The Whereabouts of Wisdom

Welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by. For my first post, I thought I'd examine my favorite virtue, wisdom, and talk a little bit about one of its most famous enthusiasts.

Wisdom is defined by Merriam Webster as "the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships." To me, it means the perfect collaboration of knowledge and insight. You can be very smart and make horrible decisions, or very insightful yet incapable of functioning unaided (for an example, see Mr. Dick in David Copperfield). Wisdom is more than “street sense” or any old combination of knowledge and know-how. It's a quality that allows people to sit back, listen, and see the bigger picture in a situation. It helps people to evaluate the best possible outcomes (which usually involve moderation and a healthy dose of patience). In case you still don't understand exactly what I'm talking about, here's at famous example...

The Judgement of Solomon

Picture by Nicolas Poussin

Taken from 1 Kings 3:16-27 (NASB)

Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house. This woman's son died in the night because she lay on it. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne."
Then the other woman said, "No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son."
But the first woman said "No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." Thus they spoke before the king.
Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son who is living, and your son who is the dead one'; and that other says, 'No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" The king said, "Get me a sword."
So they brought a sword before the king.
The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."
Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, "Oh, my lord, giver her the living child, and by no means kill him." But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!"
Then the king said, "Give the first woman the living child and by no means kill him. She is his mother."

Now regardless of the crazy second woman in the story (who's really just a stone cold wretch... or choice nouns), King Solomon really knew what was up. I'm not entirely sure any woman in her right mind would actually go for the baby killing option, but in context his solution to determine the mother definitely showed his wisdom. Usually, I would go all cliche and say, "Now, he didn't get that wisdom overnight, blah blah blah," but oddly enough, he did.

 

The story goes that God came to him in a dream...

Eleven verses back, God appears to Solomon and offers him anything he wants. Solomon asks for "an understanding heart to judge Your people, to discern between good and evil." What a wise guy, right?
God gives it to him on top of all the other kingly things Solomon receives from the kingdom of Israel and Judah (since its still together). In turn, Solomon builds the Lord the first temple, which is a huge deal, considering David, Solomon's father, claimed to be "man after God's own heart," wasn't allowed to even level the ground.

Model of the temple

News of Solomon's prowess spreads until the Queen of Sheba gets wind of ol' Solomon (or Sulayman as they say in Islam). She gets together all of her spices, gold, and entourage, and goes to see if Solomon's really the hot shot people say he is. When she arrives, she questions him rigorously. Overwhelmed by the extent of his intellect and the splendor of his kingdom, she gives him all her spices, gold, etc. In return, before she returns home, Solomon gives "to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested."

Hollywood's Interpretation:

Don't want to miss that....

The Queen of Sheba wasn't the only woman Solomon in Solomon's life. Sum total, he had over 700 wives and 300 concubines. His preoccupation with them eventually led to his downfall.

As he grew older, Solomon began to worship the Ashtoreth, also called the evening star, or more familiarly, Aphrodite — personally, I love the irony of a man with 1,000 lovers turning to worship Aphrodite. Solomon's idolatry leads the Lord to divide the kingdom of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, in two, thus creating the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel, which makes the rest of the Old Testament prophecy seriously confusing if you're not good at geography.

???

But before Solomon got too engrossed with the ladies, he reputedly wrote parts of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and The Song of Songs/The Song of Solomon, which are still part of the Old Testament. 

Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible, but for most people its the biggest downer after Job (I would direct you to Lamentations or Leviticus). It can be considered the first Existential treatise, and is the book from which Ernest Hemingway took the title of The Sun Also Rises. Comprised of 12 chapters, it can be read in about an hour, something I highly recommend you do. Most famous is its third chapter in which Solomon discusses "the time for everything." For me, it pretty much sums up the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I love the poignant refrains, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" and "there is nothing new under the sun." After sampling all the world has to offer, Solomon says, "The conclusion, when all has been heard, is fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person."


Song of Solomon/ Song of Songs, the most lascivious book of the Bible, is the original Arabian Nights. Ever wonder why boys in Catholic school keep reading the Bible? This book. Solomon describes just exactly what he'd like to do with his lady love. I'll let you check it out for yourself. At 117 verses, it's one of the shortest books of the Bible, but she certainly seems satisfied.

Lastly, there's Proverbs, home of conventional wisdom like, "a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike" and "Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." Besides these gems, Proverbs has a lot to say about virtue, age, friendship, and in general how to treat people and love the Lord. I know several people who have read its 31 chapters in a month, taking it a chapter a day. New years resolution perhaps?

So there's the crash course on wisdom and Solomon, the wisest king to ever live, who really, shouldn't ever have been king at all. But that's another story concerning incest, the political power of the prophets, and one of the Bible's wiliest women...

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

~Confucius