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Description of  Solomon: Israel s Icon of Human Achievement (Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament)

1506491960 pdf Figures of legend and lore disclose much about the societies celebrating them. In the ancient Israelite culture, Solomon, a man praised for his wealth, wisdom, and power, is depicted as an example of enormous human achievement. Looking beneath the surface of these claims, Walter Brueggemann reveals an irony that permeates the tradition. In this study of Solomon and his place in the larger consciousness of Israel, Brueggemann considers what Old Testament narratives reveal about the ideals of the ancient Israelite people. The tradition of Solomon becomes an arena for interpretive contestation in Israel, and the text makes available not historical reportage but a conflicted, pluralistic attempt to sort out the reality of human power in the matrix of covenantal faith. Read more