Who are the Queen of Heaven, Queen of Sheba and Queen of the South, who Jesus spoke of in Matt. 12:39-42? I understand that the Catholics pray to Mary as the queen of heaven, but I have never read any scripture that conveys that she should be prayed to or considered the queen of heaven. One thing I read suggested that the queen of the south and the queen of Sheba are the same person. If you could just clear up who these people/persons are, that would be great.
According to tradition, the Queen of Heaven is a title first used by Semiramis, wife of Nimrod the founder of Babylon. Semiramis started a pagan religion that included many of the traditions later found in Catholicism, including the use of the title Queen of Heaven. There’s no Biblical justification for this and our Lord’s mother would never have considered herself as such. The “mother-child” fixation, the celibate priesthood, an infallible high priest, and 40 days of lent are examples of other Catholic traditions that began in Babylon. (In fact, most of our Christmas and Easter traditions originated in Babylonian paganism, and were first adopted by the Catholic Church before spreading throughout Christianity.)
By reading the account of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1-13) one can conclude that she and the queen of the south are one and the same. Jesus said that she would condemn the Jews for rejecting Him because she made a long journey just to see the greatness of Solomon, who was only a man after all, and now God Himself was among them and they didn’t recognize Him.