An Imaginary Trio

King Solomon, Jesus, and Aristotle

Yaacov Shavit

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110677300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Comparative Religion

This book focuses on places and instances where Solomon's legendary biography intersects with those of Jesus Christ and of Aristotle. Solomon is the axis around which this trio revolves, the thread that binds it together. It is based on the premise that there exists a correspondence, both overt and implied, between these three biographies, that has taken shape within a vast, multifaceted field of texts for more than two thousand years.

Chapter One Biographies Correspond

“He was from the beginning worthy to be a king in this world

And he shall be worthy in the world to come”

The Second Targum to Esther, II.

When King Solomon emerged from the pages of the Bible, he became the Solomon of legend—one of three figures (together with Moses and David) endowed with biographies in both biblical and post-biblical literature.⁶¹

Jewish literary culture, which developed under the influence of Hellenistic culture and consequently expanded to adopt new literary genres, was in search of a hero; in Solomon, it found one. Nor was Jewish culture alone in embracing him as a cultural hero: Solomon, mainly on the wings of legend, was destined to transcend borders of culture and of time. But this book deals with a trio, and, indeed, the lives of Aristotle and Jesus would expand similarly over time. Aristotle’s status as a scholar and philosopher, his vast bibliography, and his connections with Alexander the Great inspired numerous biographies and pseudo-biographies; and, in apocryphal and pseudo-apocryphal literature, the life of Jesus took on new and varied forms beyond those depicted in the New Testament.⁶² This great abundance of legends, and the versatile roles attributed to these three figures, made possible the correspondence that would develop between them.

Solomon’s reign lasted between 967 and 928 B.C.E.—a period of nearly forty years⁶³—and his biblical biography speaks at length of his greatness, of the richness of international trade with his kingdom under his rule, of the patterns of his reign and administration, and, first and foremost, of his construction of the Temple. It is notable that no contemporaneous extra-biblical sources, however, make mention of his actions or his name.

The Bible provides Solomon with two parallel biographies. The first, and earliest, version of the story is given in 1 Kings 1 – 11. A second version appears in 1 Chronicles 8 – 29 – 2 Chronicles 1 – 15,⁶⁴ focusing on Solomon’s glory and on the construction of the Temple while omitting the shadows that “would eclipse his kingdom”. Beyond the pages of the Bible, versions of Solomon’s life abound.

The profusion of appellations that have accrued to Solomon also attests to his status.⁶⁵ The prophet Nathan called Solomon Yedidiah (“Friend to the Lord”)⁶⁶; the Midrash refers to him as Kohelet⁶⁷, Etiel (“God is with me” because the spirit of God lay upon him), and Yikhat.⁶⁸ Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai, a Tannaitic sage, maintained that Solomon was one of three tzadikim (righteous ones), together with Isaac and Joshua, whose name was given to them by the Almighty himself (“Of Solomon, what does it say? Here a son has been born unto you, he will be a man of rest, and I have rested from all my enemies around me, for Solomon will be his name, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days”).⁶⁹ In Christian writings, his Latin name, Salomon, was also translated as Pacificus—a maker, or bringer, of peace; in Muslim literature, his name is Suleiman, and sometimes Salim.⁷⁰

Few doubted the veracity of Solomon’s biblical biographies prior to the nineteenth century.⁷¹ One of the arguments put forth as evidence of his historicity was that the patterns of rule and administration that characterized his kingdom, as described in great detail in the Bible, were modeled on those of the Egyptian kingdom⁷²; some biographers even claimed to know the name of the daughter of Pharaoh that he took as his wife, or the locations of the various lands to which his fleet sailed. Another, more skeptical group, believed that these were simply various historical traditions that had, over the course of generations, undergone various stages of composition, compilation, and editing until their eventual collation into a single unit, perhaps after the destruction of the Temple.⁷³ Who, then, were the creators and composers of those traditions, and what guided them? One theory is that Solomon’s biography in 1 Kings was composed in two main stages, in each case with entirely different goals. The early version, composed in the ninth century B.C.E., or before the end of the seventh, idealizes Solomon as a ruler and depicts his reign as the golden age of a great kingdom—of an empire, really—its capital large and fortified with a magnificent temple at its heart. The other version, written while Judah was weakened or after its destruction, presents Solomon as the topos of a sinful king, personally responsible for the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem, and the Temple. This version, then, was the creation of opponents of the renewed kingdom.⁷⁴ This hypothesis assumes an early text written as royal propaganda, to which a later author—or authors—added their own subversive, anti-monarchic take; it assumes further that readers of the new version could distinguish between it and its predecessor, and understand the subtext and its message.

Regardless of the course of its development, Solomon’s biblical biography, at least part of which is itself legend, is the fertile soil from which numerous and varied legendary traditions have sprung forth, evolved, and merged, traveling tirelessly across cultures and across eras. This phenomenon raises several issues fundamental to the history of traditions as a field of study (Traditionsgeschichte): the identity of the primary sources of these legends; in what context and for what purposes they were created; in what manner they were disseminated; why and how they were absorbed in such disparate environments; and what roles and significance they assumed in the receiving environments and within the frameworks of various literary genres.

No wars or momentous upheavals marked Solomon’s lengthy reign. In their absence, his biblical biography describes his supreme wisdom, his marriage to a thousand women, the famous “Judgment of Solomon” in which the fate of a child hung in the balance, and the no less famous visit of the Queen of Sheba; these evocative narratives proved fertile soil for the eventual emergence of Solomon’s legendary biography. At the same time, his biblical biography comprises not only his life story but also the books of the Bible he is said to have authored: The Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and Psalms 72 and 127. The very first words of the Song of Songs are “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s”; Proverbs opens with “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel”⁷⁵; and Ecclesiastes offers “the words of the Preacher (Kohelet), son of David, king in Jerusalem”, later proclaiming “I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem”.⁷⁶ The attribution of these three texts to Solomon made it possible to embroider upon his biography and his persona, and to endow him with a variety of opinions on the nature of life and the relationship between humanity and God. A vast exegetical and midrashic literature took shape around the theme, expanding and sculpting his biography with new detail and revolving primarily around the “autobiographical” accounts found in Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. His literary output was similarly augmented: countless additional books were ascribed to his putative authorship, including Sapientia Salomonis (The Wisdom of Solomon), the Psalms of Solomon, the Odes of Solomon,⁷⁷ and others that have been lost over the centuries.

Solomon’s biblical and legendary biographies became a topos of an ideal king—a rex optimus⁷⁸—and simultaneously that of a king truly worthy of condemnation. These two conflicting aspects were summed up circa 180 B.C.E. by Ben Sira⁷⁹:

Solomon, king in days of peace [[ ]] because God granted this to him by making the surrounding nations quiet.

who established a house for his name [[ ]] and founded a sanctuary forever.

How wise you were in your youth [ ] For you overflowed as the Nile with instructions.

The earth [ - ] your [life] and you sang a heavenly song of pra[ise].

in song, [parab]le, riddle, and proverb [[ ]] you astounded all peoples.

You were called by the name of the glorious one, [[ ]] by which Israel was called and you amassed gold like iron [[ ]] and multiplied silver like lead.

But you gave yourself in lust to women [[ ]] and handed over to them the rule of your body.

And you [brou]ght corruption upon your glory [[ ]] and profaned your wedding bed wrath upon your descendants [[ ]] and regret to your deathbed.

[ ] into two tribes [[ ]] and from Ephraim a kingdom of violence.⁸⁰

In contrast, 2 Baruch—written around the turn of the second century C.E.—was lavish in its account of the grandeur and glory of Solomon’s reign, which it regarded as a model for the days of the Messiah:

And the bright sixth waters which thru did see,

This is the time [[in] which David and Solomon were born.

And there was at that time the building of Zion,

And the dedication of the sanctuary,

And the shedding of much blood of the nations that sinned then,

And many offerings which were offered then in the dedication of the sanctuary.

And peace and tranquility existed at that time,

And wisdom was heard in the assembly:

And riches of understanding were magnified in the congregations,

And the holy festivals were fulfilled in blessedness and in much joy.

And the judgment of the rulers was then seen to be guile,

And the righteousness of the Mighty One was accomplished with truth.

And the land [which] was beloved by the Lord,

And because its inhabitants sinned not, it was glorifi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One Biographies Correspond
• Chapter Two Solomon and Jesus – Two Sons of God, and of David?
• Chapter Three Solomon – His Actions and Books: Prefiguration, Typology, and His Teachings
• Chapter Four The Divine Presence and a Heavenly Voice Come to Solomon’s Aid – On Sin, Repentance, and Absolution
• Chapter Five “How is Jesus Greater than Solomon?” Solomon and Jesus as Magicians (Healers and Exorcists)
• Chapter Six Miracles and Wonders: Magic, Satan, and Demons
• Chapter Seven Solomon’s Wisdom – From Hermes to Aristotle
• Chapter Eight Solomon, Aristoteles Judaicus, and the Invention of a Pseudo-Solomonic Library
• Afterword
• Name Index