Solomon: Israel’s Ironic Icon of Human Achievement (review)

Willa Cather wrote that “some memories are realities,” which leaves room to suggest that some memories are not. In this book, Walter Brueggemann explores the collective Israelite memories of the singular personage, Solomon, whom Brueggemann deems “a complex interpretive construct” (p. xii). Thus, though Brueggemann does deal initially, in his first chapter, with the question of the historical Solomon, that question is not the main subject of his study. Finding Solomon to have been “a modest historical character from the tenth century who presided over a modest court, a modest economy, and a temple apparatus in Jerusalem” (p. 21), Brueggemann instead turns the bulk of his attention to “canonical Solomon,” the “Solomon of faith,” who is “surely a product of interpretive imposition, that is, of ideology” (p. 22). Unlike the modest historical personage, “canonical Solomon” is triumphant, and becomes a symbol of power and wisdom. Yet this very image is subverted in the canon by “the ironic exposé of his would-be success” (p. 22). Brueggemann shows that an ironic point about the limits of human power pervades the whole: “On the surface, Solomon is as fully absolute as any ruler in Israel could ever be. . . . The narrative presentation of Solomon, however, is given in literature that has a distinct, deliberate theological edge, that is, an awareness that the power of YHWH—variously enacted by direct or hidden means—serves to deabsolutize every human claimant to power and to render such claimants penultimate” (pp. xii–xiii).

The “key narrative” about Solomon is found in 1 Kings 3–11, and Brueggemann appropriately devotes much attention to this foundational depiction. Thus, in chapters two through eight he explores “how a modest Solomon became a large narrative Solomon” (p. 66). Brueggemann lays out how “the articulation of Solomon as temple builder, wise king, and economic genius is an act of sustained, constructive imagination” (p. 139). However, he also constantly reminds the reader that the matter of irony “is of great importance in reading the Bible alertly” (p. xii), for it exposes contradictions that may be overlooked. In this case, the “surface” reading suggests that Solomon is a great and faithful king. An attentive reading of the text that is attuned to irony, however, reveals that this view is systematically undone. Indeed, on all counts of his celebrated reputation, “Solomon ends exposed as failure: A temple for presence becomes a house of absence for the deported; the gift of wisdom is transformed into distorted foolishness; and the accumulation of wealth culminates in disastrous loss” (p. 156). Because the key narrative about Solomon is located at the beginning of 1–2 Kings, it drives home the main point about human power: “By placing the failed Solomon of temple absence, foolish wisdom, and lost wealth at the beginning of the narrative, the story shows how Solomon is a key contributor not only to the failure that immediately surfaces for his son Rehoboam, but to the ultimate failure, the termination of the dynasty in 2 Kings 24–25” (p. 157).

In chapters nine through fourteen, Brueggemann extends his, and our, view by examining further depictions of Solomon in Chronicles, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Psalms. Brueggemann does not stop with canonical depictions, but also takes up some fascinating extra-canonical depictions in the Wisdom of Solomon, the Qur’an, Ethiopic traditions, and Freemasonry traditions, as well as the New Testament. In so doing, Brueggemann underscores the point that “the memory of Solomon has continued to feed and energize the interpretive imagination of ongoing communities of faithful interpretation” (p. 225).

As can be seen, while carrying the sparse title Solomon, this book actually traces the multiple “Solomons” of biblical tradition. The result is a highly readable and provocative study, which is easily accessible by general readers.