In theBible , the sovereignty of King Solomon concur with the height of ancient Israelite wealth , power and godlike authorization . King Solomon , accord to the book of 1 King , " was with child in riches and wiseness than all the other king of the earth . " His fame attracted courtly visitant like the glorious queen regnant of Sheba , and his romantic appetency required no less than 700 wives and 300 concubines .
Chosen and sanctify by God , Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem to house the mythic Ark of the Covenant , and he commanded an USA lead by 1,400 chariots that conquered kingdoms as far north as the Euphrates River stretch down to the Negev Desert .
The Search for Solomon’s Kingdom
Yet after more than a C of digging and searching , archeologist and historian have yet touncover a individual stonebelonging to the First Temple or even a fleeting textual book of facts to the outstanding King Solomon outside of the Bible .
In fact , some scholarsbelieve that Solomon and his father David , another bigger - than - life biblical physique , may not have been man - noted , all - powerful kings as much as locally renowned tribal chieftains with a near PR department .
To assort out who was the " real " King Solomon , we spoke withSteven Ortiz , director of the Lanier Center for Archaeology at Lipscomb University in Nashville , who has led archeological digging in Israel , including sites that go steady to the meter of David and Solomon , roughly 1,000 B.C.E.
How Solomon’s Reign Began
King David was the first to rule what ’s acknowledge as the United Monarchy , a single kingdom that encompassed all of ancient Israel . David had many wives and many sons , but the Bible tell us that he chose Solomon , the boy of his beloved Bathsheba , to take the throne .
It was rumored his half - sidekick Adonijah , Word of his fifth wife Haggith , was planning to take the throne and the prophet Nathan warn Bathsheba . She then severalise King David of his Adonijah plans . Due to this news program , it is consider King David decided to keep his promise and name Solomon big businessman .
The Golden Age of Israel
" Solomon , in the Bible , was the summit of the Israelite kings , " say Ortiz . " He inherited the United Monarchy from David , but he took it further . You have Solomon and all of his wives , Solomon ’s gold , Solomon ’s Temple . His sovereignty is larger than life , at least in the biblical account . "
The Bible describes the brilliance of the First Temple and the luxury of Solomon ’s palace , where everything was made ofgold , " because ash grey was considered of little note value in Solomon ’s days,“according to 1 business leader 10:21 . As word of honor of Solomon ’s swell soundness spread far and wide , " the whole world seek audience with Solomon to hear the wiseness God had put in his heart . "
The most renowned foreign dignitary was the impressive poove of Sheba ( maybe fromEthiopia or Yemen ) , who led a " groovy caravan " of camels carrying " spice , magnanimous quantity of gold and precious stone , " quizzed King Solomon on his knowledge with " hard question " and was " overwhelmed " by all she saw and heard , according to the Bible . She exclaims in1 Kings 10 , " In wisdom and riches you have far exceeded the report I try . How happy your hoi polloi must be ! "
Then there ’s the legendary history known as " Solomon and the Two Women " or " Solomon ’s Judgment , " say in1 Kings 3 . In this story , two prostitutes come before Solomon , each claiming that an infant boy is their boy . Solomon calmly control his guard to take a sword and divide the child in two , giving half to each woman . One of the fair sex shout out out and says to give the baby to the other womanhood if it means sparing the boy ’s life history .
" Give the dwell child to the first woman . Do not stamp out him ; she is his female parent , " Solomon ruled , for only the true female parent would put her baby ’s life sentence above her own felicity .
Differing Accounts of Solomon in the Bible
Solomon appears in three books of the Hebrew Bible — 2 Samuel , 1 mogul and 2 chronicle — and the detail of his lifevary in unlike retellings . The early Christian Bible , for example , are more likely to include some of the " less shiny " face of Solomon ’s narrative , like his usurpation of the toilet from his brothers , and his sinful taste for pagan women .
" King Solomon … loved many foreign women … Moabites , Ammonites , Edomites , Sidonians and Hittites , " the Bible relates in1 business leader 11 . " They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites , ' You must not intermarry with them , because they will sure sprain your warmheartedness after their god . ' … As Solomon grew old , his wives turn over his heart after other gods , and his heart was not in full devoted to the Lord his God , as the centre of David his father had been . "
This is give as the reason for Solomon ’s downfall . As a newfangled king , Solomon had prayed for Wisdom of Solomon to reign well . God was impressed that he did n’t ask for personal profit and in addition to yield him wisdom , blessed him with rich too . But because he started worshipping other divinity , God withdraw away his security and raised up enemies that the king had to fight . God also told Solomon that most of his kingdom would be deplume away from his Logos after Solomon ’s death .
While criticism like these appear in the accounts of Solomon in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings , nothing remotely negative is included in 2 chronicle , which show like a " greatest hits . " It’sgenerally agreed among scholarsthat Chronicles was pen between 400 and 300 B.C.E. after the Babylonian Exile , when the Jews had refund to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple , while Samuel and Kings were written during the Exile ( around 550 B.C.E. )
The author of Chronicles likely selected the most glowing news report of David and Solomon ’s reign forpolitical reasons . After Solomon ’s death , the United Monarchy was burst in two . The author of Chronicles was a citizen of the southerly Kingdom of Judah , which was ruled by the purple line of David and Solomon . It makes gumption that history speak up David and Solomon as the greatest kings on ground , and the Temple as an architectural marvel , because the author wanted to make the character that Judah was thetrue Israeland not the northern Kingdom of Israel .
Later Christian readers latch onto the exaggerated accounts of David and Solomon ’s enormousness in Chronicles because Jesus is straight condescend from the House of David , according tohis genealogyin the New Testament book of Matthew . The stateliness of David and Solomon ’s reign was go through as a predecessor of the millennium , when Jesus would return and God ’s kingdom would once again be established on earth .
The Chieftain Theory
Scholars are divide on the historicity of David and Solomon and the true sizing of their United Monarchy . While there are no extra - biblical reference to Solomon in text from neighboring kingdoms like the Egyptians — despite the Bible ’s call that Solomon wed one of the Pharaoh of Egypt ’s girl — there is one intriguing art object of grounds pointing to the being of the United Monarchy .
In 1993 , Ortiz say , archeologists in northern Israel unearth a stone tablet inscribe in Aramaic that told of an Aramean victory over the mogul of Israel , referred to as the " House of David . "
" It does n’t go steady to the time of David , but a century later during the wars with the Arameans , " says Ortiz , explaining that Israel was rule at that time by lesser - sleep together top executive like Omri and Ahab . " The implication is , when the Arameans wanted to boast about conquering Israel , they peck a big name than Omri or Ahab , so they called it the ' House of David . ' "
But still , one shard of a tablet is n’t substantial validation that the United Monarchy was a big deal in the ancient world .
An archaeologist named Israel Finkelstein has promoteda controversial theorythat ancient Israel was still a cold backwater in 1,000 B.C.E. when David and Solomon would have lived . or else of ruling a Brobdingnagian and powerful land , David and Solomon were most in all probability important chieftain of local Bedouin tribes . Under Finklestein ’s theory , the real establishment of an urban Israelite land did n’t get along until the ninth century B.C.E. and coincide with the rule of Omri .
The hyperbolic talk of the town in the Bible , Finkelstein wrote , according to the New Yorker , was a intersection of Judean authors who wanted to meet up the importance of their kingdom in its ongoing competition with the northerly Kingdom of Israel .
Ortiz disagrees . For a decennium , he led a dig atTel Gezer , a village in the foothills west of Jerusalem , where his team uncover evidence of an administrative complex dating from 1,000 B.C.E. Ortiz contends that urbanization and realm - edifice was already pass off during David and Solomon ’s time .
Ortiz is n’t buy the chieftain theory , but does that intend that he mean the fib of Solomon ’s fab wealth and power are all true ?
" The tale and traditions associated with David and Solomon grew and took on a life of their own , " sound out Ortiz . " But I believe their United Monarchy would have been significant for the tenth century . In the context of the biblical authors , at least , this was a big kingdom . "
He gives a utilitarian analogy . If you go to a college with a Division III football game squad , you probably think that Division III football is middling vainglorious - time and private-enterprise . " It ’s only when you see a sectionalization I gage that you ’re like , ' Whoa ! ' " say Ortiz .
