Josephus' Portrait of Solomon
In Josephus' rewriting of the biblical account of Solomon, Josephus draws upon Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, and Thucydides, among others. His portrayal of Solomon plays a key role in his attempt to answer the charge that the Jews had failed to produce great men. In particular, Josephus stresses So...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1996
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 1995, Volume: 66, Pages: 103-167 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | In Josephus' rewriting of the biblical account of Solomon, Josephus draws upon Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, and Thucydides, among others. His portrayal of Solomon plays a key role in his attempt to answer the charge that the Jews had failed to produce great men. In particular, Josephus stresses Solomon's precociousness, wealth, courage, temperance, justice, magnanimity, gratefulness, generosity, and piety. Above all, in striking additions, Josephus' Solomon displays wisdom reminiscent of Oedipus, in the cleverness and speed with which he resolves the case of the two mothers. This wisdom is that of a rational and philosophical king and judge. Nevertheless, Solomon is portrayed as so modest that, despite his extraordinary wisdom, he admits that he has been outwitted by a young Tyrian lad, Abdemon. Josephus also portrays Solomon as skilled in exorcising demons. Josephus emphasizes Solomon's political and economic achievements in administering his state. There are contemporary implications in Josephus' stress on Solomon's avoidance of civil dissension, an evil that Josephus decried so vehemently in his Jewish War. By adding greatly to the description of the beauty of the Temple which Solomon built, he magnifies Solomon's wealth and piety. In criticizing Solomon's intermarriages, Josephus is careful to base his opposition not on the ground of his aversion to intermarriage as such but rather on his objection to Solomon's yielding to passion, a point which Stoics in his audience would have appreciated. To refute the charge that Jews hate non-Jews Josephus dwells on the warm friendship of Solomon with Hiram, the king of Tyre. To corroborate the biblical account he cites evidence from the Phoenician archives and from the works of non-Jewish writers, Dios and Menander of Ephesus. Finally, Josephus has sought to improve upon the biblical text by avoiding difficulties and implausibilities and by increasing suspense and dramatic and romantic interest. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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