About King Solomon

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

1 King 3:1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem.
11:King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

It seems that the Bible did not rebuke Pharaoh's daughter, she did not mislead the King to worship false gods.
It was other wives misled the King.
I thought Egypt also worshipped other false gods, did Pharaoh's daughter follow the King to worship Israel's God?

 

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

1 King 10:1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.

Who is this Queen of Sheba? From which country?
Did she sleep with Solomon and had offspring for the King?
Did Sheba worship the God of Israel?

 

[HTacianas]

1 King 10:1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.

Who is this Queen of Sheba? From which country?
Did she sleep with Solomon and had offspring for the King?
Did Sheba worship the God of Israel?

The Queen of Sheba is believed to have been the queen of modern day Ethiopia. There has always been a good sized population of Jews in Ethiopia. If you google "Ethiopian Jews" you'll see pictures of them. They are black Africans who wear traditional Jewish attire.

If you read the story of the eunuch in Acts 8 you'll see that he was a member of the court of the Queen of Ethiopia. He is also identified as the Simeon called the Niger in Acts 13. Tradition has it that he brought Christianity to Ethiopia after he left Antioch. He first preached Christianity to the Jewish population there.

 

[Semper-Fi]

I thought Egypt also worshipped other false gods...

Exodus 12:12: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night,
and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;
and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.”

Not only was God going to free Israel, but He was
also going to judge all the false gods of Egypt.
Against All the Gods of Egypt

 

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

Do you mean the Pharaoh's daughter is also a bad wife to Solomon? Why Solomon did not only marry wives from his own 12 tribes of Israel?
Does this mean Solomon is a playboy, fond of womanizing?

 

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

Question: Did Solomon have true wisdom of God? Did he really know God? Did he know God as how Jesus knows his Father?

If Yes, then why did he sin?

 

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

Did King Solomon become aware of his mistake before he died?
Is he saved?

 

[Yekcidmij]

1 King 3:1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem.
11:King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

It seems that the Bible did not rebuke Pharaoh's daughter, she did not mislead the King to worship false gods.
It was other wives misled the King.
I thought Egypt also worshipped other false gods, did Pharaoh's daughter follow the King to worship Israel's God?

The way I read it, Solomon basically violated most of the provision for the king (Deut 17). He was effective in some regards, but not in others.

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

Do you mean the Pharaoh's daughter is also a bad wife to Solomon? Why Solomon did not only marry wives from his own 12 tribes of Israel?
Does this mean Solomon is a playboy, fond of womanizing?

As far as I can check, Solomon did not sin marrying Pharaoh's daughter. I cannot find any prohibition against that, and the OT does not mention any condemnation for Solomon for that particular marriage. It was probably a marriage for political reasons.

We do however find condemnation for Solomon marrying other women from other ethnicities who brought with them the worship of foreign idols - see 1 Kings 11: 1-8 for a full explanation.

Solomon was wise, rich and loved women obviously, and by marrying so many he would have violated the instruction from Deuteronomy 17:17:

He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.​

Having more than one wife was not forbidden under Mosaic Law, but clearly the 1000 of Solomon was over the top.

The Talmud seems to limit the number of wives for a King to 18
(https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/2949092/jewish/King-David-and-His-Wives.htm)

 

[LayHong_Loves_Christ]

Today Christian can marry 2 or 3 wives?

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

Today Christian can marry 2 or 3 wives?

That's a completely different question; in Biblical times only a man could marry more then one woman at the same time, but a woman could ever only have one husband. The relationship between between husband and wife was asymmetrical (in both OT and NT).

Adam was only given one wife; so I would say monogamous marriage definitely is the ideal. Whether or not a man is allowed more than one wife nowadays would depend on your theology: whether one thinks the NT has introduced additional prohibitions on top of Mosaic Law for NT believers.

By far most Christians now would strongly argue the NT forbids polygyny (a man having more than one wife at the same time); personally I cannot find convincing Biblical arguments the NT would suddenly declare that a sin where the OT clearly did not.

Some might say anything that is not ideal (=monogamy) is sin for NT believers, but if that were the case staying single would be sin as well, so that argument is invalid IMHO.

This topic unfortunately seems to be highly divisive.