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4 books match the query 'Solomon'

cover of Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam

Demonizing the Queen of Sheba

Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam

Jacob Lassner

University of Chicago Press, 1993

Over the centuries, Jewish and Muslim writers transformed the biblical Queen of Sheba from a clever, politically astute sovereign to a demonic force threatening the boundaries of gender. In this book, Jacob Lassner shows how successive retellings of the biblical story reveal anxieties about gender and illuminate the processes of cultural transmission.

The Bible presents the Queen of Sheba's encounter with King Solomon as a diplomatic mission: the queen comes "to test him with hard questions," all of which he answers to her satisfaction; she then praises him and, after an exchange of gifts, returns to her own land. By the Middle Ages, Lassner demonstrates, the focus of the queen's visit had shifted from international to sexual politics. The queen was now portrayed as acting in open defiance of nature's equilibrium and God's design. In these retellings, the authors humbled the queen and thereby restored the world to its proper condition.

Lassner also examines the Islamization of Jewish themes, using the dramatic accounts of Solomon and his female antagonist as a test case of how Jewish lore penetrated the literary imagination of Muslims. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba thus addresses not only specialists in Jewish and Islamic studies, but also those concerned with issues of cultural transmission and the role of gender in history.
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cover of Hidden Critique of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible

Hidden Critique of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible

Pekka Särkiö

SBL Press, 2025

The period of Israel’s united kingdom under King Solomon is portrayed in 1 Kings 3–11 as ideal in order to arouse hope for the restoration of Israelite kingship. Conversely, postexilic writers were faced with traditions that blamed the division of the united kingdom on Solomon’s sins. Pekka Särkiö explores how the writers of the Hebrew Bible used scribal tools and creativity to weave these disparate perspectives together with a subtle, hidden critique that stretches through the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. This in-depth study reveals the expressions, themes, and structures that evoke Solomon’s foreign wives, his excessive wealth, his respect for other gods, his pride, and his elevation to a venerated character. The resulting texts allow the coexistence of hope for the future and the concerns of northern survivors who blamed Solomon for the exile and the divided kingdom.
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cover of The Psalms of Solomon: Language, History, Theology

The Psalms of Solomon

Language, History, Theology

Eberhard Bons

SBL Press, 2015

A fresh analysis of that sheds new light on the Psalms of Solomon

Researchers whose work focuses on the Psalms of Solomon, experts on the Septuagint, and scholars of Jewish Hellenistic literature take a fresh look at debates surrounding the text. Authors engage linguistic, historical, and theological issues including the original language of the psalms, their historical setting, and their theological intentions with the goal of expanding our understanding of first-century BCE Jewish theology.

Features:

  • New methods applied to open questions of authorship and historical context
  • Focusd scholarly attention on a work of theological and literary importance
  • Revised essays originally presented at the First International Meeting on the Psalms of Solomon
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cover of The Psalms of Solomon: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts

The Psalms of Solomon

Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts

Patrick Pouchelle

SBL Press, 2021

Explore new approaches to the Psalms of Solomon

The Psalms of Solomon: Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts explores a unique pseudepigraphal document that bears witness to the 63 BCE Roman conquest of Jerusalem. Essays address a variety of themes, notably their political, social, religious, and historical contexts, through the lens of anthropology of religion, cognitive science, socioeconomic theory, and more. Contributors include Kenneth Atkinson, Eberhard Bons, Johanna Erzberger, Angela Kim Harkins, G. Anthony Keddie, Patrick Pouchelle, Stefan Schreiber, Shani Tzoref, and Rodney A. Werline.

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