Queen Sheba

I would equivalent to engage on a quest to identify the faerie of Sheba. Having read the rather newly produce co-authored book by John Ashton and David Down, Unwrapping the Pharaohs, who states that the king of Sheba would be set with the Egyptian pantywaist/Pharaoh, Hatshepsut. I grant often referred to sources, even Christian authors and archeologists that identify the tabby of Sheba as being from the South Arabian capital, Marib in Yemen. With the new archaeological disc everyplaceies, including the body of faggot Hatshepsut, and the humany presentations, it ordain be interesting to discover the truths astir(predicate) the great pharaoh.Secular and many Christian sources seem to parrot the same theories which also contradict the archeological interpretations of the discoveries of Sheba and the discoveris of the magnate Hatshepsut in Egypt. Perhaps while the disco very(prenominal) of Sheba supports the scriptural mention of the put as having actually existed just do es this necessarily mean that a world-beater from this stake actually visited Solomon? Or that a person from this place is the famous Queen of Sheba and the same that Jesus alludes? Perhaps new lights will shed a twinkle of truth and further qualify or authenticate the Bible as the inspired word of God.More than this, if historians and archeologists whoremonger provide enough evidence to support the Queen of Sheba as Hatshepsut, perhaps totally new discoveries will significantly impact know takege of this time period in Egyptian hi hi paper and the relationship surrounded by magnate Solomon and Egypt at this time. Truth is challenged by fiction many times fiction becomes truth. The ultimate immenseness of this topic is Biblically and historically related. The Bible is the greatest book ever written It is the greatest story- HIS story- of how God created man and gave him freedom of choice.His story tells and instructs in the greatest characteristics any human is capable of poss essing, that of an unending and unconditional love. some of the books of the Bible are excellent historical books, as a matter of fact, the earliest historical books that we direct. And, quiet, accurate, because we have cross-references from other sources, and they are found to be most very precise so they are very important. This discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the most famous event in Biblical archeology, but it was, by no means, the first.The urge to explore Biblical history has a venerable tradition. Its a search that began in the Holy Land but would lead to Mesopotamia. by means ofout history, crusaders, mystics, and believers have been drawn to sites where the great Bible stories in additionk place but with the arrival of the nineteenth century, a new kind of pilgrim sought to fortify t successor belief in the Bible through the infant science of archeology. This fortification give rise to the question concerning the identities of the Queen of Sheba and Hatshepsut, Q ueen and Pharaoh of Egypt.Much speculation cause debate among scholars, but a visualise is worth a thousand words, they say. A somewhat nebulous figure, the Queen of Sheba (fl. 10th century BCE)- know also as Bilgis and as Makeda- figures prominently in Judaic, Moslem, and Ethiopian traditions. Her legendary pilgrimage to meet Solomon, King of Israel, has inspired centuries of speculation about her kingdom and influence in the ancient world. Modern day Ethiopians believe her, as the mother of their first Emperor, Menilek I, to be the ultimate maternal ancestor of the dominant Ethiopian royal dynasty.A Queen of Legend Little has been corroborate about the Queen of Shebas life- in fact, even such basic enlarge as her given come upon and the exact location of her kingdom remain uncertain. Tradition places her date of birth in the latter half(a) of the 11th century BCE and her death in approximately 955 BCE although her kingdom is referred to as both to the south and to the t ocopherol of Israel scholars generally believe her to have ruled an area in northern Africa roughly equivalent to present-day(a) Ethiopia, a country which claims her the progenitor of their long-ruling Solomonic dynasty.The Queen 10th century BCE visit ot the grand motor inn of Solomon, King of Israel and son of the legendary Goliathslayer David, however, is well attested in three major ancient sources the Biblical Old Testament, the Islamic Quran, and the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings). These three perspectives on the Queen meld to create a picture of one of the relatively rare, powerful female monarchs of the ancient world. A Biblical Riddler The most widespread story of the Queen of Sheba stems from an Old Testament passage describing her journey to Jerusalem to meet with the Jewish king, Solomon, renowned for his wisdom.An written report of her stay at Solomons court appears in I Kings 101 14 and in a nearly word-for-word repetition, 2 Chronicles 91 12. Both p assages begin The queen of Sheba heard of Solomons fame, and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. She brought with her a large group of attendants, as well as camels nonsensical with spices, jewels, and a large amount of gold. When she and Solomon met, she asked him all the questions that she could think of. He answered them all there was zero too difficult for him to explain. The rest of the tale describes the Queens awe of Solomons wisdom, riches, and relationship with God, as well as the two monarchs throw of gifts. This brief text forms the basis for later embellishments of the queens voyage. Few other direct references to the queen occur in Biblical sources. In Matthew 1242 (repeated almost exactly in Luke 1131), Jesus says, On the Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will stand up and accuse you, because she traveled all the commission from her country to listen to King Solomons wise teaching. Also, throughout the centuries, the Old Testament book kn own alternately as the Song of Songs and the Song of Solomon has been speculated to be a series of love poems sent between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. A story that certainly served as inspiration for later Islamic and Ethiopian writers appears in a late paraphrase of the book of Esther explained by C. H. Toy in the Journal of American Folklore article The Queen of Sheba. On a certain day when Solomons heart was warmed by wine, he invited all the kings of the of the atomic number 99 and the West in order that the kings might see his greatness.All came except the moorcock who excused himself by saying that for three months he had been flying over the earth to see if there was any land that did not roll in the hay the kings authority. The annulus reports he has discovered a fertile land to the east ruled by the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, intrigued, sends the bird back to the queen with a letter requesting her presence at his court. The queen wrote back, sending presents , and undertook the voyage to Jerusalem in three years-although the journey normally required seven years-spurred by her desire to drum riddles to Solomon.Solomon answers correctly, proving his wisdom to the powerful queen. An Islamic Convert The Islamic legend of the Queen of Sheba, or Bilqis (alternatively, Balkis) as she is known in the Arabian tradition, stems from these short Jewish reports. The story of the Queens appearance at Solomons court in the Islamic saintly text, The Quran, follows a thread similar to that of the Book of Esther. In Chapter 27 of the Quran, a messenger bird declared I have come to thee from Saba with sure tidings.I found a woman ruling over all of them she has been granted everything and she has a wondrous throne. I found her and her worshipping the sun, instead of Allah. The passage further explains that ogre has led the queen and her subjects away from Allah, and Solomon, thinking to test this assertion, sends the bird back to the queen with a le tter requesting confirmation of the birds tale. Upon receiving the queens response of extravagant gifts, Solomon is not satisfied and writes again, requesting her presence.The queen visits Solomon and, awed by his court, converts to the worship of Allah. Arabian legends based on the Quran embellish this story to include some speculation about the queens descent from demons and later, her realizable marriage to Solomon. Solomons advisors inform him that the queen has hairy legs to discover the truth of this, Solomon constructs a palace with glass floors. The queen, accept the floor to be made of water, lifts her skirts, revealing her legs and feet.As Toy commented, later Moslem writers interpreted this physical distinctiveness as showing that she was of jinn descent they constructed a romantic history of her fathers marriage to a jinn maiden. Legends also conjectured that the queen and Solomon wed during her visit to his court and had a son who succeeded to the throne of Sheba. A n Ethiopian Queen This marriage figures prominently in the Ethiopian accounts of the queen. Drawing on Jewish and Islamic traditions, the Ethiopian story of the Queen of Sheba identified with Makeda, Queen of Ethiopia provides the most extensive picture of the Queen.Told in the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings), a 14th century compilation of regional oral histories, this version also begins with a voyage to King Solomons court at Jerusalem. The Queen was dumbstruck with wonder at the things that she heard from a traveling merchant, and she pondered in her heart that she would to go to Solomon, the King, related the Kebra Nagast, which further details her voyage from Ethiopia bringing lavish gifts to the King. During the queens stay, Solomon became infactuated with her.Determined to have the virginal queen, Solomon extracts a promise from the queen to take nothing that belongs to him and then orders a grand banquet to be served the night before her departure. As Harold G. Marcus d etailed in A History of Ethiopia He directed his cook to serve the best wines to prepare the spiciest dishes, both of which merrily suited Makeda. After having eaten and drunk her fill, the queen fell into a stupor, during which Solomon had jugs of water, labeled as his property, placed strategically around her sofa.When Makeda reawakened, she immediately gulped down some water, an act that permitted King Solomon to satisfy his lust. Solomon, having later onwards dreamt that God was granting him an heir by the queen, requested that the queen send their son to Jerusalem when the boy came of age. Accordingly, the queen gave birth to a son, Ebna Hakim, who traveled to his fathers court as an adolescent. In Pillars of Ethiopian History, William Leo Hansberry recorded that Solomon was overjoyed to see his freehanded and noble-minded son. Solomon did his best to persuade Ebna Hakim to remain to Jerusalem, with the intention of making him his successor but the adolescent prince was d eaf to his fathers pleas. Solomon thus confirmed his son as the future King of Ethiopia and gathered several of his advisors sons to call back with Ebna Hakim and assist him during his rule. This group refused to leave Jerusalem without the legendary Ark of the Covenant-the chest reputed to contain the original tablets of the x Commandments sent to Moses by God, among other religious artifacts-and so, stole the Ark.As Marcus commented, The larceny was apparently approved by God, who levitated the youths and their holy cargo across the Red Sea before discovery and chase by Solomons forces. To this day, Ethiopian tradition places the Ark in the northern Ethiopian city Axum. When the queen died in the mid-10th century BCE, her son rose to the Ethiopian throne as Emperor Menilek I. This Solomonic Dynasty ruled Ethiopia for much of the next 2000 years the last emperor moth of Ethiopia, Haile Sellassie, claimed descent from Solomon and the queen through Menilek. A Lasting LegacyAs the se varied accounts show, the Queen of Sheba has fascinated and inspired many cultures for nearly 3000 years. The lack of any verifiable details of her life does not seem to inspire inquiry about her existence. As Nicholas Clapp commented in Sheba Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, Her encounter with King Solomon must have happened because as biblical tales go, it was so dull. She shows up shes awed shes crestfallen she leaves. Nobody is led in or out of temptation, is distraught or gets killed there is no evident moral message.The story had the earmarks of a day-in, day-out formal court record this is reinforced by passages immediately preceding and following the Sheba story, passages that wait on Solomons prowess in foreign affairs. Instead of being ignored due to its brevity, the bare narrative given in the Old Testament has served as ample fodder for fanciful stories and modern scholarly and popular speculation about the relationship between the wealthy, i ntelligent queen and the religious, wise King Solomon.Centuries after her death, the Queen of Sheba still rules over the imaginations of people both within and far beyond the boundaries of her ancient kingdom. Books Clapp, Nicholas, Sheba Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001 Holy Bible, American Bible Society, 1978. Kebra Negast, trans. Miguel F. Brooks, The Red Sea Press, Inc. 1996. Marcus Harold G. , A History of Ethiopia, University of California Press, 1994. Quran, trans. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Interlink Publishing Group-Olive Branch Press, 1997. Shah, Tahir, In Search of King Solomons Mines, colonnade Publishing, 2002.