The legend of the Queen of Sheba forms not only a poetic prologue to the epical tradition of Solomon"s wisdom, but has a substantial connexion with the character of that wisdom, to whose final personification she contributed.
The corresponding Oriental stories do not necessarily deprive this legend of historic basis, but point to the region of this "Queen of the Seven (Sheba)." Those Oriental pilgrimages of eminent women to great sages, however invested with magnificence, are natural; even such romances could not have been invented unless in accordance with the genius of the country in which they were written. There is no antecedent improbability that a queen, belonging to a region in which her s.e.x enjoyed large freedom, should have made a journey to meet Solomon.
The Abyssinians, who regard her as the founder of their dynasty, at the same time show how little characteristic of their country the legend was, by their ancient tradition, that it was the Queen of Sheba who provided that no woman should sit on the throne, forever! They claim that this Queen is referred to in Psalm xlv.--"At thy right hand doth stand the Queen, in gold of Ophir." This psalm is Solomonic, but the reference is no doubt to the Queen Mother, Bathsheba (whose throne was on his "right hand," 1 Kings ii. 19). Neither Naamah the Ammonitess, mother of Solomon"s successor, nor the daughter of Pharaoh, who was his especially distinguished wife, is described as a queen,--this indeed not being a Jewish t.i.tle for a king"s wife. The psalm indicates much glory to be conferred on a woman by wedlock with Solomon, but not that he was to derive any honor from either or all of the "threescore queens" a.s.signed him in later times (Cant. vi. 8). In another Solomonic Psalm (lxxii.) it is said:
"The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts, Yea, all kings shall fall down before him."
No glory is here supposed to be derivable from a woman, and an inventor would probably have merely devised a saga on the last of the lines just quoted, which is adapted in 1 Kings iv. 34, to Solomon"s wisdom, or he would have imagined some instance of a particularly ill.u.s.trious monarch coming to pay homage to Solomon. That the only example particularized is that of a woman carries some signs of reality.
a.s.suming that there was ever any King Solomon at all, this Psalm lxxii., whose Hebrew t.i.tle is "Of Solomon," might have been written in the height of his reign. The t.i.tle of "G.o.d" given him in Psalm xlv. is here approximated in the opening line, "Give the King thy judgments, O Elohim," and in the ascription to him of such virtues and such beneficent dominion, "from the river (Euphrates) to the ends of the earth," without any further reference to G.o.d, that an indignant Jahvist expands the doxology (18, 19) to include a reclamation for Jahveh. The ancient lyric closes with verse 17, which says of Solomon:
"His name shall endure forever; His name shall have emanations as long as the sun; Men shall bless themselves in him; All nations shall call him The Happy."
The Jahvist answers:
"Blessed be Jahveh Elohim, the Elohim of Israel, Who alone doeth wondrous things, And blessed be His glorious name forever; And let the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen, and Amen."
Now in this beautiful poem (omitting the doxology) the elation is especially concerning some connexion with Sheba. In verse 10 it is said "The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts"; in verse 15, "To him shall be given of the gold of Sheba." These lines might have been written on the announcement of a royal visit, or meeting, which had not mentioned a queen. But what country is indicated by Sheba (the Seven)? In India there are seven holy rivers, and seven holy Rishis, represented by the seven stars of the Great Bear. But these correspond with the Seven Rivers of Persia which enter into the Persian Gulf, in the Avesta called Satavaesa, a star-deity. In the Yir Yast 9 it is said:
"Satavaesa makes those waters flow down to the seven Karshvares of the earth, and when he has arrived down there he stands, beautiful, spreading ease and joy on the fertile countries, thinking in himself, "How shall the countries of the Aryas grow fertile?""
As there are seven heavens, there are seven earths (Karshvares), and these, as already shown (ante II.), are presided over by the "seven infinite ones" (Amesha-Spentas). Of these seven the first is Ahura Mazda himself, and of the others only one is female--Armaiti, genius of the earth. Of this wonderful and beautiful personification more must be said presently, but it may be said here that Armaiti was the spouse of Ahura Mazda, and Queen of the Seven,--the seven Ameshi-Spentas who preside respectively over the seven karshvares of the earth.
The function of Armaiti being to win men from nomadic life and warfare, to foster peace and tillage, she was a type of "the eternal feminine"; and such an ideal could hardly have been developed except in a region where women were held in great honour, nor could it fail to produce women worthy of honor. That such was the fact in Zoroastrian Persia is proved by many pa.s.sages in the Avesta, wherein we find eminent women among the first disciples of Zoroaster. There is a litany to the Fravashis, or ever living and working spirits, of twenty-seven women, whose names are given in Favardin Yast (139-142). Among these was the Queen Hutaosa, converted by Zoroaster, the wife of King Vistaspa, the Constantine of Zoroastrianism. Hutaosa was naturally a visible and royal representative of Armaiti, "Queen of the Seven," a princess of peace, a patroness of culture, to be imitated by other Persian queens.
That the sanct.i.ty of "seven" was impressed on all usages of life in Persia is shown in the story of Esther. King Ahasuerus feasts on the seventh day, has seven chamberlains, and consults the seven princes of Media and Persia ("wise men which knew the times"). When Esther finds favor of the King above all other maidens, as successor to deposed Vashti, she is at once given "the seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the King"s house; and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women." Esther was thus a Queen of the Seven,--of Sheba, in Hebrew,--and although this was some centuries after Solomon"s time, there is every reason to suppose that the Zoroastrian social usages in Persia prevailed in Solomon"s time. At any rate we find in the ancient Psalm lxxii., labeled "Of Solomon," Kings of Sheba (the Seven) mentioned along with the Euphrates, chief of the Seven Rivers (Zend Haptaheando); and remembering also the "sevens" of Esther, we may safely infer that a "Queen of Sheba" connoted a Persian or Median Queen.
We may also fairly infer, from the emphasis laid on "sevens" in Esther, in connexion with her wit and wisdom, that a Queen of the Seven had come to mean a wise woman, whether of Jewish or Persian origin, a woman instructed among the Magi, and enjoying the freedom allowed by them to women. There is no geographical difficulty in supposing that a Persian queen like Hutaosa, a devotee of Armaiti (Queen of the Seven, genius of Peace and Agriculture), might not have heard of Salem, the City of Peace, of its king whose t.i.tle was the Peaceful (Solomon), and visited that city,--though of course the location of the meeting may have been only a later tradition. [10]
The object of the Queen"s visit to Solomon was "to test him with hard questions" as to his wisdom. It was not to discover or pay court to his wisdom, though he received from her "of the gold of Sheba" spoken of in the psalm. As a royal missionary of the Magi her ability and t.i.tle to prove Solomon"s knowledge, and decide on it, are a.s.sumed in the narrative (1 Kings x.). Several sentences in her tribute to Solomon"s "wisdom and goodness" recall pa.s.sages in the Psalm (lxxii.). There is here an intimation of some prevailing belief that Solomon"s wisdom was harmonious with the Zoroastrian wisdom. Whether the visit of the Queen be mythical or not, and even if both she and Solomon are regarded as mythical, the legend would none the less be an expression of a popular perception of elements not Jewish in Solomonic literature.
Of course only Biblical mythology is here referred to. The Moslem mythology of Solomon and the Queen (Balkis) has taken from the Avesta Wise King Yima"s potent ring, and his power over demons, and other fables, in most instances to be noted only as an unconscious recognition of a certain general accent common to the narratives of the two great kings. Yet it can hardly be said that the stories of Yima in the Avesta and of Solomon in the Bible are entirely independent of each other,--as in Yima"s being given by the deity a sort of choice and selecting the political career, Ahura Mazda saying: "Since thou wanted not to be the preacher and the bearer of my law, then make thou my worlds thrive, make my worlds increase: undertake thou to nourish, to rule, and to watch over my world." Ahura Mazda requests Yima to build an enclosure for the preservation of the seeds of life (men, animals, and plants) during a succession of fatal winters, and some of the particulars resemble both the legend of the ark and that of building the temple. Yima was, like Solomon, a priest-king (he is also called "the good shepherd"); he was, like Solomon, beset by satans (daevas), and after a reign of fabulous prosperity he finally fell by uttering falsehood. What the falsehood was is told in the Bundahis: the good part of creation was ascribed to the evil creator.
Several other heroes of the Avesta have a.s.sisted in the idealisation of Solomon, notably King Vistaspa, already mentioned. Like Solomon, he is famous for his horses and his wealth. Zoroaster exhorts him, "All night long address the heavenly Wisdom; all night long call for the Wisdom that will keep thee awake." From Zoroaster the "Young King"
learned "how the worlds were arranged"; and he is advised "have no bad priests or unfriendly priests."
It is now necessary to inquire whether there is anything corresponding to these facts in the ancient writings ascribed to Solomon. The lower criticism has little liking for Solomon, and makes but a feeble struggle for the genuineness of his canonical books against the higher criticism, which forbids us to a.s.sign any word to Solomon. But these higher critics acquired their learning while lower critics, and it is difficult to repress an occasional suspicion of the survival of an unconscious prejudice against the royal secularist, apparent in their unwillingness to admit any partic.i.p.ation at all of Solomon in the wisdom books. Is this quite reasonable?
It is of course clear that Solomon cannot be described as the author of any book or compilation that we now possess. But neither did Boccaccio write Shakespeare"s "Cymbeline," nor Dryden"s "Cymon and Iphigenia,"
nor the apologue of the Ring in Lessing"s "Nathan the Wise," nor Tennyson"s "Falcon," all of which, however, are his tales. I select Boccaccio for the ill.u.s.tration because his defiance of "the moralities"
led to his suppression in most European homes, thus facilitating the utilization of his ideas by others who derive credit from his genius, this being precisely what might be expected in the case of the great secularist of Jerusalem. For no one can carefully study the Book of Proverbs without perceiving that a large number of them never could have been popular proverbs, but are terse little essays and fables, some of them highly artistic, which indicate the presence at some remote epoch of a man of genius. And I cannot conceive any fair reason for setting aside the tradition of many centuries which steadily united the name of Solomon with much of this kind of writing, or for believing that every sentence he ever uttered or wrote is lost.
It would require a separate work to pick out from the two Anthologies ascribed to Solomon (the First, Proverbs x. i-xxii. 16; the Second, xxv-xxix), the more elaborate thoughts, and piece together those that represent one mind, even were I competent for that work. But this fine task awaits some scholar, and, indeed, the whole Book of Proverbs needs a more thorough treatment in this direction than it has received.
Of the last seven chapters of the Book of Proverbs, one (x.x.x.), containing the fragments of Agur and his angry antagonist, has been (vii.) considered. Chapters xxv., xxvi., xxvii., and x.x.xi. 10-31, may with but little elimination fairly come under their general heading, "These are also proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out." Chapters xxviii. and xxix., with their flings at princes and wealth, contain many Jahvist insertions. The admirable verses in xxiv. 23-34, and those in x.x.xi. 10-29, 31, represent the high secular ethics of the Solomonic school.
The verses last mentioned (exaltation of the virtuous woman) are, curiously enough, blended with "The words of King Lemuel, the oracle which his mother taught him." The ancient Rabbins identify Lemuel with Solomon, and relate that when, on the day of the dedication of the temple, he married Pharaoh"s daughter, he drank too much at the wedding feast, and slept until the fourth hour of the next day, with the keys of the temple under his pillow. Whereupon his mother, Bathsheba, entered and reproved him with this oracle. Bathsheba"s own amour with Solomon"s father does not appear to have excited any rabbinical suspicion that the description of the virtuous wife with which the Book of Proverbs closes is hardly characteristic of the woman. She was the "Queen Mother," a part of the divine scheme, her conception of the builder of the temple immaculate, predetermined in the counsels of Jahveh.
The first nine verses of this last chapter in the Book of Proverbs certainly appear as if written at a later day, perhaps even so late as the third century before our era, and aimed at the Jahvist tradition of Solomon. Lemuel seems to be allegorical, and we here have an early instance of the mysterious disinclination to mention the great King"s name. His name, Renan a.s.sures us, is hidden under "Koheleth,"
but he is not named in the text of that book or even in that of the "Wisdom of Solomon." In Ezra v. 11 the mention of the temple as the house "which a great king of Israel builded and finished" seems to indicate a purposed suppression of Solomon"s name, which continued (Jeremiah lii. 20 is barely an exception) until this silence was broken by Jesus Ben Sira, and again by Jesus of Nazareth.
The removal of verse 30 (Proverbs x.x.xi.), clearly a late Jahvist protest, leaves the praise of the virtuous woman with which the book closes without any suggestion of piety. Yet we find here that "her price is far above rubies," "she openeth her mouth with wisdom," and one or two other tropes which probably united with some in the First Anthology to evolve more distinctly the G.o.ddess Wisdom. Some sentences of the First Anthology grew like mustard seed. "Wisdom resteth in the heart of him who hath understanding" (Proverbs xiv. 33), reappears in 1 Kings iii. 12, and in x. 24 it is definitely stated that it was the wisdom which G.o.d had put into Solomon"s heart that made all the earth seek his presence. It was a miracle they went to see; the glory is not that of Solomon, but that of G.o.d. [11]
The nearest approach to a personification of Wisdom in the First Anthology is Proverb xx. 15: "There is gold and abundance of pearls, but the lips of knowledge are a (more) precious jewel." This expands in Job to a long list of precious things--gold, coral, topaz, pearls--all surpa.s.sed by Wisdom, and the similitudes journey on to the parables of Jesus, wherein the woman sweeps for the lost silver, and the man sells all he has for the pearl of price. This, however, was a comparatively simple and human development. And the first complete personification of Wisdom, growing out of "the lips of knowledge," and perhaps influenced by the portraiture of "the virtuous woman," is an expression of philosophical and poetic religion. This personification is in Proverbs viii. and ix., which are evidently far more ancient than the seven chapters preceding them, and no doubt const.i.tute the original editorial Prologue to the so-called "Proverbs of Solomon,"
with the exception of some Jahvist cant about "the fear of Jahveh." We hear from "the lips of knowledge" a reaffirmation of the "excellent things" said in the Anthologies about the superiority of Wisdom to gems. (The word "ancient" given by the revisers in the margin to viii. 18 may possibly signify the antiquity of the Anthologies when this Prologue was written.) The scholarly writer of the Prologue had closely studied the ancient proverbs, and occasionally gives good hints for the interpretation of some that puzzle modern translators. Thus Wisdom, in describing herself as "sporting" (viii. 30), indicates the right meaning of x. 23 to be that while the fool finds his sport in mischief, the wise man finds his sport with wisdom. (This proverb may also have suggested the laughter of the "virtuous woman" in x.x.xi. 25.)
In viii. 22-31, Wisdom becomes more than a personification, and takes her place in cosmogony. This pa.s.sage, which contains germs of much of our latter-day theology, must be quoted in full, and comparatively studied. Wisdom speaks:
22. Jahveh acquired me in the outset of his way, Before his works, from of old.
23. From eternity was I existent, From the first, before the earth.
24. When no deep seas I was brought forward, When no fountains abounding with water.
25. Before the mountains were fixed, Before the hills, was I brought forward:
26. When he had not fashioned the earth and the fields, And the consummate part of the dust of the world.
27. When he established the heavens, I was there; When he set a boundary on the face of the deep;
28. When he made firm the clouds above; When the fountains of the deep became strong;
29. When he gave to the sea its limit, That the waters should not pa.s.s over their coast; When he marked out the foundation pillars of the earth:
30. Then was I near him, as a master builder: And I was his delight continually, Sporting before him at all times;
31. Sporting in the habitable part of his earth, And my delight was with the sons of men.
Let us compare with this picture of Wisdom that of Armaiti, genius of the Earth, in the sacred Zoroastrian books. In the Gatha Ahunavaiti, 7, it is said: "To succor this life (to increase it) Armaiti came with wealth, and good and true mind: she, the everlasting one, created the material world; but the soul, as to time, the first cause among created beings, was with thee" (Ahura Mazda). Thus, like Wisdom, Armaiti is everlasting: she was not created, but "acquired,"
by the deity. When Ahura Mazda, as chief of the seven Amesha-spentas, ideally designed the world, she gave it reality, as master-builder, and, like Wisdom, hewed out the foundation pillars he had marked out,--namely, the Seven Karshvares of the earth. The opening lines of Proverbs ix. read almost like a quotation from some Gatha:
"Wisdom hath builded her house, She hath hewn out her seven pillars."
Like Wisdom, Armaiti was the continual delight of the supreme G.o.d. In an ancient Pali MS., it is said that Zoroaster saw the supreme being in heaven, with Armaiti seated at his side, her hand caressing his neck, and said: "Thou, who art Ahura Mazda, turnest not thy eyes away from her, and she turns not away from thee." Ahura Mazda tells Zoroaster that she is "the house mistress of my heaven, and mother of the creatures." [12] Like Wisdom, Armaiti has joy in the "habitable part"
of the earth, and the "sons of men," from whom she receives especial delight ("the greatest joy"), are enumerated in the Vendidad, also the places in which she has such delight. They are the faithful who cultivate the earth morally and physically, and the places so watered or drained, and homes "with wife, children, and good herds within."