Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 167
Ethiopia. If indeed Israelite priests had considered carrying the Ark down
the Nile, their prestige was minimal and the risks unacceptable. Dynastic
Egypt was a heavily policed society that did not suffer transient renegades,
refugees (blameless or otherwise), and exotic strangers gladly. In the first
years of the thirteenth century A.D., during the Zagwe dynasty, the newly
appointed Monophysite bishop of Ethiopia, Michael of Fuwa, arrived from
Alexandria. Five years later, out of favor, he struggled back to Egypt,
eventually arriving stripped of his possessions and abandoned by his
original retinue except for three slaves and a pet civet cat. Later, suspicious
citizens forcibly drowned a West African monarch in the Nile. Such was
the fate of unsanctioned travelers, and Menelik’s party would have been
doomed if they had chosen an Egyptian route. Had Israelite priests carried
the Ark of the Covenant to the Aksum area in later years, the Sabaean rulers
would have demanded an impressive demonstration of the Ark’s power.
Had one been provided, it would certainly have entered folklore. In contrast,
the Salibi hypothesis of a western Arabian scenario is far more credible.
Menelik’s party had a much better chance of escape. The distances
involved were short, and he would have been operating in his mother’s
country. Moreover, he had access to shipping; Solomon did not.
Chapter 7, the final chapter, will discuss more evidence that supports
western Arabia as the true location of the Old Testament. This concerns the
Ark itself, Israelite elements in Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church and
the history of Hebraic and Israelite groups such as the Beta Israel and the
Qemant of Ethiopia, the Latos of Eritrea, and the Lemba of southern Africa.