What did Solomon write?

On the evidence provided by the chroniclers and following the well-established tradition, we must therefore regard Solomon as an author of wisdom literature whose literary activity was far from negligible. That is a well-founded conclusion, but it is no reason for attributing to him a long series of Scriptural works of which he could not have been the author. Exegetes of past centuries, whose critical sense was not always very keen, and whose means of investigation were very inadequate - there is thus some excuse for them - unfortunately attributed to Solomon works of which he did not write one word. On the strength of certain dubious indications they regarded Solomon as the author of Koheleth, the Shir Hashirim and the Book of Wisdom; it must be emphasized, however, that these assertions were by no means always intended to affirm absolutely the authenticity of Solomon's authorship; they were meant rather to do special honour to him. Even today, some of these errors of attribution are still in circulation.

Koheleth. The exact title of this book, as it is found in the Scripture, is 'The words of Qoheleth, son of David, king in Yerusalem.’ It must be pointed out that the expression 'king in Yerusalem' is a complete anachronism. 'Qoheleth' can be translated as 'preacher', or better still, by the expression 'spokesman in an assembly (qahal)'. According to this inscription, then, Solomon is the author of this work.

It is now known that some of the ancient writers, anxious to draw attention to their writings, placed the name of someone who was already famous at the head of their works. The customs of the time allowed this practice, although nowadays we should consider it rather an unscrupulous thing to do, in fact illegal. When this book appeared, Solomon was considered to be 'the wisest man in Yisrael', so a wisdom book signed 'Solomon' was bound to attract great interest.

In addition, the disillusioned spirit of the book agreed quite closely with those deep feelings whose appearance can be observed towards the end of the reign, at the time when Solomon's achievements were already beginning to crumble. Koheleth is a sequence of pessimistic observations; they seem quite in place in the mouth of an aged sovereign filled with bitterness. But this book cannot have Solomon as its author. 45

From the style and contents philologists have been able to date his work with some degree of accuracy: it belongs to the third century B.C. The writer in question was strongly influenced by the Greek literature of the period of Alexander the great; his style too belongs to this period, as does his vocabulary and particularly his intellectual pursuits. Thus between Solomon and the author of Koheleth there is a gap of some six hundred years. In English literature we should hardly be likely to confuse a fourteenth-century chronicle with the work of a nineteenth-century historian.

'The Shir Hashirim, which is Solomon's.'
Such is the title of the book. On several occasions in the text the beloved is called the king, and the bride the Sulamite who has been identified with the Shunamite whose story was told in the account of David, Solomon and Adonijah. As Solomon was regarded as the wise man of Yisrael it seemed obvious to attribute to him this book whose fundamentally secular character is in full accord with certain traits of his sensual life.

Here again the chronology established by the language (it contains Greek words) and the mentality (which is Hellenistic) obliges us to date the book at a period later than that of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 B.C. Solomon is not the author of the Shir Hashirim.

Then there is the Book of Wisdom which is often attributed to him. In the original Greek the author is certainly designated by the title: 'The Wisdom of Solomon.' This is a repetition of the artifice that was used in the case of Koheleth: to excite the reader's curiosity so that he reads the book, it has been attributed to a wise man, and no better one could be found than the wisest man in Yisrael, that is Solomon.

Scholars, however, have been able to prove that this text is the work of a Jew, a man of ardent faith, who lived in Alexandria in the middle of the first century B.C.

45 It is very probable that in its primitive version Koheleth may have shocked its readers, for at a later date editors altered some passages to lessen the distressing character of them. Those which remain are not very consoling 'I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and what vanity it all is, what chasing of the wind !' Life is a disappointing experience. and ends in death for all. The mystery of the after-life torments the author without his being able to find any relief for his anguish.

'Solomon in all his honour'

This saying of YAHSHUA's appears in the New Covenant. When HE exhorted his followers not to be unduly concerned about their food and clothing HE gave them the example of the lilies of the fields:' They never have to work or spin'. And yet 'Solomon in all his honour' was not 'robed like one of these'.

'Solomon in all his honour': in this remark we should seek neither praise nor blame. It is a mere historical reminder. Thus a thousand years after Solomon's death the memory of this king lived on in the minds of the Jews; the expression had even become proverbial in the popular speech as it was spoken by YAHSHUA.

Of the forty years of his reign the first twenty or so have been described here and it must be admitted that in the Old Covenant Solomon appears as an outstanding figure. Here and there, of course, some reservations, on occasion of a severe nature, are needed. It is true nonetheless that from an historical viewpoint Solomon's period appears as an apotheosis.

Greatness, power, display, majestic dignity, magnificence, success in most of his immense national under takings: these were the components of the honour of Solomon. Here a rapid summary is needed to show the principal successful undertakings of the first half of the reign (970-950).

Shortly before 1000 B.C., David, the founder of the dynasty, settled in Yerusalem in a modest palace. Surrounded by spiritual and political counselors he led the life of a rich landed proprietor; there was no fiscal system and the king lived on the income from his land just like the kings in Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages. The army was commanded by leaders who in the past had shared with David the fatigues of war.

Solomon gave a far different impression; he was a real oriental monarch, living in an immense palace, lined with gold. By this time the Ark had been placed in the Qadash of Qadash, the inmost chamber of the sumptuously adorned Great Tabernacle.

A haughty civil service had divided the country into twelve administrative districts which, each in turn, were responsible for the upkeep of the palace. Every day the administrators provided for the palace thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal, ten fattened oxen,  twenty free-grazing oxen, one hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelles, roebuck and fattened cuckoos (1 Melechim 5:2-3). Strict etiquette governed the life of the palace, particularly in the presence of the king. There was a very great difference between David's life in Yerusalem and that of his son Solomon. Obviously, profound changes had occurred in Yerusalem; his subjects could only be received by Solomon after a request for an audience and they were required to greet him with high-sounding titles. David, wearing a simple ephod, had accompanied the Ark, dancing before it. When Solomon went to the Great Tabernacle of YAHWEH he was escorted by five hundred men who went before his chariot, bearing golden shields. This was indeed 'Solomon in all his honour'.

In addition, the land of Canaan, which had now become the country of Yahudah-Yisrael, was covered with fine buildings of which its inhabitants a century previously had not the slightest idea. The Great Tabernacle filled the enthusiastic crowds with admiration when they came to offer sacrifice on the former threshing floor of Ornan before YAHWEH's tabernacle. The palace, which was no longer open to all, gave the people a lofty idea of their sovereign, living inaccessible and withdrawn, with wealth so great that it could not be counted; glowing descriptions of it passed from mouth to mouth and filled the subjects of this powerful monarch with great pride. And it should not be forgotten that in many places elsewhere in the country there were strongholds of most formidable appearance to any enemy, revealing to all, friends or foes, the military strength of the kingdom. And it was common knowledge that a strong force was always in a state of readiness and at a given signal would fall on an invader. We have come a long way indeed from David's army, which, heroic though it was, in order to equip itself properly was obliged to despoil the Philistines who had fallen in battle.

Then, on the international chess-board of the Middle East, Yisrael was emerging increasingly as a great power. Taking advantage of the weakness of Egypt (at that time a prey to internal troubles) and the recent disappearance of the military and imperialist states of Asia Minor, Solomon had contrived skillfully to build up a clever network of alliances; he was careful to maintain cordial diplomatic relations with the neighbouring powerful kingdoms -Egypt and the Phoenicians. Further, with Pharaoh, as with the king of Tyre, he was successful in contracting the bonds of kinship:  Siamon's daughter, born in Egypt, became Solomon's wife, and one of Hiram's sisters also entered the royal harem.

The times were past when the tribes of Yacob fled from the land of Egypt and the fearful forced labour. Now the king of Yisrael asked for the hand of pharaoh's daughter in marriage and although, generally speaking, in Egypt they did not allow the princesses to marry outside the country it was agreed that Siamon should become the father-in-law of the Yisraelite king.

Moreover Solomon's harem bore comparison with the great potentates of the East; there were 700 wives and 300 concubines. It may well be suspected that those figures were rounded off to make a total of 1000, the number 'of power'.

For twenty years, too, an unexpected peace had reigned in the country -indeed it lasted for a further twenty years, until the end of the reign.

David had been the warrior of Yisrael; he had won his kingdom by force of arms, bringing to naught Canaanite and Philistine resistance within the country, imposing his will on the turbulent tribes of TransYardenia and also, in the south, on the nomad tribes of the Negeb. In the end, he was successful in causing order to reign elsewhere. By bloodshed and the sword he established the Hebrew kingdom.

Logically, Solomon had no need to continue a task which had already been brought to a successful conclusion. But experience of human nature teaches us that rulers are generally insatiable in their territorial appetites. Only too often a conqueror's son, brought up in a warlike atmosphere, is anxious to follow his father's example.

Fortunately, Solomon did not behave in this way. He was sufficiently intelligent to pursue no further the policy of annexation which for David had been a matter of harsh necessity. Solomon did not belong to the category of oriental despots whose only thought was to meet their neighbours in pitched battles. He did not allow himself to be tempted by the vanity of such victories; he was Shelomoh, that is, the Peaceful. Whether this nickname was given him at his accession or at a later date is hardly relevant; in any case it suited him. The people of Yisrael, always ready, like all other peoples, to manifest its dissatisfaction with the government, was obliged, on this account at least, to acknowledge the great wisdom of its king. The Yisraelites, who were by no means warlike, could appreciate this long period in which they were able to live in security, each man under his vine and his fig tree. Solomon the Peaceful: a king crowned with honour.

Peace had also borne its fruits. International trade, by land and sea, remained of course in the hands of the government. But that did not prevent the craftsmen, the merchants, even the farmers, from benefiting to a great extent from this new trend. The caravans of horses which went from one end of the country to the other, the voyages in the Mediterranean or to the land of Ophir, the various camps of labourers set up near the work sites, were all the cause of a circulation of wealth of a kind that hitherto the Yisraelites had scarcely suspected. The beginning of these commercial exchanges opened new horizons for the Yisraelites; the spirit of adventure, the impulse to trade, hitherto the exclusive domain of the Phoenicians, began to emerge among the Yisraelites of this period.

This economic revolution, it seems clear, was fostered by the king himself together with the other unexpected movements that he provoked. He appeared as a genius worthy of all homage; 'Solomon in all his honour.'

Social progress also was very rapid. The Yisraelite, now settled on the land as a farmer, began to enjoy a standard of homely comfort which he had never experienced in his hard life as a nomad on the plains. The system of political administrators, despite its unpopularity, resulted nevertheless in an increase of agricultural production and an augmentation of income. On the other hand, the abundance of manufactured goods which was recorded at this time transformed and eased daily life. And all this, as everyone was aware, was due to Solomon.

The kohen class, too, enthusiastically approved Solomon's spiritual policy. In the first place, there was the building of the Great Tabernacle. Of course, Solomon did not abolish the 'high places' -for the most part former Canaanite sanctuaries established on certain hilltops  which had been accommodated after a fashion to the requirements of the worship of YAHWEH; but they remained more or less gravely tainted with idolatrous practices. On another matter he appears to have been more successful: this was the consultation of oracles for the purpose of discovering YAHWEH's answer to some problem. The use of 'urim and thummim' (there is little information on how these oracles were worked) was of spiritual origin. Such a practice could not be retained for long within the framework of a transcendent belief like Yahwism. Although these methods of divination only disappeared definitively at the time of the prophets it should be emphasized that it was Solomon who struck the first blow for their abolition.

In addition, while being careful to avoid dangerous anachronisms -they are easy enough to fall into by reason of the introduction into Solomon's biography of elements of a much later date -we can see from examination of the texts that there grew up an increasing tendency no longer to regard YAHWEH as merely a tribal or national YAHWEH, but as the universal YAHWEH.

Under Solomon's leadership the Yisraelites progressed rapidly. They owed this profound transformation almost exclusively to Solomon, their providential guide who for scarcely twenty years had taken charge of the destiny of the kingdom. From his sumptuous palace, adorned with wood and precious metals, the sovereign governed the country with incomparable wisdom. From his ivory and gold encrusted throne the potentate dispensed justice to his subjects and caused peace to reign. He was 'Solomon in all his honour'.

Does this fine portrait need modifying?

In the Book of Divre Hayamim (2 Divre Hayamim 1-9), written as has been mentioned during the third century B.C., the writer seems to have taken care to pass over in silence anything that might be thought harmful to Solomon's legendary reputation; he confines himself to recording only those historical events which honour the king.

On the other hand, the author of the Book of Melechim (1 Melechim 3-11), who wrote his work during Solomon's lifetime or very shortly afterwards, makes no difficulty in the last chapter of his biography (1 Melechim 11) in painting a rather sombre picture of the end of the reign; Solomon's heavy responsibilities are stated quite bluntly. But the matter must not be over-simplified. It must not be thought that from 970 to 950 all went well and that from 950 until 931 all went badly. It remains true all the same that the first twenty years of the reign -those that have here been dealt with - despite certain blunders and failures, reveal the record of a brilliant series of achievements in the political, artistic and even literary spheres. But in the second twenty-year period, to which we now turn, the edifice begins to crumble and the kingdom is seen to be on the road to ruin.

The writer of the Book of Melechim and, following his example, many modern historians, think to explain this national tragedy by Solomon's strange and disturbing psychological evolution.

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Solomon The Magnificent Index   Solomon Sitemap  Scripture History Through the Ages  Solomon The Historian  RADIANT DAWN  Solomon's Wisdom  SOLOMON IN ALL HIS HONOR  David's role in building the Temple  Dates of the building of the Temple  Division of the Temple  The Ark of the Covenant  The most Kodesh Place  Dedication of the Temple  SOLOMON Prince of Peace  SOLOMON THE TRADER   Solomon's Ophir expedition  The queen of Sheba  LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOLOMON  First historical works of the Hebrews  What did Solomon write  THE SHADES OF NIGHT  Political and social failure  Solomon's spiritual failure  The moral failure of Solomon  CONCLUSION of Solomon