1 Kings 11:3 How many wives did Solomon have?
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.
//According to this verse, Solomon kept a thousand wives and concubines. But when Solomon himself tells the story, it becomes a much more manageable number.
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number (Song of Solomon 6:8).
Oh, thank Goodness! 140 women in the rotation sounds lots easier to handle. Nice to have all those virgins available, too. Question is, why did Solomon fudge the number? Was it just kingly humility?
Turns out Solomon was speaking to his "one and only," his "beloved one," his "dove." He couldn't hardly admit to having 999 more girlfriends, could he? 140 is about as much as one man can get away with.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
John
(new)
Mar 26, 2012 12:08PM
Clever, and this assumes the SofS was written by Soloman, and not attributed to him, as many scholars think. These same scholars believe, due to its graphic sexual imagery, it would not have been included were it not attributed to Soloman. Does this mean it wasn't? Of course not. All it means is it is debated and not a foregone conclusion.
reply
|
flag
:) I seriously doubt Solomon wrote the book, but it's such fun to read and write about!
I think the number of wife and concubines is unimportant, and only a literalist would take it seriously. I think the unrealistic number is given to signal how virile Solomon was, for virility was an important sign for confirming leadership.
One might imply from this that Obama lacks balls, when in fact his are pure brass!
