Solomon
Israel’s Ironic Icon of Human
Achievement
Walter Brueggemann
In this study of Solomon and his place in the larger consciousness of Israel, Walter
Brueggemann considers what Old Testament narratives regarding David’s heir reveal
about the aspirations and ideals of the ancient Israelite people. On the supposition that
figures of legend and lore disclose much about the societies celebrating them,
Brueggemann examines assertions about Solomon, a man praised for his wealth,
wisdom, and power and depicted as an example of enormous human achievement.
Looking beneath the surface of these claims, however, Brueggemann notes that an
irony permeates the tradition and invites critique of accepted beliefs. Through close
attention to nuances of the biblical text, he exposes the competing interpretive voices
that claim to offer a reliable rendering of Solomon.
Brueggemann shows how the tradition of Solomon becomes an arena for interpretive contestation in Israel and suggests that the text makes available not historical
reportage but a conflicted pluralistic attempt to sort out the reality of human power in
the matrix of covenantal faith.
WALTER BRUEGGEMANN is the William
Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus
Beyond the primary narrative of 1 Kings 3–11, Brueggemann evaluates the derivative traditions of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Wisdom of
of Old Testament at Columbia Theological
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. One of the
Solomon, and some of the Psalms. He also considers references to Solomon in the New
Testament and in extrascriptural traditions connected with and attributed to him.
most distinguished Old Testament scholars
writing in English, he is a past president of
Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament • James L. Crenshaw, series editor
the Society of Biblical Literature and a
widely published authority on interpretive
and hermeneutical matters. Brueggemann is
an ordained pastor in the United Church of
Christ.
SOLOMON
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