Sheba

196
REFERENCES AND NOTES
Jonathan would not have known the Kebra Nagast, and
Ethiopia would not have been a Christian state in those years
with a monarch proudly proclaiming descent from Solomon.
However, judging from Josephus’s contemporary writings,
which are a summary of the section of the Sheba-Menelik
Cycle dealing with the Queen’s visit, it is highly likely that the
Sheba-Menelik Cycle was indeed known to Rabbi Jonathan’s
circle. Josephusmentions nothing of the creation of an
Ethiopian/Yemeni Israelite rival dynasty. Nevertheless, like the
disappearance of the Ark and Zadokite priesthood, the facts
were probably well known but suppressed.
12. Thomas O. Lambdin, Introduction to Classical Ethiopic
(Ge’ez), Harvard Semitic Studies, No. 24, (Scholars Press
1978), 3.
13. The Prophet Jethro was priest leader of the Kenites, reputedly
descended from Adam and Eve through their son Cain. The
Kenites were itinerant blacksmiths who worshipped Yahweh
and formed part of the nomadic Midianites, who claimed
kinship with the Israelites through Keturah, Abraham’s second
wife, and introduced the Israelites to circumcision. Moses told
the Hebrew that the Kenite deity Yahweh was the True God
they had forgotten. Many Kenites were later absorbed into the
tribe of Judah, but others refused. One group in the 9 th century
B.C.E. was the Rechabites, who violently opposed Ba’al,
refused to touch wine or engage in agriculture, believing
nomadism a religious duty.
CHAPTER SEVEN
1. Maxime Rodinson, “Sur eth. tabot, ar. tabut, et les noms
semitiques de l’ Arche.” (Concerning the Ethiopic word tabot
and the Arabic word tabut, and the Semitic name for the Ark),
Groupe Linguistiqued’Études Chamito-Sémitiques IX (1962):
64-68.
2. Today the Agaw (or Central Cushitic) languages, according to
David Appleyard, are confined to four groups in isolated