Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 23:91 (Jul 1866)
Article: Biblical Notes
Author: Horatio B. Hackett

BSac 23:91 (July 1866) p. 515

Biblical Notes

H. B. Hackett

1. Where Was Candace Queen?

Dean Alford writes the brief Article in Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible on Candace, who, in Acts 8:27, is said to have been “queen of the Ethiopians” (βασιλίσσης Αἰθιόπων). The name, as nearly all admit, is not that of an individual, but a dynastic title, like Abimelech, Pharaoh, Ptolemy, and others. This critic follows those (Kuinoel, Winer, DeWette, Meyer) who suppose that the Candace to whom Luke refers reigned in Meroe, lying within the modern Nubia, not exactly an island, as often represented, but a peninsula, formed by the confluence of the Nile and the Astaboras. It is usual to appeal in confirmation of this statement to Strabo, 17:2; Dio Cassius, 54:5; and Pliny, Hist. Nat., 6:35. But some difficulties lie in the way of this opinion. First, Strabo, in the passage referred to, says expressly (for it seems necessary to regard οἱ δ᾿ ἐν Μερόῃ as the subject of καθιστᾶσι) that the inhabitants of Meroe appoint kings (βασιλέας) as their sovereigns, and appoint them for their personal qualities, so that they are elective; not hereditary. Second, Strabo declares that the royal residence of Candace was Napata (τοῦτο ἦν τὸ βασίλειον τῆς Κανδάκης), which was a different place from Meroe, eighty-six geographical miles farther north; and Dio Cassius (54:5, though he writes erroneously Τανάπη) makes the same distinction, referring the queens who bore this title to Napata, and not Meroe. In accordance with these notices, Rawlinson (Herodotus, Vol. H. p. 411) makes Napata the capital of one part of Ethiopia, and Meroe the seat of another independent kingdom. The passage in Pliny does not disagree with this conclusion, though it is chiefly his language that has misled readers, if they have fallen into error here. His words are the following: “Inde Napata 80. mill, oppidum id parvum inter praedicta solum. Ab eo ad insulam Meroen CCCLX M. Herbas circa Meroen dermum viridiores, silvarumque aliquid apparuisse et rinocerotum elephantorumque vestigia. Ipsum oppidum Meroen ab introitu insulae abesse LXX mill, passuum: juxtaque aliam insulam Tadu dextero subeuntibus alveo, quae portum faceret. Aedifica oppidi pauca. Regnare feminam Candacem; quod nomen multis jam annis ad reginas transiit.” If “aedifica oppidi” refers to “Meroen,” just before, then “regnare Candacem” does of course, and Candace reigned in the city and island of that name. But, on the other hand, Meroe was an important city, and could not well be said to consist of...