Solomon took advantage of this confusion to push forward his religious reform in the direction of royal absolutism, in which the king controlled the sole shrine where God could be effectively worshipped. In Chapter 8 of the First Book of Kings, Solomon emphasized that God was in the Temple: ‘I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.’ But Solomon was not a pure pagan, as this would imply, for if so he would not have bothered to exclude his pagan wife from the sacred area. He understood the theology of his religion, for he asked: ‘But will
...more
