Solomon And Solomonic Literature Part 15

CHAPTER XVI.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL MANTLE OF SOLOMON FALLEN ON JESUS.

It is no part of my aim to prove miracles impossible, nor to consider whether one or another alleged wonder might not be really within the powers of an exceptional man. In the absence of any apostolic allusion to any extraordinary incident in the life of Jesus, and his own declaration (for the evangelists could not have invented a rebuke to their own narratives) that miracles were the vain expectation of a people in distress and degradation, such records have lost their historic character. As Gibbon said in the last century, it requires a miracle of grace to make a believer in miracles, and even among the uncritical that miracle is not frequent. In the New Testament belief in miracle has its natural corollary in a miraculous morality,--a dissolution of earthly ties, a severance from worldly affairs, a non-resistance and pa.s.siveness under wrongs, which are in perfect accord with persons moving in an apocalyptic dream, but not with a world awakened from that dream.

But at the root of the unnatural miracles is the natural miracle--the heart of man. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, as the miracle-working poet reminds us; our little life is surrounded with a sleep, a realm of dreams,--visions that give poetic fulfilment to hopes born of hard experience. No biblical miracle in its literal form is so beautiful and impressive as the history of its origin and development as traced by the student of mythology. The growth, for example, of a simple proverb ascribed to Solomon "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the just shall flourish as a green leaf" into a hymn (Ps. lii.); the a.s.sociation of this Psalm, by its Hebrew caption, with hungry David eating the shewbread of the temple, and the king's slaying the priests who permitted it; the use of this legend by Jesus when his disciples were censured for plucking the corn on the Sabbath (with perhaps some humorous picture of a great king in Heaven angry because hungry men ate a few grains of corn, crumbs from his royal table) pointed with advice that the censors should learn that G.o.d desires charity and not sacrifice; the development of this into an early Christian burden against the rich, which took the form of an old Oriental fable, [43] to which a Jewish connotation was given by giving the poor man in Paradise the name of Lazarus (i.e. Eleazar, who risked his life to obtain water for famished David, a story that may have been referred to by Jesus along with that of the shewbread); the transformation of this parable into a quasi-historical narrative representing the return of Lazarus from Abraham's bosom, his poverty omitted; the European combination of the parable and the history by creating a St. Lazarus ("one helped by G.o.d"), yet appointing him the helper of beggars (lazzaroni): these items together represent a continuity of the human spirit through thousands of years, surmounting obstructive superst.i.tions, holding still the guiding thread of humanity through long labyrinths of legend.

To fix on any one stage in such an evolution, detach it, affirm it, is to wrest a true scripture to its destruction. Few can really be interested in Abimelech and the shewbread; no one now believes that a rich man must go to h.e.l.l because he is rich, nor a pauper to Paradise because of his pauperism; and none can intelligently believe the narrative of the resurrection of Lazarus without believing that in Jesus miraculous power was a.s.sociated with the unveracity and vanity ascribed to him in that narrative. But take the legends all together, and in them is visible the supersacred heart of humanity steadily developing through manifold symbols and fables the religion of human helpfulness and happiness. The study of mythology is the study of nature.

The theory already stated (ante I), that illegitimacy or irregularity of birth was a sign of authentication for "the G.o.d-anointed," finds some corroboration in the claim of the Epistle to the Hebrews that Jesus, like Melchizedek, was without father, mother, or genealogy. His double nature is suggested: "Our Lord sprung out of Judah" (vii. 14), yet (verse 16), as priest, he has arisen "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an indissoluble life." The writer admits that what he writes about Melchizedek is "hard of interpretation," and perhaps it so proved to the genealogist (Matt, i.) who apparently was animated by a desire to make out a carnal-law inheritance of the throne, yet not so legitimate as to exclude divine interference at various stages. In the forty-two generations only five mothers are named,--all a.s.sociated either with s.e.xual immorality or some kind of irregularity in their matrimonial relations. Tamar, through whose adultery with her father-in-law, Judah, his almost extinct line was preserved, is already a holy woman in the book of Ruth (iv. 12), and the a.s.sociation there of Ruth's name with this particular one of the many female ancestors of her son, and her mention in Matthew, look as if some editor of Ruth as well as the genealogist desired to cast suspicion on her midnight visit to Boaz. "The Lord gave Tamar conception, and she bore a son"--grandfather of David. It is also doubtful whether Rahab, who comes next to Tamar in Matthew's list, is called a harlot in the book of Joshua: Zuneh is said to mean "hostess" or "tavern-keeper." But in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in that of James she becomes a glorified harlot. The next female ancestor of Jesus mentioned is "her of Uriah." The name of the woman is not given,--the important fact being apparently that she was somebody's wife. Our translators have supplied no fewer than five words to save this text from signifying that Bathsheba was still Uriah's wife when Solomon was born.

The next ancestress named after the mother of Solomon is the mother of Jesus, Mary, in whom Bathsheba finds transfiguration. The exaltation of the adulterous mother of Solomon has already been referred to (ante II.), and the traditional ascription to her of the authorship of the last chapter of Proverbs. She was also supposed to be the original or model of "the Virtuous Woman" therein portrayed! Now, in that same chapter she is p.r.o.nounced "blessed," and excelling all the daughters who have done virtuously (Cf. Luke i. 28, 42). In the "Wisdom of Solomon" (ix. 5) a phrase is used by Solomon which is also used by his mother (Bathsheba) when she conjured from David the decree for his succession,--"thine handmaiden" (1 Kings i.). Solomon says, "For I, thy servant, and son of thy handmaiden," etc. This was written in a popular work about the time of the birth of Jesus. We find the "blessed" of Proverbs x.x.xi. 28, and the "handmaiden" of the "Wisdom of Solomon" both in Mary's magnificat: "For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

In Ecclesiasticus (xv. 2) we find the enigmatic clause concerning Solomonic "Sophia," personified Wisdom: kai hypantesetai auto hos meter, kai hos gyne parthenias prosdexetai auoton.

The Vulgate translates: "Et obviabit illi quasi mater honorificata, et quasi mulier a virginitate suscipiet illum."

Wycliffe translates the Vulgate: "And it as a modir onourid schal meete hym, and as a womman fro virgynyte schal take him."

The Authorised Version has: "And as a mother shall she meet him, and receive him as a wife married of a virgin."

In the Variorum Teacher's Bible the reading "maiden wife" is suggested, and reference is made to Leviticus xxi. 13, "And he shall take a wife in her virginity." But the Septuagint, which Jesus Ben Sira would follow were he quoting, uses simple words there: hautos gynaika parthenon [ek tou genous autou] lepsetai.

(The words in crochets are added by the LXX.)

The clause in Ecclus. xv. 2, taken with the chapter it continues, conveys to me an impression of rhapsodical paradox, as when Dante apostrophises Mary: "O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy son!" The Semitic G.o.ddess is born, Wisdom, sister of virginal Athena of the Parthenon, yet fulfilling the Solomonic exaltation of the Virtuous Woman, who is also a wife. She is therefore the Virgin Bride.

But whether this interpretation is correct or not, it cannot be doubted that this strange phrase in a household book might easily convey that impression, and that to believers in the resurrection of Jesus the feeling that he must also have entered the world in a supernatural way might naturally have a.s.sociated Miriam his mother with the virgin bride, Wisdom.

The evolution of Wisdom into the Holy Spirit has been traced (ante XII.), and it is sufficient to mention here that in the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," Jesus uses the phrase "My mother the Holy Spirit."

In the "Wisdom of Solomon" the resurrected Solomon says, "I was nursed in swaddling clothes, and that with cares" (vii. 4, cf. Luke ii. 7). This might be said of every babe, but the King, having begun by saying "I myself also am a mortal man," mentions the swaddling clothes as a sign of lowliness; and the impression made by this item in the Birth-legend of Jesus is shown by a pa.s.sage in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. It is said that when the Wise Men came, in obedience to a prophecy of Zoroaster, Mary rewarded their gifts with one of the child's "Swaddling bands," which on their return to their own land withstood the power of fire, in which it was tested.

The infant Jesus receives gifts of the Wise Men, traceable to the gold, silver, and spices brought by the Queen of Sheba (afterwards "Sophia") to Solomon. (Cf. also Psalm lxxii. 8-11.) As Solomon to the Queen, so Jesus gives proofs of astounding wisdom to the woman of Samaria.

In the "Wisdom of Solomon" the returned king proceeds: "I was a witty child, and had a good spirit. Yea rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled" (viii. 19, 20). In Luke it is said, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom." "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature."

The word "undefiled" was a special t.i.tle of Wisdom. In the "Wisdom of Solomon" (vii.) the King, having described his birth, "like to all,"

and his "swaddling clothes," follows this immediately by saying, "I prayed, and understanding was given me; I called, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me." This is the new and the spiritual birth. Among the t.i.tles ascribed in the same chapter to Wisdom is "Undefiled," this being emphasized three verses lower by the declaration that being a pure emanation from G.o.d "no defiled thing can fall into her." These ideas, so far as Solomon is concerned, are referable to his prayer for wisdom (1 Kings iii. 9) and to Jahveh's adoption of him (Psalm ii. 7). "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee."

These ideas all reappear at the baptism of Jesus, as related in the "Gospel according to Hebrews":

"Behold the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, 'John the Baptist baptizeth for remission of sins: let us go and be baptized by him.' But he said to them, 'Wherein have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? except perchance this very thing that I have said is ignorance.' And when the people had been baptized Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And as he went up the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit in shape of a Dove descending and entering him. And a voice out of heaven, saying, 'Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased'; and again, 'I have this day begotten thee.'" (Cf. Jahveh's promise concerning Solomon, 1 Chron. xvii. 13, "I will be his father and he shall be my son.")

It is important to recall that this all occurred before baptism. The suggestion that he should be baptized for remission of sins, is met by Jesus as a challenge of his sinlessness. It is submitted to the test, and before he enters the water the "Undefiled" (the dove) enters him, and the deity announces him as then and there begotten. When "straightway a great light shone around the place"--ultimately the Star of Bethlehem. John the Baptist is here the shepherd: seeing the light, he asks, "Who art thou, Lord?" The heavenly voice replies, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then John fell down before him and said, "I pray thee, Lord, baptize thou me." But he prevented him, saying, "Let be; for thus it is becoming that all things should be fulfilled." Then follows the baptism, and the account continues:

"And it came to pa.s.s, when the Lord had come up from the water, the entire fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him and said to him, 'My Son, in all the prophets did I await thee, that thou mightest come and I might rest in thee; for thou art my rest; thou art my first-born Son that reignest forever.'" [44]

The phrase "entire fountain of the Holy Spirit" is Parsi. Anahita is the Holy Spirit; her influence is always described as a fountain descending on the saints or heroes to whom she gives strength. It will be remembered that in this Gospel the Holy Spirit is also feminine. The use of the words "fountain" and "rest in thee" are interesting in connection with the account of John the Baptizer and Jesus in the fourth gospel, which differs so widely from the Synoptical narratives. It is in John (iii.) left doubtful whether Jesus accepted any baptismal rite at all. John was baptizing at a large pool called aenon-by-Saleim,--probably allegorical, meaning "Fountain of Repose." Jesus and his friends came there and plunged in (ebaptixonto), but they seem to have been a distinct party from that of John.

After the supposed resurrection of Jesus everything he did, even taking a bath, became mystical. Jerome says that in his time there was a place called Salumias, and he maintained that it was there that Melchizedek refreshed Abraham. There are various readings of this Saleim in the New Testament, all, no doubt, variants of Solomon, all meaning "rest"; and the fourth Gospel supplies in 'Ainon engys Salem' the basis of the legend in the Aramaic Gospel of the "rest"

which the Holy Spirit found in her son, on whom her "entire fountain"

was poured. And with this legend may also be read the words of "Wisdom of Solomon," vii. 27, 28: "She (Wisdom) maketh all things new; and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of G.o.d and prophets. For G.o.d loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom." The representation in this Aramaic Gospel of the Holy Spirit as "entering into" Jesus is especially interesting in connection with the use of the same phrase in "Wisdom of Solomon,"--into whose heart Wisdom was put by G.o.d (1 Kings x. 24).

It is only after Wisdom has entered into Jesus that the voice is heard, "This is my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased." This accords with Solomon's words, "G.o.d loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom." The angelic song at the birth (Luke ii. 14) preserves the heavenly voice at the baptism concerning "peace." The "peace"

is Solomon's own name, a.s.sociated with the "rest" given to his reign in order that he might build the temple (1 Kings v. 4, Ecclesiasticus xlvii. 13). "My Son," says the spirit from within Jesus, "Thou art my rest."

It is remarkable that the t.i.tle preeminently belonging to Solomon, "Prince of Peace," and unknown to the Gospels as a t.i.tle of Jesus, should be traditionally given to one said to have declared that he had come on earth to bring not peace but a sword, and bids his disciples arm themselves. No doubt the religious instinct tells true in this; it is tolerably plain that the warlike words were ascribed to Jesus not because he said them, but to adapt him to the "Word"

as described in the "Wisdom of Solomon": "While all things were in quiet silence ... thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne as a fierce man of war ... and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword," etc. The fierce metaphor was, as we have seen, caught up and spiritualized in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and pa.s.sed on to be literalized for the risen Christ, so that the consecration of the sword by the Prince of Peace is writ large in the Christian wars of many centuries.

To the tests and proofs of Solomon's wisdom recorded in 1 Kings iii. and x. many additions were made by rabbinical tradition, mostly derived from Parsi scriptures. The famous Ring of Solomon is the symbol of sovereignty over the part of the earth owned by G.o.d given by him to the first man King Yima--"Then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him, a golden ring and a poniard inlaid with gold. Behold, here Yima bears the royal sway!" (Vendidad, Farg. ii. 5). When Yima pressed the earth with this ring, the genius of the Earth, Aramaiti, responded to his wish and order. The ring represented Yima's "glory"

(in Avestan phrase), his divine potency, lost when he yielded to a temptation of the devil, and Solomon also lost his ring with which, as we have seen (ante IV.) his "glory" and royal sway pa.s.sed to the (Persian) devil Asmodeus. This occurred in a trial of wits, Asmodeus propounding hard questions, which Solomon was able to answer until, proudly thinking he could answer by his unaided intellect, he laid aside his ring, at the challenge of Asmodeus. These hard questions are found in an ancient legend of a similar contest between the devil and Zoroaster, and are alluded to as "malignant riddles." Zoroaster met the devil "unshaken by the hardness of his malignant riddles,"

and swinging "stones as big as a house," which he had obtained from the Maker,--tables of the divine law, and possibly origin of the stones which the devil challenged Jesus to turn into bread.

There are Avestan elements in the legend of the temptation of Jesus that do not appear in the legends of Solomon. In Parsi belief the land of demons on earth is Mazana. From that region they issue to inflict diseases, especially blindness and deafness. In that region is an "exceeding high mountain," Damavand, to which the great demon Azi Dahaka was bound by Feridun who overcame him. This demon was called "the murderer,"--the epithet mysteriously applied by Jesus to the devil (John viii. 44). After tempting and supplanting King Yima he ruled over the world for a millennium in great splendour, and the chief of devils tempts Zoroaster with that glory.

"Renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and thou shalt gain such a boon as the Murderer gained, the ruler of nations." Thus in answer to him said Zoroaster, "No, never will I renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, though my body, my life, my soul, should burst." Again said the guileful one, the Maker of the evil world, "By whose word wilt thou strike, by whose word wilt thou repel, by whose weapon will the good creatures (strike and repel) my creation?" Thus, in answer, said Zoroaster, "The sacred mortar, the sacred cup, the Haoma [the sacramental juice] the Words taught by Mazda, these are my weapons." [45]

After this, Zoroaster "on the mountain" conversed with Ahura Mazda, and invoked the beneficent beings who preside over the seven Karshvares of the earth. We thus have here the mountain, the stones, the Word from the mouth of G.o.d, the offer of the kingdoms of the world, and the ministering angels, which reappear in the temptation of Jesus.

After his baptism, Jesus repudiates his human parentage ("who is my mother?" etc.), and was led up by his new mother--the Spirit--into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. To this no doubt relate the words of Jesus preserved by Origen from the "Gospel according to the Hebrews": "Just now my mother the Holy Spirit took me by one of my hairs and bore me up on the great mountain Tabor." [46] Here the Solomonic kingdom and glory were offered by the devil if Jesus would worship him. According to Luke iv. he was tempted forty days (the number of the years of Solomon's reign). The first incident thereafter was his announcement that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and the second was an exhibition of his Solomonic power over devils. This, in Luke, is his first miracle. His first t.i.tular recognition was this surrender of the devil, who cried, "I know thee who them art, the Holy One of Israel!"

In Matthew also the devils first give him the divine t.i.tle "Son of G.o.d"

(vii. 29). In the next chapter he gives his twelve disciples authority over demons. That this was well understood by the people is shown in Matthew xii. 23, where, on seeing demons mastered, they cry, "Is this the Son of David?" that is, is this Solomon, the famous enslaver of demons?

It may be noted in pa.s.sing that in the three miracles in Matthew of exorcising a blinding demon the t.i.tle "Son of David" is used. Alford speaks of this as remarkable; but vision is the especial promise of Wisdom, therefore of Solomon, son of David.

It may be remembered in this connection that in "Wisdom"

(Ecclus. iv.) the trial by Wisdom is set forth:

"Whoso giveth ear unto her shall judge the nations. * * *

If a man commit himself unto her, he shall inherit her. * * *

At the first she will walk with him by crooked ways and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline, until she may trust his soul, and try him by her laws. Then she will return the straight way unto him, and comfort him, and shew him her secrets. But if he go wrong she will forsake him, and give him over to his own ruin."

This, which reappears in the parable of the broad and the narrow ways, seems to have determined the part which the Holy Spirit performs in the temptation of Jesus. According to Matthew he was by the Spirit carried involuntarily, "driven," says Mark, the Hebrew Gospel says, "borne by the hair" into the wilderness: as Jahveh "raised a Satan unto Solomon," and left Job to Satan, the Holy Spirit carries Jesus to Satan, the same Evil One; and after his triumph the promise in "Wisdom"

(she will "comfort him") is fulfilled: "Angels came and ministered unto him." Luke says he "returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about: he taught in their synagogues and was glorified of all."

Nevertheless it may be remarked that the peculiar language in Luke (iv. 1) "led in the spirit" suggests that the whole story is a late literalization of some vision, partly based on v. 7 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but originally on Solomon's dream (1 Kings iii.), in which Jahveh offers him any gift, and he asks only for Wisdom. Or, as he (Solomon) says in "Wisdom of Solomon," "I preferred her before sceptres and thrones" (vii. 8). But all of these were remotely influenced by the trial of Zoroaster, and the attempts of the devil to terrify Zoroaster before tempting him may be hinted in Mark i. 13, "He was with the wild beasts." These, however, are more prominent in the temptation of Buddha.