Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
Every race has a pride in its great men which ultimately prevails over
any pious taboo imposed on them in life or by tradition. Some years
ago it was announced that a German scholar was about to publish proofs
that Jesus was not of the Hebrew race, and while Christendom showed
little concern, all Israel sat upon that German almost furiously. It
is an old story. Banished Buddha becomes an avatar of Vishnu, and
his image now appears in India beside Jagenath. For the heresiarch
must be adapted before adoption. So Solomon returns as a preacher of
orthodox Jahvism, in the "Wisdom of Solomon," but so rigid had been
the taboo in his case that the writer did not venture to insert the
name of so famous a liberal and secularist.
That was about the first year of our era. But presently we hear about
the "Son of David." Was that because of David himself? Interest in
David had so receded that in the "Wisdom of Solomon" the resuscitated
Wise Man barely alludes (once) to his "father's seat." Was it because
of any popular interest in the legendary throne or house of David? That
old "covenant" is not alluded to by the resuscitated monarch, and in
the apostolic writings nothing is said about it. In the Gospels the
title "Son of David" is generally connected with certain alleged
miracles of Jesus, which recalled legends of Solomon, and it is
only in the account of the entry into Jerusalem that it carries any
connotation of royalty corresponding to the genealogies afterwards
elaborated. Unless these narratives are accepted as historical
they must be regarded as phenomena, and, taken in connection with
what may be reasonably regarded as genuine teachings of Jesus, the
phenomena point to a probability that he had reawakened interest in
the Wise Man's teachings, and that this interest, by a compromise
with Jahvist prejudices, coined the expression "Son of David" as an
alias of Solomon.
However this may be, it appears certain that there was in the
teachings of Jesus some substantial recovery of the ancient and
unconverted Solomon, the proverbial philosopher, the man of the
world. How much Jesus may have said to revive interest in Solomon,
and how many of his secular utterances have been hidden in the grave
of his humanity, can only be conjectured; but there are two direct
sayings concerning Solomon ascribed to him which may be regarded
as the only unreserved tributes to the Wise Man that had ever been
uttered since his idealization in Chronicles. And our own Protestant
Jahvism has tried so hard to manipulate these tributes into partial
disparagements that we may easily imagine early Christian Jahvism
destroying similar testimonies altogether.
A. S. V. Luke xi. 31: "The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment
with the men of this generation and condemn them: for she came from
the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and behold a greater than Solomon is here."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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