Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
The verses last mentioned (exaltation of the virtuous woman) are,
curiously enough, blended with "The words of King Lemuel, the oracle
which his mother taught him." The ancient Rabbins identify Lemuel
with Solomon, and relate that when, on the day of the dedication
of the temple, he married Pharaoh's daughter, he drank too much at
the wedding feast, and slept until the fourth hour of the next day,
with the keys of the temple under his pillow. Whereupon his mother,
Bathsheba, entered and reproved him with this oracle. Bathsheba's
own amour with Solomon's father does not appear to have excited any
rabbinical suspicion that the description of the virtuous wife with
which the Book of Proverbs closes is hardly characteristic of the
woman. She was the "Queen Mother," a part of the divine scheme, her
conception of the builder of the temple immaculate, predetermined in
the counsels of Jahveh.
The first nine verses of this last chapter in the Book of Proverbs
certainly appear as if written at a later day, perhaps even so late as
the third century before our era, and aimed at the Jahvist tradition
of Solomon. Lemuel seems to be allegorical, and we here have an
early instance of the mysterious disinclination to mention the great
King's name. His name, Renan assures us, is hidden under "Koheleth,"
but he is not named in the text of that book or even in that of the
"Wisdom of Solomon." In Ezra v. 11 the mention of the temple as the
house "which a great king of Israel builded and finished" seems to
indicate a purposed suppression of Solomon's name, which continued
(Jeremiah lii. 20 is barely an exception) until this silence was
broken by Jesus Ben Sira, and again by Jesus of Nazareth.
The removal of verse 30 (Proverbs xxxi.), clearly a late Jahvist
protest, leaves the praise of the virtuous woman with which the book
closes without any suggestion of piety. Yet we find here that "her
price is far above rubies," "she openeth her mouth with wisdom," and
one or two other tropes which probably united with some in the First
Anthology to evolve more distinctly the goddess Wisdom. Some sentences
of the First Anthology grew like mustard seed. "Wisdom resteth in the
heart of him who hath understanding" (Proverbs xiv. 33), reappears
in 1 Kings iii. 12, and in x. 24 it is definitely stated that it was
the wisdom which God had put into Solomon's heart that made all the
earth seek his presence. It was a miracle they went to see; the glory
is not that of Solomon, but that of God. [11]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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