Perception and the Queen of Sheba

Perception is a funny thing. We often assume things are a certain way based on memory, opinions or how we virtually see things. Often, as we get older, memories or information tucked safely away in our heads change and it’s normally based on how our perception evolves.

Recently this happened when I had an argument with someone about who the Queen of Sheba was. My friend has the perception that the Queen of Sheba was the first feminist and was able to get Solomon to do what ever she wanted based on her beauty. I argued with her to almost a bloody death. I finally had to prove her perception was clouded by showing her factual information. From this argument I decided to test out a little theory I have. That we are more likely to remember information that is passed on to us through word of mouth, rather than what we read in history books. To complete this test, I asked a bunch of my friends to tell me from memory what they know about the Queen of Sheba and this is what they said.

#1
It's a bible story. Queen of Sheba had little or no interest in King Solomon and only travelled to his land to meet him and take a look at his kingdom. She took with her a vast quantity of gold and spices as gifts and after talking with him discovered him to be wise. He was of course, King Solomon. She placed a blessing upon him and he in return granted her her heart's desire. I have no idea what it was, because I am not a bible person and I only remember her because of the stress that was placed on their relationship as being non-sexual. Which I thought was funny because of what happened to Cleopatra and Caeser.

#2
It has a sound of something heard in childhood. "Who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheba?"
said sneeringly. Because this goes back to grades 1-4, and I was in Hebrew day school at the time,
I wonder if it's part of the Old Testament, something to do with old stories long forgotten?

Frightening to think that I don't know, but I've never been good a myths or the bible or the Torah, particularly. Was she from Egypt? Israel?

All I can remember is the phrase used as a childhood taunt.

#3
she was a ruler of her land.  short, simple and sweet....think she was gorgeous?  like cleopatra?

#4
all i know about her off the top of my head is that she was Hebrew and she ruled the kingdom of sheba, but some say it is just another story that has an astrological background and meaning

#5
good lord, this reminds me of the tests i took in elementary school.
ok, let's see what i remember.

i think she was very much into jewels and wealth, but she was also a very intelligent young woman and was intrigued by king solomon's wisdom so she set out on a long journey to meet with him.

this is where it gets fuzzy.

i'm not sure if they slept together, but i'm pretty sure they didn't marry and she went back home after the visit. i have no idea for how long she visited, but i think she was feeding him riddles to see how he'd answer them and she was impressed with his answers.

mmm, that's all i remember.

~~

Who she really was? Well that is the best part of it all. No one really knows for sure. There are hundreds of perceptions, even before Hollywood put certain ideas in our pretty little heads. However, wikipedia has taken several sources to give us a high level look at who this woman was. Most of what we know about her is in the bible and depending on how you feel about that book you can take it as factual or fiction. Here are some excerpts of what they had to say.

The Queen of Sheba referred to in Habeshan history, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an was the woman who ruled the ancient kingdom of Sheba. The location of the historical kingdom may have included parts or all of modern day Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the unnamed queen of the land of Sheba heard of the great wisdom of King Solomon of Israel and journeyed there with gifts of spices, gold, precious stones, and beautiful wood and to test him with questions, as recorded in First Kings 10:1-13 (largely copied in 2 Chronicles 9:1–12).

It is related further that the queen was awed by Solomon's great wisdom and wealth, and pronounced a blessing on Solomon's deity. Solomon reciprocated with gifts and "everything she desired," whereupon the queen returned to her country. The queen was apparently quite rich, however, as she brought 4.5 tons of gold with her to give to Solomon (1 Kings 10:10).

The Queen of Sheba is mentioned as the "Queen of the South" in the Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31 in the New Testament, where Jesus indicates that she and the Ninevites will judge the generation of Jesus' contemporaries who rejected him.

Christian interpretations of the scriptures mentioning the Queen of Sheba in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, typically have emphasized both the historical and metaphorical values in the story. The account of the Queen of Sheba thereby is interpreted as Christian metaphor and analogy: the Queen's visit to Solomon has been compared to the metaphorical marriage of the Church to Christ where Solomon is the anointed one or messiah and Sheba represents a Gentile population submitting to the messiah; the Queen of Sheba's chastity also has been depicted as a foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary; and the three gifts that she brought (gold, spices, and stones) have been seen as analogous to the gifts of the Magi (gold, frankincense, and myrrh). The latter is emphasized as consistent with a passage from Isaiah 60:6; And they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring forth gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.[15] This last connection is interpreted as relating to the Maji, the learned astronomers of Sheba who saw a new star and set off on a journey to find a new ruler connected to the new star, that led them to Bethlehem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba
http://website.lineone.net/~susandurber/Sheba.html