The Legendary Wealth of Solomon--Part II

by Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

My earlier post described the extent of King Solomon’s wealth in modern terms, and raised the question of whether or not the Bible’s descriptions of such wealth were believable. Golden dishes, golden furniture, golden shields and a temple plated with gold—are these fanciful exaggerations of later chroniclers intent on inflating Solomon’s reputation?

                Archaeology says they are not. Let’s address each of those specific examples in turn.

“All King Solomon’s goblets were gold…” (1 Kings 10:21)

                Obviously many kings throughout the centuries have used golden tableware—it is used today in some royal houses. The same was true in ancient times. When Sir Leonard Wooley excavated the Royal Cemetary in Ur from the 3^rd millennium B.C., he found many golden cups and dishes there. Railway workers building near Bubastis once discovered a cache of Egyptian treasure from c.1279-1213 B.C., and included was a cup of solid gold. At the famous excavations at Ugarit a number of beautifully embossed golden plates were found, and gold jugs and dishes from Persian sites can be seen in museums all around the world.

Furniture of Gold

                The Pharaohs of Egypt plated their furniture with gold. Buried with Tutankhamen in 1331 were two carved wooden chairs plated with gold. A thousand years earlier Queen Hetepheres, the mother of Cheops (the builder of the Great Pyramid) was buried with a bed, a chair, and a canopy all plated with gold. The El-Amarna letters from the 14^th century B.C. list gifts exchanged between the royalty of Egypt and their relatives in Canaan: golden bowls, toiletries and furniture and chariots plated with gold.

                Solomon’s throne is described as being plated in ivory, then in gold. Gold-plated ivory artifacts have been uncovered in the Assyrian palaces at Nimrud.

Shields of Gold

                The gold shields and bucklers that hung in Solomon’s palace were clearly ceremonial armaments meant as a sign of wealth. Their existence is supported by other similarly symbolic gold armaments from nearby empires. Sir Wooley found a gold helmet (engraved to look like a wig) in Ur’s Royal Cemetery, along with gold daggers and battle axes. A gold axe head was also uncovered at Byblos from c. 1800 B.C. King Sargon II of Assyria wrote a letter detailing the booty taken in his campaign of 714 B.C: the list included six shields of gold weighing a total of 700 pounds.

Temples of Gold

                It is one thing to have objects of gold—after all, everyone is familiar with the gold splendors of King Tut’s tombs and it is possible to purchase gold plated objects today in every shape and size. But a temple plated with gold?

                Sometime between 680 and 669 B.C. King Esarhaddon of Assyria plated the doors and walls of the shrine of Ashur with gold “as if with plaster” (Rykle Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons (Graz, Austria: E. W. Weidner, 1956), p. 87.) Nabonidus of Babylon (555-539 BC) wrote of renovating the temple of Sin at Harran, saying that he clad the walls with gold. Amenophis III (c. 1386-1349 BC) built a temple to Amun at Thebes entirely plated with gold, silver, and electrum. The shrine of Ramesses III (1185-1154 BC) at Medinet Habu was paved with silver, and the walls and pillars were all gold-plated. In a remarkable display of extravagance, Ramesses built a cedar barge 200 ft long overlaid with gold to the waterline.

                We cannot discount the realism of the Bible’s description of Solomon’s wealth when we have so many similar contemporary examples. Truly, Solomon was one of the wealthiest rulers of all time—certainly the wealthiest of any king in Asia in the early Iron Age. In addition to supporting the accuracy of Biblical history, this record gives us a picture of the incredible opulence of Israel at its greatest heights.

For more information about life in Bible times, check out my website at www.timothywilkinson.net.

The Sons of Zeruiah: Heroes and Villains

By Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

                King David of Israel had a sister (apparently considerably older than David) who had three sons: Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. All three of these nephews of the king were famed warriors among David’s men, and their history is integrally linked with that David and his throne.

                They were mighty men, but they were also ruthless and impulsive. The third brother, Asahel, was “one of the thirty” greatest warriors of David’s army. His career was cut short early when he insisted on pursuing Saul’s uncle and military commander, Abner during a battle at (  )_. Abner was considerably older, and Asahel was known for his ‘fleetness of foot.’ Abner kept warning Asahel to stop pursuing him and, when Asahel would not (no doubt eager for the glory of killing the famed warlord), Abner rammed his spear backwards, impaling Asahel with its butt. Joab never forgave Abner for this act.

                The second brother, Abishai was the “chief of the thirty;” in fact, he was their leader and “had a reputation rivaling the three” greatest warriors in the nation. In one battle he struck down 300 enemy soldiers single-handedly. His ruthless, impulsive nature is apparent from two episodes in his life. First, when he accompanied a fugitive David in sneaking into Saul’s camp, David had to restrain him from executing the mad king. Later, during Absalom’s rebellion, a man named Shimei shouted curses at David as the king was driven from Jerusalem; twice David had to stop Abishai from killing the man.

                Abishai took the lead in killing 18,000 Edomites and in routing the Ammonites under his brother’s leadership. When Sheba rebelled against king David in his later years, Abishai loyally led the thirty in battle against him. Perhaps his most noteworthy accomplishment occurred during David’s last recorded battle. A giant Philistine warrior made the King his target and David, in his old age, was no match for him. David would have been killed had not Abishai arrived and killed the Philistine hero.

                But it was Joab, the eldest son, who was the real hero of the story and one of David’s closest allies and counselors throughout the celebrated king’s reign. He fought alongside his brothers against Abner at the time of Asahel’s death. In the ensuing war, Ish-bosheth takes Abner to task over his actions toward the king’s concubines; offended Abner turns traitor and makes a covenant with David, promising to unify the entire kingdom under his rulership. Joab doesn’t trust Saul’s uncle—after all, Abner had hunted David for years while serving as Saul’s military commander. Joab charges Abner with spying. Together with his brother, Joab plots and kills Abner in revenge for Abner’s slaying of Asahel. It seems likely that Joab also realized that he was eliminating a possible rival for the position as head of David’s army.

                In the middle of David’s growing empire is a well fortified city inhabited by a sometimes-friendly Canaanite nation: the Jebusites. That city is Jerusalem. For centuries the Israelites have been unable to conquer the Jebusites because of Jerusalem’s mighty walls. David offers his knights a challenge—whomever conquers the city will become the supreme commander of the royal army. Joab accomplishes the feat by leading a contingent of David’s mightiest soldiers up a well shaft and into the city, fighting their way to the gates and opening them to the surrounding army. David is true to his word: Joab becomes the General of the army and is given ten attendants to bear his weapons for him—including one of the Mighty Men, Naharai the Berothite (perhaps as his personal bodyguard).

                Joab is the kind of commander kings dream about. He helps David conquer Edom, uses a clever strategy to conquer an alliance of Ammonites and Syrians, conquers the Ammonite capital of Rabbah but waits for David to arrive to ceremonially capture the city. Joab not only cooperates in David’s plan to murder Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, but improvises on the plan to better conceal David’s complicity in the affair.

                During Absalom’s rebellion Joab loyally supports David—but then disobeys David’s direct order not to kill Absalom; Joab slaughters him while Absalom is hanging, helplessly entangled, in a tree. For this act of disobedience, David removes Joab from his leadership of the army and appoints Amasa (Joab’s cousin) in his place. Joab continues to play a vital role in military activities, including the defeat of another rebel named Sheba. But during the pursuit of Sheba, Joab calls Amasa close, grabs his beard as if to kiss him, and runs him through.

                Inexplicably, David returns Joab to his command position at the head of the army. Some scholars believe that David was afraid of Joab’s power—and this seems to be borne out by David’s words at the end of the king’s life. While David is lying on his deathbed, Joab joins the conspiracy of David’s son Adonijah who is determined to take the throne from David’s chosen heir, Solomon. Joab must by this time be in his 80’s or 90’s. David makes Solomon promise to execute Joab and, after Adonijah’s rebellion is put down, Solomon sends one of the Might Men, Benaiah, after him. Joab flees to the Tabernacle and clings to the sacrificial altar, hoping to be saved by his presence on “holy ground.” Benaiah isn’t moved—he executes the last of the sons of Zeruiah in the Tabernacle sanctuary.

                The three sons of Zeruiah share a remarkable number of similarities to the three sons of Lot in Arthurian legend: Gawain, Gaheris, and Gareth—but that is a subject for another blog.

For more information about life in Bible times, check out my novels Prophet of Israel and Judge of Israel, available from www.timothywilkinson.net.

                

Sacrifices for an Unsolved Murder: Community Responsibility in Ancient Israel

By Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

                A fascinating example of the comprehensiveness of the Torah is the law recorded at Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 1-9. This law outlines the procedure for dealing with an unsolved murder, and helps modern readers to understand the great value that the ancient Israelites put on life—in spite of the brutal, bloody times in which they lived.

                According to the Law of Moses, anytime a murder victim’s body was found within the borders of the Promised Land, the village elders and judges would do what they could to solve the crime. If they were unable to find the murderer, though, the crime still required expiation. In an example of the concept of community responsibility that is (as far as I know) unique among the cultures of the early Bronze Age, a procedure had to be followed in order to absolve the nearest community of bloodguilt, and to remind everyone that the crime of murder could not be committed without serious, public consequences. These consequences could serve to motivate any witnesses to the crime into coming forward with what they knew.

                The procedure was this: the older men of the communities around the body were to measure the distance from the corpse to their cities and determine which city was closest. The elders of that city then acquired a young cow. Deuteronomy specifies that the cow must never have pulled a yoke. There is another Hebrew phrase used to describe the animal, but it is unclear—it either means “a cow that has not been used for work” or “a cow that has not bred.”

                This animal was led to a torrent valley in which there was running water, but the soil of which did not permit the growing of crops. (Interestingly, the Torah specifies that it must be a valley in which there was “customarily no tilling or sowing of seed;” in some areas of Israel there were few areas in which a crop had not been planted at some time, or that were not growing grain as a result of seeds that had spread naturally).

                There, over the running water, the Levites of the city were to break the animal’s neck. The Mishnah explains that this was done by striking the animal behind the ears with a heavy, broad-bladed axe. Apparently this unusual method of execution related to the unsolved nature of the crime. Sacrifices in Israel (almost) always involved the shedding of blood—it was the blood that was considered sacred and representative of the animal’s life. In this case, though, the animal was being executed, not as a sacrifice, but in place of the murderer. Had its blood been ritually shed, it might have seemed to be an atonement for the criminal’s crime, but it was not mean to absolve him of guilt. In fact, if the murderer was identified at some later time, he would be executed in line with what the Torah required. The killing of the bull allowed the city to put off the burden of their community guilt, as the next instructions make clear.

                After the animal was killed, the priests were to approach and observe as the elders of the city washed their hands over the body. There, in the hearing of the people they recited: “Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see it shed. Do not set it to the account of your people Israel, whom you redeemed, O Jehovah, and do not put the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

                What was done with the cow afterward is not specified, although it seems likely that the body was disposed of ritually rather than butchered and eaten. This ritual must have helped to provide a measure of closure for the families of the murder victim, and for the rest of the community.

To learn more about everyday life in Bible times, check out my series The Eternal Throne Chronicles, available from www.timothywilkinson.net.

How Did a Month Go By?!?

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged! With the release of "Judge of Israel" and the ongoing marketing that goes with that, preparing the 2nd edition for print, trying to keep up with a heavy freelance writing schedule, and getting reading for school to start, I've been swamped.

I just wanted those of you who follow my blog to know that I will begin publishing articles again soon. You may have noticed that on my website, www.timothywilkinson.net, I have added a new toolbar and will be making a few other changes shortly.

Also, "Judge of Israel" will be available soon from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other online distributors. I will also begin doing book signings and presentations on "The Origin of King Arthur" and on "Daily Life in Bible Times" at various locations around northwestern Washington.

Initial responses to "Judge" have been good--some people like it better than "Prophet;" so far the majority like "Prophet" better. One of the strange things about authoring (at least for me) is that while "books are never finished--just abandoned" I do tend to be happy with the published versions of my work. I write books that I would want to read. And, once enough time has passed, I can enjoy picking them up and reading portions of my own work.

I guess in the end that is my real goal--to write a book that I would enjoy reading. I love the story I am telling, though that story is not, at its heart, my own. It is a story that I feel begs to be retold--not just be me, but over and over again.

"Judge of Israel" Book release party

Thanks to everyone who came to my book release party--and for all of you who wanted to come but couldn't make it. It was a huge success. I have now sold out the "limited edition" printing of Judge of Israel and am getting ready to order the second printing in the next couple of days. Thanks everyone who has purchased or requested a copy of the book. I've been filling orders furiously--shipped a copy of both books to Israel on Wednesday! If you don't want a signed copy, or you live close enough that you can bring it to me to sign, you can order a copy of the book here:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/judge-of-israel/11773632

Here are some pictures from my recent release party for "Judge of Israel." I'm not sure if we remembered to take photos of the food--I hope so. If so, I'll post them later. The food was incredible--thanks to Chelsey, Hassana, Shalako, and Reina. And thank you, Stephanie, for letting us take over your home for the day.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=66016&id=1019111394

Editing progress

I am in Bellingham this weekend to give a talk about the 20th chapter of 2 Chronicles. We are staying with friends, allowing me to ignore phone calls and escape everyday distractions and work on editing Judge of Israel. So here I sit, Bolt curled up at my side, a view of Bellingham's storm-tossed bay outside the window--blogging instead of editing.

Prophet of Israel on Kindle

Prophet of Israel will be available as a free Kindle download from Amazon.com within the next few days. If you are a Kindle user, tell your friends about it!

Off to the editor

I am passing off the manuscript to Kate Goschen's able hands today. While she works her magic, I will work on finalizing the cover, final formatting, release plans, and registering for Bowkers, copyright, ISBN number, and Lulu Publishing's marketing package.

I have started fiddling with the outline for Book Three: "Hero of Israel" but it is in its very early stages. I have a rough outline I wrote several years ago, but there is a lot of fleshing out to do before any real writing can be started.

In the meantime, I will start planning the release party...

Original Postcard Mailer for Prophet

This postcard, designed by Jordan Avery, was part of the original marketing of "Prophet."

Sequim Gazette Article on release of "Prophet"

Avani Nadkarni visited me at work one day and wrote this great article announcing the publishing of "Prophet."

"Prophet of Israel" Release Party 2008

Travis and Karli Connely holding one of the first copies of "Prophet of Israel" at the release party in October 2008.

"Judge of Israel"--the new cover

Cover and more

I have very nearly finished the cover of "Judge of Israel." It is based on the same Jordan Avery design as the "Prophet" cover. I am very pleased with how it is turning out. Today Curtis Cosens is coming to update the website and help me finish up with the cover.

I have received Axel's edit (thank you again, Axel). As always, it has many suggestions and ideas that I am very excited about--things that I am certain will improve the book significantly. I am slowly working my way through them and figuring out how best to implement them.

Kate Goschen is ready to start editing as soon as I can get the manuscript to her, but is fairly certain she will not be able to finish the edit by January. So we are settling for an "early in the year" release. Stay tuned for the date of my release party.

Finished First Draft Edit

On Monday I finished the first draft edit of Judge of Israel Next it goes to Axel for his edit/input, and then on to my "real" editor, Kate Goschen. Still on track for a December release (I think).

Elks Lodge Presentation

My thanks to the Sequim Elks Lodge for their hospitality last night in inviting me to present "The Origin of King Arthur." The presentation went very well, with an enthusiastic and appreciative audience response and some great discussions afterward. Thanks also to all those who purchased copies of Prophet of Israel. I hope to hear back from you soon as to how you enjoyed the book.

Beginnings and Endings

The school year is off to a...start. Huge classes are being made feasible by another group of well-behaved students. These kids endlessly amaze me. They keep me humble and make me proud. Of them, that is.

On the other hand, I am making virtually no progress on Judge. A better ending continues to elude me and my editing feels uninspired. I keep plodding (plodding may be to positive a word) forward, hoping to break through and find my pace. Soon, I hope.

In the meantime, I am working on plans for an audio version of Prophet and a new marketing campaign.

Launch of new website

With the help of my web designers Curtis Cosens and Jordan Avery, I have just launched my new webpage at timothywilkinson.net. This is in preparation for the upcoming release of the second book in my Eternal Throne Chronicles, "Judge of Israel" (currently slated for release in December).

I am also scheduled for two upcoming speaking engagements, for those who are interested. I am presenting the lecture/PowerPoint "The Two Eternal Thrones: The Origin of King Arthur" at the Sequim Elk's Club at 6:20 p.m. on 16 September, and on a date TBD in September or early October at the Sequim Library.

First Entry

Welcome to my blog.