and Jehoiada, the high-priest, who had enjamzed this bold and successful attempt, without allowing time for pause, ordered the Levitical guards to remove her from the sacred precincts to instant death (2 Kings xi ; 2 Chron. xxi, 6 ; xxii, 10-12 ; xxiii). The Tyr-
ATHANASIAN CREED
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ATHANASIUS
ians afterward avenged her death (Joel ii). The only other recorded victim of this happy and almost blood- less revolution was Mattan, the priest of Baal. (On its plan, see De Wette, Beitrfige, p. 95 sq. ; Gramberg, Chron. p. 135 sq. ; Keil, Ckron. p. 361 sq. ; Ewald, Geschickte, iii, 574 sq. The latter words of 2 Kings xi, 6, in our version, "that it be not broken down" are probably wrong: Ewald translates "according to cus- tom;" Gesenius gives in his Lexicon "« keeping off.") In modern times the history of Athaliah has been il- lustrated by the music of Handel and of Mendelssohn, and the stately declamation of Racine. — Kitto ; Smith.
2. (Sept. ToSoXiac v. r. roSroXta.) One of the "so»s" of Jeroham and chieftains of the tribe of Ben- jamin, resident at Jerusalem (1 Chron. viii, 27). B.C. apparently 530.
3. (Sept. 'AStsXla v. r. 'ASMor.) The father of Jcshaiah, which latter was one of the "sons" of Elam that returned with seventy dependents from Babylon under Ezra (Ezra viii, 7). B.C. ante 459.