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74-473: Its importance stems in part from the fact that Hebrew biblical passages tend to understand Tarshish as a source of King Solomon 's great wealth in metals – especially silver, but also gold, tin , and iron ( Ezekiel 27 ). The metals were reportedly obtained in partnership with King Hiram of Tyre in Phoenicia ( Isaiah 23 ), and fleets of ships from Tarshish. Tarshish is also the name of a modern village in

148-716: A 'Dark Age' (Muhly 1998). The first-century Romano-Jewish scholar Josephus in Against Apion , citing Tyrian court records and Menander , gives a specific year during which King Hiram I of Tyre sent materials to Solomon for the construction of the Temple. However, no material evidence indisputably of Solomon's reign has been found. Yigael Yadin 's excavations at Hazor , Megiddo , Beit Shean and Gezer uncovered structures that he and others have argued date from Solomon's reign, but others, such as Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman , argue that they should be dated to

222-460: A beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunamite , and brought her to the king. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, but the king knew her not." While David was in this state, court factions were maneuvering for power. Adonijah , David's heir apparent , acted to have himself declared king, but

296-522: A competitive, culturally consolidating response to earlier Phoenician expansion and domination of silver trade, which had been conducted with hacksilver. Within the Cisjordan Corpus, a concentration of hacksilver hoards occurs in a part of southern Phoenicia that was recorded in antiquity as a territory of the Shardana tribes of Sea Peoples associated with Sardinia. Thompson, in her analyses of

370-467: A dream, 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 Judgement of Solomon ; two women each lay claim to being the mother of

444-759: A local council is called Tarxien . The pronunciation in the Semitic language of the Maltese people is rather similar to the Hebrew pronunciation of Tarshish ( Maltese pronunciation: [tɐrˈʃɪːn] ). All megalithic temples from the Neolithic epoch of Malta are assigned to the Tarxien phase of the island. The inhabitants claim that Tarxien was founded by the Carthaginians . The existence of Tarshish in

518-704: A medieval rabbi and commentator of the Bible, quoting Tractate Hullin 9lb, 'tarshish' means the Mediterranean Sea . The Targum of Jonathan along with several passages of the Septuagint and the Vulgate render Tarshish as Carthage . The Jewish-Portuguese scholar, politician, statesman and financier Isaac Abarbanel (1437–1508 AD) described Tarshish as "the city known in earlier times as Carthage and today called Tunis." Thompson and Skaggs argue that

592-660: A modern framework. According to the most widely used chronology, based on that by the Old Testament professor Edwin R. Thiele , the death of Solomon and the division of his kingdom would have occurred in the fall of 931 BCE. Solomon was born in Jerusalem , the second-born child of David and his wife Bathsheba (widow of Uriah the Hittite ). The first child (unnamed in that account), a son conceived adulterously during Uriah's lifetime, had died seven days after birth. It

666-530: A port in southern Spain, described by classical authors as a source of metals for the Phoenicians, while Josephus' identification of Tarshish with the city of Tarsus in Cilicia (south-central Turkey) is even more widely accepted. However, a clear identification is not possible, since a whole array of Mediterranean sites with similar names are connected to the mining of various metals. According to Rashi ,

740-499: A substitute,” “the ruler of peace,” or based on the deified evening star Shalim . The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are derived from biblical chronology and are set from about 970 to 931 BCE . Regarding the Davidic dynasty , to which King Solomon belongs, its chronology can be checked against datable Babylonian and Assyrian records at a few points, and these correspondences have allowed archaeologists to date its kings in

814-496: 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 . 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

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888-401: 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 BCE (over 280 years after Solomon's death according to Bible scholars). Scholarly consensus in this field holds that "Solomon's wives/women were introduced in

962-550: Is a large island rich in silver. Contrary to translations that have been rendering Assyrian tar-si-si as 'Tarsus' up to the present time, Thompson argues that the Assyrian tablets inscribed in Akkadian indicate tar-si-si (Tarshish) was a large island in the western Mediterranean, and that the poetic construction of Psalm 72:10 also shows that it was a large island to the very distant west of Phoenicia. The island of Sardinia

1036-468: Is almost surely an anachronistic exaggeration. As for Solomon himself, scholars on both the maximalist and minimalist sides of the spectrum of biblical archeology generally agree that he probably existed. However, a historically accurate picture of the Davidic king is difficult to construct. According to some archaeologists, Solomon could have only been the monarch or chieftain of Judah, and that

1110-608: Is also revered in Christianity and Islam . In the New Testament , he is portrayed as a teacher of wisdom, though excelled by Jesus of Nazareth , and as arrayed in glory, but excelled by "the lilies of the field ". In the Quran , he is considered to be a major Islamic prophet . In mostly non-biblical circles, Solomon also came to be known as a magician and an exorcist, with numerous amulets and medallion seals dating from

1184-482: Is brought from Tarshish" (Jeremiah 10:9), and the Phoenicians of Tyre brought from there silver, iron, tin and lead (Ezekiel 27:12). The context in Isaiah ;23:6 and 66:19 seems to indicate that it is an island, and from Israel it could be reached by ship, as attempted by Jonah (Jonah 1:3) and performed by Solomon's fleet (2 Chronicles 9:21). Some modern scholars identify Tarshish with Tartessos ,

1258-461: Is described as surrounding himself with all the luxuries and the grandeur of an Eastern monarch, and his government prospered. He entered into an alliance with Hiram I , king of Tyre , who in many ways greatly assisted him in his numerous undertakings. For some years before his death, David was engaged in collecting materials for building a temple in Jerusalem as a permanent home for Yahweh and

1332-484: Is recorded to have been a trader in tin, silver, gold, and lead, all of which were mined in Cornwall . This is still reputed to be the "Merchants of Tarshish" today by some Christian sects. Augustus Henry Keane (1833–1912) believed that Tarshish was Sofala , and that the biblical land of Havilah was centered on the nearby Great Zimbabwe . Bochart, apart from Spain (see there), also suggested eastern localities for

1406-479: Is said to have been spectacularly opulent and possessed moving parts, making it one of the earliest mechanical devices in history. It is said that "Nothing like it (the throne) had ever been made for any other kingdom." Solomon also constructed great water works for the city, and the Millo ( Septuagint , Acra ) for the defense of the city. However, excavations of Jerusalem have discovered no monumental architecture from

1480-553: Is still there, guarded by a single dedicated priest. The claim of such a lineage and of possession of the Ark was an important source of legitimacy and prestige for the Ethiopian monarchy through the centuries, and had important and lasting effects on Ethiopian culture . The Ethiopian government and church deny all requests to view the alleged ark. Some classical-era Rabbis, attacking Solomon's moral character, have claimed instead that

1554-489: Is suggested in Scripture that this was a judgment from God. Solomon had three named full brothers born to Bathsheba: Nathan , Shammua, and Shobab, besides six known older half-brothers born of as many mothers. The biblical narrative shows that Solomon served as a peace offering between God and David, due to David's adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. In an effort to hide this sin, David sent Bathsheba's husband, Uriah

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1628-541: Is the largest identified concentration of pre-coinage hacksilver hoards, and provides key evidence for the Phoenician and wider Near Eastern roots of the development and proliferation of the earliest silver coinages in the Greek world and western tradition. The widespread adoption of Greek silver coinages by c. 480 BC appears to have developed first out of cooperative relations between Greeks and Phoenicians, then partly as

1702-779: Is traditionally ascribed authorship of the Wisdom of Solomon which is included in the Scriptures of the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Church, but is considered apocryphal in Protestant traditions. According to the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Kingdom of Israel gained its highest splendour and wealth during Solomon's reign of 40 years. In a single year, according to 1 Kings 10:14 , Solomon collected tribute amounting to 666 talents (18,125 kilograms) of gold. Solomon

1776-635: The Ark of the Covenant . Solomon is described as undertaking the construction of the temple , with the help of an architect, also named Hiram , and other materials, sent from King Hiram of Tyre. After the completion of the temple, Solomon is described in the biblical narrative as erecting many other buildings of importance in Jerusalem . For 13 years, he was engaged in the building of a royal palace on Ophel (a hilly promontory in central Jerusalem). This complex included buildings referred to as: Solomon's throne

1850-459: The Hellenistic period invoking his name. The life of Solomon is primarily described in 2   Samuel , 1   Kings and 2   Chronicles . His two names are traditionally taken to mean " peaceful " and " friend of God ", both considered "predictive of the character of his reign". A 2023 textbook described three possibilities for the etymology of Solomon’s name: “compensation or

1924-640: The Middle Ages . Hacksilver was common among the Norsemen or Vikings , as a result of both their raiding and trade. Hacksilver may also have been used by Romans in their dealings with Pictish tribes . The name of the ruble , the basic unit of modern Russian currency, is derived from the Russian verb рубить ('rubit'), meaning "to chop", from the practice of the Rus' , described by Ahmad ibn Fadlan visiting

1998-689: The Mount Lebanon District of Lebanon , and Tharsis is a modern village in southern Spain. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia Da'at  [ he ] , the biblical phrase "ships of Tarshish" refers not to ships from a particular location, but to a class of ships: large vessels for long-distance trade. Tarshish occurs 25 times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible . Although, as stated in

2072-645: The Omride period, more than a century after Solomon. According to Finkelstein and Silberman, authors of The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts , at the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was populated by only a few hundred residents or less, which is insufficient for an empire stretching from the Euphrates to Eilath . According to The Bible Unearthed , archaeological evidence suggests that

2146-470: The Testament of Solomon , part of biblical apocrypha from the 1st century CE. The historicity of Solomon is widely debated. Current scholarly consensus allows for a historical Solomon, but regards his reign as king over Israel and Judah in the 10th century BCE as uncertain and the biblical description of his apparent empire's lavishness as most probably a massive anachronistic exaggeration . Solomon

2220-461: The Tyrsenians or Etruscans . Some 19th-century commentators believed that Tarshish was Britain , including Alfred John Dunkin who said "Tarshish demonstrated to be Britain" (1844), George Smith (1850), James Wallis and David King's The British Millennial Harbinger (1861), John Algernon Clarke (1862), and Jonathan Perkins Weethee of Ohio (1887). This idea stems from the fact that Tarshish

2294-740: The Volga Vikings in 922. An example of the related Viking weighing scale with weights was found on the Isle of Gigha . Hacksilver may be derived from silver tableware, Roman or Byzantine, church plate and silver objects such as reliquaries or book-covers, and jewellery from a range of areas. Hoards may typically include a mixture of hacksilver, coins, ingots and complete small pieces of jewellery. Hoards of hacksilver are also well known in pre and post-coinage antiquity, in European and Near Eastern contexts. The Cisjordan Corpus (c. 1200–586 BC)

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2368-469: The united Kingdom of Israel . After a reign of forty years (1 Kings 11:42), he died of natural causes, at around 55 years of age. Upon Solomon's death, his son, Rehoboam , succeeded him, but ten of the Tribes of Israel refused him as king, splitting the monarchy into the northern Kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam , while Rehoboam continued to reign over the smaller southern Kingdom of Judah . Henceforth

2442-600: 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". 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

2516-571: The 17th century French Protestant pastor, suggested in his Phaleg (1646) that Tarshish was the city of Tartessos in southern Spain . He was followed by others, including Hertz (1936). Sir Peter le Page Renouf (1822–1897) thought that "Tarshish" meant a coast, and, as the word occurs frequently in connection with Tyre, the Phoenician coast is to be understood. T. K. Cheyne (1841–1915) thought that "Tarshish" of Genesis 10:4 and " Tiras " of Genesis 10:2 are really two names of one nation derived from two different sources, and might indicate

2590-610: The Akkadian inscriptions of Esarhaddon (AsBbE) indicate that Tarshish was an island (not a coastland) far to the west of the Levant. In 2003, Christine Marie Thompson identified the Cisjordan Corpus, a concentration of hacksilver hoards in Israel and Palestine (Cisjordan). This Corpus dates between 1200 and 586 BC, and the hoards in it are all silver-dominant. The largest hoard was found at Eshtemo'a , present-day as-Samu , and contained 26 kg of silver. Within it, and specifically in

2664-405: The Bible depicts Rehoboam and the rest of Solomon's patrilineal descendants ruling over independent Judah alone. A Jewish prophet , Solomon is portrayed as wealthy, wise, powerful, and a dedicated follower of Yahweh ( God ), as attested by the eponymous Solomon's Temple , which was the first Temple in Jerusalem . He is also the subject of many later references and legends, most notably in

2738-490: The Hittite , to battle, and specifically to the front line wherein David ordered the commanding officer Joab to withdraw support for Uriah in order to have him killed in battle by the enemy. After he died, David was finally able to marry Bathsheba. As punishment, the first child, who was conceived during the adulterous relationship, died. Solomon was born after David was forgiven. It is this reason why his name, which means peace,

2812-469: The Lord said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for

2886-830: The Mediterranean and Atlantic. The editors of the New Oxford Annotated Bible , first published in 1962, suggest that Tarshish is either Sardinia or Tartessos. Rufus Festus Avienus the Latin writer of the 4th century AD, identified Tarshish as Cadiz . This is the theory espoused by Father Mapple in Chapter 9 of Moby Dick . Some biblical commentators as early as 1646 ( Samuel Bochart ) read it as Tartessos in ancient Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula), near Huelva and Sevilla today. Bochart ,

2960-921: The Middle-Euphrates etc. occurred in the mid-8th century BCE, placing a possible visit from the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem around this time—some 250 years later than the timeframe traditionally given for king Solomon's reign. Seventeen years later, traces of cinnamon were found in Phoenician clay flasks from three small sites in the Israeli coastal plain dating from the 10th century BCE. The authors suggested that trade routes with South Asia existed much earlier than previously thought. Hacksilver Hacksilver (sometimes referred to as hacksilber ) consists of fragments of cut and bent silver items that were used as bullion or as currency by weight during

3034-516: The Phoenician king Hiram I of Tyre (see 'wealth' below); they sent out joint expeditions to the lands of Tarshish and Ophir to engage in the trade of luxury products, importing gold, silver, sandalwood, pearls, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Solomon is considered the most wealthy of the Israelite kings named in the Bible. Solomon was the biblical king most famous for his wisdom. In 1   Kings he sacrificed to God, and God later appeared to him in

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3108-488: The administration, including in religious positions as well as in civic and military posts. It is said that Solomon ascended to the throne when he was only about fifteen. Solomon greatly expanded his military strength, especially the cavalry and chariot arms. He founded numerous colonies, some of which doubled as trading posts and military outposts. Trade relationships were a focus of his administration. In particular he continued his father's very profitable relationship with

3182-411: The area of what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In a Rabbinical account (e.g. Targum Sheni , Colloquy of the Queen of Sheba ), Solomon was accustomed to ordering animals to dance before him (a power granted by God), and upon summoning the mountain-cock or hoopoe (Aramaic name: nagar tura ), the bird told him it had discovered a land in the east, rich in gold, silver, and plants, whose capital

3256-500: The authors of the Bible suppressed the achievements of the Omrides (whom the Hebrew Bible describes as being polytheist ), and instead pushed them back to a supposed golden age of Judaism and monotheists, and devotees of Yahweh . Some Biblical minimalists like Thomas L. Thompson go further, arguing that Jerusalem became a city and capable of being a state capital only in the mid-7th century. Likewise, Finkelstein and others consider

3330-459: The biblical account, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines . The wives were described as foreign princesses, including Pharaoh's daughter 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". The only wife mentioned by name

3404-565: The biblical narrative, after Solomon's death, his son and successor Rehoboam adopted harsh policies towards the northern Israelites , who then rejected the reign of the House of David and sought Jeroboam as their king. In the aftermath of Jeroboam's Revolt , the Israelites were split between the Kingdom of Israel in the north ( Samaria ) and the Kingdom of Judah in the south ( Judea );

3478-436: The child was an ancestor of Nebuchadnezzar II , who destroyed Solomon's temple some 300 years later. Jewish scribes say that Solomon's teacher was Shimei ben 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

3552-628: The claimed size of Solomon's temple implausible. André Lemaire states in Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple that the principal points of the biblical tradition of Solomon are generally trustworthy, although elsewhere he writes that he could find no substantiating archaeological evidence that supports the Queen of Sheba's visit to king Solomon, saying that the earliest records of trans-Arabian caravan voyages from Tayma and Sheba unto

3626-557: The early pseudoepigraphical work called the Testament of Solomon with its elaborate and grotesque demonology . As with most biblical personages in the middle era of Israelite society, the historicity of Solomon is hotly debated. Current consensus states that regardless of whether or not a man named Solomon truly reigned as king over the Judean hills in the tenth century BCE, the biblical description of his apparent empire's lavishness

3700-419: The era, and no remains of either the Temple or Solomon's palace have been found. Solomon is also described as rebuilding cities elsewhere in Israel, creating the port of Ezion-Geber , and constructing Palmyra in the wilderness as a commercial depot and military outpost. Although the location of the port of Ezion-Geber is known, no remains have ever been found. More archaeological success has been achieved with

3774-410: The fall of Troy and other palace centers in the eastern Mediterranean around 1200 BC. Classical sources starting with Homer (8th century BC), and the Greek historians Herodotus (484–425 BC) and Diodorus Siculus (d. 30 BC) said the Phoenicians were exploiting the metals of the west for these purposes before they set up the permanent colonies in the metal-rich regions of

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3848-435: The geographical region that was part of Phoenicia, is a concentration of hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC. There is no other known such concentration of silver hoards in the contemporary Mediterranean, and its date-range overlaps with the reigns of King Solomon (990–931 BC) and Hiram of Tyre (980–947 BC). American scholars William F. Albright (1891–1971) and Frank Moore Cross (1921–2012) suggested Tarshish

3922-704: The goddess of the Sidonians , and after Milcom , the god of the Ammonites . In Deuteronomy 17:16–17 , a king is commanded not to multiply horses or wives, neither greatly multiply to himself gold or silver. Solomon sinned in all three of these areas. In addition to his wives, he collected 666 talents of gold each year ( 1 Kings 10:14 ), a huge amount for a small nation like Israel. He gathered multitudes of horses and chariots from as far as Egypt, and as Deuteronomy 17 warns, took Israel back to Egypt in spirit. According to 1 Kings 11:30–34 and 1 Kings 11:9–13 , it

3996-542: The kingdom of Israel at the time of Solomon was little more than a small city state, and so it is implausible that Solomon received tribute as large as 666 talents of gold per year. Although both Finkelstein and Silberman accept that David and Solomon were real inhabitants of Judah about the 10th century BCE, they claim that the earliest independent reference to the Kingdom of Israel is about 890 BCE, and for Judah about 750 BCE. They suggest that because of religious prejudice,

4070-417: The kings of Egypt and Tyre . The Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam , which may date to the 1st or 2nd century, refers to a legend in which Solomon sends out an army of demons to seek a virgin who had fled from him, perhaps the earliest surviving mention of the later common tale that Solomon controlled demons and made them his slaves. This tradition of Solomon's control over demons appears fully elaborated in

4144-602: The major cities Solomon is said to have strengthened or rebuilt, for example, Hazor , Megiddo and Gezer . These all have substantial ancient remains, including impressive six-chambered gates, and ashlar palaces; however it is no longer the scholarly consensus that these structures date to the time, according to the Bible, when Solomon ruled. According to the Bible, during Solomon's reign, Israel enjoyed great commercial prosperity, with extensive traffic being carried on by land with Tyre , Egypt , and Arabia , and by sea with Tarshish , Ophir , and South India . According to

4218-413: The northern kingdom was a separate development. Such positions have been criticized by other archaeologists and scholars, who argue that a united monarchy did exist in the 10th century BCE, while agreeing that the biblical account contains exaggerations. Historical evidence of King Solomon other than the biblical accounts has been so minimal that some scholars have understood the period of his reign as

4292-559: 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

4366-667: The ports of Ophir and Tarshish during King Solomon's reign, specifically the Tamilakkam continent (present day South India and Northern Ceylon) where the Dravidians were well known for their gold, pearls, ivory and peacock trade. He fixed on "Tarshish" being the site of Kudiramalai , a possible corruption of Thiruketheeswaram . It may, however, refer to Tarsus in Cilicia , where Saul, later Paul, hailed from (Acts 9:11, 21:39, 22:3). There are several indications that Tarshish could have been located at Malta , where still today

4440-468: The previous section, the phrase "ships of Tarshish" may refer only to very large ships, fit for ocean journeys, and not to a location or nation, possible references to Tarshish as a location or nation include: Tarshish is placed on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea by several biblical passages, and more precisely: west of Israel . It is described as a source of various metals: "beaten silver

4514-467: The sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen. Near the end of his life, Solomon was beset by several enemies, including Hadad of Edom , Rezon of Zobah , and his own official Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim . King Solomon is a central biblical figure, who, according to the Hebrew Bible , was the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the last ruler of

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4588-475: 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. Solomon has traditionally been considered the author of several biblical books, including Proverbs , Ecclesiastes , and Song of Songs . He

4662-539: The two kingdoms were never again united. Solomon is associated with the peak "golden age" of the independent Kingdom of Israel and is a legendary source of judicial and religious wisdom. According to Jewish tradition, King Solomon wrote three books of the Bible : The Hebrew word לשלמה appears in the title of two hymns (72 and 127) in the Psalms . This Hebrew word means "to Solomon", but it can also be translated as "by Solomon", thus suggesting to some that Solomon wrote

4736-633: The two psalms. Rabbinical tradition attributes the Book of Wisdom (included within the Septuagint ) to Solomon, although this book was probably written in the 2nd century BCE. In this work, Solomon is portrayed as an astronomer . Other books of wisdom poetry such as the Odes of Solomon and the Psalms of Solomon also bear his name. The Jewish historian Eupolemus , who wrote about 157 BCE, included copies of apocryphal letters exchanged between Solomon and

4810-450: The western Mediterranean, along with any Phoenician presence in the western Mediterranean before c. 800 BC, has been questioned by some scholars in modern times, because there is no direct evidence. Instead, the lack of evidence for wealth in Israel and Phoenicia during the reigns of Solomon and Hiram , respectively, prompted a few scholars to opine that the archaeological period in Mediterranean prehistory between 1200 and 800 BC

4884-428: Was Sardinia because of the discovery of the Nora Stone , whose Phoenician inscription mentions Tarshish. Cross read the inscription to understand that it was referring to Tarshish as Sardinia. Recent research into hacksilver hoards has also suggested Sardinia. Hacksilver objects in these Phoenician hoards have lead isotope ratios that match ores in the silver-producing regions of Sardinia and Spain, only one of which

4958-476: Was a 'Dark Age'. Solomon Solomon ( / ˈ s ɒ l ə m ə n / ), also called Jedidiah , was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah , according to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament . The successor of his father David , he is described as having been the penultimate ruler of all Twelve Tribes of Israel under an amalgamated Israel and Judah . The hypothesized dates of Solomon's reign are from 970 to 931 BCE. According to

5032-421: Was a son who became Menelik I , King of Axum , and founded a dynasty that would reign as the Jewish, then Christian, Empire of Ethiopia which lasted 2900 years until Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974. Menelik was said to be a practicing Jew who was given a replica of the Ark of the Covenant by King Solomon; and, moreover, that the original Ark was switched and went to Axum with him and his mother, and

5106-417: Was always known as a hub of the metals trade in antiquity, and was also called by the ancient Greeks as Argyróphleps nésos "island of the silver veins". The same evidence from hacksilver is said to fit with what the ancient Greek and Roman authors recorded about the Phoenicians exploiting many sources of silver in the western Mediterranean to feed developing economies back in Israel and Phoenicia soon after

5180-405: Was because of these sins that the Lord punished Solomon by removing most of the tribes of Israel from rule by Solomon's house. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore

5254-411: Was called Kitor and whose ruler was the Queen of Sheba. Solomon then sent the bird to request the queen's visit. An Ethiopian account from the 14th century ( Kebra Nagast ) maintains that the Queen of Sheba had sexual relations with King Solomon and gave birth beside the Mai Bella stream in the province of Hamasien , Eritrea . The Ethiopian tradition has a detailed account of the affair . The child

5328-591: Was chosen. Some historians cited that Nathan the Prophet brought up Solomon as his father was busy governing the realm. This could also be attributed to the notion that the prophet held great influence over David because he knew of his adultery , which was considered a grievous offense under the Mosaic Law . According to the First Book of Kings , when David was old, "he could not get warm". "So they sought

5402-404: Was his first descent into sin. 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 ,

5476-452: Was outmaneuvered by Bathsheba and the biblical prophet Nathan, who convinced David to proclaim Solomon king according to his earlier promise (not recorded elsewhere in the biblical narrative), despite Solomon's being younger than his brothers. Solomon, as instructed by David, began his reign with an extensive purge, including his father's chief general, Joab , among others, and further consolidated his position by appointing friends throughout

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