Solomon

2 Kings 2, 4-5, 9-11, 14:23-29, 16-17 – This portion of Scripture begins with the ascension of Elijah into heaven and his mantle falls to Elisha. Elisha, having already requested a double portion of the spirit that Elijah had, demonstrates that the spirit of YHWH is with him by performing various miracles. One of Elisha’s duties is fulfilling a charge from YHWH that was given to Elijah and that is the task of anointing Jehu as king over Israel. However, Elisha does not personally anoint Jehu,…

King David was an amazing man, but everyone has faults and he is no exception. However, he is arguably better than King Herod. David is the earliest king and prophet of Islam. Yet, as most of us know he is a deeply flawed man. Early in his life he was a mere shepherd boy and at this time, the Philistines were at war with Judea. However, the Philistines had made the king an offer, they had told him if he would send out one of his men to defeat Goliath, they would…

The downfall of Judah was a complex and lengthy political ordeal documented over several books of the Old Testament. Two prophets who give their own detailed reasoning for this downfall are Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Both prophets lived during a tumultuous transitionary period of Judah’s history during which Babylon began a systematic deportation and exile of Judah’s citizens. Where the prophets differ, however, is in their message to the elite of Judah in its waning days and their eventual exile.…

The article I will be evaluating is “Evaluating King David: Old Problems and Recent Scholarship” by David A. Bosworth. At the time David Bosworth wrote the article he was a Professor at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. The article appeared in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly in 2006. The article addresses the controversies of King David. The Books of Samuel have caused the reputation of King David to come under question. The consequences to King David’s reputation have been caused by…

Ecclesiastes is often thought of as “the book that says everything is pointless”. This is true, to some extent. The book covers almost all other the reasons people have found for living and explains, in detail, why it is not worth pursuing. Everything is a cycle and if you follow it you will only end up doing the same thing over and over again with no real sense of happiness or purpose. The one exception to this and the one thing that can give meaning and happiness to everything else is God and…

God called David to be the “shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel” (New Revised Standard Version, 2 Samuel 5:2). David replaced King Saul, the first king of Israel because he had lost favor with the Lord. As king, David conquered the previous inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jebusites. After David and the Israelites settled in Jerusalem, the Philistine people tried to conquer them. However, the Lord delivered a victory to David, which allowed him to obtain the Ark of the…

In this paper I am going to be answering the questions in the book How to Read Proverbs. The two questions that I will be answering are questions one and four. Are you convinced that there are true parallels between proverbs and the literature of the ancient Near East? Do you think the fact that God utilized the cultural and literary forms of the surrounding nations has any bearing on your witness in the world? I think by God using the surrounding nations cultural and literary forms shows that…

Manasseh: 2 Kings vs. 2 Chronicles King Manasseh was certainly a memorable king of Judah for those who had read and reread the books of Kings and Chronicles. Both books draw much attention to him, but there can be no doubt that the figure of Manasseh as portrayed in Chronicles was significantly different from the king evoked by the book of Kings. Initially, 2 Chronicles 33 follows closely the accounts of 2 Kings 21. King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, began his 55-year reign at the age of 12.…

slave life of Solomon Northup, as depicted in the film 12 Years a Slave, exposes the variety and intensity of the abuses slaves dealt with at the hands of their masters. Solomon, who was born a free man is illegally sold as a runaway slave; he is stripped of his name, stolen from his family, beaten and whipped then sent to the south for auction. Solomon attempts to deal with the complete loss of his freedom the best he can; by surviving with the hope that one day he can regain it. Solomon…

The Psalms of Solomon are a series of 18 pseudonymous Jewish poems written in Greek and Syriac (It is assumed they were translated from Hebrew). These psalms explore various topics ranging from military attacks to halakik disputes. It is assumed that these psalms were written in the first century BCE. Psalm 1 introduces the theme of warfare, and transcends from a ‘women’s’ (Jerusalem) prayer for deliverance from foreign invaders, to God’s justification in attacking the inhabitants of Jerusalem…