The God Culture: The Queen of Sheba Was not a Filipina

Who was the Queen of Sheba and where did she come from to visit King Solomon? According to Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture she was the first female billionaire and hailed from the Philippines. Is that really where the Bible leads the careful reader? Let's take a look at what Tim has to say in his book Solomon's Treasure which is "the monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" and which I have shown time and time again is full of errors and non-arguments and is easily disproven. Then let's compare Tim's narrative with the Bible.

Solomon's Treasure, pg 73

We will restore this understanding and clarify whom the Queen of Sheba was, how she would have conducted herself and from where she commenced her notable voyage which has captured the hearts and minds of so many. We assure you the Hollywood narrative of this Queen arriving as a pagan harlot is utterly false. This was a true, authentic lady by every measure within this story.

This narrative has sadly been greatly distorted in modern thinking even in most seminaries. The main reason is scholarship is incorporating legends that the Talmud has picked up from occult sources and when you learn their claims and origins, you will be very disappointed. One only has to read the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 to notice that there are two Sheba’s listed in that era not just one. Many commentaries just overlook the second Sheba completely yet that is the actual brother of Ophir in which this Queen’s adventure cannot be separated.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 73

There are actually three Sheba's in the Bible who could be the namesake of the land of Sheba.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7614/kjv/wlc/0-1/

It is very important to note that no one in the history of studying the Bible has ever placed Sheba to the Far East. Is that because they are stupid? According to Tim that is the correct answer. Why does Tim think the land of Sheba is named after Ophir's brother when they moved to the east? He does not have an answer. He is literally going to make stuff up to concoct an answer that derives from wrong etymologies and twisted Bible interpretations. 

In Psalm 72, David equates the correct Sheba with Tarshish, the isles (Ophir) and Seba.

Psalm 72:10 KJV

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles (Ophir) shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

You will note that Ophir and Tarshish are the same land. However, now we see Sheba and Seba together with them. Seba is the origin of the word Saba or Sabah and denotes a territory of Sheba which is why they are mentioned together like this. This is practically the sole position for Yemen which was formerly Saba or the Sabaeans whom even from the days of Job were known in scripture thus, not a new people as described in these passages. This is because Saba is not Sheba, it’s Seba and the Philippines has an ancient territory called Sabah all the same not to mention one of it’s most abundant fruits is also the “saba” or banana. Therefore, there is no position based on this etymology from Yemen as Saba and Sabah are well-recorded in the Philippines.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 73-74

The word Ophir does not appear in the text at all. Tim has inserted it on his own and falsely claims that Tarshish and the isles mentioned "are the same land." The word translated isles does not necessarily mean islands.

coast, island, shore, region

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h339/kjv/wlc/0-1/

However, there are plenty of islands in the Mediterranean. We are told of them in Genesis 10:5.

By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands.

Those isles are not the Philippines and even Tim admits that.

Next he moves on to etymology and says Seba is in the Philippines because it "has an ancient territory called Sabah" and the banana is known as the "saba" and grows abundantly here. What a joke! Are we supposed to take this man seriously? Psalm 72:10 is referring to a land abundant in bananas? Ridiculous. What concrete proof does he offer for this spurious connection? None. None whatsoever. 

It's funny that he brings up Job mentioning the Sabeans. Does he realize that the word translated Sabean is the same word translated Sheba in Psalm 72? If he does he's not telling. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

After that introduction Tim does a resource test based on Jeremiah 6:20.

Jeremiah 6:20 KJV

To what purpose cometh there to me incense (frankincense) from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

Is Ethiopia located just down the Red Sea really considered a far country? Not logically. What sweet cane is this referring? Scholars simply aren’t testing. This reveals Ethiopia is the wrong Sheba.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 74

Tim messes up big time here. He interprets this verse as meaning the incense and sweet cane were brought from the same place which is Sheba. This is wrong! The incense is from Sheba and the sweet cane is from a far country. They are not from the same place. Southern Arabia has incense and is the traditional location of Sheba. 

Tim concludes his resource test on a triumphant note.

Therefore, the Sheba referred to in Jeremiah 6:20 is the one from the brother of Ophir from Joktan from Shem not the one from Ham’s lineage in Ethiopia(Cush). You will notice scholars simply ignore Ophir’s brother Sheba’s descendants due to ignorance on this topic.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 76

He then goes on to give more proof why the land of Sheba must be named after Ophir's brother and no one else. First he says that Sheba is equated with Tarshish which he has previously said is equated with Ophir.

Then, we have Ezekiel also equating Tarshish and Sheba. Dedan is there too but understand Tarshish also has a brother Dodan and both are rendered DDN in Ancient Hebrew in which the Bible was written and he too followed Tarshish into the Land of Adam and Eve. Tarshish never ties with Ethiopia but the isles of the East.

Ezekiel 38:13 KJV

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 76-77

First of all Tarshish does not have a bother named Dodan. His name is Dodanim. This word is H1721 and is in only two places in the entire Bible, Genesis 10:4 and 1 Chronicles 1:7. Dedan is a completely different word referring to two people and a region in South Arabia.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h1719/kjv/wlc/0-1/

Did Tim even bother to look up these words? It appears he did not. There is so much wrong here and yet he is shoehorning it all in as if it were true. The Shebas descended from Ham and Abraham both have a brother named Dedan and thus they are better candidates for identifying the Sheba in Ezekiel 38:13.

Second of all Ezekiel is not equating Sheba with Tarshish. He refers to Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish as three separate locales. They are not the same place. Tim is reading this verse in a twisted way.

Next Tim claims that David equates Ophir and Sheba.

David equates the gold of Ophir and Sheba as well as the gold of royalty and that of Messiah. He is equating that Sheba as Brother of Ophir not Ethiopia.

Psalm 45:9 KJV

Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

Psalm 72:15 KJV

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.

This begins to lead to the right Sheba as there are two to choose from in Genesis 10. Ophir especially has a brother named Sheba and they migrated to Sephar, the Mount of the East, ancient Havilah in about 2200 B.C. The Queen of Sheba descended from this Sheba and was Queen of the territory named after her ancestor, a male. We do not know her name but only the territory for which she is Queen – her family. How can we be sure though this Queen is associated with Ophir and not Ham’s lineage? There is only one Ophir in all of scripture and he is from Shem and just so happens to have a brother named Sheba.

Solomon's Treasure, pg, 77-78

There is gold from Ophir and there is gold from Sheba. How exactly are those places being equated?  There is pizza from New York and there is pizza from Chicago. Are those places also equated? Tim does not offer proof for the equation. He simply asserts it as a fact. The Septuagint renders the word Sheba as Arabia.

Next Tim delves into the visit of the Queen of Sheba and breaks it down for us. The whole story is progressive.

The source of the Queen of Sheba story in scripture makes this crystal clear. The beginning of her story starts with “And.”

1 Kings 9:26-10:1 KJV

And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon. 10:1 AND when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.

Hers is a continuation of the previous story which this falls right at the midpoint and is completely bookended on both sides. This is a progressive story of Solomon building a navy and port on the Red Sea. They go to Ophir... They fetch gold in Ophir... They are in Ophir... They are not in Ethiopia... AND when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahuah... From whom? Solomon’s navy. There is no forcing this any other way. 

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 79

Tim's only proof that the navy of Solomon told the Queen of Sheba about Solomon is the progression of the story. His interpretation is that because chapter 9 ends with Solomon's navy going to Ophir and chapter 10 begins with the Queen of Sheba's visit that it follows she is a Queen from Ophir and hightailed it back to Israel to meet Solomon. But this does not follow. If Tim's interpretation were true why is there no mention of Solomon's navy visiting Ophir and meeting with the Queen of Sheba? Why does she not mention that it was his navy which told her about him? Because it did not happen. The correct way of reading this is that Solomon's navy went to Ophir and after that the Queen of Sheba visited. It does not follow that she came from Ophir along with his navy.

Tim's interpretation relies wholly on the word "and." But the word and is not in the Hebrew text at all. The passage starts off in the Hebrew thusly:

The Queen of Sheba when heard

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/1ki/10/1/t_conc_301001

This is reflected in modern translations that begin:

When the Queen of Sheba 

Now when the Queen of Sheba

https://biblehub.com/1_kings/10-1.htm

There is simply no word in 1 Kings 10:1 which connects the story of the Queen of Sheba with the ships going to Ophir.

Tim then discusses the meeting of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and offers a lot of speculation I shall not discuss here. After that he again links the navy of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

However, notice what happens next in the story because at the same time she gives her gifts, so does Solomon’s navy and the same gifts essentially because they arrived from the same land with the same resources at the same time.

I Kings 10:11-12 KJV

And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.

Hiram, King of Tyre and admiral of Solomon’s fleet, brings gold from Ophir as the Queen brought the gold of Sheba. They are the same. 

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 81-82

This story is inserted just before the ending of the Queen of Sheba's visit. Tim says that is because they both arrived from the same land with the same resources at the same time. But that does not follow. I already showed how there is no connection between the visit of the Queen of Sheba and the ships of Ophir. So why is this story inserted in the middle of the story of her visit?

The insertion of this notice is obviously suggested by the mention of the gold and precious stones brought from Sheba.

The allusion to these costly presents leads the historian to introduce the remark here, that the Ophir fleet also brought, in addition to gold, a large quantity of Algummim wood (see at 1 Kings 9:28) and precious stones.

it is here inserted perhaps to show that Solomon had not his gold, at least all of it, from the queen of Sheba; but much from Hiram, who fetched it from Ophir;

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_kings/10-11.htm

Three different commentators make the same comment upon this verse. The insertion of the gold brought back from Ophir was because the author had just made mention of the costly gifts given by the Queen of Sheba. That is a lot less convoluted and truer to the text than that the Queen of Sheba travelled from Ophir to meet King Solomon.

In his quest to prove that the Queen of Sheba is from the Philippines Tim also parses out what Jesus had to say about her.

Matthew 12:42 KJV (Parallel In Luke 11:31)

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Messiah places the Queen of Sheba’s location at the “uttermost parts of the Earth” as well. Even before His time in 194 B.C., Eratosthenes’ maps represent the known world. At the ends of the earth to the East were islands East of China. We already showed you the 43 A.D. map of Pomponius Mela and 124 A.D. map of Dionysius showing the same. [50, 18, 20–Ch. 3] Of course, He also happened to have participated in Creation (John 1) thus He would have foreknowledge as well as viewing the Earth from Heaven. The challenge with this though is this Sheba cannot be Ethiopia who is not in the uttermost parts of the Earth.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 76 

No ancient map shows any islands to the East of China. That is flat out wrong and Tim is intentionally misreading those directions and maps. I have written extensively about Tim's faulty cartography here.

Knowing that nothing of Africa was known past Ethiopia why can't Ethiopia be the uttermost parts of the earth compared to Israel? Tim does not say. He just assumes. Jesus calls her the queen of the south not the queen of the east. How can the queen of the south be the Philippines? After a lot of etymological work showing that Sheba and Cebu are the same word he says the following.

Cebu City today is still known as the “Queen City of the South” and no one seems to coherently know where that identifier originated. Iloilo, Panay, also in Visayas near Cebu, has the same nomenclature. It likely originated in Matthew 12:42 as Messiah called Sheba the “Queen of the South” which is the same connotation of Cebu and Iloilo today (Matt. 12:42, Luke 11:30). Along the same vein, Sheba means 7 and Cebu just by chance happens to be in Region 7. Additionally, is it not fascinating that Lake Sebu in Mindanao has Seven Falls or Sheba Falls?

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 87-88

Is this dinglehopper really saying that Jesus was referring to Cebu City? Unbelievable. It's simply not true that no one knows how Cebu got the name Queen City of the South. That name was first bestowed upon Iloilo and then transferred to Cebu in the 1980's.

Due to the loyalty of the Ilonggos, the city of Iloilo was honored with the perpetual title of Muy Noble (Most Noble). The Royal Decree granting this title was signed on 1 March 1898 by Queen Regent Maria Cristina. Over time, this title earned for Iloilo City the reputation of it being "The Queen's Favored City in the South" or simply "Queen's City in the South", and was later evolve to "The Queen City of the South", being the second Spanish port of importance next to Manila, and being located South of the Archipelago's Capital. On a side note, at the beginning of the American period until the Second World War, Cebu became the second port of importance (Iloilo having been partly ravaged by bombardment, fire, and riots during the American occupation of Iloilo City).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iloilo_City#The_Revolutionary_Period_(1896)

Iloilo City was originally known as the "Queen City of the South," a title that evolved from another Iloilo title, "Queen's Favored City of the South." From being the Queen Regent of Spain, Maria Christina's favorite city in the south of Manila in the late 19th century. Iloilo became the second-most important city in the Philippines at that time, giving it a reason to evolve to the title of "Queen City of the South" until the mid 20th century, after World War II, leaving the city devastated and causing investors to flee to nearby Cebu City. Cebu later claimed the title after it surpassed Iloilo's economy in the 80s. Although some people disagree with Cebu's claim since the title is of historical significance to Iloilo alone and not for which city is the next second-most important in the country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebu_City

If Timothy Jay Schwab had bothered to research the origin of the name Queen City of the South he would not have written something so dumb as to say the name originates in the Gospel of Matthew. It is a recent name applied only 40 years ago. 

The Queen of Sheba is the queen of the south. That means she came from the south of Israel. Not from the Far East. The most likely as well as traditional location is South Arabia.

https://biblereadingarcheology.com/2015/12/14/where-was-the-land-of-sheba/

The wealthy kingdom from which the famous queen journeyed was almost certainly located in southern Arabia, primarily in Yemen with colonies along the western coast of Arabia and across the Red Sea in Ethiopia and modern Eritrea. The Kingdom of “Saba” (spelled “Sheba” in Hebrew) had the city of Marib as its capital (ruins pictured above). Archeological work has been limited, but what has been done shows that the Sabaens were wealthy and sophisticated. For example they built a massive dam between two mountains that allowed them to capture periodic monsoon rains and irrigate the land around their capital. The dam is considered one of the engineering marvels of the ancient world and stood for almost 2000 years! The Sabaens were primarily peaceful traders specializing in spices, frankincense, myrrh, ivory and gold and they transported these products and others in long camel caravans. This is exactly the picture painted in 2 Chronicles chapter 9. 

The claim that Sheba was in Arabia with Marib as its capital is backed up with archaeological evidence which is something Tim's "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" is sorely lacking. More about Sheba can be read here.

Where was the Queen of Sheba from? South of Israel far away. Arabia fits that location and the history of the region gives it more weight. She was most certainly not from the Far East as Timothy Jay Schwab contends. What we see in this chapter is that Tim's case is built on speculation, assertions, false etymology, and a twisted reading of the Bible. As ever Timothy Jay Schwab is wrong about who the Queen of Sheba was and so one more piece of his "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" comes crashing down.