Insight on the News
Queen of Sheba Not a Queen?
If a Roman Catholic priest and archaeologist has his way, the queen of Sheba will lose her title and place in history. Albert Jamme of Catholic University, Washington, D.C., would even remove her from her land as well. Why does he hold to these views? He says that in Ethiopia she is called Queen Maqweda. He theorizes that this is “a mistranslation of the Arabic word maqtuwiat” and is not “a personal name, but a title meaning ‘chieftain.’” Next, relying on some Assyrian annals, he guesses that the people of Sheba (Sabeans) had a trading post nearer to the Assyrian border, so that the “Queen” was really merely a chieftain at this outpost and not even in Sheba itself, which was in southwest Arabia.
Other archaeologists question the accuracy of the Bible account as well, feeling that the journey from Arabia to Jerusalem was too long for that day. But have they forgotten that Abraham in an earlier generation made a very long trip? (Genesis 11:31; 12:1-5) Neither the queen of Sheba nor Abraham went as far as certain archaeologists have gone afield in their thinking.
To explain why the account is in the Bible, Jamme says: “Solomon was really a very small king. The Old Testament propagandists played up the importance of Sheba to boost Solomon’s reputation.” Or, is it a case of an archaeologist’s playing down the importance of Solomon in order to boost his own guesswork? If Jesus Christ did not hesitate to accept the queen of Sheba as such, why should one who professes to be a follower of Christ? Jesus even acknowledged her long journey with the expression: “She came from the ends of the earth.” What do you think?—Matthew 12:42.
Housewife’s Great Value
With the help of economists and employment agencies, Chicago divorce lawyer Michael Minton recently calculated the worth of all the services that might be performed by a housewife. The dollar value came to $46,000 (U.S.) a year. Among the 22 jobs listed by Minton in a chart showing their weekly value were: child care, tutor, buyer of food, nurse, waitress, seamstress, laundress, dishwasher, gardener, maintenance worker, cleaning woman, housekeeper, bookkeeper, cook, errand runner, dietician, secretary, maid/hostess and interior decorator. “I think this chart has a great chance of stemming the trend to get a divorce,” said Minton in an interview. Considering a housewife’s great value, “husbands should no longer take their wives for granted.”
At a time when many peoples looked down on women, the Bible gave the right view, placing a great value on the “capable wife.” It speaks very highly of her duties and industriousness at Proverbs 31:10-31. A study of these verses shows that she performs many of the duties listed in the aforementioned chart. “Her value,” says God’s Word, “is far more than that of corals.”
Misled and Misleading Others
For 20 years Hans Nestius pioneered “sex freedom” in Sweden. Now he admits: “I was wrong. I was too naive, my dream has been corrupted.” Nestius, chairman of the government-funded Swedish Association for Sex Education, further admits: “We must bring back some rules . . . for it is not love that has spread, but sexual excesses and corruption.” Commenting on his disillusionment with the “sex revolution,” the London “Daily Mail,” under the heading “How Wrong I Was!” said that Nestius “had been the prime mover in making Sweden the launching place for a world revolution against prudery, and for total frankness in sex. . . . Where Nestius and Sweden led, the Western world followed. . . . Like another preacher of unbridled self-expression, Dr. Spock, Nestius has discovered too late that he has led a generation astray.”
Those who turn away from the Bible’s high standard of morality are certain to be misled and to mislead others. But those who stick closely to God’s Word avoid being misled.—Psalm 119:104, 105.