The participants were asked, “Which of these statements comes closest to describing your feelings about the Bible” and they could pick from one of three choices which were, “The bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word (1), The bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally (2), word for word and The bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by men (3).” Feelings about the Bible is an ordinal variable because there is a ranking order, but the distance between each is not known....
Joshua represented Salvation (as does Jesus) and led the people into the Promised Land (The Kingdom) • The stories and parables of the four Gospels A parable is a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, r...
But the most popular translation of the Hebrew word 'Sheba' is the Arabic 'Saba' - referring to a great kingdom, the Sabaean kingdom, in what is today Yemen. And, though historic proof is lacking for the Queen of Sheba herself, there is plenty of textual evidence to support this great kingdom of Saba. In Assyrian texts, kings by the name of 'Itamru' and 'Karib-ilu', have been associated with kings of Saba named 'Yitha'amars' and 'Karibil', in Yemeni texts
When contemplating this picture it is useful to bear in mind that the second half of the nineteenth century was a period remarkable for archaeological researches and discoveries, especially by English expeditions. The British Museum was a treasure house of antiquities increasingly valued by artists as a reference library. Egypt and the Middle East replaced Greece and Italy as the focus of curiosity. 'The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon' can be contextualised against a craze for orientalist narratives in literature, music and visual art. The wildly composite architectural system of Solomon's temple is reprised in the frame, which bridges the temporal and spatial distance between viewer and subject. The artist has been so obsessed with the accuracy of his details, however, that the figures seem somewhat doll-like. Trained in Paris under Gleyre, Poynter was at heart a Salonist for whom artistry resided in weight of detail rather than dramatic synthesis.AGNSW Handbook, 1999.
When contemplating this picture it is useful to bear in mind that the second half of the nineteenth century was a period remarkable for archaeological researches and discoveries, especially by English expeditions. The British Museum was a treasure house of antiquities increasingly valued by artists as a reference library. Egypt and the Middle East replaced Greece and Italy as the focus of curiosity. 'The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon' can be contextualised against a craze for orientalist narratives in literature, music and visual art. The wildly composite architectural system of Solomon's temple is reprised in the frame, which bridges the temporal and spatial distance between viewer and subject. The artist has been so obsessed with the accuracy of his details, however, that the figures seem somewhat doll-like. Trained in Paris under Gleyre, Poynter was at heart a Salonist for whom artistry resided in weight of detail rather than dramatic synthesis.
Even more interesting are the current excavations of an ancient temple in the old market town of Marib - in the lands thought to have once been part of the ancient kingdom of Saba. The temple is known as the Mahram Bilqis or Temple of Bilqis - and Bilqis is the name given to the Queen of Saba in the later stories in the Islamic tradition. In the Koran, written earlier, the Queen of Saba is nameless. Her story there shares some of the familiar lines of the Bible version, but adds a few of its own.
And, though historic proof is lacking for the Queen of Sheba herself, there is plenty of textual evidence to support this great kingdom of Saba.
God, we are told, had enabled Solomon to converse with birds and one day noticed that the Lapwing was missing. When the bird returned, she explained that she had been travelling in a foreign land, known as Saba, which was ruled over by a queen who was immensely rich and sat on a throne of gold and silver. Solomon then invited the queen to visit him.
There are in fact several people called Sheba in the Bible, one is a descendant of Noah's son Shem, and another of his son Ham. But it is also referred to as a place. The Book of Ezekiel (27 v.22-24) tells us that the merchants trading with Tyre came from Sheba and Raamah, and brought with them spices, precious stones and gold - the exact same goods that the Queen of Sheba brought with her when she came to visit Solomon in Jerusalem.
Both Jewish and African traditions include stories about the Queen of Sheba. The ruler of a wealthy nation in southern , the queen had heard tales about the great wisdom of Solomon, king of the . Curious, she decided to go to to meet him.
According to the book of Kings in the , the queen arrived in Jerusalem and asked King Solomon a series of difficult questions. He responded wisely to each one. The queen presented Solomon with many gifts and returned to her home.
As these varied accounts show, the Queen of Sheba has fascinated and inspired numerous cultures for nearly 3000 years. The lack of any verifiable details of her life does not seem to inspire doubt about her existence. As Nicholas Clapp commented in "Her encounter with King Solomon must have happened … because as biblical tales go, it was so dull. She shows up; she's awed; she's crestfallen; she leaves. Nobody is led in or out of temptation, is distraught or gets killed; there is no evident moral message. The story had the earmarks of a day-in, day-out formal court record … [this is] reinforced by passages immediately preceding and following the Sheba story, passages that dwell on Solomon's prowess in foreign affairs." Instead of being ignored due to its brevity, the bare narrative given in the Old Testament has served as ample fodder for fanciful stories and modern scholarly and popular speculation about the relationship between the wealthy, intelligent queen and the religious, wise King Solomon. Centuries after her death, the Queen of Sheba still rules over the imaginations of people both within and far beyond the boundaries of her ancient kingdom.
In an African version of the story, the Queen of Sheba is an Ethiopian ruler named Makeda. She traveled to Jerusalem to visit Solomon. She was so impressed by his wisdom that she gave up her religion and adopted . After six months, Makeda told Solomon she wanted to return home. The king gave her a ring to remember him. He also told her that if she became pregnant and had a male child, her child would become king of .