Her
Majesty’s name is Queen Makeda (Queen of Sheba) who visited King
Solomon in his palace in Jerusalem to test the king’s wisdom. She
arrived with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of
camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious
jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about
everything she had on her mind.
Solomon
had answers to all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king
to explain to her.
When
the queen of Sheba realized how very wise Solomon was, and when she
saw the palace he had built,
she
was overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the
organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the
cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of
the Lord.
She
gave the king a gift of 9,000 pounds of gold, great quantities of
spices, and precious jewels. Never again were so many spices brought
in as those Queen Makeda gave to King Solomon. In return, King
Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for – gifts of
greater value than the gifts she had given him, including himself.
Then she and all her attendants returned to their land.
The
most extensive version of the Queen of Sheba appears in the Kebra
Nagast (Glory of the Kings), the Ethiopian national story of
achievements. Menelik I is the child of Solomon and Makeda;
she is the child of the man who destroys the legendary snake-king
Arwe from whom the Ethiopian dynasty descent to the present day. The
Abyssinian story offers much greater detail, including her wisdom and
dark and dazzling beauty which made her more appealing to King
Solomon who was just as dark and beaming.
Based
on the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 12:42) and Luke (Luke
11:31),
the "queen of the South" is the queen of Ethiopia.
In
those times, King Solomon sought merchants from all over the world,
in order to buy materials for the building of the Temple. Among them
was Tamrin, a great merchant of Queen Makeda of Ethiopia. Having
returned to Ethiopia, Tamrin told the queen of the wonderful things
he had seen in Jerusalem, and of Solomon's wisdom and generosity,
whereupon she decided to visit Solomon. She was warmly welcomed,
given a palace for dwelling, and received great gifts every day.
Solomon and Makeda spoke with great wisdom and as instructed by him,
she converted to Judaism. Before she left, there was a great feast in
the king's palace.
Makeda
stayed in the palace overnight, after Solomon had sworn that he would
not do her any harm, while she swore in return that she would not
steal from him. As the meals had been spicy, Makeda awoke thirsty at
night and went to drink some water, when Solomon appeared, reminding
her of her oath. She answered: "Ignore your oath, just let me
drink water." That same night, Solomon had a dream about the sun
rising over Israel, but being mistreated and despised by the Jews,
the sun moved to shine over Ethiopia. Solomon gave Makeda a ring as a
token of faith, and then she left. On her way home, she gave birth to
a son, whom she named Baina-leḥkem (i.e. bin al-ḥakīm, "Son
of the Wise Man", later called Menilek).
After
the boy had grown up in Ethiopia, he went to Jerusalem carrying the
ring and was received with great honours. The king and the people
tried in vain to persuade him to stay. Solomon gathered his nobles
and announced that he would send his first-born son to Ethiopia
together with their first-born sons. Then Baina-leḥkem was anointed
king by Zadok the high priest, and he took the name David. The
first-born nobles who followed him are named, and even today some
Ethiopian families claim their ancestry from them.
Prior
to leaving, the priests' sons had stolen the Ark of the Covenant,
after their leader Azaryas had offered a sacrifice as commanded by
one God's angel. With much wailing, the procession left Jerusalem on
a wind cart led and carried by the archangel Michael. Having arrived
at the Red Sea, Azaryas revealed to the people that the Ark is with
them. David prayed to the Ark and the people rejoiced, singing,
dancing, blowing horns and flutes, and beating drums. The Ark showed
its miraculous powers during the crossing of the stormy Sea, and all
arrived unscathed. When Solomon learned that the Ark had been stolen,
he sent a horseman after the thieves and even gave chase himself, but
neither could catch them. Solomon returned to Jerusalem and gave
orders to the priests to remain silent about the theft and to place a
copy of the Ark in the Temple so that the foreign nations could not
say that Israel had lost its fame.
Queen
Makeda was part of the dynasty founded by Za Besi Angabo in 1370 BC.
The family's intended choice to rule Aksum was Makeda's brother,
Prince Nourad, but his early death led to her succession to the
throne. She apparently ruled the Ethiopian kingdom for more than 50
years. The 1922 regnal list of Ethiopia claims that Makeda reigned
from 1013 to 982 BC, with dates following the 13 months Ethiopian
calendar.
In
the Ethiopian Book of Aksum, Makeda is described as establishing a
new capital city at Azeba. Historians believe that the Solomonic
Dynasty actually began in 1270 with the emperor Yekuno Amlak, who,
with the support of the Ethiopian Church, overthrew the Zagwe
dynasty, which had ruled Ethiopia since sometime during the 10th
century. The link to King Solomon provided a strong foundation for
Ethiopian national unity. "Ethiopians see their country as God's
chosen country, the final resting place that he chose for the Ark –
and Sheba and her son were the means by which it came there".
Despite the fact that the dynasty officially ended in 1769 with
Emperor Iyoas, Ethiopian rulers continued to trace their connection
to it, right up to the last 20th-century emperor, Haile Selassie.
According
to one tradition, the Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel, "Falashas")
also trace their ancestry to Menelik I, son of King Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba. An opinion that appears more historical is that the
Falashas descend from those Jews who settled in Egypt after the first
exile, the Assyrian exile of the 10 tribes of Israel, and who, upon
the fall of the Persian domination (539–333 BC), on the borders of
the Nile, penetrated into Sudan, whence they went into the western
parts of Abyssinia that are now known as the West Coast Africa. And
the Babylonian exile, the second exile, is where Nebuchadnezzar took
ten thousand elite members of the dynasty of the tribe of Judah and
some of the best warriors and craftsmen, and the rest of the tribe of
Judah and Benjamin were forced to run their lives into Egypt, (After
Ishmael son of Nethaniah, of the royal family, killed Gedaliah – 2
Kings 25:22-26) where they were not welcomed and proceeded on to the
West Coast Africa.
Manelik
I
Menelik
I was the first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a
14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC, he is said to
have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because
Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel
and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.
According
to the medieval Ethiopian book, Kebra Nagast, written in 1321 CE,
Manelik I,(“Son
of the Wise") was
conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the
Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a
Jew in her homeland and he only travelled to Jerusalem to meet his
father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his
father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him
that he wanted to return home. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites
with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; which
were aggrieved at being exiled forever. One recount is that King
Solomon gave his Ark of the Covenant to his son as a gift, while
another states Solomon attempted to regain the Ark but was unable to
due to its supernatural properties aiding Menelik. Upon the death of
his mother, or upon her abdication in his favour, Menelik was crowned
King of Ethiopia. According to one Ethiopian tradition, Menelik was
born at Mai-Bela near the village of Addi-Shmagle located northwest
of Asmara, in Eritrea.
Author:
Bidkar Vicoh
Sources:
Wikipedia, New Living Translation Bible
Images:
by Pinterest, Glam Africa
