Solomon
- "Solomon" redirects here.
Solomon or Shlomo (Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה; Standard Hebrew: Šəlomo; Tiberian Hebrew: Šəlōmōh, meaning "peace"; Arabic: سليمان Sulayman) in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), also called Jedidiah, was the third king of the united ancient Kingdom of Israel A Judean by birth, Solomon's kingdom included both the Kingdom of Judah and that of the later northern territory of Israel.
The name Solomon (Shlomo) means "peaceful," or "complete", from the Hebrew Shelomoh (Arabic Sulaiman). The name given by God to Solomon in the Bible is Jedidiah, meaning "friend of God", (2 Samuel 12:25). Solomon's case is one of the few in the Bible where the name given by God does not stay with the character. Solomon's birth is considered a grace from God, after the death of the previous child between David and Bathsheba.
According to the bible, Solomon was the builder of the first Temple in Jerusalem, also known as Solomon's Temple. He was world-renowned for his great wisdom, wealth, and power. He is described as a Israelite potentate of unequalled reach in biblical history, his empire's borders stetching from the Euphrates to the Nile. On the other hand, this king of unequalled power is nowhere evident in contemporary ancient sources outside the bible.
The biblical portrait of Solomon is highly pardoxical. On the one hand, he is portrayed as a pious king of unequalled, divine-endowed wisdom. On the other, he allows his love for his foreign wives to lead him into idolatry. His sin is ultimately responsible for the the splitting of his kingdom in two and the eventual fall of both Israel and Judah into the hands of foregin invaders.
As a literary figure, Solomon is traditionally credited with the authorship of the Song of Solomon, the Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, along with a large number of aprocryphal and pseudigpigraphal works. He is the subject of many later legends and is also in a line of the greatest Kabbalah masters.
The Biblical account
Solomon's Early Reign
Solomon is David's second son by Bathsheba. His history is recorded in 1 Kings 1–11 and 2 Chronicles 1–9. He succeeded his father (reigned circa 1005 B.C.E. to 965 B.C.E.) to the throne before David's death while still a teenager. His father chose him as his successor, passing over the claims of his elder sons. His early enthronement is hastened on mainly by the prophet Nathan and and Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, in consequence of the attempt of David's eldest son,Adonijah, to assume the kingship without aging monarch's knowledge.
Supported by David's military chief, Joab, and the venerable priest Abiathar, Adonijah's attempt to usurp the throne is cut short when Nathan and Bathsheba prevail on David to have Solmon publicly anointed as king at the very moment when Adonijah's is celebrating his own ascendency with this followers. Sensing defeat, Adonijah seeks sanctuary in the tabernacle that houses the Ark of the Covenant, clinging to the horns of the altar. Solomon grants him clemency, "if he proves to be a worthy man."
On his deathbed, David charges Solomon to follow God's commands "as written in the Law of Moses" (1 Kings 2). He also advises the young monarch to collect certain blood debts David himself has not been able to collect, especially that of Joab, David's erstwhile general who committed several murders against David's will and who lately supported Adonijah's attempted coup. "Do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace," David commands. After David dies, Solomon dutifully obeys his father's last wish. He also takes Adonijah's request to marry David's young concubine Abishag as evidence of his elder brother's unworthiness, and order's his death as well. "The kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon's hands," the biblical author concludes.
Solomon's next action is to for an alliance with the king of Egypt, taking the pharoah's daughter as his primary wife to seal the bargain. He proceeds to an ambitious building project in Jerusalem, constructing a glorious palace for himself and his new bride, expanding and fortifying the city walls, and creating the unifying religious symbol of his reign, the Temple. Until this time, a later biblical writer grudgingly concedes, "The people were still sacfricing at the high places, because the a temple had not yet been built fo rthe Name of the Lord." Whether Solomon ever intended the Temple as the exclusive abode of Yahweh or as a cosmopolitan center honoring the religious traditions of the various peoples over which he ruled is a matter of much scholarly debate. (See "The Historical Solomon," below.)
Solomon's Wisdom
While his ruling concering the two women who both claimed the same child is by far the most famous of Solomon's wise decisions, the is no doubt the biblical authors intend his response to God's earlier promise in 1 Kings 3 to be even more emblemantic of his wisdom. "Ask for whatever you want me to give you," God offers in a dream shortly after the young monarch begins to rule. "Give your servant a discenaing hear to govern your poeple and to distinguish between right and wrong," Solomon replies. Pleased with his non-materialistic wish, God tells him that not only will he recieve wisdom greater than any other man, but also great wealth, power and prosperity. The story of Solomon's wise ruling in the case of the two women follows immediately after. The two women, who are both prostitutes, claim the same child. Solomon orders the babe to be brought forth and prepares to hack it into two equal pieces. He ultimately awards the child to the woman who declines this solution and offers to rescind her claim of motherhood so that the child may live.
The idea that Solomon's Wisdom is God-given is very important to various Judeo-Christian beliefs. The biblical Book of Proverbs, ascribed to Solomon, is a dogmatic guideline for morality and manners in many Jewish and Christian denominations. Many believe that Solomon also wrote the biblical book of Ecclesiastes in which there is established sense of the vanity of man's feeble accomplishments, characterized as "a striving after wind".
"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do... Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun — all your meaningless days." (Eccl. 9:7-9)
These writings also support Søren Kierkegaard's Christian existentialism and the two assumptions:
- Having a personal relationship with God supersedes all set moralities, social structures and communal norms.
- Social conventions are essentially a personal aesthetic choice made by individuals.
The bible is quite specific as to the number of Solomon's writings: "he spake three thousand proverbs, and his song were a thousand and five... There came all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth." (4:33)
Trade, Buildings and other works
According to the bible, during Solomon's long reign of 40 years the Hebrew monarchy gained its highest splendour. This period has well been called the Golden Age of the Jewish annals. "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, evenry man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba" (1 Kings 4:25).
The bible describes Solomon as a great imperial potentate, whoese reigned even over kingdoms "from the River (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt. They brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life." In a single year he collected tribute amounting to 666 talents of gold, according to 1 Kings 10:13. This is small wonder, since he is described as possessing no less that 40,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 mounted cavalry.
On the other hand, the biblical account also describes the tribute-giving as a two-way street. While Hiram of Tyre presents Solomon with copious amounts of timber and other valuable raw materials for his building projects, Solomon, in exchange, sends yearly alotments of food to Trye and also concscripts no less than 30,000 "men of Israel" to serve Hiram as a gesture of peace. (1 Kings 5) Later Solomon cedes to Hiram twenty towns in Galilee, with which Hiram is not well satisfied (1 Kings 9).
Solomon's impressive building projects are described in conderable detail. Construction of the Temple takes seven years to complete, while Solomon's palace takes thirteen. Forced labor on a massive scale is involved, but this time not invovling "men of Israel". Instead Solomon conscripts slaves from among the non-Israelite tribes of Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (1 Kings 9). When the Ark of the Covenant is finally installed in the Temple, the king celebrates by offering 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep as a sacrifce. There follows an fourteen-day feast involving a "great congregation" of "all Israel".
The first twenty years of his reign are now finished. Solomon has another dream. Once again God promises wisdom and propserity, but this time a a warning is also given: "If you or your sons turn away from me... and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel and the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name."
Solomon erects many other buildings of importance in Jerusalem and in other parts of his kingdom. The bible reports that he forified the walls of Jerusalem as well as the strategic towns of Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. It describes impressive water works, desert fortresses, store cities, ship bhilding projects, and massive housing projects for his military, including huges stables for his many horses and chariots (1 Kings 9).
Great commercial prosperity both results from these works and in turn enables them. Solomon engages in extensive trade on land with Tyre, Egypt, and Arabia and by sea with Tarshish (Spain), Ophir, South India, and the coasts of Africa. The royal magnificence and splendour of Solomon's court are unrivaled. Impressed by tales of his wisdom, the wonderfully rich Queen of Sheba visits with gifts of gold and spices, and Solomon in turn gives her "all she desired" (1 Kings 10). According to Ethiopian tradition, a son was born of this union, Menelik I, who would become the first emperor of Ethiopia.
Decline and fall
The first part of Solomon's reign was, however, by far the brighter and more prosperous; the latter half was clouded by the idolatries into which he reportedly fell, mainly, according to the scribes, from his intermarriages. Besides his imfamous marriage to the princess of Egypt, according to 1 Kings 11:4, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. For their sakes, and no doubt for the sake of the peoples they reprented within his empire, he allowed santuaries for dieties other than Yahweh to be erected within the Temple confines.
Because of this idol worship, a prophet visits Solomon and tells him that after his death his kingdom would be split in two (Israel and Judah) and that his son, Rehoboam, would suffer because of his sin. He died, after a reign of forty years, and was buried in Jerusalem.
The Historical Solomon
Solomon in the World's Religions
===Solomon in Judaism
Solomon in Christianity
Solomon in Islam
- See Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an
Solomon also appears in the Qur'an, where he is called Sulayman. The Qur'an refers to Solomon as the son of David, as a prophet and as a great ruler imparted by God with tremendous wisdom, favor, and mystical powers. Solomon was said to have under his rule not only people, but also hosts of invisible beings (i.e., jinn). And like his father David, Solomon is said to have been able to understand the language of the birds, and to see some of the hidden glory in the world that was not accessible to common human beings.
Surah 27 (An Naml/Ant):15 “And, indeed, We granted [true] knowledge unto David and Solomon [as well]; and both were wont to say: 'All praise is due to God, who has [thus] favored us above many of His believing servants!' And [in this insight] Solomon was [truly] David's heir; and he would say: 'O you people! We have been taught the speech of the birds, and have been given [in abundance] of all [good] things: this, behold, is indeed a manifest favor [from God]!'”
Surah 34 (Saba):12 “And unto Solomon [We made subservient] the wind: its morning course [covered the distance of] a month’s journey, and its evening course, a month’s journey. And we caused a mountain of molten copper to flow at his behest; and [even] among the invisible beings there were some that had [been constrained] to labour for him by his Sustainer’s leave – and whichever of them deviated from Our command, him would We let taste suffering through a blazing flame –: they made for him whatever he wished of sanctuaries, and statues, and basins as [large as] great watering-troughs, and cauldrons firmly anchored.”
Later legend
To Solomon are attributed, by rabbinical tradition but not internally, the Biblical books of Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Then comes the Wisdom of Solomon, probably written in the 2nd century B.C.E. where Solomon is portrayed as an astronomer. Other books of wisdom poetry attributed to Solomon are the "Odes of Solomon" and the "Psalms of Solomon".
The Jewish historian Eupolemus, who wrote about 157 B.C.E., included copies of apocryphal letters exchanged between Solomon and the kings of Egypt and Tyre.
The Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam, which may date to the 1st or 2nd century, refers to a legend in which Solomon sends out an army of demons to seek a virgin who had fled from him, perhaps the earliest surviving mention of the later common tale that Solomon controlled demons and made them his slaves. This tradition of Solomon's control over demons appears fully elaborated in the early Christian work called the "Testament of Solomon" with its elaborate and grotesque demonology.
Solomon's mastery of demons is a common element in later Jewish and Arab legends, and is often attributed to possession of a magic ring called the "Seal of Solomon".
The ancient Imperial legend of Ethiopia, as told in the Kebra Nagast, maintains that the Queen of Sheba returned to her realm from her Biblical visit to Solomon, pregnant with his child, and giving birth to a son by the Mai Bella stream in the province of Hamasien, Eritrea. This child would eventually inherit her throne with the new rank and title of Menelik I, Emperor of Abyssinia. The dynasty he would establish would reign in Abyssinia with few interruptions until the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
The Table of Solomon was said to be held in Toledo, Spain during the the Visigothic rule and was part of the loot taken by Tarik ibn Ziyad during the Islamic conquest of Spain, according to Ibn Abd-el-Hakem's History of the Conquest of Spain.
Solomon in fiction
The Toni Morrison novel Song of Solomon makes allusions to Solomon.
The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Requiem for Methuselah" indicated that Solomon was an immortal man named Flint, born in Mesopotamia in the year 3834 B.C.E. His wealth, power, and knowledge were the result of centuries of acquisition. Other identities included Lazarus, Merlin, Leonardo Da Vinci and Johannes Brahms. Flint was portrayed in the episode by actor James Daly.
Solomon is one of the patrons of the superhero Captain Marvel.
In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, alchemists like Isaac Newton believe that Solomon created a kind of "heavier" gold with mystical properties and that it ended in the Solomon Islands where it was found by Spanish discoverers.
Solomon in the arts
Handel composed an oratorio entitled Solomon in 1749. The story follows the basic Biblical plot.
| Preceded by: David |
Kingdom of Israel | Succeeded by: Rehoboam (Judah) Jeroboam (Israel) |
Footnote
Note 1: According to Jewish law, the custom was that a soldier sent to the front lines, such as Bathsheba's husband, would give his wife a retro-active "divorce" annuling their marriage were he to die or disappear, thus allowing the wife to remarry. This was a "loophole" that David and Bathsheba seem to have relied upon, and which has caused some to accuse them of "adultery" when in fact the legal status of Bathsheba's marriage was "suspended" and subject to question, according to the rabbinic commentators. No basis for this explanation is found in the Biblical account, where Uriah was not commanded to go to the front of the battle until after David had slept with Bathsheba.
See also
External links
- Jewish Encyclopeida (1901-1905)
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Solomon entry by Gabriel Oussani (1913)
- Web links on Solomon
de:Salomo eo:Salomono fr:Salomon (Bible) he:שלמה המלך id:Salomo ja:ソロモン王 ko:솔로몬 왕 nl:Salomo nn:Sjelomo I av Israel pl:Salomon (król Izraela) ru:Соломон sk:Šalamún sv:Salomo zh:所羅門王
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