THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON.
It may occur to mythographers that I treat as historical narratives and
names that cannot be taken so seriously; but in a study of primitive
culture, fables become facts and evidences. A grand harvest awaits that
master of mythology and folklore who shall bravely explore the legends
of David and Solomon, but in the present essay mythical details can
only be dealt with incidentally. Some of these may be considered at
the outset.
It is said in 1 Kings i.:
"Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered
him with clothes, but he gat no heat. Wherefore his servants said
unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin:
and let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her
lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they
sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and
found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And the
damsel was very fair; and she cherished the king and ministered
to him; but the king knew her not."
That this story is characteristic of lustful David cannot blind us to
the fact of its improbability. Whatever may be meant by "the coasts
of Israel," the impression is conveyed of a long journey, and it
is hardly credible that so much time should be taken for a moribund
monarch. Many interpretations are possible of the name Abishag, but
it is usually translated "Father (or source) of error." However this
may be, the story bears a close resemblance to the search for a wife
for Isaac. When Abraham sent out this commission he also "was old
and well stricken in age," and of Rebekah it is said, "The damsel
was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known
her." (Gen. xxiv.) Rebekah means "ensnarer," and Abishag "father
(source) of error"; and both women cause trouble between two brothers.
There is an Oriental accent about both of these stories. In ancient
Indian literature there are several instances of servants sent out
to search the world for a damsel fair and wise enough to wed the
son and heir of some grand personage. Maya, the mother of Buddha,
was sought for in the same way. This of itself is not enough to prove
that the Biblical narratives in question are of Oriental origin, but
there is a Tibetan tale which contains several details which seem to
bear on this point. The tale is that of Visakha, and it is accessible
to English readers in a translation by Schiefner and Ralston of the
"Kah-Gyur." (Trübner's Oriental Series.)
Visakha was the seventh son of Mrgadhara, prime minister of the
king of Kosala. For this youth a bride was sought by a Brahman, who
in the land of Champa found a beautiful maiden whose name was also
Visakha. She was, with other girls, entering a park, where they all
bathed in a tank,--her companions taking off their clothes, but Visakha
lifting her dress by degrees as she entered the water. Besides showing
decorum, this maiden conducted herself differently from the others
in everything, some of her actions being mysterious. The Brahman,
having contrived to meet her alone, questioned her concerning these
peculiarities, for all of which she gave reasons implying exceptional
wisdom and virtue. On his return the Brahman described this maiden
to the prime minister, who set forth and asked her hand for his son,
and she was brought to Kosala on a ship with great pomp. The maiden
then for a long time gives evidence of extraordinary wisdom, one
example being of special importance to our inquiry. She determines
which of two women claiming a child is the real mother. The king and
his ministers being unable to settle the dispute, Visakha said:
"Speak to the two women thus: 'As we do not know to which of
you two the boy belongs, let her who is the strongest take the
boy.' When each of them has taken hold of one of the boy's hands,
and he begins to cry out on account of the pain, the real mother
will let go, being full of compassion for him, and knowing that
if her child remains alive she will be able to see it again; but
the other, who has no compassion for him, will not let go. Then
beat her with a switch, and she will thereupon confess the truth
of the whole matter."
In comparing this with the famous judgment of Solomon there appear
some reasons for believing the Oriental tale to be the earlier. In
the Biblical tale there is evidently a missing link. Why should the
false mother, who had so desired the child, consent to have it cut
in two? What motive could she have? But in the Tibetan tale one of
the women is the wife, the other the concubine, of a householder. The
wife bore him no child, and was jealous of the concubine on account of
her babe. The concubine, feeling certain that the wife would kill the
child, gave it to her, with her lord's approval; but after his death
possession of the house had to follow motherhood of the child. If,
however, the child were dead, the false claimant would be mistress of
the house. Here, then, is a motive wanting in the story of Solomon,
and suggesting that the latter is not the original.
In the ancient "Mahosadha Jataka" the false claimant proves to be a
Yakshini (a sort of siren and vampire) who wishes to eat the child. To
Buddha himself is here ascribed the judgment, which is much the same
as that of the "wise Champa maiden," Visakha. Here, also, is a motive
for assenting to the child's death or injury which is lacking in the
Biblical story.
Here, then, we find in ancient Indian literature a tale which may be
fairly regarded as the origin of the "Judgment of Solomon." And it
belongs to a large number of Oriental tales in which the situations
and accents of the Biblical narratives concerning David and Solomon
often occur. There is a cave-born youth, Asuga, son of a Brahman and
a bird-fairy, with a magic lute which accompanies his verses, and
who dallies with Brahmadetta's wife. A king, enamored of a beautiful
foreign woman beneath him in rank, obtains her by a promise that
her son, if one is born, shall succeed him on the throne, to the
exclusion of his existing heir by his wife of equal birth; but he
permits arrangements for his elder son's succession to go on until
induced by a threat of war from the new wife's father and country
to fulfil his promise. A prime minister, Mahaushadha, travels, in
disguise of a Brahman, in order to find a true wife; he meets with
a witty maiden (Visakha), who directs him to her village by a road
where he will see her naked at a bathing tank, though she had taken
another road. This minister was, like David, lowly born; a "deity"
revealed him to the king, as Jahveh revealed David to Samuel; he was
a seventh minister, as David was a seventh son, and Solomon also.
Although the number seven was sacred among the ancient Hebrews,
it does not appear to have been connected by them with exceptional
wisdom or occult powers in man or woman. The ideas in which such
legends as "The Seven Wise Masters," "The Seven Sages," and the
superstition about a seventh son's second-sight, originate, are
traceable to ancient Indo-Iranian theosophy. It may be useful here
to read the subjoined extract from Darmesteter's introduction to the
"Vendîdâd." Having explained that the religion of the Persian Magi is
derived from the same source as that of the Indian Rishis, that is,
from the common forefathers of both Iranian and Indian, he says:
"The Indo-Iranian Asura (the supreme but not the only god) was
often conceived as sevenfold: by the play of certain mythical
formulæ and the strength of certain mythical numbers, the ancestors
of the Indo-Iranians had been led to speak of seven worlds, and
the supreme god was often made sevenfold, as well as the worlds
over which he ruled. The names and the attributes of the seven
gods had not been as yet defined, nor could they be then; after
the separation of the two religions, these gods, named Aditya,
'the infinite ones,' in India, were by and by identified there
with the sun, and their number was afterward raised to twelve, to
correspond to the twelve aspects of the sun. In Persia, the seven
gods are known as Amesha Spentas, 'the undying and well-doing one';
they by and by, according to the new spirit that breathed in the
religion, received the names of the deified abstractions, Vohu-manô
(good thought), Asha Vahista (excellent holiness), Khshathra Vairya
(perfect sovereignty), Spenta Armaîti (divine piety), Haurvatât
and Ameretâot (health and immortality). The first of them all
was and remained Ahura Mazda; but whereas formerly he had been
only the first of them, he was now their father. 'I invoke the
glory of the Amesha Spentas, who all seven have one and the same
thinking, one and the same speaking, one and the same father and
lord, Ahura Mazda,'" (Yast xix. 16.) [3]
In Persian religion the Seven are always wise and beneficent. The vast
folklore derived from this Parsî religion included the Babylonian
belief in seven powerful spirits, associated with the Pleiades,
beneficent at certain seasons, but normally malevolent: they all
move together, taking possession of human beings, as in the case of
the seven demons cast out of Mary Magdalene. In Egypt the seven are
always evil. But neither of these sevens are especially clever. In
Buddhist legends they are not so carefully classified, the seventh
son or daughter manifesting exceptional powers, sometimes of good,
sometimes of evil, but they are usually referred to for this wit or
wisdom. In the Davidian and Solomonic legends these notions are found
as if merely adhering to some importation, and without any perception
of the significance of the number seven. David is an eighth son in
1 Sam. xvi. 10-13, but a seventh son in 1 Chron. ii. 16. Solomon is
a tenth son in 1 Chron. iii. 1-6, but the seventh legitimate son
in 2 Sam. xii. 24-25. The word Sheba means "the seven," but the
early scribes appear to have understood it as shaba, "he swears,"
as in Gen. xxi. 30-31, where after the seven ewe lambs have given
the well its name, Beersheba, it is ascribed the significance of
an oath. Bathsheba is commonly translated "Daughter of the Oath,"
but there can be little doubt that the name means "Daughter of the
Seven," and that it originated in the astute tricks by which that
fair foreigner made herself queen-mother and her son king, above the
lawful heir, whom she was instrumental (perhaps purposely) in getting
out of the way by furthering his wishes.
Moral obliquities are little considered in these fair favorites of
translunary powers. Visakha, in one Buddhist tale, gets herself chosen
by the Brahman as bride of a great man by her care to veil her charms
at the bath; in another tale she attracts a prime minister in disguise,
and becomes his wife, partly by laying aside all of her clothing at
a bathing tank where she knows he will see her. Bathsheba's fame is
similarly various. Her nudity and ready adultery with the king did
not prevent her from passing into Talmudic tradition as "blessed among
women," and to her was even ascribed the beautiful chapter of Proverbs
(xxxi.) in praise of the virtuous wife! In the "Wisdom of Solomon"
she is described as the "handmaiden" of the Lord in anticipation of
the Christian ideal of immaculate womanhood.
A similar development might no doubt be traced in the beautiful
story of Vi[']s[=]akh[=]a of Shravasti, the most famous of the
female lay-disciples of Buddha. The queries put to her by Buddha
and her explanations of her petitions, which had appeared enigmatic,
are related in Carus's Gospel of Buddha, and in form correspond with
the very different questions and solutions that passed between the
Brahman and the Tibetan Visakha, already mentioned. The name Visakha,
from a Sanskrit root, meaning to divide, came to mean selection and
intelligence, of all kinds, but in the matron of Shravastî wit becomes
the genius of charity, and cleverness expands to enlightenment.
The Queen of Sheba,--"Queen of the Seven,"--is a sister spirit of this
lay-disciple. Whatever truth may underlie the legends of this lady,
there is little doubt of her legendary relation to the Wise Women of
Buddhist parables,--to Visakha of the sevenfold wisdom; and of her who
decided between the rival claimants to the same child; to Ambapali,
the courtesan, who journeyed to hear Buddha's wisdom and presented
to him and his disciples her park and mansion; and to the Queen of
Glory, whose story belongs "to a very early period in the history of
Buddhism." Such is the opinion of Mr. Rhys Davids, whose translation of
the Mahásudassana-Sutta, containing an account of the queen's visit to
the King of Glory, in his Palace of Justice, attended by her fourfold
army, may be read in Vol. XI., p. 276, of Sacred Books of the East.
This exaltation of human knowledge and wisdom, travelling to find it,
testing it with riddles and questions, belongs to the cult of the
Magus and the Pundit.
With reference to the seventh son Visakha (all-potential) and
his all-wise bride Visakha, a notable parallelism is found in the
substantial identity of "Solomon" and "the Shunnamite," on account
of whom he slew his brother Adonijah. Shunnamite is equivalent to
Shulamite, substantially the same as Solomon (peaceful), but here
probably meaning that she was a "Solomoness," a very wise woman. That
such was her reputation appears by the "Song of Songs."
An equally striking comparison may be made between the naming of
Solomon and the naming of Mahaushadha, the Tibetan "Solomon" already
mentioned as having married a wise Visakha. Among the many proofs of
wisdom given by this village-born youth was the discovery of the real
husband of a woman claimed by two men. One of the men being much the
weaker, there could be no such trial as that proposed in the child's
case by Visakha. Mahaushadha questioned the two men as to what they
had last eaten, then made them vomit, and so found out which had
told the truth. Let us compare this Tibetan minister's birth with
that of Solomon:
"When the boy came into the world and his birth-feast was
celebrated, the name of Mahaushadha (Great Remedy) was given
to him at the request of his mother, inasmuch as she, who
had long suffered from illness, and had been unable to obtain
relief from the time of the boy's conception, had been cured by
him." (Tib. Tales, p. 133)
"And Jahveh struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David,
and ... on the seventh day [it was the seventh son] the child
died.... And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto
her, and lay with her; and she bare a son, and she called his name
Solomon. And Jahveh loved him; and he sent by the hand of Nathan
the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah [Beloved of Jah]
for Jahveh's sake." (2 Sam. xii.)
In the Revised Version "she called" is given in the margin as "another
reading," but that it is the right reading appears by the context: it
was she that was "comforted," and in her babe she found "rest"--which
"Solomon" strictly means. Among the Hebrews the naming of a child
was an act of authority, and it is difficult to believe that in any
purely Hebrew narrative a woman would be described as setting aside
the name given by Jahveh himself. But the high position of woman in
the Iranian and the Buddhist religions is well known.
In comparative studies the questions to be determined concerning
parallel incidents are--whether they are trivial coincidences; whether
they are not based in such universal beliefs or simple facts that they
may have been of independent origin; whether the historic conditions of
time and place admit of any supposed borrowing; if borrowing occurred,
which is the original? With regard to the above parallelisms I submit
that one of them, at least,--the Judgment of Solomon,--is neither
trivial nor based in simple facts, and could not have originated
independently of the Indian tale; that the others, though each, if it
stood alone, might be a mere coincidence, are too numerous to be so
explained; that the time and conditions which rendered it possible that
the names of the apes and peacocks (1 Kings x. 22) imported by Solomon
should be Indian proves the possibility of importations of tales from
the same country. (See Rhys David's Buddhist Birth Stories, p. xlvii.)
The question remaining to be determined--which region was the
borrower--cannot be settled, in the present cases, by the relative
antiquity of the books in which they are found; not only are the ages
of all the books, Hebrew and Oriental, doubtful, but they are all
largely made up of narratives long anterior to their compilation. The
safest method, therefore, must be study of the intrinsic character
of each narrative with a view to discovering the country to whose
intellectual and social fauna and flora, so to say, it is most related,
and which of the stories bears least of the faults incidental to
translation. I have applied this touchstone to the above examples, and
believe that the Oriental stories are the originals. The Judgment of
Solomon appears to me to have lost an essential link, a motif, which
it retains in Buddhist versions. And I do not believe that any Hebrew
Bathsheba could have set aside a name given her child by a prophet,
in the name of Jahveh, in order to celebrate by another name the
"rest" she found from her sorrows.
On the other hand, the borrowings by other countries from the legend
of Solomon appear much more numerous. In some cases, as the legend
of Jemshîd, there appear to have been exchanges between the two great
sages, but the Solomonic traditions seem preponderant in Vikramadatsya,
the demon-commanding hero of India. Solomon became a proverb of wisdom
and liberality in Abyssinia, Arabia, and Persia. Ideal Sulaimans and
Solimas abound. Solomon has influenced the legends of many heroes,
such as Haroun-Alraschid and Charlemagne, and I will even venture
a suspicion that the fame, and perhaps the name, of Solon have been
influenced by the legend of Solomon. Lexicographers give no account of
Solon's name; he is assigned to a conjectural period before written
Greek existed; his interviews with Croesus, given in Herodotus,
are hopelessly unhistorical, and his moralisings to the rich man
recall the book of Proverbs. The Solon of Plato's Critias is already a
mythological voyager, a Sindebad-Solomon, and his romance of the lost
Atlantis is like an idealised rumour of the Wise Man's Kingdom. Solon's
"history" was developed by Plutarch, seven centuries after the era
assigned to the sage, out of poetical fragments ascribed to him,
and he is represented as a great trader and traveller in the regions
associated with Solomon. It is doubtful whether this chief of the Seven
Sages, whose Solomonic motto was "Know Thyself" (cf. Prov. xiv. 8),
could he reappear, would know himself as historically costumed by
writers in our era, from Plutarch to Grote.
At any rate there is little doubt of a reference to the Seven Spentas
or to the Seven Sages in Proverbs ix. 1:
"Wisdom hath builded her house,
She hath hewn out her seven pillars."