Sheba

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82 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA crossed the floor to help herself to some water by Solomon’s bed. Before she could drink, Solomon grabbed her arm and reminded her that if she drank the water, she would break her word. At last encountering the sordid dimensions of Solomon’s ruthless character and with no hope of slaking her raging thirst in the room or in any part of the kingdom without breaking her word, the queen had to endure Solomon’s triumph. Next, according to the Ethiopians, Solomon bedded the handmaiden as well. The queen then left for the south, taking with her a ring Solomon insisted on presenting to her as a gift for their future child. The Queen of Sheba had warned Solomon that only virgins could rule in Sabaea and a pregnancy could cost her the throne. Traditions exist that state Solomon married the queen or arranged for her to be married to another ruler from southern Arabia. There are other stories that both Solomon and his successor and son Rehoboam ruled Yemen for a total of forty years after which it reverted to a local ruler. Control of Yemen’s gold or other Arabian minerals may be the source of the stories concerning King Solomon’s mines. The Kebra Nagast implies that at the beginning of her reign, the queen was based in Arabia but spent her last days in Africa. The general impression is that her visit to Solomon weakened her political power. Professor Bill Glanzman and other academics suggest that Marib may have been a thriving Sheban city in the queen’s day, but it still seems too distant from Asir, let alone Palestine, to warrant the incredible trading mission recorded in the Old Testament or for the queen’s court to be troubled by any threats from Solomon. It is more likely that the queen had her capital in or near Asir, and the Israelites and Shebans were vying for control of the area during the temporary Assyrian and Egyptian withdrawals. The next part the Queen of Sheba’s story is so controversial that many authorities simply ignore it, for acceptance means declaring null and void what must be one of the largest and definitely one of the oldest and most respected bodies of academic research in the world – Old Testament scholarship. Those who have challenged it can expect vilification, marginalization, censorship, unemployment, and even, like the late Al Glock, assassination. 8 Cautious academics find it safer not to follow where the evidence leads, even if this means the queen will never be accorded her true historical and theological status. The aim of this book is to show that the life of the Queen of Sheba is the key to proving the Old Testament is neither fantasy nor exaggeration but indeed an accurate account. The most convincing argument comes from an Arabic text translated into Ge’ez (Ethiopic), the contents of which are
QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 83 not only supported by ancient inscriptions at Abuna Garima near Mekele in Ethiopia but also by the presence of remnant Hebraic groups in Eritrea and Somalia, one of which is named on the inscriptions. The Arabic text translated into Ge’ez was the Sheba-Menelik Cycle of the Kebra Nagast.
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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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MAP 8 Arabic Dialects of Western Ar
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Sheba

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