Sheba

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186 THE ARK OF THE COVENANT AND ISRAELITE INFLUENCES known as Qes (as the Beta Israel) and a secret society called Kansha (probably a corruption of kanisa meaning church), based in Himbirti near Asmara, which maintains genealogical records. The Latos claim to have been the first inhabitants of highland Eritrea, particularly the former province of Hamasien with its dynastic centers of Hazega and Tse’azega. They explain that their influence is the reason the Christianity of the area has always been so heavily Israelite. It was this area that supported Ewostatewos in his fight to retain and revere Israelite practices in Orthodox Christianity. There is unsubstantiated belief that the presence of the Latos distinguished the area from Christian Tigre, a factor that Menelik II recognized when the Italians sought control over the area. The Latos tended to covert to Roman Catholicism or Protestant creeds in the twentieth century as a further mark of their separate identity to the Orthodox Church, which supported Haile Selaisse. Despite this, past Latos migration patterns from the area were towards the Beta Israel communities in Ethiopia. The Latos issue is highly contentious given the volatile politico-religious nature of the Horn of Africa and its external, in particular Israeli, linkages. The Israeli government recognizes the Latos as Jews. The Latos are relatively prosperous and their numbers reportedly include many of the Eritrean administrative and political hierarchy including the president, Isaias Afwerki, himself. During the 1999 conflict Ethiopians referred to the Eritrean leadership as “Hamasien (Italian Latos)” and attributed the border conflict to the “supreme race mentality” of the Eritreans adding, “They call themselves ‘the Jews of Africa’ and the ‘Black Israelis’.” The Eritreans, who quoted these attacks, deny their substance. Information about the Latos has been more forthcoming from Latos families who, from long residence in Addis Ababa, have chosen to identify with Ethiopia. It is likely that they retain a better knowledge of traditions that have been considerably weakened in Eritrea by war but are now of little relevance, let alone influence. The word Latos is probably a contraction of pilatos, the Tigrinya insult meaning a Jew (from Pontius Pilatos meaning “Christ killer”). 11 Ewostatewos’s monastery at Debra Bizen is just below Asmara, and the Mai Bela Queen of Sheba memorial stele is also in Latos territory. Hamasien has ancient iron and gold deposits, excellent agricultural land and rainfall, and controls the route to the coast as well as access to the Antseba valley, the ancient trade route to the alleged land of Punt. Very little archaeology has been undertaken in Hamasien, but it is clear that already published conclusions on the Beta Israel and Hebraic-Israelite elements in
QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 187 Orthodox Christianity would be very different if the Latos had been considered. This book is the first to mention them, but they are so sensitive about their identity that they will ignore any reference to it should the matter be raised by an outsider in the presence of another Latos. Asmara has a synagogue, established by Italian settlers. It has a minuscule membership of foreign Jews, and no Latos has ever worshipped there. The study of the Ark of the Covenant and Israelite religion in the Horn of Africa in some ways follows the pattern of Old Testament archaeology. There was initial excitement followed by growing disillusionment. The reason for both is of course related, for the solution depends on the true location of Solomon’s kingdom. Fascination with the Sheba-Menelik Cycle has been replaced by a false logic that dismisses the account because a Palestinian-based ancient Israel would have been too distant for such influences to make an impact so far away in Solomon’s time. It has taken eighty years for biblical scholars to accept that Palestinian archaeology does not correspond with Old Testament accounts. While suggestions should be considered that the Old Testament may be fantasy or a gross exaggeration, they do not explain, for example, the link between the Hebraic Yibir and the pre-Ezra br inscriptions at Abuna Garima, Hebrew-isms in West Arabian, the antiquity of tabut, or the pre-fifth century B.C.E. texts in an ancient form of Hebrew that were incorporated into the fifth century Hebrew canon. In the past, scholars who have been unable to reconcile their geographical preconceptions have either disparaged the narrative of the Sheba-Menelik Cycle or have interpreted it as an expression of “deep-lying psychological conflicts widely shared by members of Ethiopian society.” 12 Old Testament scholarship is now witnessing a similar trend. The reluctance of the minimalist school of Old Testament scholarship to consider the alternative location theory may have at first have been influenced, as Thomas Thompson acknowledged, in a communication of August 21, 2000 to this writer, by ignorance of the western Arabian and Ethiopian evidence, but that situation has now changed. However, despite scholastic awareness of the ideas expressed in this book, the hypothesis of an Arabian Judah and Israel is viewed as a political, religious, and academic Pandora’s Box. Since the publication of Salibi’s The Bible Came from Arabia, a number of writers, Beta Israel, and Yemeni Jews who either support an Arabian Zion or dare to suggest that Ethiopian and Arabian Israelite traditions contain some truth have become targets of vigorous and often successful campaigns to prevent their views being published or even
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Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholar
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QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
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CHAPTER ONE Sheba, Zionism, and the
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CHAPTER TWO The Search for Evidence
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CHAPTER THREE Writing the Old Testa
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CHAPTER SIX Western Arabia and the
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Sheba

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