The Chronicler’s Portrayal of Solomon as the King of Peace within the Context of the International Peace Discourses of the Persian Era
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Jonker: The Chronicler’s portrayal of Solomon OTE 21/3 (2008), 653-669 661
Another key term in the Chronicler's account is טקשׁ
(‘to be peaceful, quiet/to maintain a quiet attitude’). 29 According to the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible (2004) this verb occurs 41 times in the Hebrew Bible. Of the 31 times in the Qal six are in Chronicles. 30 It also occurs once in a substantive form, as ט ֶק ֶשׁ in 1 Chronicles 22:9 as we have seen before, in combination with the noun םולֹ ָשׁ
. The verb טקשׁ
shows a similar distribution in Chronicles to חונ : it is used three times in association with Asa's reign (13:23b; 14:4,5), once in Jehoshaphat's narrative (20:30), and then also once in the Joash narrative (23:21), where it is indicated that the city (Jerusalem) was quiet after Athaliah was killed. The
distribution of
םולֹ ָשׁ in Chronicles also forms an interesting pattern. It oc- curs 12 times 31 in Chronicles: five times in association with David 32 , once associated with Solomon 33 , once in the Asa narrative 34 , four times in connection with Jeho- shaphat 35
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An analysis of Chronicles should certainly involve more aspects than just these terminological patterns. However, the very conspicuous distribution of these terms confirms the view that the association of Solomon with rest, peace and quietness in 1 Chronicles 22:9 forms a kingpin around which a prominent theological theme in Chronicles unfolds. The royal narratives of Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash and Josiah that are terminologically linked to the promise to Solomon all form part of a literary net- work in Chronicles. The network emphasises that Yahweh is the Giver of peace, rest and quietness, and that access to this condition can only be achieved by seeking Yah- weh and by relying on him.
Why would this be such a prominent theme in Chronicles? And why would the Chronicler have moulded Solomon as the man of rest and king of peace? The tradi- tional scholarly answer to this question is that the Chronicler wanted to emphasise Solomon's close association with the temple building, and that the connection of this
29
(1997) indicates two semantic domains that could apply in all the instances in this text: (i) ‘be at rest, be at peace, i. e., be in a favourable circumstance, implying ease, security, and satis- faction, with lack of tumult or strife’ (also used in Jos 11:23); (ii) ‘be calm, i. e., cause an at- titude or emotion of patience and lack of strife or anger in the midst of a provocation’ (also used in Ezek 16:42). 30 Notably, this word does not occur in the Pentateuch at all. It occurs 9 times in the Deute- ronomistic History, of which 6 times in the book of Judges. 31 Out of 237 occurrences, evenly distributed over all parts of the Hebrew Bible. 32 1 Chr 12:18,19 (3X); 18:10. 33 In the very prominent verse already discussed above, namely 1 Chr 22:9. 34 2
Chr 15:5.
35 2 Chr 18:16,26,27; 19:1. 36 2
Chr 34:28.
662 Jonker: The Chronicler’s portrayal of Solomon OTE 21/3 (2008), 653-669
theme with some other prominent, good kings in Judah's history served the purpose of emphasising the role of the First Temple. The answer is thus primarily sought in the inner-Yehudite context of legitimating the Second Temple during the Persian era.
However, is it only the inner-Yehudite discourse that influenced the Chroni- cler's reconstruction of Solomon (and the other kings)? Could one not assume that the Chronicler also engaged in the international discourse of the time?
In the following section I will investigate the wider Persian and Greek contexts for possible clues to answering the following question: Were there any indications of a wider international discourse in the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.E. that could have formed the background to the new emphasis that we witness in the Chroni- cler's version of Solomon's history? In undertaking this investigation, I am not posi- tioning myself against the traditional inner-Yehudite interpretations. However, I would like to situate Chronicles (and Solomon's portrayal by the Chronicler, in par- ticular) within the wider international context in order to see whether there are any possible resonances of that context in the book. C THE KING OF PEACE IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA OF THE ACHAEMENID EMPIRE 1 Introduction The first part of Artaxerxes's reign 37 (after the murder on his father, Xerxes, and his brother, Darius) was characterised by many revolts. One example was the revolt of another son of Xerxes (who was satrap of Bactria). He revolted as soon as he heard that Artaxerxes (a younger son of Xerxes) had taken the throne. This revolt was, how- ever, suppressed. Another example was the revolt of Egypt under the leadership of Inarus. In 460 B.C.E. Inarus managed to get Athenian support for the Egyptian at- tempt to free itself from Persian control. Without going into all the detail here, it is well accepted in classical and Iranian scholarship that ‘Egypt was basically back in Persian hands by 454 B.C.E.’ (Grabbe 2004: 291).
Syro-Palestine, being the land-bridge between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, must have taken note of the increase in military activities during this time. But
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424 B.C.E., while Gerstenberger (2005:56) makes his reign two years shorter with a dating 464-425 B.C.E.. Wiesehöfer (2006:34) and Kuhrt (2007:314-330) date it 465-424/3 B.C.E.. Biblical scholars are very interested in this period in Persian history, since it was the period in which Ezra's and Nehemiah's missions most probably took place. Grabbe (2004:291) warns, however, that the narrative sources available to describe this period are not good: ‘The reign of Artaxerxes has been of particular interest to biblical scholars, but we lack good narrative sources, even if Thucydides, Diodorus, and others refer to individual episodes and events at various points.’ Yüklə 221,4 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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