Greek word · G938

βασίλισσα

basilissa

queen

'Queen of the south.' Notos means the south, or the south wind.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

βασίλισσα, -ης, ἡ (in Attic, βασιλεία, βασιλίς),

[in LXX chiefly for מַלְכָּה ;]

a queen: Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31, Acts 8:27, Revelation 18:7.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Matthew 12:42

Range of meaning

'Queen of the south.' Notos means the south, or the south wind.

Against the English

Most translations capitalize it as a title, 'Queen of the South.' Few readers realize it means the queen of Sheba.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kgs 10:1–13; 2 Chr 9:1–12 (LXX: basilissa Saba). Josephus (Antiquities 8.165) calls her queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. Daniel 11 (LXX) speaks of 'the king of the south.' Ps 72:10 has kings of Sheba bringing gifts.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 12:42 Βασίλισσα [The] queen

    The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.

    Here: A reigning queen. There is no article in Greek, but it works as a title. This is the queen of Sheba from 1 Kings 10, whom the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) calls basilissa Saba.

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 11:31 βασίλισσα [The] Queen

    The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 8:27 βασιλίσσης queen

    So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

    Here: 'Queen': it explains the foreign title for Greek readers: 'the Kandake, queen of the Ethiopians'.

Revelation · 1

  1. Revelation 18:7 βασίλισσα [as] a queen

    As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’

    Here: She claims sovereign status. It echoes 17:18, 'the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.