The Wisdom of Solomon: According To… Me

By Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall

What The Wisdom of Solomon: According to... me is, is a rewriting of all of the books attributed to Solomon--even though we know most were certainly not written by him. And those books would be: The Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Greater Key of Solomon and The Lesser Key of Solomon. The book is poetic in its format, fresh in its content, and extremely informative in its end notes. This book was a product of Kuykendall's practice of "Lectio Divina in Four Dimensions" and he hopes that in reading this book you will be inspired to do the same... in your own way, or "According to... you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jan 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781698710815

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall holds both a Master of Divintiy degree, and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Creation Spirituality. He served as a minister for over 35 years, and has led his Creation Spirituality Community, Spiritwind, for over twenty years. Kuykendall is also the author of fifteen books, including: The Dream Life of Jesus, Liturgies of the Earth, and The Way of the Earth.

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Copyright 2022 Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall.

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ISBN: 978-1-6987-1082-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1081-5 (e)

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Biblical adaptations are based on:

Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred

Bible: The Wisdom of Solomon

www.sacredbible.org/catholic/OT-25 Wisdom.htm

The Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version. Zondervan.

Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2009.

For those who can make religion their own

and

For my wife, children and grandchildreni

Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Song Of Solomon

Proverbs

More Proverbs Of Richard’s

The Oracle Of Drahcira

The Oracle Of Nasus

Ecclesiastes

The Wisdom Of Solomon xxix

Postscript

Introduction To The Greater Key Of Solomon

The Greater Key Of Solomon

Book One

Book Two

Introduction To The Lesser Key Of Solomon

The Lesser Key Of Solomon

Postscript For The Book

Bibliography

End Notes

PREFACE

This book is not a commentary in the sense of a scholarly, historic, and linguistic study of the books that are attributed to Solomon in the Bible—there are plenty of these kinds of commentaries around. Rather this is a rewriting of these books as they apply to the lives of my family. Thus the Song of Solomon is my tribute to my wife’s love and beauty, and the Proverbs contain my instructions to my children and grandchildren as expressed in relation to what tradition tells us what Solomon had written. And then the book of Ecclesiastes speaks of what I have to share of what I have learned in my life and the world.

Some might see this as a sacrilegious effort, but for me it was an important endeavor in gleaning what was important to me in the books attributed to Solomon and casting aside the husks and transforming them into my truths.

Now, this isn’t the first time I have done this kind of thing. My book, The Way of the Earth is a rewriting of the gospels and the book of Revelation.

INTRODUCTION

What follows is a brief story of the life of King Solomon as recorded in 1 Kings 1-11.

It turns out that when King David (of David and Goliath fame) was old, that one of his sons named, Adonijah took the throne. When the prophet Nathan heard this he went to Bathsheba (of David and Bathsheba fame), who was the mother of Solomon, and told her that Adonijah was now reigning, and that David did not know it. So Bathsheba went to King David and said that whereas he had promised that Solomon would reign in his place that Adonijah had taken the throne.

In response David said he had indeed made this promise, so he asked Bathsheba, Solomon, Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada to come to the tabernacle with Solomon riding on King David’s mule. And when they got there, Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet and all the people said, God save King Solomon. And the people rejoiced with great joy.

When Adonijah and his guests hear the noise they find out that King David has made Solomon king and they are afraid that Solomon will kill them. So Adonijah begs Solomon for mercy and he bows before Solomon. Solomon says that if Adonijah shows himself to be a worthy man, Not a hair of him shall fall to the earth, but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. And so he goes his way.

Then sometime later, after giving Solomon his last words, David dies after reigning over Israel for 47 years.

But as it turned out Adonijah made a fatal mistake. He went to Bathsheba and asked her to ask Solomon, to give him the young woman to be his wife, who had taken care of David and warmed his bed. When Bathsheba when to her son and asked him this, however, Solomon was so angry that he had Adonijah put to death as well as Joab who was captain of the army, and who had supported him.

One night the LORDii appeared to Solomon in a dream. God asked him what Heiii shall give him. Solomon asks in response for an understanding heart to judge God’s people that I might discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge God’s people? And we are told that Solomon’s answer pleased God and God said Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for long life or riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies but have asked for understanding to discern judgment; I have done according to your words. I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there was none like you before you; neither after you shall any arise like you. And I have also given you that which you did not ask for, both riches and honor so that there shall not be any among the kings like you all your days (See: 1 Kings 3:5-15). The it says that Solomon awoke and it was a dream.

So now they give us an example of Solomon’s wise and discerning heart. We read that one day, two women who were harlots came before the king. One of the women said that she and the other woman dwell in one house, and that she was delivered of a child in their house. She says that on the third day after she delivered, the other woman delivered a child also. But this woman’s child died in the night because she laid upon it. Then she says that the other woman got up at midnight and took her son and put the dead child beside her. Then the two women began to argue over whose child was dead and whose child was living. So Solomon said to bring him his sword. And he said, Divide the living child in two and give one half to one and the other half to the other. Then the one woman said give the living child to the other and do not slay it, while the other said, Let it be neither mine or hers but divide it. So Solomon said, Give her the living child and do not slay it: she is the mother. Then we are told that all Israel heard of the judgment the king had made and they feared the king for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. (See: 1 Kings 3:16-28).

We are also told that God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding and much largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. He spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs and we are told that people and kings from all the earth came to hear his wisdom.

Solomon then began to build the temple in Jerusalem which would be a permanent place rather than the movable tabernacle—but on a staggering scale and with amazing grandeur. See: 1 Kings 5:1-8:21 for the account and description. 1 Kings 7:1-12 however describes the king’s palace, and here we read that Solomon had married the daughter of Pharaoh. Then there is Solomon’s long prayer of dedication of the temple recorded in 1 Kings 8:22-61. It took them 20 years to build the temple and palace.

In chapter 9 we read of the second time that God appeared to Solomon in a dream. In this dream God basically said that if Solomon will walk before God in integrity of heart and in uprightness, doing all that He commanded, He will establish his throne and his kingdom forever. But if he does not, He will cut Israel off and the temple will be cast out of His sight.

In chapter 10 we read of the famous visit of the Queen of Sheba. When she had heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to meet him and see his kingdom, as well as to Prove him with hard questions. It says that she came with a great train, with camels baring spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, we read that she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Solomon answered all her questions. And when she heard his wisdom and saw all of the splendor of the temple and his palace it says that, there was no more spirit in her and she said that all that she had heard was only half of what she now saw. And so the Queen of Sheba gave Solomon the gold, precious stones and spices that she brought for him and he in turn gave her all that she desired. And then she went back to her own country.

Later in life Solomon made some major mistakes. He married not only the daughter of Pharaoh, but he loved women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. We are told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart, for he started worshiping other gods and goddesses: Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. More than this he built on a hill before Jerusalem, a high place for the god Chemosh of the Moabites and for Molech the god of the Ammonites. And he did this for all of his wives which burned incense and sacrificed to their gods and goddesses. Because of these things, God said that the kingdom would be torn from him. And it was, because after Solomon, Israel ended up having a civil war, and the kingdom ended up splitting in two, with a Southern kingdom—ruled by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam in what was called the kingdom of Judah, and Jeroboam reigning in the Northern kingdom which was called, Israel. And it all went downhill from there.

And so Solomon died and slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. He had reigned for 40 years.

In view of the Biblical books attributed to Solomon there is a rabbinic tradition that Solomon wrote the Song of Solomon when he was young, Proverbs when he was middle age, and the Ecclesiastes when he was an old man.

The Song of Solomon:

Despite commentaries on the Song of Solomon like Gregory of Nyssa’s (c.335-c.395), and Bernard of Clairvaux’s (1153-1174) and all the other commentaries that try to make the Song about God or Christ’s love for His people and/or the Church. This rationale seems to have been the only reason it ended up in the Bible, because it truly is a love poem from Solomon, or someone writing under his name, to his beloved.

Proverbs:

Proverbs is a collection of sayings, much like the Gospel of Thomas was a collection of sayings of Jesus. Often times Proverbs sounds redundant and seemingly random in that, other than in a few places like chapter 8 which speaks of Wisdom and chapter 31 that speaks of a good wife, Proverbs just seems to rattle off pithy moral saying.

Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes is a book that speaks of the vanity of life—its here, and then gone, and one is ultimately forgotten. The whole of one’s duty in life is summed up in his conclusion as: Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is our duty. For God will bring every work into judgment. Including every secret thing. Whether good or evil.

The Wisdom of Solomon:

The Wisdom of Solomon is considered a deuterocanonical book which is not accepted as biblical by Protestants. The Wisdom of Solomon is therefore a part of what is called the Apocrypha or hidden books which were written during the intertestamental period.

Today this book is usually titled simply, The Book of Wisdom because the author is unknown,