Was King Solomon historical

Answer 1

There is no extra-biblical evidence that Solomon ever existed. In fact, if there ever was a united monarchy, it couldn't have happened in the tenth century BCE because, at the time of David and Solomon, Israel had far fewer than 100,000 population and was still too small, poor, backward, rural, and sparsely populated to support walled cities, far less an empire with armies and bureaucrats and ambassadors travelling around in royal regalia. Judah was much smaller and poorer than the north. Far from being a world class city, archaeologists say that Jerusalem at the time ascribed to King Solomon was nothing more than a mudbrick village.

Israel Finkelstein says that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were always separate, with a different life style, different pottery, different myths and legends, and the same language Hebrew, but different dialects. While Judah was full of steep ridges, rocky outcroppings and poor soil, Israel had rolling hills and fertile valleys, with a much larger population than Judah. It was just not possible for Judah to dominate the northern region of Israel, as described in The Bible.

Ze'ev Herzog says, "Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. "

Others see suggestions of a primitive sun-god myth in the story of Solomon.

In summary, there probably never was a King Solomon. Even if there was, he would merely have been the chief of a small, impoverished tribal kingdom in the mountainous region to the west of the Dead Sea. A glorious legend later grew up around this most wise of all kings.