Sheba
Kingdom mentioned only in reference to the loves of King Solomon with his queen[1]
Description
The kingdom of Sheba is mentioned in the work only indirectly, through allusions to its legendary queen. At Beautiful Water, where Jesus withdrew with his Apostles, the curious spread what is known about him: "The star came later. It came with the Magi from the East. One of them was related to Solomon and, consequently, to the Messiah, because He is of the line of David and David was the father of Solomon. Solomon fell in love with the Queen of Sheba because she was beautiful and because of the gifts she brought him. She bore a son who is of Judea, while being from beyond the Nile."[2] This visit of the queen to Solomon is recorded in the Bible[3] but their relationship is not explicit. It is recounted in a 14th-century Ethiopian document: the Kebra Nagast. The oral traditions it gathers may therefore indeed be ancient, According to Maria Valtorta.
Jesus mentions the Queen of Sheba before the scribes and Pharisees who came to ask him for a sign[4]. "The Queen of the South will rise up at the Day of Judgment Against the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came at her time from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, whereas this generation which has me in its midst does not want to hear me and persecutes me and drives me out like a leper and a sinner, I who am much greater than Solomon"[5].
Elsewhere, Aurea Galla, a young slave freed by Claudia Procula, sheds light on some practices of the slave trade. "… they deceived them by saying that they were born in Arabia or in Upper Nile. They sold one as a descendant of the Queen of Sheba. ‘Nothing less! But it was not they who were deceived, but the buyers. This is called fraud. What a lineage! A nice surprise for the buyer, when he will have seen the complexion of the false Ethiopian lighten'!"[6] According to Maria Valtorta, this is therefore a kingdom of the Upper Nile and Ethiopia at the time.
Its name
Saba, Sheba. In Hebrew, it is written "שְׁבָא" (Sheva or Sheba). The exact etymology of this name is not clearly established.
Where is it mentioned in the work?
EMV 119 EMV 435
Learn more about this place
Historians hesitate to locate this kingdom in southern Arabia; in Yemen; in northern Ethiopia or in present-day Eritrea. In any case, the memory of the kingdom of Sheba and its queen Makeda is still alive in Ethiopia. Salton the Kebra Nagast, already cited, she stayed by the king’s side for six months before deciding to return to her kingdom. There she gave birth to a son, Menelik, born from her union with Solomon around 950 BCE. He later went to Jerusalem to be recognized by his father, after which the Ethiopian dynasty he founded took the name Solomonide.
Explore
- 15° 45’ 40’’ N / 38° 47’ 44’’ E /
- +0m/1000m
Notes and references
Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.
- ↑ Article partially written from the Geographical Dictionary of the Gospel, J.-F. LAVÈRE.
- ↑ EMV 119.1.
- ↑ 1 Kings 10:1-13 | 2 Chronicles 9:1-12.
- ↑ Matthew 12:42 | Luke 11:31.
- ↑ EMV 344.6. See also EMV 269.10 where the Queen of Sheba is also called "Queen of the South".
- ↑ EMV 435.3.