An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 61: The Temple of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and Alan Moore (1 Kings 6-10)

1 Kings 6-10
The Temple of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and Alan Moore.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

1 Kings 6

“And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.”

This chapter is a description of the Temple of Solomon, which sounds pretty impressive – made of dressed stone that is carved offsite so that the temple isn’t disturbed by the sound of hammers, then faced in cedar wood and finally covered on gold. As with the tabernacle and Noah’s ark, that also get very detailed equipment, I looked up images online because there are very clear instructions on how it was made.

What I found interesting from the images that I found; in this chapter there is a description of statues of “cherubim” that guard the ark of the covenant, in the images these have been represented as shedu or lammasu, that I’d associate more with Babylonian culture whereas I’d always assumed cherubim to be humanoid. I wonder where the evidence for this portrayal comes from, but it’s an interesting point of cultural cross-over if there’s any basis in record.

Other than that, this is a functional chapter. The temple takes seven years to build, by the way.

1 Kings 7

“But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.”

Solomon also builds his own palace, which is bigger than the temple – surely not a very good precedent for a godly man? We get a mention of Hiram of Tyre again, but this time he is a widow’s son and not given as king, so possibly two Hirams have been conflated or it’s a common Tyrian name, who knows? In Alan Moore’s “From Hell”, the term “the widow’s son” is used as a kind of Masonic code, which may or may not actually exist in Freemasonry – I think a lot of the Masonic stuff in that graphic novel stems from dubious sources which Moore freely acknowledges because he’s writing a work of fiction for entertainment.

But this chapter also includes more details of the temple, although it’s not obvious immediately what pertains to the temple and what pertains to Solomon’s house. There are two elaborate columns, named Jachin and Boaz, set up outside the temple as well as a large basin borne on the back of twelve golden oxen, and some moveable washbasins as well. I think if you were that way inclined you could perform some kind of numerology on the details of the temple, or look deeply into symbolism. Me, I’m inclined to think that’s over-analysing although temples of all kinds will have some kind of symbolism, it probably doesn’t hide great secrets of the Knight’s Templar or whatever; leave that for Dan Brown to turn into some hack thriller.

1 Kings 8

“Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.”

Solomon brings the ark into his newly built temple and dedicates it with “countless” sacrifices, and the temple is filled with the cloud of God so that the priests can’t go in. Solomon politely asks God if He wouldn’t mind not actually living in the temple, but please to keep an eye on it all times, which is quite amusing.

But there then follows some pretty stirring stuff where Solomon sings the praises of God (but less interminably than previous patriarchs have done so), asking God’s forgiveness if a sinner should ask it for transgressions, for help in times of war, famine, plague and caterpillar attack (yes, indeed. A danger to crops). There are some very interesting pre-echoes of NT stuff here, with Solomon opening worship up to non-Israelites who will inevitably hear of how great the God of the Israelites is – up until now, God/Yahweh has been the sole preserve and protector of the Israelites because of their covenant, but here Solomon makes Him more of a God of the whole world for the first time. There are also some interesting similarities to the Lord’s Prayer; V50 “And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:”. There’s a lot more emphasis on forgiveness than on smiting than previous exhortations, which seems to indicate a new philosophy developed by Solomon (aided, perhaps, by the time of peace in which he lives. Easy one might say to forgive enemies if there aren’t any raiding your lands).

However, there’s a definite shift in attitude towards the relationship between man and God here. Maybe another way of looking at it, if one pursues the parent-child analogy between God and humanity; here humanity has matured enough that God doesn’t have to keep punishing them like a wayward child. I wonder if this will be maintained or if we’ll go back to the smiting again.

1 Kings 9

“And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,”

The chapter starts with the usual warnings from God to obey the covenant lest everything be destroyed and the nice new temple be left empty, then we get a rather disjointed breakdown of Solomon’s lands and disposition of his government. He gives some cities to Hiram who, for some reason, isn’t pleased with them but still pays his taxes. You’re a master builder, improve them!

Solomon gets some lands from his father-in-law the Pharaoh, and extracts tribute from all the non-Israelite tribes still within his lands. He also builds a navy and army.

1 Kings 10

“And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.”

Huh. I thought there was more to the Queen of Sheba than this visit. She comes to visit Solomon with gifts, and puts difficult questions to him that he is able to answer. Some textual cheating here, as we never get to hear what the questions are. Then after praising him she goes away again. The rest of the chapter further discusses the riches that Solomon gathers; lots and lots of gold, spices, silver and also apes and peacocks. Peacetime is reaping dividends for Solomon’s reign, but I can’t help but feel that this is a far cry from the old tabernacle and that we’re going to be heading for some kind of moral about becoming too attached to worldly goods.