Monday, April 23, 2007

Solomon and Sheba

When reading the Kebra Negast, I found the part on Solomon's adultery with the Queen of Sheba interesting. Solomon was supposedly a very wise man because of his understanding given through God. However, when he tricked the queen into sleeping with him, his wisdom left. Note the dream that he had (pg 35-6) where the sun was analogous to his son, which left and came back. The sun also represents wisdom, which left and supposedly will come back with the son.
At the same time, Solomon had many other "wives," but only to spread wisdom through his children (ch 4, pg 30). 400 wives and 600 concubines is a lot of wives to be spreading wisdom to in the manner that Solomon did with the Queen of Shiba. The question is whether Solomon tricked the Queen for his own pleasure or through the will of another power. God may be behind this, since all the wisdom that Solomon knew came from the thoughts of God, which meant that God could have compelled Solomon to act adulterously. Or, this may have been the devil. It is tough to say, since the writer does not give any details into that subject. However, if Solomon was so wise, then why didn't he restrain himself or at least not trick the queen the adulterous manner that he did? The idea that the lack of God leaves man immoral and unwise is unacceptable to me, since man should not need God to know the consequences of his actions.

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