{"id":453,"date":"2023-04-17T15:28:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T15:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/?p=453"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:25:13","slug":"queen-of-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/2023\/04\/17\/queen-of-the-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen of the South"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bulletin Q&A Article. published 4-2-23:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is the queen of the south in Luke 11:31?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the passage referred to in this question: \u201cJust as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.<\/a> At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here<\/a>. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here\u201d<\/em> (Lk. 11:30-32)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two answers to this question: a literal one and a figurative one. The literal reference is to the queen of Sheba who searched out Solomon for his wisdom as told in 1 Kings: \u201cThe queen of Sheba, having heard a report of Solomon\u2019s fame, came to test him with subtle questions.<\/a> She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that she had on her mind.<\/a> King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there was nothing so obscure that the king could not explain it to her\u201d<\/em> (1 Kings 10:1-3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figuratively, the queen of the south represents the Church. St Ambrose wrote about this passage: \u201c[Jesus] strongly expresses the mystery of the Church, which in the queen of the South, through the desire of obtaining wisdom is gathered together from the uttermost parts of the whole earth, to hear the words of the Peacemaking Solomon; a queen plainly whose kingdom is undivided rising up from different and distant nations into one body.<\/a>\u201d<\/em> And St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote: \u201cNow as she was queen of the Ethiopians\u2019 and in a far distant country, so in the beginning the Church of the Gentiles was in darkness, and far off from the knowledge of God. But when Christ the Prince of peace shone forth, the Jews being still in darkness, thither came the Gentiles, and offered to Christ the frankincense of piety, the gold of divine knowledge, and precious stones, that is, obedience to His commands.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Ambrose goes on to give us instruction from the passage. He tells us to seek out wisdom so that we know how we should live and to repent and seek out forgiveness when we fail. He wrote: \u201cNow in a mystery, the Church consists of two things, either ignorance of sin, which has reference mainly to the queen of the South, or ceasing to sin, which relates indeed to the repentant Ninevites. For repentance blots out the offense, wisdom guards against it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulletin Q&A Article. published 4-2-23: Who is the queen of the south in Luke 11:31? Here is the passage referred to in this question: \u201cJust as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the… Continue reading Queen of the South<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-articles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthoscopy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}