Amazons and the Tribe of Dan

Since it's Wonder Woman month, I figure it's time I explore this idea I've been wanting to explore for awhile.  (The embryo of this theory has been in my mind since before Gal Gadot was cast, so it's not just inspired by an Israeli actress playing Wonder Woman.)

At least one prior writer has looked into the possibly of a Lost Tribes connection for the Amazons,  John R. Salverda.  Salverda's many theories on Greek Mythology are something I want to do a separate post on in the future.  For now I just want to comment that while I find his research useful much of it I feel is way off base.  I do not identify Myrina with Mariam.  Also Salverda is very anti-Feminist, talking about how "Hebrew Women saved the ancient world from Amazonian Feminism", I however feel part of the intent of the New Testament is to save the world from Patriarchy.  And that the Prophetess Office held by Mariam is the same one later held by Deborah, and other Prophetesses of the Hebrew Bible all the way down to Anna at the Birth of Christ, and now since Pentecost by many Christian women starting with the Daughters of Philip.  Mariam and her group of Women were not sinning, in fact I feel they are vital to understanding the importance of the word Almah.

The Geography of the Amazons is a complicated matter.  In Homer they were in Lycia or west of Lycia when encountered by Bellerphon.  The stories of their encounters with Herakles and Theseus focus on the Thermodon river south of the Black Sea near Pontus.  Herodotus says they later migrated north of the Black Sea and intermarried with Scythians.  The legends surrounding queens Marpesia, Lysippe, Lampedo, Hippo and Otheria connect them to the founding of cities like Ephesus and Smyrna and to eastern Aegean islands like Lemnos, Lesbos and Samothrace. Hypsipyle encountered by Jason and the Argonaughts on Lemnos I think was another Amazon queen and the usual origin story for her women was a made up myth.

Allied with the Amazons mentioned in the Iliad were the Solymi.  Josephus in Against Apion argues the Solymi mentioned by Herodotus as being in Xerxes army were Jews.   William Whiston in his footnotes for his translation agrees with that by contrasting them with other Solymi he feels were pagan gentiles.  But if those Solymi were Danites rather then Judeans then they were similar yet different, and had fallen into Idolatry.

East of Lycia takes us to Cilicia and Adana, definitely early Denyen colonies.  And winding up north of the Black Sea takes them to the Danube.  So Geographically there is good reason to see the Amazons as a Danite offshoot.  And lots of notable Danites of the Bible seem to be Danites mater-lineally, like Huram or the incident in Leviticus 24.  But perhaps the real key to this mystery is looking into who the Goddess of the Amazons was.

Greek sources on their Goddess(es) are confusing.  It's often said to be Artemis but some researches say that was a late development of the classical writers.  Their Queens are often called Daughters of Ares yet that was a male deity.

The Caananite/West Semitic deity who served the function of Ares, as god of War, was a female, the goddess Anath.  This caused attempts of the Greeks to identify her with one of their Goddesses to be similarly complicated.  Her status as a Virgin goddess invited comparisons with both Athena and Artemis, but her association with the Bow and Arrow makes Artemis a bit more popular.  In the middle east direct analogues to Anath are easier to find, Tanith/Tanis among the Carthaginians and Libyians, Neith in Egypt (but perhaps also Nephethys/Nebtheth).  And it's also possible to see some of Anath in the Hindu Kali.

The name of Anath, or at least the same Semitic root it comes from, appears in The Hebrew Bible.  Like in the location Anathoth.  But in Judges an Anath is the parent of judge Shamgar.  Not much is said about Shamgar, but the vague similarities to Samson can encourage one to see him as another Danite.  Since I agree with Veilikvosky in dating the Ugarit texts to the Kingdom Period, maybe the origin of Anath was in part a deification of the much earlier mother of Shamgar?  But it's also theorized that "Ben Anath" may just have been a title for great warriors, paralleling theories about why Amazons were called daughters of Ares.

In the Ugarit texts, the most important narrative for Anath after her role in the Baal Cycle is in the legend about Danel and his children.  Danel is a name very likely related to Dan, maybe it could be Dan himself deified by his descendants, combining Dan and El.  Anath kills Danel's son Aghat because she wanted his Bow forged by Kothar-Wa-Khasis (who the Greeks would have identified with Hephaestus, also strongly linked to Lemnos) by sending Yatpan after him.  But it seems Aghat's death was not her intent.  The protagonist of the story then becomes Paghat, the younger sister of Aghat, she sets out to avenge her brother.  The narrative is incomplete, some scholars have theorized Paghat and Anath would be reconciled in the end, with Yatpan as their common enemy.  Maybe the story would have ended with Paghat founding an Amazon tribe?

Myrina and the Libyian Amazons of Diodorus I believe were not Israelites but from Phut.  Diodorus sees no continuity between the Libyan Amazons and later Amazons of Asia Minor even though he says Myrina conquered all those same regions.  However a key distinction with the Libyan Amazons is they worshiped a different kind of Goddess seemingly, a mother Goddess like Cybele.   Also in the context of Myrina's story, I think maybe the Gorgons/Gorgos were an offshoot of the Girgashite tribe of Canaan.

The Artemis of Ephesus is sometimes said to be a mother goddess, sort of Artemis fused with Cybele.  But this is based on the common assumption the images of the Ephesian Artemis are of a woman with countless breasts.  I prefer the theory that that is Bee Hive imagery rather then breasts.  And the Bee Hive imagery can further back up a Danite connection thanks to Samson.

Some texts, including maybe the Iliad itself, imply Dardanus was a consort of Myrina.  So Myrina's Amazons could have intermarried with Danites.  But it's also possible some Danite women later starting their own tribe drew inspiration from the earlier legacy of Myrina.

Because of revised Chronology concerning the Dark Ages of Greece, and my belief that Homer merged together different Trojan wars.  I think Myrina and Dardanus can be re-dated to the 900s BC (the traditional date for Dardanus becoming King is 1475 BC).  Herakles and Bellerphon to the 700s BC, and Perseus to the early 700s or late 800s.  And the final fall of Troy to about 678 or the 660s BC.

For the most part I still date Theseus to the 1200s BC, due to the unbroken chronology of Athenian Kings and Archons.  And that that time period becomes in Revised Chronology the Minoan rather then Mycenean age archeologically fits the story of Theseus and Minos even better.  But perhaps the particular myths about Theseus and Antiope and Hippolytus were about some Athenian from the 800s BC that got applied to Theseus later.  In fact it's unlikely the same Theseus could have married another Minoan princess, Phaedra, after abandoning Ariadne.  Or maybe this story originally involved a prince of a different City-State in Attica.

A lot of modern treatments of Norse Mythology (including Marvel comics and the MCU's Thor franchise) treat the Valkyries as being like the Amazons of Norse Mythology.  But that is not at all what the Valkyreis actually were, they were basically the same thing as the Houris from Islamic belief, beautiful women who serve fallen warriors in paradise.  Instead I think maybe the Vanir were Amazons, what we know about the Vanir is greatly distorted, but it is possible all the wives of the AEsir gods were Vanir.

The myths of the AEsir and Vanir being at war and later intermarrying I think are partly inspired by two Ancient tribes warring then coming together.  The AEsir I think descend from Ashkenaz, who were the Askuza of Assyrian records and once dwelt around Lake Ascanius, thus making them Phyrgians during the Trogan War.  Another group of people in Phyrgia yet also treated as distinct were the Mygdons.  The name Mygdon could come from Megiddo/Megiddon.  Mygdon of Greek mythology's mother had an Amazonina name, Anaxineme, but he's also said to have waged war with the Amazons.

The descendants of Ashkenaz are sometimes said to have been Scythians ( a term the Greeks used of all the tribes north of the Black Sea, so not necessarily all from the same Genesis 10 ancestor).   And Herodotus says the Amazons intermarried with Scythians at some point.

I think a number of women in Greek Mythology not usually labeled Amazons are given away to have been Amazons or of Amazonian ancestry by their names.  Including Adromache wife of Hector.  In the oldest depictions Andromache not Hippolyta was the name of the Amazon Queen defeated by Herakles.

One such name is Clymene, an attested Amazon name in at least one source.  But a name given to some Aquatic Nymphs, including the wife of Deucalian.  But is also the name of a mother of Atalanta, who's not considered an Amazon but is thematically similar given her connection to Artemis and being the only woman among the Argonauts.  And her father was Iasus, a name I think cold be a more archaic Greek form of Yehoshua/Yeshua, which in Koin Greek becomes Iesous.

Myrtilus's mother is said variantly both to be an Amazon and a Daughter of Danaus.

The folk Etymology of Amazon meaning "one Breast" and that they had to cut one off to use a Bow and Arrow properly has long annoyed me.  It super annoyed me when I was reading the first House of Night book and a teacher is talking specifically about many claims the Greeks made about Amazons being wrong, but then states the "one Breast" story as fact.  All artistic depictions of Amazons show them with both Breasts.

But what caught my attention lately, as I've been watching an endless amount of Anime, is it seems in Japanese School Archery Clubs, the females wear costumes that kinda resemble Miko costumes but with different coloring.  But also have a sort of protective covering over the breasts, which could maybe make it look kinda like they have one larger breast rather then two.  Perhaps it hurts my Otaku cred that I don't know what this thing is properly called.  This is interesting since I support some theories about Lost Tribes coming to Japan.

On the subject of anthropologically speculating on what a hypothetical Matriarchal society might be like.  One area where I feel it would be flawed to assume it'd be the exact gender flip of most patriarchal societies is in how it practiced Polygamy.  In the Pre-Christian world the only societies that frowned on Polygamy were Greece and later Rome who borrowed from Greece.  It may be the the devotion to Monogamy in the Christian world is largely another Greco-Roman rather then Hebrew influence.

Polygyny has been far more common then Polyandry.  But there have been Polyandrous cultures that were still very patriarchal in how they practiced it, still viewing the woman as property just as shared property.  The difference between Polygynus cultures and Polandrous cultures was whether their situation needed them to encourage or discourage rapid reproduction.

In The Bible the followers of YHWH are told to be fruitful and multiple.  But the Leverite marriage custom could provide a basis for allowing conditional Fraternal Polyandry.

So I suspect even a Matriarchal culture would still have encouraged men to have multiple sexual partners.  But how it was practiced would have been different.

Of course the Amazons are generally seen as not practicing Marriage as we'd think of it at all.  But mating either with foreigners or with the Gargareans.

It's also maybe not a coincidence that many goddesses associated with the Amazons, like most ancient Virgin Goddesses, were also associated with Lesbianism.  This is perhaps most well documented with Artemis.  But there is possibly homoerotic subtexts in myths about Anath too, her relationships with Shapash and Astarte, and again we don't know how Paghat's story ends.

Another interesting clue just came to my attention.  Harmonia is a name given in Greek Mythology to both the woman by whom Ares fathered the Amazons (though Otrera is said to be both Ares daughter and mother by him of other Amazons) and the wife of Cadmus and mother of his children.  Cadmus was originally a Sidonian Prince, we know from The Bible that they intermarried with Danites often.  It's also said that some Amazons became Meaneds of Dionysus.  Three of the Meaneds were daughters of Cadmus.  Eurypyle is the name of both a Meaned and an Amazon.

In Judges 9:50-57 a Woman of Thebez killed King Abimelech.  Veilikvosky talked about there being two ancient cities named Thebes, well in The Bible we have a third.  Perhaps originally this was the Thebes of Cadmus.  Perhaps the traditional identification of Biblical Thebez with modern Tubas is off and it was really further north?  What if Thebez could be part of the region elsewhere refereed to as Geshur? (Usually placed in the Golan Heights.)  Geshur had a King named Talmai who's daughter married King David.  Talmai is also the Aramaic form of the name Ptolemy.  And one of the Kings of Thebes of Greek mythology was a Ptolemy.  This is the only Ptolemy of Greek mythology, the other examples of the name don't pop up till later Classical history.

Psalm 68:14-16 uses Zalmon in a way that could support it being another name for Bashan, which was near Gesher.  It could be the Tower of Shechem wasn't in Shechem proper s we think of it.  The Etymology of Megiddo is no agreed on.  When Herodotus refers to the Battle of Megiddo that involved Necho, he called it Magdolos, which could support it being derivative of Migdal, the Hebrew word for Tower, including when Judges 9 refers to the Tower of Shechem.  Shechem and Megiddo are both connected to Western Manasseh, while Geshur and Bashan were both allotted to Eastern Manasseh.  But after Dan left their original allotment for the northern Dan, they took over much land originally allotted to Naphtali and Eastern Manasseh.  Deuteronomy 33 prophetically says Dan would leap from Bashan.

Or maybe I should even rethink my position on Myrina.  Another Myrina in Greek Mythology was a daughter of Cretheus, who also had a daughter named Hippolyte.   And Cretheus was a brother of Sisyphus and Salmoneus who Salverda argues for identifying with Joseph and Judah.  And the Myrina of Cretheus was the wife of Thoas father of Hypsipyle.  The starting point of Queen Myrina's story being in Libya is the connection to Mont Atlas, but Salverda argues for Atlas being Sinai, which I view as Sana'a in Yemen.  A Middle Eastern location fits better for my Gorgons=Girgashites hunch.  And linking the Amazons to Arabia fits well with my Feminism of Pre-Islamic Arabia observations.  Also King Lycurgus is sometimes alternatively placed in Arabia.

Hippolyta I think was a title or throne name many or maybe even all Amazon Queens held, and that is part of what confused the Amazons history chronologically.

There were probably multiple people behind the legends of Herakles.  Him being sometimes the father of Romulus and Remus fits Velikvosky's date for the final fall of Troy by giving us a Hercules in the 700s BC.

But I want to pay close attention to the myths about Herakles and Omphale.  The Lydians called the father of Omphale's children Tylons, clearly he was a distinct national hero of Lydia the Greeks just identified with Herakles similarly to how they did Melkart of Tyre and others.

Omphale herself was the daughter of a river god, Iardanus.  That is clearly the Jordon, the Strongs explains that the name of Jordon comes from the same root as my name, Jared, which the Greek of Luke 3 renders Iared.

Some of the accounts of the Kings of Lydia say the descendants of Herakles and Omphale took over a few generations later, and weren't the immediate children of them.  This can very much support the idea that Herakles and Omphale's relationship originally took place elsewhere.

I have argued that Delilah was an Israelite not a Philistine.  While at the same time arguing she was the mother of Micah in chapter 17.  Maybe Herakles and Omphale were inspired by Samson and Delilah, and the dynasty that ruled Lydia before Gyges took over were of Danite ancestry?

A brief summery of my proposed Amazon chronology.

Myrina conquers much of Syria and Turkey in the early 900s BC. 

Lysippe becomes a key founder of the Thermodon Amazon nation.

Marpesia, her sister Lampedo, and Hippo are the successors of Lysippe.  They conquer more land and found more cities.

Antiope and Orithyia are the successors of Marpesia.  Antiope is captured by an Athenian (but not the original Theseus) and marries him.  Othyria then leads an Amazon expedition against Athens.  Antiope is killed in the battle by the Amazon Molpadia, why isn't agreed on.

Eurypyle campaigns against Samshi-Adad V, (husband of Shammuramat (Semiramis) and so might have become confused with Ninus) with an all female army.

Otrera was the Amazon Queen defeated by Bellerphon.

Andromache is defeated by a Herakles, as well as her sister Melanippe.

Priam and Mygdon fight against Amazons in the same region Bellerphon did earlier.

Pentheselia is an ally of Priam during the 7th Century BC Trojan War.  She was the sister rather then daughter of her predecessor.

Antianeira succeeds Pentheselia.

The Thermodon Amazons migrate north of the Black Sea.

Since I've argued reasons to possibly place Myrina's Queendom in Arabia, maybe even specifically Yemen.  And also for making her contemporary with Solomon, or nearly.  Maybe it's not implausible to connect her to the Biblical Queen of Sheba?  The same Queen or perhaps her Daughter?  I've mentioned on this blog before traditions that say Sheba was ruled solely by Queens for over a Thousand years, before the Patriarchal Kings List starts in the 8th Century BC.

Maybe even her home city/island in the Marsh being eventually submerged could have something to do with the history of the Marib Dam.  The Dam as we generally known it was constructed in the 8th Century BC. Dams being constructed often result in other areas being submerged.

Damien F. Mackey

Is a figure in Revised Chronology circles we need to be very cautious of.  He makes some good observations, but.....

It seems the work done on the now gone SpecialtyInterests site (which I always had mixed feelings on) was mostly his work.

But back then he mostly agreed with Velikovsky probably more then I do, but is now abandoning several pillars of Velikovsky's models while still it seems clinging to Hatsheput as the Queen of Sheba.

What is more dangerous however is his being involved in really weird theories saying certain Pharaohs of Egypt and Kings of Israel were the same persons.  He plays games with the Song of Solomon and Abishag to make her, Shulamith, the Queen of Sheba and Hatshebsut all the same person.  And make David Tuthmosis I.  That is simply wrong.

For The Song of Solomon, I have argued elsewhere that Solomon is not the Beloved and that Shulamith is his granddaughter Shelomith.

Psalm 45 may have a thematic parallel to the Song of Solomon, but I don't think it's about the same Romance since it would have been written by David before Solomon's reign began.

He actually responded to my Queen of Sheba article in some places.  Basically making an argument I already dealt with in advance, the Queen of Sheba does NOT need to be important by Secular standards.

What Jesus said about her requires no more then what the TNAK says.  Jesus mentioned her because she was Saved, Hatshebsut clearly never converted to Monotheism, but there is nothing to contradict the kingdoms of Yeman being Monotheistic at this time.

Update July 2017: On another Blog I discussed his theories about Tobit and Judith.

Did the Magi/Wise Men really come from Persia/Parthia?

I've spent a lot of time on my Prophesy Blog playing up the Biblical significance of Persia, Media and Parthia.  So perhaps nothing is more shocking then to see me of all people argue for removing them from this Biblical theme.  And I've in the past supported Chuck Missler's the Magi were taught by Daniel conjecture, that depends on them coming from Persia.  But I've rethought much of this.

All of the stars rise in the East like the sun does, so saying they observed the Star of Bethlehem rising in the east I don't consider a clue to where they came from.  Likewise them coming to Jerusalem from the East could just mean they entered through an Eastern gate.  Now the location I'm going to suggest can be described as East of Jerusalem and Judea, but that's not necessarily the first or even primary geographical direction one is likely to use describing it's relationship to Judah.

Magi (translated Wise Men in the KJV) gets used as a proper name for a specific priesthood that is usually refereed to as Median in origin.  But the word is only in that exact form once of all the times it's used in Matthew 2, and it's used elsewhere in the New Testament like in Acts 8 and 13 to refer to Samaritan and Jewish miracle workers, no one connects either of those individuals to Persia, Josephus also uses the word of certain Jews.  The word Mage comes from the same term.  In Ancient Greek texts it in time simply became their standard word for Magician in-spite of being non-Greek in origin.  The following is copied form Wikipedia.

According to Robert Charles Zaehner, in other accounts, "we hear of Magi not only in Persia, Parthia, Bactria, Chorasmia, Aria, Media, and among the Sakas, but also in non-Iranian lands like Samaria, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Their influence was also widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the sacerdotal caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name."

 Zaehner, Robert Charles (1961), The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, New York: MacMillan, p. 163.

Also in Jeremiah 39, Rabmag is clearly used of a Babylonian office.

Wikipedia is of course not always up to do date on how we now know the Median Magi were originally enemies of the Zoroastrian religion, they worshiped Mithra, they were not inclined toward Monotheism.

Isaiah 60:6 is often taken by scholars as being connected to the visit of the Magi because it refers to Gold and Incense/Frankincense, (in fact this verse is why they're often depicted riding Camels, Camels aren't mentioned in Matthew 2).  The ultimate fulfillment is clearly about the Messianic Kingdom (either the Millennium or New Jerusalem or both) but it's believed that the visit of the Magi at Jesus Birth serves as a lesser near fulfillment, the Myrrh isn't in the final fulfillment because it represents His Death and Burial which is in the past by that point.

But when suggesting this connection it's often forgotten that specific nations are named there.

The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of Yahuah.

All names linked to Arabia, but the big one is Sheba, indeed the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon is also thought of as connected to this since Solomon is also a type of the Messianic Kingdom.  Psalm 72 also further seems to back up Sheba playing this role.  Jeremiah 6:20 is also an interesting reference.  Genesis 10:30 refers to Mount Sephar, a location in Yemen where Joktan's family settled, as a Mount of the East.

Indeed history shows that the various nations of Ancient Yemen including the Sabaeans were the leading exporters of Frankincense and Myrrh, so to First Century readers that's possibly the first place they'd think of reading Matthew's account.  And Gold we know could be found in this region because that's where Ophir was.  The Ancient Kingdom of Saba continued to exist till 275 AD.

Tony Maalouf argues the Magi were from Arabia in "Were the Magi From Persia or Arabia?", Bibliotheca Sacra, 156 (October 1999), 423-42.  The earliest report of the magi's place of origin is found in Justin Martyr, and he identifies them as Arabians (Dialogue With Trypho, 77). Clement of Rome refers to Arabia as "the East" and associates the region with frankincense and myrrh while addressing a context other than Matthew 2 (First Clement, 25).

Christianity is believed to have come to this region as early as 70-135 AD among Jews who fled the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

From around 275-570 AD various calamities reshaped ancient Yemen among them were the conquests of the Himyar and the collapse of the Ma'rib Dam, that caused many Qahtanite/Joktanite Arabic tribes of Yemen to migrate North to Jordan and Syria.  Among these were the Tanukhids from whom came the Christian Queen Mavia(Māwiyya).  And the Gassanids who formed a Christian Kingdom that controlled modern Jordan and much of modern Syria and the Golan Heights.  And the Lahkmids who formed a Christian Kingdom in modern Iraq west of the Euphrates.

All in territory that was Biblically Ishmaelite, which probably explains why Mavia was mistakenly called an Ishmaelite in some Byzantine sources.  Some of the Ishmaelites (mainly of Kedar/Qedar) possibly began migrating south after the fall of the Nabatean kingdom during the reign of Trajan.

All of this further backs up that the Queen of Sheba must have been a Queen in Arabia not Africa.

The Koran in Sura 2:62 refers to those who already in some way believed in "Allah" before Muhammad, and were distinct from the pagan polytheists.  While most such references refer to only two groups, Jews and Christians, this one refers to three groups, those and the Sabeans.  I don't think Himyarite Jews are what is meant, in fact I think most of Muhammad's references to Jews had primarily Himyar and Yathrib in mind, especially the more Anti-Semitic verses, those were the Jews that he fought wars with.  But I can't entirely rule them out either.

Jesus mentions the Queen of Sheba as an example of a Gentile who was saved.  Many extra-Biblical traditions say that results in a conversion of her entire Kingdom.  Maybe there is more truth to that then we thought.

The surviving Kings Lists of Sheba do not take us all the way back to Solomon's time.  But only to 755 or 750 BC.  This also seems to contradict certain traditions (mentioned in the Joktan link) that imply after king Phar'an the Kingdom was ruled only by Queens, (some of those look to me like they could be more feminine then our biases assume, but many are clearly masculine).  At face value those traditions imply the Queen who visited Solomon was the last.  But I have trouble seeing 60 Queens reigning in just the time from Reu to Solomon.  So perhaps 755-750 BC marks when the Matriarchy was supplanted by a patriarchy.

According to one version of the Kings List, the King at the time Jesus was born was Yadail Darih II, who reigned from 10 BC-10 AD.

But since we've discussed the subject of Sheba's relationship to matriarchy.  I feel like also pointing out that Matthew doesn't really tell us the gender of the Magi.

 [Since I originally made this post the dates have been removed from the Wikipedia page for the Kings Lists of Sheba and Himyar]

Hatshepsut was not the Queen of Sheba

This is my most unique quality as a supporter of the basic Velikovsky model starting with Tuthmosis III as Shishak.  I seem to be the lone voice in the wilderness on this particular pairing of beliefs.

If the Queen of Sheba was an Egyptian queen The Bible wouldn't have obscured that, it dealt with Solomon's interactions with Egypt unambiguously both before and after this. Also since Tuthmosis I must be the Pharaoh who's daughter Solomon married (Nefrubity is my hunch on that), Hatshepsut was her full blooded Sister. If this Queen was Solomon's sister in law that is a strange thing to overlook.

Shishak is Tuthmosis III, his invasion of Retenu that corresponds to Shishak's taking Jerusalem was in the first year of his sole reign (21st year total).  Which means over 5 years earlier when Jeroboam fled to Egypt was while Hatshepsut was still alive.

The visit of the Queen of Sheba I believe is meant to be understood as taking place very near the events of the previous chapter, 1 Kings 9.  Which opens about 24 years into Solomon's 40 year reign.  Which means timing wise it's either before Tuthmosis II died or very early in Hatshepsut's reign.  The reigning Pharaoh of Egypt is mentioned in the prior chapter, it might seem the Kings narrative isn't consistent with this being no longer the same Pharaoh who's daughter Solomon married, but I don't think that's a big deal.  The Biblical authors I think weren't always concerned with distinguishing different Pharaohs.  But a Pharaoh of Egypt they always refereed to as Pharaoh.

Hatsheput like other Egyptian Queens ruled as if she were a man.  And the term Pharaoh that the Bible uses actually refers to the Royal Palace, so it's like saying "The White House".  So I really would not expect The Bible to refer to Hatsheput any differently then it would a male Pharaoh.

The Punt expedition was in Hatsheput's Eight year.  So it's too late.

Jesus calls her the "Queen of The South" in Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31.  Daniel 11 is cited where the "King of The South" is consistently Egypt.  So this correlation is the start of attempts to argue she was an Egyptian queen.

South in Biblical geography is south of Israel/Jerusalem, in the context of Alexander's successors only Ptolemy is south of Israel, and Egypt was the core of his Kingdom though not all of it. But without that context South by no means always means Egypt, and usually refers to further south then that.  In Jesus' time I'm inclined to think South of anything Rome ruled might have been the context.  And Rome ruled Egypt at that time.

The word translated South in Daniel 11 (Negev) isn't the only Hebrew word used to communicate the idea of the South, there at least three others.   Jesus I believe was actually speaking the above quote in Hebrew, but we have no idea if he used the same word.  And I argued in one Bible study that it's used of Egypt there only when the Ptolemies ruled the Negev desert.

Another Hebrew word for South is Teman, which is interesting since Temani is also a name used of Yemenite Jews, not unlike Germanic Jews being Ashkenazim after Ahskenaz ben Gomer.  In fact there is an argument to be made for the name Yemen itself coming from Teman/Teyman.  Espically given the tendency of Hebrew naming to treat the Y/I/J and T as interchangeable, examples Yeshua/Teshua, Yerekh/Terekh, and Judas/Thadeus.  And another word for South used in Yamen, derived from Yam.

Velikovsky unintentionally argued once that Mount Sinai was in Yemen.  What's interesting about that is Habbukah 3:3 is a verse that parallels the reference to Seir and Sinai in Deuteronomy 33, that possibly justifies using Teman as a name for where Sinai is.

Then Josephus (Antiquities of The Jews Book 8 Chapter 6 Section 5) is cited.  I'll address why I think Josephus was mistaken on this later.  But the point here is that while Josephus is a good source for history near contemporary to himself, before the Hellenistic era he screws many things up (including the Persian King Esther married).  The farther back he goes the more he's basing his Extra-Biblical information on legends of questionable reliability.  In fact this very section of Josephus is totally absurd and he admits dependence on Herodotus.  He acts like Pharaoh was an actual name the Pharaoh's used like Caesar.

There are three Shebas in the Table of Nations, Two in Genesis 10 and another being Abrahamic (of Keturah). The two in Genesis 10 are one Hamitic/Cushite and the other Semitic/Joktanite. But in both I Kings 10 and II Chronicles 11 the Queen of Sheba narrative is linked to Ophir another Joktanite name.  I think Bill Cooper's biggest mistakes in After The Flood's appendices are in how he dealt with the repeat names.

Serious Archaeologists all know that Sheba was the name of a Kingdom in southern Arabia, modern Yemen. ( Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition p. 167).

Do not think that the Ancient Yemenite kingdom who's capital was Ma'rib is called Sheba only because of a desire to put that Biblical identification on it.  They are known by that name independent of Biblical or Judeo-Christian influences.

Res Gestae Divi Augusti paragraph 26.5, (a funeral inscription of Augustus).

"By my command and under my auspices two armies were led at about the same time into Ethiopia and into Arabia, which is called the Blessed [?]. Great forces of each enemy people were slain in battle and several towns captured. In Ethiopia the advance reached the town of Nabata, which is close to Meroe; in Arabia the army penetrated as far as the territory of the Sabaeans and the town of Ma'rib."

This reference could interestingly make Ma'rib as far South as Roman armies ever went.

They were a seafaring people and were known to have had significant trade with the Northeast African kingdom of Dʿmt, across the Red Sea in Somalia, Eritrea, the only other source of both frankincense and myrrh.  But the desire to use that African connection to make Axum or Nubia part of what's defined as Sheba is horribly flawed, those kingdoms were no where near those coastal lands.

The Yemen region was a place many Jews fled to following the fall of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms in the 8th-6th centuries BC.   The Lemba tribe used to live in Yemen according to their oral history.

Very early on in Church History the Gospel came to this region.  Among those who became Christians were the Ghassanids, who later migrated north and became a significant Arab-Christian Kingdom in roughly modern Jordan.

The famous Arabic proverb “They were scattered like the people of Saba” refers to them and other tribes of the Yemen region leaving after the destruction of the Ma'rib Dam.

The ancient Nubian city of Saba (which was later renamed Meroe during the time of Cambyses) I feel probably got that name not from a Sheba but from Cush's son Seba/Sebah.  In English that name looks very similar to Sheba, and they could also transliterate into African languages similarly, but in Hebrew they begin with a different letter.  Isaiah 43 refers to "Seba and Ethipoia" after mentioning Egypt, in a context where by Seba it could mean a city or region in Ethiopia.  And Ethipoia/Cush linked to Egypt in this way always means the Nubian civilization just to the south of Egypt.

Seba and Sheba are mentioned next to each other in the Messianic Kingdom Psalm 72 verse 10.  "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts."  The point here I think is nations that Israel's contact with was by Sea bringing gifts to The Messiah.  Tarshish and it's isles (British isles) to the west, and Seba and Sheba are both through the Red Sea port, in that context Yemen or India could work for Sheba while Seba is Nubia.

The Cushite Sheba of Genesis 10 I believe settled in Ancient India where he was deified as Shiva and his father Ramaah as Rama an avatar of Vishnu.  Rama and his wife Sita had two sons just like Ramaah.  One of those sons was named Kush.  So the Indian mythology has confused the genealogy over the ages, but I believe that's where Ramaah and his sons went.

The Sheba and Dedan of Keturah I think probably lived in northern Saudi Arabia like the other Keturite tribes.  They are probably the Sabeans who are mentioned in Job.

I do believe the Ark of the Covenant came to Ethiopia. But the Menelik legend is propaganda created by the Christian Auxomite kings to give them a Biblical lineage. I believe Graham Hancock and Bob Cornuke's theory for how it got there. First being at Elephantine island from sometime after King Manasseh's reign to the time of Cambyses, then was on Tana Kirkos until the Auxomite Kingdom took it.  The Menilik legend was invented by the Auxomite Kings as propaganda do give them a Biblical;y significant Royal lineage (making them Davidic kings).  The Jews of Ethiopia do not believe that story at all.

The Arabic traditions of Balqis/Bilqis/Bilquis did exist in Pre-Islamic times (Mohammed didn't really come up with much of anything new) and so have good reason to be viewed as more ancient and valid then the purely invented Ethiopian legend.  However the details of the Bilqis legend as presented in the Koran and other surviving Arabic sources do not seem credible.  I would not bet on that actually being her original real name.  But if I wrote any fiction based on this I'd probably use something like it.

 I do believe Hatshepsut probably visited Solomon also. The Bible says many rulers came to visit Solomon and witness his Wisdom. The Queen of Sheba is singled out NOT because she's the most important by secular standards, but because she became a Saved individual.  Which is why Jesus cited her as such alongside the "men of Nineveh" who believed the message of Jonah.

That's the biggest problem to me actually, Hatshepsut was a faithful worshiper of the Egyptian gods to the end, no evidence she responded to Solomon how the Queen of Sheba did.

Actually, back to Psalm 72.  It's also called a Psalm of Solomon, because Solomon foreshadowed the Messianic Kingdom.  So the Sheba and Sebah reference could show both Ethiopia and Sheba had rulers visit Solomon, but they were distinct from each other.

Strictly speaking, what we call the Nubian civilization was kind of born around 800 BC.  During the Old and Middle Kingdom as well as early 18th Dynasty, the civilization in that region was Kerma.  During the reign of Tuthmosis I Kerma was conquered by Egypt, and campaigns further south were carried out during the reign of Hatshepsut.  So yes, the logic for saying Hatshepsut could be called a Queen of Ethiopia is justifiable.

 I don't think the similarity between Make-Ra (A name of Hatshepsut) and Makeda (The name of the Queen of Sheba in the Ethiopian traditions) is entirely a coincidence. I think various Egyptian Jews, first at Elephantine and then later in Alexandria and the Onias colony (and maybe much later Coptic Christians), drew the same conclusion Velikovsky thinks they did, and began giving The Queen of Sheba that name (adjusting it to remove the pagan god). And this may have influenced Josephus who was very familiar with Alexandrian Jewish traditions.

I can't make up my mind if I feel the Punt expedition was her visit to Solomon.  The arguments for it being synonymous with or part of Retenu (the Egyptian name for Canaan) are valid, but so are plenty of arguments for it being in the South. Maybe there was more then one land called Punt and "God's Land", after all the Egyptians believed in more then one god.  Maybe even her specific Punt expedition was to more then one place.

The fact that Parahu and Ati (of the Punt expedition) are often refereed to as King and Queen is based on creative assumptions.  Breasted translated Parahu's title as "Chief" and refereed to Ati only as his wife.

Velikovsky saw Parahu as being Paruah father of Jehosophat governor of Issachar from 1 Kings 4:17.  Numbers 26:23 dealing with the offspring of Issachar says "Of the sons of Issachar after their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites: of Pua, the family of the Punites:"  So maybe the Punite clan has something to do with where the name Punt came from.

But there are also Pre-Islamic Arabian legends that say the Sheba kingdom of Yemen once had a ruler named Phar’an or "Pharaoh" who annexed Ophir and Havilah.  But after that King Sheba was ruled only by Women.

Genesis 10:30 referring to the sons of Joktan including Sheba, Ophir and Havilah settling near a mountain called Sephar. That mountain is Mount Zafar in the heart of Yemen, where the Capital of the Himyarite kingdom was.  Also the Kingdom of Hadramaut came from Joktan's son Hazarmaveth.

The idea of Punt being the same as Sheba is suggested in Nicholas Clapp's book about Sheba.

Tuthmosis III had three mysteries foreign wives.  Menhet, Menqi and Merti.  All three seem to have been Semitic.  Two are said to be West Semitic, the idea that they could be daughters of Solomon or Rehoboam or Jeroboam I find interesting.  I have also read it suggested that one could have been from Sheba, and thus used to support the idea of Punt being Sheba.

Also, while this is mostly irrelevant to the actual study here.  I feel like saying that I also disapprove of the desire to interpret Solomon and Sheba as Romantically and/or Sexually involved with each other.  The Bible gives no hints of that, the fact that it nearly universally happens in Extra-Biblical expansions just speaks the problems society has with gender relations.

Update: A follow up I did about the Magi.

Where I differ from Velikovsky

I agree with the basic pillars of Immanuel Velikovsky's Egyptian chronology (Middle Kingdom Exodus with the Hyksos invading some time after the Red Sea incident, Thuthmosis III as Shishak, El Amarna era during the divided Kingdom, Ramses II as Necho, Ramses III as Nectenbos of Diodorus with the Prstt being the Persian Empire and Sea Peoples as Ionian Greeks, The Maunier Stele depicts Alexander's visit to the Siwa Oasis).

 I don't agree with his weird theories about the planets though.

Rohl I don't agree with on Egyptian chronology, but I like his identification of Enmerkar with Nimrod and Eridu with Babel and have written my own study on that subject.

I do want to discus some of the details of Velikovsky and his contemporary supporters' model I disagree with.

On the Hyksos Amalekites connection which I've touched on elsewhere I just want to say I feel it's not that simple. The Hyksos were many tribes of Asiatic peoples. They included the Amalekites and possibly other Edomite tribes (I think the king remembered by Greek myth as Belus was an Edomite King connected in some way to Bela son of Beor of Genesis 36:32&33), I think they had a Midianite aspect too (Hor II of the 13th Dynasty I think was the Midanite king Hur mentioned in The Bible). Archaeology clearly shows they had an Amorite aspect at all.

The most prominent is Hatshepsut as the Queen of Sheba. If she was an Egyptian queen The Bible wouldn't have obscured that, it dealt with Solomon's interactions with Egypt unambiguously both before and after this. Also since Tuthmosis I must be the Pharaoh who's daughter Solomon married, Hatshepsut was her Sister. If this Queen was Solomon's sister in law that wouldn't been overlooked.

Yeshua calls her the "Queen of The South" in Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31. And then Daniel 11 is cited where the "King of The South" is consistently Egypt. South in Biblical geography is south of Israel/Jerusalem, in the context of Alexander's successors only Ptolemy is south of Israel, and Egypt was the core of his Kingdom but not all of it.

There are three Shebas on the Table of Nations, Two in Genesis 10 and another being Abrahamic. The two in Genesis 10 are one Hamitic/Cushite and the other Semitic/Joktanite. But in both I Kings 10 and II Chronicles 11 the Queen of Sheba narrative is linked to Ophir another Joktanite name. And the other two Shebas are virtually inseparable from the Dedan who is their brother, but no Dedan is alluded to here.

Serious Archaeologists all know that Sheba was the name of a Kingdom in southern Arabia, modern Yemen. ( Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman,David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition p. 167). The Saba that was a capital of Nubia/Ethiopia didn't appears till very late, Meroë was their Capital until after the fall of the 25th Dynasty (When Nubia ruled Egypt). The Cushite Sheba of Genesis 10 I believe settled in Ancient India where he was deified as Shiva and his rather Ramaah as Rama an avatar of Vishnu.

I do believe the Ark of the Covenant came to Ethiopia. But the Menelik legend is propaganda created by the Christian Auxomite kings to give them a Biblical lineage. I believe Graham Hancock and Bob Cornuke's theory for how it got there. First being at Elephantine island from sometime after King Manasseh's reign of terror to the time of Cambyses.

The Arabic traditions of Balqis/Bilqis/Bilquis did exist in Pre-Islamic times (Mohammed didn't really come up with much of anything new) and so have good reason to be viewed as more Ancient and Valid then the purely invented Ethiopian legend.

I do believe Hatshepsut probably visited Solomon also. The Bible says many rulers come to visit Solomon and witness his Wisdom. The Queen of Sheba is singled out NOT because she's the most important by secular standards, but because she became a Saved individual, so Yeshua cited her as such.

So I do agree that Punt was an Egyptian name for Canaan/Israel. And I don't think the similarity between Make-Ra (A name of Hatshepsut) and Makeda (The name of the Queen of Sheba in the Ethiopian traditions) is a coincidence. I think various Egytpian Jews, first at Elephantine and then latter in Alexandria and the Onias colony, drew the same false conclusion and began giving her that name. And this may have influenced Josephus who was very familiar with Alexandrian Jewish traditions.

El Amarna period.

I agree with Velikovsky's on Jehoshaphat as Ebed-Tov/Abdi-Heba King of Jerusalem and Mesha King of Moab with the Mesh of the Amarna letters. The Amarna letters also lsit 3 of the Captains of Jehoshaphat from II Chronicles 17:14-19. Addudani/Addadani=Adna and Ada-danu mentioned by Shalmaneser in 825 BC, "Son of Zuchru" = "son of Zichri", Iahzibada=Iehozabad/Jehozabad.

And I agree about the Habiru being bandits or mercenaries, not an ethnic term.

But his identity for Ahab is very problematic. Gubla is the Amarna letters name for Byblos not Jezreel. So Rib-Addi/Rib-Hadda was not Israelite.

Labaya I feel is logically is Ahab, (or whoever the Northern Kingdom ruler was at the time). The whole Jezebel-Nefertiti connection suggested by SpecialtyInterests I don't like however.

Velikovsky's references to "Sodomites" is really weird, he's unaware that that is a reference to Sodom only in English.

Velikovsky did NOT believe in the infallibility of Scripture. Which of course is an assumption many critics of revised chronology make about all revised chronologists. This fact about him is most apparent in the part of Age sin Chaos about the Death of Ahab. He basis it on what he saw as a contradiction between this verse.

II Kings 1:17 "So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son."

And these two verses.

II Kings 3:1 "Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years."

II Kings 8:16 "And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign."

There is no contradiction here however, he'd know this if he'd studied Ussher's chronology. Jehoshaphat made his son a co ruler for the latter years of his reign, this is why the 18th year of Jehoshaphat can also be the second year of Jehoram.

As for the fact that Ahab did Repent after Elijah rebuked him over the Naboth business. That was negated when Ahab sinned again believing the False Prophets over Micaiah.

But Velikovsky creates a whole convoluted theory that Ahab survived the battle of Ramoth-Gilead and lived another 9 years.

Mesha of Moab's rebellion was right after Israel's defeat at Ramoth-Gilead, Velikovsky sees the Moabite stone documenting this event as saying it was in the Middle of Ahab's reign, not after he died. First off the stone sounds like he's relating a Prophesy made by a Prophet of Chemosh, who's Prophecy may have came true not not completely accurately. But also if it was made immediately at the start of the rebellion he may not have heard of Ahab's death yet.

Regardless of those arguments, not all readings of the Mesha Stele even agree with the one Velikovsky used to support his theory.

The Denyen of the Greek Islands

I said I agreed about the Prstt being the Persian Empire and Sea Peoples as Ionian Greeks. But his Identity of the "Peoples of the Islands" the Denyen as Athens I think is silly. The Denyen are also in the Amarna letters where they are in northern Syria, very northern, by the modern Turkish border. Associated with Hammath. Their also identified with Adana is Cilicia.

"And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan." Deuteronomy 33:22

The Tribe of Dan originally settled north of the Philistine Lands, around the port city of Joppa/Jaffa modern Tel-Aviv. The books of Joshua and Judges both record events when Danites left their allotted land traveled north conquered a city and renamed it Dan.

"And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father." Joshua 19:47

The Judges 18 account, where the City is Laish, is often assumed to be the same event. There are however several differences between the two accounts:

1. In the Book of Joshua the children of Dan had received an inheritance in the south but it was insufficient for them and so they went to fight against Leshem. In Judges though the Danites were in the region of Zorah and Eshtaol (in the south) they had yet not taken possession of their own.

2. In Judges, at least at first, only six hundred went forth after receiving the report of a reconnoitering mission: on the other hand, the Book of Joshua may be understood to say that all (or nearly all) of Dan went to fight.

3. In the Book of Joshua the city taken is called Leshem: In Judges the city is called LAISH. Some Commentators have tried to state that "Leshem" and "Laish" are different forms of the same word but "leshem" in Hebrew is a type of precious stone (maybe amber) while "laish" means a young male lion.

The Joshua account refers to the Dan that is frequently used as an idiom of the Northern Border of the Kingdom, where Jeroboam built one of his Idols, and which on the map of modern Israel is in the Golan heights on the Lebanon border.

The Judges event is clearly much further north. They encountered Sidonians, but those Sidonians are also implied to be far from home. Laish is also know as Luash and the Danites who migrated there became known as Dananu.

The king of Sma'al in the valley north of ASI (Orontes embouchemont) on the edge of LUASH (LIASH) called himself "KING of the DANIM" i.e. of the Danes of Dan. The Danes (Dananu) also controlled the neighbouring area of Cilicia and at one stage their capital was Adana by Tarsis of Cilicia and their suzerainity reached as far north as Karatepe. A bi-lingual inscription of theirs found at Karatepe employs a Phoenician type of Hebrew and a version of Hittite. Branches of the Hittites in Anatolia neighboured the Dananu of Cilicia. This northern portion of Dan is referred to variously as Dananu, Danau, Denye, Denyen, Danuna.

Above I've borrowed a great deal from Britam's "Dan and the Serpent Way" study. I don't agree with all of Britam's premise obviously, or any other form of British Israelism, but Dan does have a unique history.

Secular scholars agree on connecting the Denyen to the Tribe of Dan, you can read about it on Wikipedia's Denyen and Dan pages, but the sequence is reversed.  They believe the Denyen traveled south and became incorporated into the Hebrew confederation. This supports their desire to claim that the various Tribes of Israel didn't even really have a common origin. Traditional chronology makes that argument easy for them but still doesn't make the Biblical picture impossible. But revised chronology makes it indisputable which Dan came first.

The connection Dan has to Greece, is Biblically alluded to in Ezekiel 27.