Race, Racism, and the Hebrew Bible
The Case of the Queen of Sheba
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3560163 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jillian Stinchcomb (Brandeis University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 795 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel12100795 |
| OpenAlex | W3199985467 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 17 |
The Queen of Sheba, best known for visiting Solomon at the height of his rule, is commonly understood to be one of the most famous Black queens of the Bible. However, biblical texts record nothing of her family or people, any physical characteristics, nor where, precisely, Sheba is located. How did this association between the Queen of Sheba and Blackness become naturalized? This article answers this question by mapping three first millennium textual moments that racialize the Queen of Sheba through attention to geography, skin color, and lineage in the writings of Origen of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, and Abu Ja'afar al-Tabari. These themes are transformed in the Ethiopic text the Kebra Nagast, which positively claims the Queen of Sheba as an African monarch in contrast to the Othering that is prominent in earlier texts. The Kebra Nagast has a complex afterlife, one which acts as the ground for the also-complex modern reception of the character of the Queen of Sheba
Afterlife · Art · Genealogy · Josephus · Judaism · Literature · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History
Mythologies of evil and the glory of Ethiopia in the Kǝbrä nägäśt
Travel and Hospitality in Josephus’ Representation of the Essene Community (Judean War 2.124–127) and Its Literary and Cultural Contexts
Visual representations of dromedaries in Greco‐Roman antiquity and the middle ages
Chinos before the yellow race
On the Shimmer of the Black Madonna
Exploring the Interplay between Biblical Culture and African Traditional Customs
Al-Ṭabarī and the Dynamics of tafsīr
Insights from African American Interpretation
The Global Consequences of Mistranslation
Discourse and Historical Analysis
The Inquisitor and the Moseret
The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia
The Origenist Controversy
The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages
Du Kebra Nagast
Coloring the Past, Considerations on Our Future
Ancient Egyptians in Black and White
Not black, but Habasha
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |