Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
The anger of Jahveh against Solomon (1 Kings xi.) is, of course, the
outcome of late theological explanations of how the ancient and much
idealised kingdom could have been divided after divine promises of its
protection. The interview with Solomon is a sort of dramatization,
in which the anachronism of making Jahveh a historic contemporary
of the Wise King represents the fact that when the tribal deity was
evolved it was in antagonism to a Solomon who, though his body had long
mouldered, was still "marching on." That Solomon had to contend with
the hard and fanatical elements afterwards consolidated in Jahvism is
pretty clear, and we may see in him a primitive Akbar. A century after
Akbar's death the Rajah of Joudpoor said to the emperor Aurungzebe:
"Your ancestor Akbar, whose throne is now in heaven, conducted the
affairs of his empire in equity and security for the period of fifty
years. He preserved every tribe of men in repose and happiness, whether
they were followers of Jesus or of Moses, of Brahma or Mohammed. Of
whatever sect or creed they might be, they all equally enjoyed his
countenance and favour, insomuch that his people, in gratitude for
the indiscriminate protection which he afforded them, distinguished
him by the appellation of The Guardian of Mankind." Moslem fanaticism
could not tolerate such toleration, and Akbar's reign was followed
by conflicts very similar to those which followed Solomon's reign,
leading to the Mogul empire, but ultimately to the reign of an "Empress
of India," under whom we now see the same toleration of all religions
which prevailed in the fifty years of Akbar.
The Moslem saw in Akbar's liberality and toleration the supreme
offence of putting other gods--Jesus, Brahma, Ahuramazda--beside
Allah. The Jahvist saw retrospectively in Solomon's liberality the
putting of Moloch, Ashera, and other gods beside Jahveh. It was
therefore recorded that Jahveh determined to rend all the tribes
save one from Solomon's son (a vaticinium ex evento). But that one
was enough to preserve the Solomon cult.
Anankê oude Theoi machontai. This Necessity, which the Greeks saw
working above all the gods, is man himself, and worked also above Jah
and Jahvism, nay, by means of them. Gradually they seemed to prevail
over Solomonism. The Proverbs and Solomonic Psalms were transfused with
Jahvism, but by this process the heavenly and the terrestrial kings
were confused, and the idea of a human heir to the throne of Jahveh
was conceived. As when, in our own era, Islam swallowed Zoroaster,
with the result of bringing forth the great literary age of Persia,
with Parsaism rationalized under a transparent veil of Moslem phrase
and fable, so anciently arose the Hebrew Faizis and Saadis and Omar
Khayyáms. Of these was the Isaiah who, with pigments of the Solomonic
sunset, painted the sunrise of a new day, and a new earth-born God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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