The Chronicler’s Portrayal of Solomon as the King of Peace within the Context of the International Peace Discourses of the Persian Era
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Jonker: The Chronicler’s portrayal of Solomon OTE 21/3 (2008), 653-669 657
quiet ( ט ֶק ֶשׁ ) 15 to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for my name. He shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.” ….’ (NRSV, with deviations: 1 Chron 22:7- 10)
It is clear that the Chronicler wanted to suggest a pun between the name of David's son
(הֹמלֹ ְשׁ) , and the theme of peace (םולֹ ָשׁ) . This association is unique in the Hebrew Bible. Solomon will be a king of peace to whom the Lord have granted rest and quietness all around from his enemies. The peace, rest and quietness stand in stark contrast to the ‘shedding of blood’ and ‘waging of wars’ of which David is accused in 22:8.
16 Although David prepares the way for the building of the temple, he is disquali- fied for the actual task, and it remains the work of Solomon, the king of peace, to ac- complish this task. The theme of ‘rest’ is continued in David's speech to the leaders of Israel reported in 28:2-12, where the temple is called ‘a house of rest’ – a deliberate attempt by the Chronicler to associate the ‘house of rest’ with the ‘man of rest’: 2 Then King David rose to his feet and said: ‘Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had planned to build a house of rest ( ה ָחוּנ ְמ תי ֵבּ ) for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God; and I made preparations for building. 3 But God said to me, “You shall not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.” ….’ (NRSV: 1 Chron 28:2-3)
expressions ‘man
of rest’ and ‘house of rest’ are unique in the Hebrew Bi- ble. These combinations each occur only once, here in the Sondergut of the Chroni- cler.
17 Many commentaries and studies have shown – with reference to these texts – that Solomon's kingship is presented to the audience of Chronicles as the kingpin around which the history of Israel revolved. Moreover, the temple as cultic institution is intricately involved with this portrayal of Solomon's kingship. Temple building un-
15
ט ֶק ֶשׁ occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, the verb from the root טקשׁ
16 I am not going into this difficult interpretative issue here. See the studies of Dirksen (1996), Kelly (1998) and Murray (2001), where different arguments and positions are of- fered. Dirksen, in his commentary (2005:272), indicates that Murray's argument has con- vinced him to change his own position on this issue. Whereas Dirksen previously held the view that the ‘shedding of blood’ could not refer to warfare, Murray's study convinced him to consider that option. 17 According to a SESB search. 658 Jonker: The Chronicler’s portrayal of Solomon OTE 21/3 (2008), 653-669
der Solomon appears to be a (the?) central theme of the Chronicler's construction of history. 18
Klein (2006), following previous studies on this aspect, 19 shows how the Chronicler reinterprets the promise to David (reported in 2 Samuel 7) to fit his own construction of history. 20 The Nathan oracle in 2 Samuel 7 is first picked up by the Chronicler in 1 Chronicles 17, which is then further interpreted in our text in 1 Chronicles 22. Klein (2006:437) describes the differences between these versions as follows: In the books of Samuel, David himself had achieved the condition of rest, as we see in 2
Sam 7:1, 11. The first of these references indicating that Yahweh had given David rest is omitted altogether by the Chronicler in 1 Chr
17:1; the second is changed by him from 'I will give you rest from all your enemies' to 'I will sub- due all your enemies.' In neither case, therefore, does David achieve rest according to the Chronicler. When the enemies are subdued in chap. 18, it is only through the military efforts of David. In the present verse (22:9 – L.C.J.) Yahweh promises to give Solomon rest without any military effort on Solomon's part. The reference to rest in this verse is the only complete use of the rest formula in Chronicles, and it moves beyond the promise to David that he would defeat all his enemies (1 Chr
17:8, 10) by adding to the rest formula connected with Solomon the expression 'round about'.
The fact that Solomon did not achieve rest and peace on his own account is confirmed by the Chronicler's reconstruction of Solomon's kingship in 2 Chronicles 1- 9. According to the Chronicler, this king of peace is never involved in any battle or war.
only characteristic of the Chronicler's version of Solomon's history, but forms a golden thread running throughout the Books of Chronicles. Let me give a short sum- mary of two of the often-quoted books on this theme. Ingeborg Gabriel's dissertation (published in 1990 under the title Friede über
21 shows that
18 See my studies where I have indicated that the Chronicler indicates (by means of a play on terminology) that the temple building was actually completed only after the Passover celebrations during Josiah's reign. Cf. Jonker (2002 and 2003a). 19 Cf. e. g. the comprehensive discussion in Knoppers (2004:775-777). 20 Steins (2005: 155-163) also discusses 1 Chr 22 within the context of, as he sees it, the Chronicler's reinterpretation of Nathan’s promise (2 Sam 7). According to Steins (2005:162), the reworking of Nathan’s promise in Chronicles serves only one purpose: ‘das Thema des Tempels als des Ruheortes der Lade zu akzentuieren’. 21 Gabriel (1990:2) formulates the aim of her study as follows: ‘Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Grundlagen und Bedingungen für den Frieden in einem bestimmten Geschichtsentwurf, nämlich jenem der Chr, zu untersuchen. Es handelt sich dabei um eines der Spätwerke des Yüklə 221,4 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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