Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-02-11
THE
QUEEN
OF SHEBA.
Legend Of a Wandering
Royal Scholar.
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| The Biblical story or the queen
of Sheba, thanks to its romantic
character, has had a noteworthy ca
reer. 1t was embellished by post
Biblical Jewish writer's with vast
amount of fanciful detail From Jews
in North Arabia it passed to the Arabs
and is used by Mohammed in the Ko-
ran; in South Arabia likewise Arabs
received it from Jews and carried it
acros the Red Sea to Abyssinia, and
learned historiographers traced the
lineage of the royal family of Abys-
sinia TO the famous Queen. She be-
came and is still name for all that
is magnificent and intelligently curl
GUS.
According to the narrative q Kings
x, II Chronicles ix), the Queen hav-
ling heard of. Solomon's wisdom
comes to Jerusalem in great state,
with spices, gold and precious stones,
to test him; she plies him with hard
questions concerning everything that
interests her and receives satisfactory
answers-there was no problem that
Solomon was not able to solve. Fur
Their he shows her his palace and
his household arrangements, includ
ing the fine bearing and splendid
dress of his attendants, with the re-
suit that she is lost in admiration
of his riches and wisdom. Happy"
she eXclaims, ARE those who serve
you and hear your wisdom, and bless
ed be your God who has bestowed on
you such excellence and happiness"
Then after the usual exchange of
presents she goes back to her own
land and we hear no more of her
in the Old Testament.
The story cannot be taken as his
torical. The "Sheba'' meant, as is
evident from the presents brought
by the Queen. is the famous region
in Southwest Arabia later known as
Yemen, 1.-THE South" the Arabic
name (yaman) by confusion with a
similar word (yamin) was understood
to mean fortunate" and the conse-
quent Roman designation, Arabia Fe
lix, has become part of our geog-
raphical nomenclature Though the
early history of this region is not
known to us it is not improbable that
is Saba existed as early as the
times of Solomon (middle of the tenth
century B. CO. But it is not prob
able that the Israelites were acquaSnt-
ed with the Sabean land in Solomon's
time. The other mentions of Sheba
in the Old Testament all belong in
the period after the capture of Jeru-
salem by the Chaldeans 1886 B. CO,
when the Jews came into possession
Of Babylonian geographical learning.
The story in Kings is a part of the
idealizing legendary matter that gath
cred about Solomon's name.
Doubtless he had a reputation in
his day for some sort of wisdom, as
David in his day was esteemed as a
poet; but David became in the ira
dition the ideal religious poet and
Solomon the ideal sage. He is said
to have composed 5000 proverbs and
1000 songs, and to have spoken of
all plants and animals-of which lit
erary activity no trace has come to
U.S. The exuberance of the legend
appears in the statement Il Kings
iv, 81, in the English version) that
visitors from all peoples and all
kings of the earth came to him to
hear his wisdom-a form of state
ment that betrays the late date when
the Jews came into contact with
great number of Nations The visit
of the Queen of Sheba is a particular
illustration of the general statement;
Sheba is chosen as far-off and ia
nous land. She is herself a sage
or a student troubled by difficulties,
and she seeks a great man to solve
her problem, just as long afterward
wandering scholars in the absence of
books sought learned men every
where as teachers; but this refec-
tive attitude is not in accord with
what we may surmise to have been
the state of culture in Sheba and in
Israel in the tenth century B. c.
The story is not the less interest
ing for being legendary If, as seems
probable. it arose in the sixth or
fifth century B. c., when Sheba be-
came prominent in the Old Tesla
ment, we may infer that Solomon
was thought of at that time mainly
as a splendid and practically wise
king and had not attained the repu-
tation assigned him by the authors
and editors of Proverbs, the Song
of Songs and Ecclesiasties. 1t is
noteworthy also that the custom of
asking "hard questions existed at
that time Unfortunately the story
does not tell what these questions
were and this lack of fancy later
writers undertook to supply. Among
the literary productions of post-Bib-
lical Jews are certain paraphrases
of Biblical books (Targums) and com
mentaries (Midrash) Astounding in an
ecdotes, queer eonceits and all sorts
of gossip Much of this material may
have been the product of familiar
talks by teachers TO their pupils,
which sometimes ran into story tell
ing not unlike that of the Moslem
rawis, TO which We owe a good deal
of the matter of the Thousand and
One Nights" These books have pre-
served a great mass of popular Jew
lish beliefs and fancies, parallel TO
certain Christian writer's, and such
beliefs come under the head OF folk
lore, according 10 the wider defini-
ton sometimes given that term.
The book of Esther. though It
makes no reference TO religion. was
a fayorite among the Jews because il
describes a great national triumph
(Which is. however, not historically
Three late paraphrases OF the book
have come down 70 us. the second OF
which gives another list OF riddles.
together with an account of how the
Queen came 10 visIt Solomon. After
an extraordinary confused history OF
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