Who Was the Queen of Sheba?

Artwork by Diane-Blair Goodpasture at www.goodpastureart.com. 

She is considered a “black feminist pop icon” to some, and to others the ancestor of Ethiopic kings. But to all the Queen of Sheba is a powerful figure of biblical narratives who is portrayed as an auspicious authority in international politics and whose intelligence was the decisive measure of a king’s worth. [1] The biblical narratives in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 tell the story of a wealthy and powerful foreign queen from the land of Sheba who visits King Solomon to investigate claims of his special wisdom that reached across the Mediterranean, all the way to her throne room. This captivating story of such a powerful and wealthy queen has inspired the imagination of artists, filmmakers, and theologians. 

Artists across millennia have chosen the Queen of Sheba as a subject for their artistic expressions, including Diane-Blair Goodpasture who created the piece featured in this post (www.goodpastureart.com). Diane-Blair writes that "the Queen of Sheba invites much fascination and legend. While Midrashic literature abounds she is only allotted a few verses in the Bible. She came to test King Solomon’s wisdom with her own. According to legend she return to her native Ethiopia pregnant with his son. According to tradition Ethiopian Jews are the their descendants. In Islam she is known as Bilqis and in Ethiopian tradition as Makeda." 

In contemporary filmography, the Queen of Sheba has also been the the protagonist in films including the made-for-tv movie “Black is King” starring Halle Berry.

But who was this iconic queen?

In the biblical narratives, the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon forms the apex and culmination of the portrayal of Solomon’s achievements. The arrival of this foreign dignitary served to showcase Solomon’s legitimacy as an international political figure. While the purpose for including the Queen of Sheba in these biblical narratives is to bolster the presentation of Solomon’s accomplishments, it is rare to see such a powerful female political figure in its pages. The Queen of Sheba then belongs with Deborah, Miriam, Huldah, and Queen Athaliah as women in biblical narratives who held positions of political authority in the ancient Levant and Mediterranean. 

1 Kings 10 describes her arrival to Jerusalem in dramatic and emphatic language. Most translations render the Hebrew as, “She arrived in Jerusalem with a large retinue.” While this accurately portrays its meaning, the Hebrew phrase בחיל כבד מאד “with incredibly great strength/wealth/prestige” employs deliberate emphasis in its depiction of her climactic ascent to the city followed by a caravan of camels, spices, gold, and precious stones. 

It is also worth noting that this Hebrew word חיל is also used of the Proverbs 31 woman, where I think it is best translated as “Woman of strength.” [Click this link to see another blog post where I discuss the Proverbs 31 woman].

The Queen of Sheba is portrayed using a word with a wide semantic range of meaning including “strong, wealthy, prestigious, or high social status.” The Queen of Sheba, like the Proverbs 31 woman, is indeed a woman of imposing and spectacular strength. The biblical narrative itself shapes her portrayal as an iconic international figure whose visit bestows King Solomon with distinction and prestige beyond what his own achievements could garner.

Where is the land of Sheba?

The biblical narrative mentions the land of Sheba nineteen times, but does not identify the location of Sheba. [2] The biblical text mentions the land of Sheba in narratives that associate it with gifts of wealth and maritime trade industry (see Psalm 72:10, for example). Yet the location is Sheba has been a subject of debate with alternate identifications of its geographic location in both southern Arabia and Ethiopia. 

Much of contemporary scholarship associates the land of Sheba with the port city Saba in the southern Arabian Peninsula (modern-day Yemen), which flourished between the 8th century BCE and 275 CE. [3] In her article in Religions, Prof. Jillian Stinchcomb observes that in Semitic languages, and especially in Arabic and Ge’ez (and in unpointed biblical Hebrew manuscripts), the names Sheba and Saba would be rendered the same way, which might suggest philological overlap. [4]

Other sources and traditions claim Ethiopia as the location of Sheba and its iconic queen. For example, the ancient Jewish historian Josephus gives the Queen of Sheba the title “Queen of Ethiopia and Egypt.” [5] As Stinchcomb observes, Josephus seems to be the the first ancient author for whom we have archived manuscripts to connect Sheba with Africa. [6] The ancient theologian Origen of Alexandria in Egypt also suggests that the Queen of Sheba is the protagonist of the bride in Song of Songs: “I am black and beautiful…” (Song 1:5). [7]

The Queen of Sheba is claimed as a national ancestor of Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The connection between the biblical narrative of the Queen of Sheba and Ethiopian kings is recounted in the medieval collection and compilation of traditional sources called the Kebra Nagast (or Glory of Kings) written in the Semitic language of Ge’ez. [8] According to the Kebra Negast, the Queen of Sheba became the lover of Solomon and became pregnant during her stay in Jerusalem. She gave birth on her journey home to Ethiopia and gave birth to a son named Menelik. 

Solomon recognizes and legitimates Menelik as his son, in the narrative told in the medieval manuscript, and when his son reaches the age of 22, Solomon sends to Ethiopia the first-born sons of the elders of Israel. This group of young men also smuggle the ark of the covenant out of Solomon’s temple without the knowledge of approval of Menelik. 

Thus, the Ethiopic Orthodox Church identifies the genealogy of the kings of Ethiopia as the descendants of Menelik and, thus, of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The Kebra Negast remains a deeply influential traditional text in Ethiopia, and the ark of the covenant is still thought by some to reside in the Chapel of the Tablet next to the Church of Maryam Tsion in Aksum, Ethiopia. 

Whether Arabian or Ethiopian, the Queen of Sheba remains a fascinating biblical figure who captures religious and artistic imagination of both ancient and contemporary readers.

Notes

[1] Lawrence Goodman, “An Obscure Biblical Figure, a Black Feminist Icon” in Brandeis Magazine (2022). https://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2022/winter-spring/featured-stories/sheba.html; see the ancient text known as the Kebra Negast (Glory of Kings) that links the Queen of Sheba and Solomon with the lineage of Ethopic kings.

[2] Sheba is mentioned as a geographic location in Kings, Chronicles, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, the Psalms, and Job.

[3] For more on the location of Sheba as Saba, see, for example, Bar Kribus “Arabia or Africa: Where is the Land of Sheba?” in Biblical Archaeology Review 42:5 (2016).

[4] Jillian Stinchcomb, “Race, Racism, and the Hebrew Bible: The Case of the Queen of Sheba,” Religions (2021): 4.

[5] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 8:165-173.

[6] Stinchcomb, “Race, Racism and the Hebrew Bible,” 4.

[7] Stinchcomb, “Race, Racism and the Hebrew Bible,” 4.

[8] See David A. Hubbard’s dissertation in 1956 for a thorough treatment of the sources of the Kebra Negast, The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast, PhD dissertation, University of St. Andrews, UK.