THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

WB2014-42-45-Makeda_AH edit 1/19/15 2:04 AM Page 42
BY ELAINE K. PHILLIPS
MAKEDA,
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
Her epic quest for wisdom became a legend
and birthed a nation.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if
I hadn’t seen it for myself.”
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
— Queen of Sheba, 1 Kings 10:7
4 2 | WOMEN IN THE BIBLE
WB2014-42-45-Makeda_AH edit 1/19/15 2:04 AM Page 43
MAKEDA, THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
H
This 12th-century fresco in an Ethiopian
rock church depicts Makeda as a warrior
queen. Interestingly, a medieval fresco in
a church in Gondar, Ethiopia, shows St.
George in a strikingly similar pose.
ow far are you
willing to go for
answers to your
questions? Would you
stumble across the
room to your smartphone’s Google
search app? Drive to your local library?
How about ride horseback the 2,000
miles from Los Angeles to Chicago?
If you’re Makeda, Queen of Sheba,
you’ll go even farther.
AN EPIC JOURNEY
Makeda and her retinue rode through
Jerusalem’s gates, their dusty camels
swaying with the weight of folded tents,
clay pots and sheep-gut water sacks. Her
servants carried ebony crates of
precious stones, spices and gold—gifts
for Solomon, king of Israel, whose
wisdom and wealth were acclaimed as
far away as Saba’.
When Queen Makeda heard the tales,
she had to go see it for herself. So for
2,900 miles, she trekked the Nile from
Ethiopia; for 2,900 miles, her soldiers
guarded their queen from lions, and her
treasure from bandits.
But now they swapped their twohanded bronze swords for their
decorative, scythe-like shotels; Makeda
wanted “a grand and showy entrance” (1
Kings 10:2). In Jerusalem, Queen
Makeda hoped not only to see proof of
Solomon’s splendor, but also to forge a
key political partnership based on
common values: wisdom and justice.
Quick Facts
• Lived: 10th century BC in
Sheba (Saba’), modern-day
Ethiopia or Yemen
• Appears in: 1 Kings 10 and 2
Chronicles 9
• Popular Legacy: A central
figure in Ethiopian and Arabian
culture, Queen Makeda of
Sheba also features in
Solomon and Sheba (1959)
and other Hollywood films.
THE BURDEN OF PROOF
Makeda found Solomon more than
willing to display his wisdom and
wealth. He welcomed Makeda into his
palace, where she “talked about all the
things that she cared about” and
Solomon “answered everything she put
to him—nothing stumped him” (1 Kings
10:3). Their conversation appears to
have covered economics, politics and
religion, given what Solomon highlights
on the tour of his court: his home and
cutlery, his top officials and his burnt
Mother of a Nation
In contrast to the sparse biblical
account, the Kebra Nagast—the
Ethiopian holy book, translated into
English in 1922 by E. A. W. Budge—
records Makeda’s life in detail. In the
Kebra Nagast, Makeda longed to visit
Solomon because she was “smitten
with the love of wisdom.” Then, after
discussing Abrahamic theology and
the Mosaic Law with Solomon,
Makeda abandoned her sun-worship
and trusted in the God of Israel.
But that was just the beginning.
Solomon—who rejected the Lord in
favor of his wives one chapter later in
1 Kings—tricked her into sleeping
with him. When she left, he gave her
a signet ring to pass on to their child,
should she have a son. Nine months
later, she did and named him “BaynaLeḥkem.”
Twenty years later, Makeda sent
her son to Israel to meet his father,
who rechristened him “Menyelek”
(also Menelik) and had Zadok the
Priest anoint him king of Ethiopia.
When Solomon abandoned God,
Menyelek returned to Ethiopia with
the ark of the covenant as a sign that
God had in turn abandoned Solomon.
Until the 20th century, the Ethiopian
monarchy claimed its descent from
Menyelek and its divine right to rule
from the ark of the covenant. Makeda
is so central to Ethiopian culture that,
as historian Michael Wood points out,
the story was written into the
Ethiopian Constitution in 1955.
WOMEN IN THE BIBLE | 4 3
WB2014-42-45-Makeda_AH edit 1/19/15 2:04 AM Page 44
These five ancient pillars
are almost all that’s left
of the ancient Baran
Temple, near where
Makeda may have ruled
her kingdom from Marib,
in modern Yemen.
We’re often encouraged to take things “on faith,” as if
faith negates evidence; or to trust solely in logic, as if
physical evidence debunks faith.
But Makeda’s story suggests that wisdom holds both
in tandem.
According to 1 Kings 10:1, Makeda travelled to
Jerusalem because she “heard about Solomon and his
connection with the Name of God.” Instead of hearing
rumors of Solomon’s wisdom and accepting them “on
faith,” she traveled more than the distance between Los
Angeles and Chicago.
To undertake such a journey, Makeda must have
valued both facts and faith. If she didn’t see facts as
valuable, she wouldn’t have persevered on her 2,900mile quest. Only when she questioned Solomon thoroughly and inspected his palaces did Makeda believe
the legends were true. “‘I wouldn’t have believed it if I
hadn’t seen it for myself,” she says (1 Kings 10:7). But
she must have believed that the rumors of Solomon’s
wisdom could be true, or she’d never have risked the
journey in the first place. Like Makeda, we need to let
faith and facts work together to guide us to wisdom.
4 4 | WOMEN IN THE BIBLE
?
Did you
Know
While both Ethiopia and Yemen claim
Queen Makeda as their own, some
historians suggest that her kingdom
of Saba’ spanned both countries.
offerings. The evidence of
Solomon’s expansive expertise,
the 1 Kings author writes,
“confirmed” the stories and
“took her breath away.”
Moreover, Makeda considered
Solomon’s wisdom and wealth
as evidence that he was a
benevolent and just ruler,
blessed by God (1 Kings 10:9).
A NEW BEGINNING
Having observed Solomon’s
wisdom and justice for herself,
Makeda decided to draw up a
treaty. The author of 1 Kings
recorded an exchange of
treasures: Makeda gave Solomon
“four and a half tons of gold” and
an unfathomable of amount of
spices (1 Kings 10:10), whilst
Solomon gave her “everything
she asked for” (1 Kings 10:13).
Gifts of this magnitude between
royals likely indicated a political
or economic agreement. Makeda
wisely decided to ally herself
with Solomon, confident that
God would continue to use
Solomon to bless Israel in
breathtaking ways—and
through Israel, Saba’ as well.
According to Ethiopian
tradition, Makeda returned
home to found the royal dynasty
from which the Ethiopian
monarchy derived its lineage
until the 20th century.
LEFT: PHOTO BY WERNER FORMAN/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES; MIDDLE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The Pursuit of Wisdom
WB2014-42-45-Makeda_AH edit.CX 1/20/15 11:36 PM Page 45
MAKEDA, THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
A Romantic Landscape with the
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by
Samuel Coleman (1830).
Just the Facts,
Ma’am
Considering Makeda’s love of evidence, it’s ironic that we have little
proof of her own existence. While
historians have previously claimed
that South Arabian and Ethiopian
civilizations couldn’t have produced a
queen of such magnificence in the
10th century, new archeological evidence suggests otherwise:
• A treasure-trove: In 2012, a team
headed by archeologist Louise
Schofield discovered a shaft into a
3,000 year-old gold mine in
Northern Ethiopia, The Guardian
reports. Nearby inscriptions in
Sabaean, ruins of a temple to a
lunar deity, and ancient human
remains all point to the mine’s
Sabaean origins, Schofield argues.
• A buried palace: In 2008, archeologists uncovered what they
believed to be the remains of
Makeda’s palace at Axum in Northern Ethiopia, where Ethiopian
tradition claims Menyelek housed
the ark of the covenant.
• An ancient temple: In Islamic
tradition, Makeda, or “Bilqis,” ruled
her kingdom from Marib in
modern-day Yemen, where
archeologists unearthed remains
of the Temple of Bilqis that date
from the 10th century BC.
• A copper foundry: Twenty-five
miles south of Marib, archeologists
in the 1980s unearthed a copper
foundry in the Wadi al-Jubah
valley. If the foundry dates to the
13th century, as Dr. James A.
Sauer told the New York Times, it
represents another possible
source of Makeda’s great wealth.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Fun Fact
Located within Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has a chapel dedicated to the Ethiopian Christian tradition. Inside, this magnificent painting depicts Makeda’s arrival in
Jerusalem, flanked by gift-bearing servants and sword-bearing soldiers.
It took Makeda and her 799 camels
a total of 9 months and 5 days to
complete the journey from Saba’ to
Israel, according to the Kebra Nagast.
WOMEN IN THE BIBLE | 4 5