Annotatio CXXXIII

”The Queen of Sheba, having heard the fame of Solomon, came,” etc. — 3 Kings [1 Kings] 10:1

Josephus, in the eighth volume of the Antiquities, illustrating this passage paraphrastically,¹ says that the Queen of Sheba had her kingdom in Ethiopia, and thence came to Solomon. Which thing Augustine, Bishop of Kissamos, noting, left this written in the Annotations on Genesis: “There are two regions which by the same name are called Saba, by us and by the Greeks; among the Hebrews, however, there is a notable distinction: the one is in Ethiopia, the other in Arabia. That which is [in] Ethiopia is written among the Hebrews with the thin s — that is, סְבָא Seba; but that which is in Arabia, with the thick s — thus שְׁבָא Sceba.” Which is also noted by Jerome in the Hebrew Questions. The Queen of Sheba, therefore, was not an Ethiopian, but an Arabian Sheba queen. But Josephus is deceived (in my judgment), who writes that the Queen of Sheba [came] from that [Saba] which is written in the books of Kings — [holding] that it was not that which is in Arabia, but that which is in Ethiopia, since at that time she ruled Egypt and Ethiopia. But from all the passages it is certainly gathered that she was a queen of Arabia. And therefore, by Isaiah, in that same passage where he said, “All shall come from Saba,”² is placed, “Every flock of Cedar shall be gathered to thee, the rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee”; and all among the Hebrews know Cedar to be a part of Arabia. The Nabaioth, too, are peoples of Arabia, who by the Greeks and Latins — the name a little loosened — are called Nabataeans. So also David sings: “The kings of the Arabians and of Saba,”³ etc.; and there the neighboring regions are placed together. In Arabia, moreover, aromatics are reported to be, which she brought to the king. Furthermore, when we shall have said that “Seba” with the thick s signifies that which is in Arabia, it is plain that this woman was a queen of that [region]; because in the third [book] of Kings it is written וּמַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, ve-malchath Sceba — that is, “And the queen of Saba” — which name is written with the thick s. Wherefore we cannot approve the opinion of Josephus; nor let it move us that in the Gospel she is called “the queen of the South,”⁴ for the Sabaeans, in respect to Judea, are placed toward the South, and that region is sometimes named “the Southern.” These things have therefore been noted, because very many among us and among the Greeks have been deceived by the amphibology of these names. But in the same verse both Sabas are, in this place, commemorated.