The Jewish Understanding of the Scriptural Solomon Narrative: Examining Biblical, Classical Rabbinic, and Major Medieval Responses

The biblical Solomon narrative that appears in the Book of Kings offers a complex portrait of Solomon as both the wise Temple builder as well as an idolatrous sinner. Solomon’s story poses the problem of how the wisest of all men to whom God spoke could have come to worship other gods. Over history, Jewish literature has had to contend with Solomon’s mixed legacy. It has done so by either ignoring the difficult aspects of his narrative, by apologizing for Solomon’s conduct, or by criticizing him for his errors. Even within Tanakh, we see multiple and disparate responses to the Solomonic problem presented in Kings. Chronicles offers a cleansed portrait of Solomon, focusing on his role as Temple builder. Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, both attributed to Solomon, play a large role in the evolution of Solomon’s character in Jewish thought. Arguably they were written as critiques of Solomon, of his arrogant reliance on wisdom and his failure to maintain faith in God. Yet this purpose seems to have been lost by the time of the rabbis of late antiquity. Instead, the rabbis designate these works, which they presume to have been written by Solomon, as divinely inspired. This in turn ultimately establishes a basis on which to redeem Solomon, the rabbis construing his works as expressions of penitence. Solomon’s prophetic status is amplified by the targumic treatment of those works. The popularity of the Targum to the Song of Songs and its use by Rashi in his commentary to the Song, granting its ideas even greater circulation, promoted a highly laudatory reading of Solomon in the Middle Ages. In addition, admiring portrayals of Solomon in Christianity and Islam may have influenced Jewish perceptions. These factors made castigation of Solomon increasingly difficult for the Jewish medieval exegetes. Thus, an apologetic image of Solomon gains ascendance in the Middle Ages which has colored Jewish perceptions of Solomon ever since. As such, we see Jewish exegesis responding to its own theological needs as well as responding to external exegetical influences