How to cite this article: David N. Bivin, “The Queen of Teman,” Jerusalem Perspective 7 (1988): 4 [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/2146/].
Rather listen instead? Click the link below for an audio version of this essay.[*] |
Revised: 15 August 2016
According to the Greek texts of Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31, Jesus used the expression “queen of south.” This is clearly a reference to מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא (malkat shevā’, “the Queen of Sheba”), who paid a visit to King Solomon (1 Kgs. 10:1-13).
The queen of “south” will stand up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31)
Jesus’ substitute, “queen of south,” raises several questions. First, why didn’t Jesus use “Queen of Sheba,” which is found in the Bible, and second, why is there no definite article before “south” (i. e., queen of the south)? More importantly, how can “south” be an equivalent for “Sheba”?
Synonyms for South
Biblical Hebrew has three synonyms for south: תֵּימָן (tēmān), נֶגֶב (negev) and דָּרוֹם (dārōm).
Negev, the dry region in the southern part of the land of Israel, always appears with the article ha (the) in Hebrew, that is, הַנֶּגֶב (hanegev, “the Negev”). One would not expect it to be behind the article-less south in Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31 in the Greek expression βασίλισσα νότου (basilissa notou, “queen of south”). The Hebrew word dārōm never appears in the Bible as a place name.
However, tēmān, besides functioning as one of the words for south, is the name of a city or district in Edom (cf. Amos 1:12, and Gen. 36:34, which mentions a king of Edom who was from the land of the Temanites).
Jesus probably was not referring to the biblical Teman located in Edom, but rather to the classic “south land” of his day. This was the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula.
Eastern Orientation
Admittedly, if this is how Jesus used tēmān, it would be the earliest instance of the name Teman for southwest Arabia. However, a similar linguistic development later occurred in Arabic, and today this corner of the Arabian peninsula is called Yemen, from the same Semitic root, ימן (y-m-n), as Teman. Teman is derived from יָמִין (yāmin, “right”), the right side of a man who is facing east.
The reason south is related to right in Hebrew is because the Israelite’s orientation was facing the direction of the rising sun. Therefore, the east was before him, the Mediterranean Sea behind him and the south to his right.
Consequently, the Hebrew synonyms for “east” are related etymologically to the words for “before” or “rising of the sun,” the synonyms for “west” are related to “sea” or “evening,” one of the synonyms for “north” is the word “left,” and one of the synonyms for “south” is from the same root as “right.”
Kingdom of Sheba
In the first century, the ancient kingdom of Sheba no longer existed and there was some speculation about its identification. Jesus identified Sheba with Teman, and his identification appears accurate since Sheba seems to have been located in that same corner of the Arabian peninsula.
Queen of Sheba before Solomon by Nicolaus Knupfer. Holland, 1640s.
Why didn’t Jesus simply refer to this famous queen as she is referred to in the Bible: the queen of Sheba? Probably because, like a typical first-century Jewish sage, Jesus continually interpreted and clarified Scripture. Because the location of the ancient kingdom of Sheba was no longer known, Jesus identified it for his audience. When he mentioned the queen of Sheba, he automatically replaced Sheba with Teman.
The Construct State
The Greek version of Jesus’ statement contains no article before the word βασίλισσα (basilissa, “queen”). In Greek the article normally would not be dropped before the first word in a possessive phrase such as this. However, it often is absent in that location in works such as the Septuagint, which are translations from Hebrew. That the Greek version of this statement is a translation of a Hebrew original may be the best explanation for the absence of the article before “queen.”
There also is no article before νότου (notou, “of south”). In Hebrew it is normal to express possession by linking two nouns in what is called the construct state. The first word, the object that is possessed, is tied to the second word, the possessor, without the connecting word “of.”
If the second word is definite, the article is added to indicate that it is definite. If the second word is a proper name, no article is needed since proper names are by definition definite. Just as in English, one does not say “Queen of the Sheba,” but “Queen of Sheba.”
Thus, the most likely explanation for the missing definite articles is that behind the phrase “queen of south” is a two-noun Hebrew expression of possession, the second of the nouns being a proper name.
Only in Hebrew
In his article, “Hebrew as the Spoken and Written Language in the Last Days of the Second Temple” (Journal of Biblical Literature 79 [1960]: 32-47), Jerusalem scholar Jehoshua M. Grintz noted that “neither in Greek nor in Aramaic could the term for ‘south’ be used as an equivalent of Sheba. It is only in Hebrew that the archaic biblical name for south, ארץ-תימן [(’eretz-) tēmān, “(land-) Teman”], acquired in time this specific meaning…. In Jewish Aramaic…this word does not exist at all.”
For those who assume a Semitic (Aramaic or Hebrew) source for the story of Jesus, this example argues for Hebrew. The Greek translator apparently rendered a Hebrew word for south, תֵּימָן (tēmān), literally, rather than treating it more dynamically as a proper name: “Teman.”
My thanks to Aramaic specialist Charles Meehan for his help in preparing this article.
| [*] Music in the Audio JP files is excerpted from the Hebrew song Moshe written by Immanuel Zamir in a recording sung by Yaffa Yarkoni obtained from Wikimedia Commons. |
