Chapter Three. Solomon—His Actions and Books: Prefiguration, Typology, and His Teachings

Abstract

Though Solomon did not figure in the genealogy of Jesus, he was nonetheless regarded as a prefiguration of the Christian Messiah. Despite Solomon’s negative image as a sinner, the three books attributed to him were a rich source of allegorical readings that treated them as a demonstratio evangelica of both the coming of the Messiah and of the Church itself. Such readings resulted from the Christian view of the Old Testament as a Christian asset, the correct interpretation and true meaning of which only the New Testament could supply.289 This implies that without the Old Testament there is no New Testament. This perception spawned a polemic and a sense of competition concerning the rightful owners, and the true interpreters, of the Bible.290 From a Christian point of view, the historical role of the Jewish people was merely to preserve the Bible for the Christians until they appeared—in other words, to act as custodes librorum nostrorum. Augustine formulated this