The Rise Of King Solomon (COTS)

Some Biblical Facts About King Solomon
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The life of Solomon is primarily described in 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. His two names mean “peaceful" and "friend of God", both considered "predictive of the character of his reign”
 
Wisdom
 
Luca Giordano: The Dream of Solomon: God promises Solomon wisdom
Solomon was the biblical king most famous for his wisdom. In 1 Kings he sacrificed to God, and God later appeared to him in a dream,[26] asking what Solomon wanted from God. Solomon asked for wisdom in order to better rule and guide his people. Pleased, God personally answered Solomon's prayer, promising him great wisdom because he did not ask for self-serving rewards like long life or the death of his enemies.
 
Perhaps the best known story of his wisdom is the Judgment of Solomon; two women each lay claim to being the mother of the same child. Solomon easily resolved the dispute by commanding the child to be cut in half and shared between the two. One woman promptly renounced her claim, proving that she would rather give the child up than see it killed. Solomon declared the woman who showed compassion to be the true mother, entitled to the whole child.
 
Wealth
 
Solomon receiving envoys of the tributary nations
See also: Solomon's Temple
According to the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Kingdom of Israel gained its highest splendor and wealth during Solomon's reign of 40 years
 
Wives and Concubines
 
King Solomon with his wives. Illustrated in 1668 by Giovanni Battista Venanzi.
According to the biblical account, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.[34] The wives were described as foreign princesses, including Pharaoh's daughter[35] and women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and of the Hittites. His marriage to Pharaoh's daughter appears to have cemented a political alliance with Egypt, whereas he clung to his other wives and concubines "in love".[36][37] The only wife mentioned by name is Naamah the Ammonite, mother of Solomon's successor, Rehoboam.
 
The biblical narrative notes with disapproval that Solomon permitted his foreign wives to import their national deities, building temples to Ashtoreth and Milcom.[38]
In the branch of literary analysis that examines the Bible, called higher criticism, the story of Solomon falling into idolatry by the influence of Pharaoh's daughter and his other foreign wives is "customarily seen as the handiwork of the 'deuteronomistic historian(s)'", who are held to have written, compiled, or edited texts to legitimize the reforms of Hezekiah's great-grandson, King Josiah who reigned from about 641 to 609 BC (over 280 years after Solomon's death according to Bible scholars).[39] Scholarly consensus in this field holds that "Solomon's wives/women were introduced in the 'Josianic' (customarily Dtr) edition of Kings as a theological construct to blame the schism [between Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel] on his misdeeds".
 
Relationship with Queen of Sheba
 
In a brief, unelaborated, and enigmatic passage, the Hebrew Bible describes how the fame of Solomon's wisdom and wealth reached even the far-off Queen of Sheba. The queen is described as visiting with gifts including gold, spices and precious stones. When Solomon gave her "all her desire, whatsoever she asked", she left satisfied (1 Kings 10:13).
Whether the passage is simply to provide a brief foreign witness of Solomon's wealth and wisdom, or whether the visit is meant to have more significance, is unknown; nevertheless, the Queen of Sheba has become the subject of numerous stories.
 
Sheba is typically identified as Saba, a nation once spanning the Red Sea on the coasts of what are now Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen, in Arabia Felix; although other sources place it in the area of what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Sins and punishment.
 
Jewish scribes say that Solomon's teacher was Shimei (son of Gera), and while he lived, he prevented Solomon from marrying foreign wives. The Talmud says at Ber. 8a: "For as long as Shimei the son of Gera was alive Solomon did not marry the daughter of Pharaoh" (see also Midrash Tehillim to Ps. 3:1). Solomon's execution of Shimei was his first descent into sin.[12]
 
According to 1 Kings 11:4 Solomon's "wives turned his heart after other gods", their own national deities, to whom Solomon built temples, thus incurring divine anger and retribution in the form of the division of the kingdom after Solomon's death (1 Kings 11:9–13). 1 Kings 11 describes Solomon's descent into idolatry, particularly his turning after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the god of the Ammonites.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon
(SKC-06-05-23)

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