Difficulties with the man Solomon

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
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RICHinCHRIST
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Re: Difficulties with the man Solomon

Post by RICHinCHRIST » Mon Nov 14, 2011 2:00 pm

Matt, I agree with your main points. I have a question, though.
mattrose wrote:God blessed Solomon with a gift for wise sayings and the resources to collect many others.
How would we know if Solomon collected other wise sayings? 1 Kings 4:32 says he 'spoke 3,000 proverbs'. It would seem to me that he was the author of them, since that same verse states that the 1,005 songs were his songs. Also, we know that God gave Solomon his wisdom. That would seem to give Solomon more of a right to write inspired works than any normal wise guy.

I know that King Hezekiah oversaw the compilation of some of Solomon's proverbs a couple centuries after he spoke them (Proverbs 25:1). Those were added to the book of Proverbs at a later date. I don't know of a passage that says Solomon himself got his wisdom from another source than God.

I do see your overall point, though. The proverbs are wise sayings, and the point is that we should be looking at what they actually say than at who wrote them. But how would we know if they were inspired by God if they were written by a 'normal joe'?

[EDIT: I do suppose, though, that Agur (Proverbs 30) and King Lemuel's mom (Proverbs 31) were probably normal joes... ahh, maybe you're on to something here.]

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mattrose
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Re: Difficulties with the man Solomon

Post by mattrose » Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:01 pm

Hey Rich,

I was thinking of this verse from the end of Ecclesiastes

Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

You could interpret that to be him dealing only with his own Proverbs, I suppose. But I've always envisioned him collecting the folk-wisdom of all those visitors he had. I could be wrong of course, but I don't envision Solomon simply being zapped by the Almighty with inspired proverbs (at least not in each case). I think it was a more 'fleshed-out' process. God inspired him to write, yes. But also to find and think through existing nuggets of wisdom. I don't consider searching through folk-wisdom and discerning which ones are true as any less 'inspired' than having them just come to mind.

And yes, the fact that Proverbs itself contains various authors hints this way too.

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RICHinCHRIST
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Re: Difficulties with the man Solomon

Post by RICHinCHRIST » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:37 pm

Thanks for elaborating, Matt. Cool stuff! I think you're right. My only question was whether it hindered God's inspiring work in Solomon. I wish it was as easy for God to just 'zap us' to do His will sometimes. I wouldn't mind a zap here and there, but God does have interest in using our circumstances and experiences, rather than just making us learn His ways in an instant.

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Ian
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Re: Difficulties with the man Solomon

Post by Ian » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:22 pm

I had not taken into account 1 Kings 11 in my thoughts on Solomon. My bad. Showing my deficient Biblical knowledge.

This article helped me finally put this to bed: http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/1111.htm
especially the last paragraph (4b)

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