König Salomo: Mensch und Mythos

The idea of Solomon as a wise king and founder of the Jerusalem Temple is an integral part of Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature. Yet despite this glorious reputation, the portraits drawn of him in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament differ quite substantially. In Man and Myth, Isaac Kalimi examines the differences in the portrayals of Solomon due to divergent historical contexts, theological and didactic concepts, stylistic and literary techniques, and compositional methods. The uniqueness of each representation is highlighted by means of close comparisons of features in early and late biblical historiographical texts as well as ancient Near Eastern and archaeological sources. In addition, the different ways in which Solomon's birth, character, naming, divine election, early life, rise and temple building are presented in the Book of Kings and in Chronicles are analysed: While the early texts remain close to their sources and present a kind of apologia for Solomon's kingship, including its more questionable aspects, the sources in the later texts are generously altered to present Solomon's life as the chronicler would have liked. Professor Dr Isaac Kalimi is a world-leading biblical scholar, historian and Judaist. He has published numerous books and articles in English, German, Hebrew and Polish.