Jesus may not indeed have said these things concerning Solomon, but the probability that he did say something of the kind is suggested by the adroit mistranslations. The same puritanical spirit, the same prejudice against human wisdom and love of beauty, prevailed even more when the Gospels were written. The Jahvist jealousy of the wisdom of the world which in a Targum added to Jeremiah ix. 23 a fling at Solomon,—“Let not Solomon the Son of David, the Wise Man, glory in his Wisdom,”—screamed on in Christian anathemas on science, and laudations of the silly. (For “silly” is of pious derivation, from German selig—blessed.) Solomon had not been named in any canonical scripture for centuries, and even in apocryphal “Wisdom” (Ecclesiasticus) he appears as if a brilliant but fallen Lucifer. The cult of Solomon continued no doubt, in a sense, among the Sadducees (respectfully treated, by the way, by Jesus), but they were comparatively few, and like the rationalists of the English Church, cautious about outside heresies. It was probably characteristic that their name is derived from Solomon’s priest, Zadok, instead of from Solomon himself. As for the Gentile Queen, she is not named in the Bible after the record of her visit to Solomon until the homage of Jesus was given her. It appears, therefore, very unlikely that such homage and the unqualified tributes to Solomon, would have been put into the mouth of Jesus.
But why, it may be asked, were not these tributes suppressed? There is in one case a recognition of a Gentile lady which would recommend the text to the writer of Luke, and in the other a lesson against luxury which would recommend this to all believers. At any rate, whatever may have been the suppressions, and no doubt there were many, two of the Gospels have preserved these sentences, which, so far as the glorious “idolator” is concerned, neither of them would have invented. There are the words; somebody uttered them; and the question arises, who was that daring man who broke the severe silence or reservations of centuries and did honour to the king who built shrines to gods and goddesses?[2]
As Solomon said, “A man is proved by what he praises.” That Jesus did appreciate the greatness of the Solomonic literature is not a matter of conjecture. The sayings ascribed to him in the Gospels—apart from Pauline importations and quotations from Jahvist scriptures—are largely pervaded by the spirit and even by the phraseology of the Solomonic books. Remembering that the phrases “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of God,” are post-resurrectional, and that Jesus could not, unless by miraculous foresight, use those phrases for any external dominion connected with himself, there is reason to believe that his conception was of a sway of Wisdom, and that Wisdom was to him the Saviour, as to Jesus Ben Sira, her realm “within,” her leaven hid in the world, her advance without observation.
Of course those who read the Bible in the light of a supernatural theory, see these things very differently, but considering the records as if they were those of uninspired people, one may say that some of the sayings ascribed to Jesus are, in their present form, meaningless. For example, what should we think if we found an ancient record of some poor Egyptian reported as saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” How incongruous the “I am meek” with “learn of me”! How could he give the heavy laden rest? And what rest? what yoke? But we would surely feel enlightened should we presently discover an Egyptian book of “Wisdom,” with proof of its popularity when the mysterious words were orally repeated, containing such language as this from personified Wisdom: “Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits.” And if we found in the same book a teacher saying: “I directed my soul unto Wisdom, and I found her in pureness.... Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and dwell in the house of Wisdom.... Buy her for yourselves without money. Put your neck under her yoke, and let your life receive instruction: she is near at hand to find. Behold with your eyes that I have had but little labour, and have gotten unto me much rest.”
Here is sense. These are the words of Wisdom in Jesus Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 19, li. 23–27). Can any unbiased mind fail to recognize in Matthew xi. 28–30 a mangled quotation from this Hebrew book of the second century, before Jesus of Nazareth was born, but in his time cherished in many Jewish households as much as any Gospel is cherished in Christian households?
Consider the Sermon on the Mount. In the Proverbs ascribed to Solomon is found the beatitude pronounced by Jesus on the lowly, no doubt literally quoted by him: “With the lowly is wisdom” (Prov. xi. 2). The blessing of those who hunger for righteousness (justice) is in Prov. x. 24, where it is said their desire shall be granted. The blessing of the peacemakers is joy (Prov. xii. 20). The merciful man doeth good to his own life (Prov. xi. 17). The pure in heart shall have the King for his friend (Prov. xxii. 11). The house that stands and the house overthrown (Prov. x. 25; xii. 7; xiv. 11); the two ways (Prov. xii. 28, xiv. 12, xvi. 17); the tree known by its fruits (Prov. xi. 30, xii. 12); give and it shall be given you (Prov. xxii. 9); the sower (Prov. xi. 18, 24, 25); taking the lower place so as to be placed higher and not moved down (Prov. xxv. 6–8); searching for and buying Wisdom as the precious silver, the pearl, the treasure (Prov. vi. 11, 12, 17, 19, 35; xx. 15; xxiii. 23); the prodigal (Prov. xxix. 3); those who wrong parents (Prov. xx. 20; xxviii. 24; cf. Matt. xv. 5; Mark vii. 11). The lamps of the wise and foolish virgins are found in Prov. xiii. 9; also xxiv. 20.
In Proverbs xx. 9, we have the words, “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin?’” In Ecclesiastes iii. 16, it is said, “Moreover, I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness that wickedness was there.” (Cf. also vii. 20.) In the “Gospel according to the Hebrews” Jesus, declaring that an offender should be forgiven seventy times seven, adds: “For in the prophets likewise, after they were anointed by the Holy Spirit, utterance of sin was found.”
Although in the language ascribed to Jesus in the fourth Gospel (iii. 1–10) there are post-resurrectional phrases, whatever he may have said about birth and about the wind-like spirit seems to have been what he expected Nicodemus, as a teacher in Israel, to understand. We may therefore suppose that it was substantially a quotation from Ecclesiastes xi. 5: “As thou knowest not the way of the wind, nor the growth of the bones in the mother’s womb, even so thou canst not fathom the work of God, who compasseth all things.”
In relation to Woman Jesus seems to have appealed to Solomon against Ecclesiastes, where (vii. 25–29) it is said:
I have turned my heart to know,