Yaacov Shavit An Imaginary Trio Yaacov Shavit An Imaginary Trio King Solomon, Jesus, and Aristotle Die freie Verfügbarkeit der E-Book-Ausgabe dieser Publikation wurde ermöglicht durch den Fachinformationsdienst Jüdische Studien an der Universitätsbibliothek J. C. Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main und 18 wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken, die die Open-Access-Transformation in den Jüdischen Studien unterstützen. ISBN 978-3-11-067718-8 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-067726-3 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-067730-0 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Das E-Book ist als Open-Access-Publikation verfügbar über www.degruyter.com, https://www.doabooks.org und https://www.oapen.org Library of Congress Control Number: 2020909307 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2020 Yaacov Shavit, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover image: Statue of King Solomon and Christ in the center of the southern portal of the cathedral Notre-Dame of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin, France), Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Open-Access-Transformation in den Jüdischen Studien Open Access für exzellente Publikationen aus den Jüdischen Studien: Dies ist das Ziel der gemeinsamen Initiative des Fachinformationsdiensts Jüdische Studien an der Universitäts- bibliothek J. C. Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main und des Verlags Walter De Gruyter. Unterstützt von 18 Konsortialpartnern können 2020 insgesamt acht Neuerscheinungen im Open Access Goldstandard veröffentlicht werden, darunter auch diese Publikation. Die nachfolgenden wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen haben sich an der Finanzierung beteiligt und fördern damit die Open-Access-Transformation in den Jüdischen Studien und gewährleisten die freie Verfügbarkeit für alle: Fachinformationsdienst Jüdische Studien, Universitätsbibliothek J. C. Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin Universitätsbibliothek der Technischen Universität Berlin Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf Universitätsbibliothek der Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Bibliothek der Vereinigten Theologischen Seminare der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg – Carl von Ossietzky Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek – Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln Universitätsbibliothek Mainz Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal Contents Acknowledgements IX Introduction 1 Chapter One Biographies Correspond 15 Chapter TwoSolomon and Jesus—TwoSons of God, and of David? 32 Pagan polemic 39 The Sages’ polemic 40 Christian polemic 43 Medieval Jewish Polemic 47 The Broken Dynasty:Solomonand Jesus—two sons of David? 49 Chapter Three Solomon—His Actions and Books: Prefiguration, Typology,and His Teachings 56 Solomon’sTemple 59 The Queen of Sheba’sVisit as aTypological Event 64 The Theological and Allegorical Interpretations of Solomon’s Books 65 The Song of Songs 67 Proverbs 71 Ecclesiastes 73 Chapter FourThe Divine Presenceand aHeavenly Voice Come to Solomon’s Aid—On Sin, Repentance, and Absolution 76 Solomon’sSins and DownfallinJewish Tradition 79 Heaven comes to Solomon’sAid 84 Christianity on Solomon’sSins and Repentance 87 Chapter Five “How is Jesus Greater than Solomon?” Solomon and Jesus as Magicians (Healers and Exorcists) 96 Magic and Occultism 96 Magic and Healing 98 Jesus as aHealer and an Exorcist 103 The Riddle of Solomon’sRing 109 Solomon’sAfter-Life as aMagician 113 VIII Contents Chapter Six Miracles and Wonders: Magic, Satan, and Demons 119 Sorcerersand Magicians 122 Satan and Demons 127 Asmodeus and the DemonsBuild the Temple 131 Chapter Seven Solomon’sWisdom—From Hermes to Aristotle 136 Solomon’sWisdom according to the Sages 143 Solomon’sWisdom in the Middle Ages 145 Solomon’sWisdom in Christian Literature 149 Jesus’ Wisdom 151 From Thoth-Hermes to Aristotle 153 Solomonand Aristotle 159 Wisdom versus Wit 168 Chapter Eight Solomon, Aristoteles Judaicus, and the Invention of aPseudo- Solomonic Library 172 The Invention of aPseudo-Solomonic Library 185 Afterword 191 Bibliography 193 Name Index 230 Acknowledgements The research and writing of this book took place over along, frequentlyinter- rupted, period. My original idea was to write about King Solomon as atimeless legend and myth in various cultures. Yetthe more headwayImade in the vast amount of sourcematerials,the less Icould avoid acknowledging that this was aSisyphean task. The abundanceofsources and the extensive researchlit- erature thathas emergedoverthe last century or so regardingdiverse aspects of the figure of Solomonled me to relinquish my original plan and to limit its scope. Thisbook, then, is not intended to retell even asmall portion of the leg- endary traditions about Solomon.¹ Instead, it focuses on thoseplaces and in- stances where his (imaginary) legendary biographyintersects with thoseof JesusChrist and of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher.Solomon is the axis around which this trio revolvesand is the thread that binds it together. The book is based on the premise that there existsacorrespondence, both overt and implied, be- tween these threebiographies—acorrespondence that has taken shape within avast,multifaceted field of texts for more than two thousand years. First and foremost my thanks goes to Chaya Naor for her endeavorintrans- lating the first version of the book. Throughout my years of research and writing, particularlyinthe final stages, Ihavebeen fortunate to receive assistance, in- sights, and input—both gentle and stern—from colleagues and friends. Iam very grateful to all of the following:Professor SaraKlein-Braslavy,Professor YuvalRotman, Dr.Yuval Haruvi, Dr.MayaShabat (Pinhas), Dr.Yuval Rubovitch, Itamar Levin, Dr.Maoz Cahana,Professor David Katz, Razia Geselson and Jean- LucAllouche (to whom Iamgrateful for his generous and indispensable help), and to Michal Engeland Carl Yonker for improvingthe final version. Without the nearlydaily assistance of Avital Ginat and Irit Halavy,Icould not have brought the idea of this book to fruition. Iowe aspecial debt of gratitude to Professor Manfred Oeming of Heidelberg Universityfor the fruitful months duringwhich he hosted me at the Wissen- schaftlich-Theologisches Seminarand introduced me to the statues of Solomon See Faerber (1902);George Salzberger(1907, 1912); Seymour (1924); Legends of the Jews, by Ginzberg(1909), which as of 2003 has comeout in six editions;and Bialik and Ravnitzky (1931-1934), which sinceits second edition has been the most popular and influential collection of Talmudiclegends (taken largely fromthe Babylonian Talmud) in modernHebrew culture. I should also mention herethe most bizarrebook on this subject,bythe radical American author MoncureD.Conway(1832–1907): Solomon and Solomonic Literature,1899;see review by Tyler (1990). OpenAccess. ©2020Yaacov Shavit, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution 4.0 International. https:// doi.org/10.1515/9783110677263-001 X Acknowledgements and Jesusatthe StrasbourgCathedral. My gratitude is also due—not for the first time—to Professor Günter Stemberger: טוֹ פב ִּ ְריִ מי חֵ רָ וּ ץ וּ ִמ זּ ָפ וּ בְת וּ ָא ִת מי כִ ֶּ ֶס נף בִ חְ רָ ( “ My fruit is betterthan gold, even fine gold. And my yield than choicesilver”,Proverbs 8:19) Finally, but in truth first and foremost,this book could not have been written without Zohar,who once again has accompanied me along the entire journey, every up and down. Of such apartner Solomon must have thoughtwhen he wrote: ְו ָר ֹח מק פִ ְּ ִנ ני יִ מם כִ רְ הָ ּה ( “ she is moreprecious than jewels”,Proverbs 31:10). Earlyversions of several chapters of this book have appeared in the Culture and Literature supplement of the newspaper Ha’aretz;inthe book Books and Libra- ries published by the Zalman Shazar publishing house, Jerusalem; and in the Festschrift in honor of Professor Peter Schäfer (thanks to Dr.Reimund Leicht, one of its editors,for his important comments). Those chapters appearhere in expandedand supplemented form. The book is dedicated to the memory of Tamar Dror. Fig. 1 South portal of Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Christ and King Solomon by Jean Vallastre, photobyJean-MarcPascolo, ©Wikimedia Commons. Introduction Twostatues stand on either sideofthe southtransept portal of the Strasbourg Cathedral, one personifying the Church in the figure of the triumphant Ecclesia, the other representing Judaism as the humiliated Synagoga. Between the two sits King Solomon on his throne, the sword of “Solomon’sjudgment” restingonhis knee²;above him, Jesus holds an orb,symbolizing his cosmic statusasthe arbit- er on the dayofthe Last Judgment.³ This is apparentlythe onlywork of art placed in the public sphere thatbringsSolomon and Jesustogether.⁴ It presents the Christian side of what Iwill call the “encounter” or “correspondence” be- tween these twofigures,who