The Afterlife of a Text. The Case of Solomon’s Prayer in 1 Kings 8

Abstract

Most studies of 1 Kings 8 have focused on the compositional history of the text. Analysis of its literary structure, however, suggests that the passage has a literary unity that needs to be taken seriously. The heart of 1 Kgs 8 is a prayer put on the lips of Solomon that is almost completely at odds with the tenor of the event that the Deuteronomistic Historian (DtrH) is narrating: the dedication of the Temple. The text focuses on what action Israel should take once it experiences natural disaster, military defeat and exile. The Deuteronomistic story of the Temple's dedication underscores the significance of the Temple as a place of prayer rather than as the dwelling place of God and the setting for sacrificial worship. In doing so, DtrH follows a pattern of subordinating all institutions of ancient Israel to the written Torah, the observance of which was the key to the future. The efforts of DtrH ironically made possible the continuity of the idea of the Temple in a world without a temple.