People of the Book – Solomon
Some scholars believe the Islamic Dome of the Rock in present-day Jerusalem stands on the site of the original Temple Mount, built by Solomon almost a thousand years before the birth of Christ on what has often been called the “navel of the world.” Before the Babylonian Exile, the Temple housed the Ark of the Covenant, that portable sanctuary described in the Bible as holding irreplaceable treasures of the Jewish faith, including the original tablets of the Ten Commandments, and representing the dazzling and pulsating presence of the divine in the sancta sanctorum (the “holy of holies”).
Hollywood movies aside, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians still maintain that the “lost” Ark has been stored in the town of Axum for centuries and, in a claim which brings to mind the novel The Giver, is protected by an unbroken succession of solitary virginal guardians who alone can lay eyes upon it until a successor is chosen and spends the rest of his life in isolation within the walls of the shrine’s compound carrying on the tradition of serving as a sentinel to the community’s collective memory of the reception of its priceless gift. Supposedly, Mussolini was thwarted in his efforts to abduct the artifact in his conquest of Abyssinia in the 1930s.
King Solomon, the favored son of the shepherd-king David who was responsible for the first permanent home for the Ark, is of course renowned for his wisdom and munificence, memorably adjudicating a maternity suit by instructing that the baby in question be divided equally between the two female claimants. The genuine mother, preferring to lose her case rather than see the baby so violently destroyed, is vindicated by her self-sacrificing maternal instinct and recognized as the legitimate parent, proving Solomon’s just decision-making.
The gift of wisdom (Greek sophia, Latin sapientia), which is so associated with the king, integrates knowledge with elements of benevolence, morality, justice, and proper action, and so transcends mere understanding. Asked by God what he would most desire in this life, Solomon resists the urge to request worldly goods or mere Ivy League intelligence and begs instead for “a discerning heart…to distinguish between right and wrong” (1 Kings 3:9). Unparalleled in this holistic approach to thinking with clarity and acting with goodness, Solomon is traditionally thought to have catalogued some of these wise insights into the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, as well as in the Song of Songs and a few of the psalms.
Solomon is mentioned numerous times in reference to Jesus in the New Testament. Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus’ ancestors includes a direct allusion to Solomon (Luke’s does not). Jesus also claims that the lilies of the field, unconcerned with the future and dependent upon God for their sustenance and flourishing, are more beautifully adorned than “Solomon in all his glory” (Lk 12:27). Lastly, the Lord claims about his own mission, “There is something greater than Solomon here” (Mt 12:42).
Claims like the last, along with Jn 8:58 (“Before Abraham was, I AM”) remove the option, so common today, of identifying Jesus as a great moral teacher or guru who was not divine. The logic which refutes this is often called the “aut deus aut homo malo” argument. Put simply, in claiming to be greater than any of the prophets or kings and using for himself the divine Name God revealed to Moses (YHWH = “I AM”) which was considered too holy for pious Jews to utter, Jesus could no longer be called by any of his followers a great, merely human, teacher. Only three options remained. (These are summarized nicely in various places by scholar Peter Kreeft).
Option one, he was insane. Plenty of people suffer from complexes in which they think they are or profess to be God. “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti” is a psychiatrist’s account of three schizophrenic patients each claiming divinity. Yet, no one would consider these poor souls great moral teachers or spiritual leaders.
Option two, he was intentionally deceiving his followers. He was claiming something he knew in his heart to be false and usurping a title he had no right to employ. Not much of a great moral code to base one’s life around there. In fact, if this is the case, he has foisted upon history the greatest hoax the world has ever known — all accomplished through the mouths of illiterate fishermen and formerly wealthy tax collectors who themselves got nothing out of the bargain but destitution, humiliation, and/or death.
Option three, he was telling the truth and was in fact “one with the Father” (Jn 17). In this case, it demands we not only revere his suggestions regarding how to treat one another and respect all this business about loving one’s enemy and turning the other cheek, but also fall on our knees in adoration of him upon whom we stake our faith and our very lives. Lunatic, liar or Lord — if we take the Gospels as witnesses to Jesus’ real words, which they claim to be, no alternatives exist. Such contemporary rational arguments, called in theological terms apologetics, echo both the wisdom of Solomon and St. Peter’s exhortation always to be prepared to give an account or defense (logos/apologia/rationem) for our hope (1 Pet 3:15).
Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is an administrator at Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life and is on the faculty for the Department of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University.