1 Kings (3 Kings) 1

There are twenty-two letters among the Hebrews, as is also witnessed by the language of the Syrians and Chaldeans, which is for the most part similar to the Hebrew; for these twenty-two elements also have the same sound, but different characters. The Samaritans still write the Pentateuch of Moses in the same number of letters, only they differ in shapes and points (or "endings" apicibus). And Ezra, the scribe and doctor of the Law, after the capture of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple under Zerubbabel, is certain to have found (or "invented" repperisse) other letters, which we now use, when up to that time the characters of the Samaritans and the Hebrews were the same. In the book of Numbers this same total is also mystically shown by the census of the Levites and the priests. And we find in certain Greek scrolls to this day the four-lettered Name of God written in the ancient letters. But also the thirty-sixth Psalm, and the one hundred tenth, and the one hundred eleventh, and the one hundred eighteenth, and the one hundred forty-fourth, although written in different meter, are nevertheless woven with an alphabet of the same number. And in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and his prayer, also at the end of the Proverbs of Solomon from that place in which he says "Who can find a strong woman?" are counted the same alphabet or sections. Furthermore, five of the letters among them are double: chaph, mem, nun, phe, sade. For they write with these one way at the beginning and in the middle of words, another at the end. From which also five are considered double books by most: Samuel, Malachim, Dabreiamin, Ezra, Jeremiah with Cinoth, that is, his Lamentantion. Therefore, just as there are twenty-two elements, by which we write in Hebrew all that we say, and the human voice is understood by their beginnings (or "parts" initiis), thus twenty-two scrolls are counted, by which letters and writings a just man is instructed in the doctrine of God, as though in tender infancy and still nursing. The first book is called among them Bresith, which we call Genesis; the second, Hellesmoth, which is named Exodus; the third, Vaiecra, that is Leviticus; the fourth Vaiedabber, which we call Numbers; the fifth, Addebarim, which is designated Deuteronomy. These are the five books of Moses, which they appropropriately call Thorat, that is, the Law. The second order is made of the Prophets, and begins with Jesus son of Nave, which is called among them Joshua benNum. Then they append Sopthim, that is the book of Judges; and they attach Ruth to the same, because the history narrated happened in the days of the Judges. Samuel follows third, which we call First and Second Kingdoms. Fourth is Malachim, that is Kings, which book contains Third and Fourth Kingdoms; and it is much better to say Malachim, that is Kings, rather than Malachoth, that is Kingdoms, for it does not describe the kingdoms of many nations, but only that of the Israelite people which contains twelve tribes. Fifth is Isaiah, sixth Jeremiah, seventh Ezekiel, eighth the book of the Twelve Prophets, which is called Thareasra among them. The third order holds the Hagiographa, and begins with Job, the first book, the second by David, which is also one book of Psalms comprising five sections. The third is Solomon, having three books: Proverbs, which they call Parables, that is Masaloth, and Ecclesiastes, that is Accoeleth, and The Song of Songs, which they denote with the title Sirassirim. Sixth is Daniel, seventh Dabreiamin, that is Words of the Days, which we may call more clearly a chronicle (Gk here: χρονικον) of all of Divine history, which book is written among us as First and Second Paralipomenon; eighth is Ezra, which is also in the same manner among Greeks and Latins divided into two books; ninth is Esther. And thus there are likewise twenty-two books in the Old (Testament), that is five of Moses, eight of the Prophets, nine of the Hagiographa. Although some may write Ruth and Cinoth among the Hagiographa, and think of counting these books among their number, and then by this to have twenty-four books of the Old Law, which the Apocalypse of John introduces with the number of twenty-four elders worshipping the Lamb and offering their crowns, prostrated on their faces, and crying out with unwearying voice: "Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty, Who was and Who is, and Who will be." This prologue to the Scriptures may be appropriate as a helmeted introduction to all the books which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so we may be able to know whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha. Therefore, Wisdom, which is commonly ascribed to Solomon, and the book of Jesus son of Sirach, and Judith and Tobias, and The Shepherd are not in the canon. I have found the First Book of the Maccabees (is) Hebrew, the Second is Greek, which may also be proven by their styles. While these things may be so, I implore you, reader, that you might not consider my work a rebuke of the ancients. Each one offers to the Tabernacle of God what he is able. Some offer gold and silver and precious stones; others, linen and purple, scarlet and blue. It will go well with us, if we offer the skins and hair of goats. For the Apostle still judges our more contemptible parts more necessary. From which both the whole of the beauty of the Tabernacle and each individual kind, a distinction of the present and future Church, is covered with skins and goat-hair coverings, and the heat of the sun and the harmful rain are kept off by those things which are of lesser value. Therefore, first read my Samuel and Kings; mine, I say, mine. For whatever we have learned and know by often translating and carefully correcting is ours. And when you come to understand what you did not know before, either consider me a translator, if you are grateful, or a paraphraser, if ungrateful, although I am truly not at all aware of anything of the Hebrew to have been changed by me. Certainly, if you are incredulous, read the Greek and Latin books and compare (them) with these little works, and wherever you will see among them to differ, ask any one of the Hebrews, in whom you might place better faith, and if he confirms us, I think that you will not consider him a diviner, as he has similarly divined in the very same place with me. But I also ask you, handmaidens of Christ, who have anointed the head of your reclining Lord with the most precious myrrh of faith, who have in no way sought the Savior in the tomb, for whom Christ has now ascended to the Father, that you might oppose the shields of your prayers against the barking dogs which rage against me with rabid mouth and go around the city, and in it they are considered educated if slandering others. I, knowing my humility, will always remember these sentences: "I will guard my ways, so I will not offend with my tongue; I have placed a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stands against me; I was mute, and humiliated, and silent because of good things."

There are different opinions about this coldness in David’s body. Some say, “[That was] due to the fact that he was a child of old age, [who was born] after all his brothers, so that, as the body of his father had already become cold with age, so he also, while getting old, grew weak and cold.” But we actually see that in all generations the children born from old parents are often stronger than those who were generated in youth. Others say, “[That coldness] derived from his extremely old age, and from his prolonged fast and the mortifying of the flesh and the abstinence that he had imposed on himself as a penitence for his sin.” However, “Caleb was eighty-five years old and still possessed the vigor of youth,” as he himself declared. And, among other things, David was not so old, as at that time he was only seventy. Others say, “He had become cold as a consequence of his numerous toils and wars.” But the true reason is that taught by the School: “It was because of the fright [caused by] the vision of the angel, who appeared to him in a terrifying manner, that his body withered and grew cold as a consequence of his fear, as is attested in the book of the Chronicles as well.” And this is what Daniel says too: “At the sight of you my bowels were turned within me, and so how could I continue to live?” Therefore the same happens to David: after he saw the angel holding his sword, who entered Jerusalem to destroy it, the warmth fled and the coldness reigned over his body.

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:1

[The king] could get no warmth from blankets, because blankets cannot provide warmth by themselves; if you put them on stones or corpses, they certainly cannot warm them; but when there is heat emanating from the inside of our body, then they are useful and are an aid for us, because they imprison the heat, which comes from the inside of our bodies and warms us up again. Therefore blankets were useless for David, so that it was prescribed by the wise men and the physicians that a young virgin was brought to him—and that was a real novelty—because heat and humidity are prevalent in the female sex, and especially in virgins. Indeed, she refreshed him through the humidity of her body and warmed him up with the heat of her blood, since it was evident that he suffered from both these distresses: coldness and dryness.

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:2

Once David had been a man of war, but at seventy, age had chilled him so that nothing would make him warm. A girl is accordingly sought from the coasts of Israel—Abishag the Shunammite—to sleep with the king and warm his aged frame. Does it not seem to you—if you keep to the letter that kills—like some farcical story or some broad jest from an Atellan play? A chilly old man is wrapped up in blankets and only grows warm in a girl’s embrace. Bathsheba was still living, Abigail was still left, and the remainder of those wives and concubines whose names the Scripture mentions. Yet they are all rejected as cold, and only in the one young girl’s embrace does the old man become warm. Abraham was far older than David; still, so long as Sarah lived, he sought no other wife. Isaac counted twice the years of David yet never felt cold with Rebekah, old though she was. I say nothing of the antediluvians, who, although after nine hundred years their limbs must have been not old merely, but decayed with age, had no recourse to girls’ embraces. Moses, the leader of the Israelites, counted one hundred and twenty years, yet sought no change from Zipporah.Who, then, is this Shunammite, this wife and maid, so glowing as to warm the cold, yet so holy as not to arouse passion in him whom she warmed? Let Solomon, wisest of men, tell us of his father’s favorite; let the man of peace recount to us the embraces of the man of war. “Get wisdom,” he writes, “get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve you: love her, and she shall keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom, and with all your getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote you. She shall bring you to honor, when you do embrace her. She shall give to your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver to you.” Almost all bodily excellences alter with age, and while wisdom alone increases, all things else decay.… So even the very name Abishag, in its mystic meaning, points to the greater wisdom of old men. For the translation of it is, “My father is over and above,” or, “my father’s roaring.” The term “over and above” is obscure, but in this passage is indicative of excellence and implies that the old have a larger stock of wisdom and that it even overflows by reason of its abundance.

Letter 52 (to Nepotian) 2-3

But he “did not know her,” that is, he did not get close to her, not because he was by now devoid of concupiscence but because he restrained the movements of concupiscence, fearing that it might be believed that he, who had many women, had asked for that girl out of lust. He paid for his inordinate desire for Bathsheba through his restraint toward this girl and inflicted this punishment on himself: indeed, the sin with Bathsheba remained fixed in his memory until his death.

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:4

19–26

Thus fathers often call their sons their servants, yet without denying the genuineness of their nature. In fact, they often affectionately call their own servants children, yet without losing sight of the fact they did purchase them originally. For they use the one appellation from their authority as fathers, but in the other they speak from affection. Thus Sara called Abraham lord, although she was not a servant but a wife. And while the Apostle joined Onesimus the servant to Philemon the master as a brother, Bathsheba called her son a servant even though she was his mother when she said to his father, “Your servant Solomon.” Afterwards also Nathan the Prophet came in and repeated her words to David, “Solomon your servant.” Nor did they mind calling the son a servant, for while David heard it, he recognized the nature of what they were referring to, and even while they said it, they did not forget genuineness [of his sonship], praying that the one they called a “servant” might be made his father’s heir; for to David he was his son by nature.So then, when we read this we interpret it fairly without considering Solomon a servant because we hear him called this. Instead we understand him to be a natural and genuine son. In the same way, if the saints, when referring to the Savior who is confessed to be in truth the Son and the Word by nature, say, “Who was faithful to him that made him,” or if he says of himself, “The Lord created me,” and, “I am your servant and the Son of your handmaid,” and the like, no one should on this account deny that he is proper to the father and from him. Rather, as in the case of Solomon and David, let them think properly about the Father and the Son. For if, though they hear Solomon called a servant, they acknowledge him to be a son, are they not deserving of many deaths, who, instead of preserving the same explanation in the instance of the Lord, whenever they hear “Offspring,” and “Word,” and “Wisdom,” forcibly misinterpret and deny the generation, natural and genuine, of the Son from the Father; but on hearing words and terms proper to a work, immediately condescend to the notion of his being by nature a work and deny the Word—doing this even though it is possible, from his having been made man, to refer all these terms to his humanity? And are they not also proven to be “an abomination to the Lord,” when they use “differing weights” with them, using one set of measurements here and another there in order to blaspheme the Lord? But perhaps they grant that the word “servant” is to be understood in a certain way, but lay stress upon the phrase “who made” as some great support of their heresy. But this argument of theirs also is but a broken reed. For if they are aware of the style of Scripture, they must at once condemn themselves. For as Solomon, though a son, is called a servant, so, to repeat what was said above, although parents refer to the sons springing from themselves as “made” and “created” and “becoming”—in none of these do they deny their nature.

Discourses Against the Arians 2.3-4

In the first place, he appoints Solomon as king, even though he had many sons, in order to confound the fools, who believed that nature is more valuable than a virtuous spirit before God. In the second place, he did this because he feared that he, a just man, might be mocked after his death, and Solomon and his mother might be treated with contempt—he as a bastard and she as an adulteress. This is what Bathsheba meant when she said, “My son Solomon and I will be counted offenders,” that is, “If my son is not appointed as king, it will be believed that we are excluded from the kingdom, because we have sinned in this affair of the adultery, and consequently we will be condemned to contempt and cursing as impure persons for the rest of our lives.”

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:30

[David] orders [Zadok, Nathan and Benaiah] to make “Solomon ride [his] mule,” because this animal was highly valued among the Hebrews, just like the white donkey among the Romans. The Jews, in fact, did not possess mules, since they were not allowed to “breed their animals with another kind,” but mules were bought at very high prices from the Gentiles.

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:33

[David] orders them to bring [Solomon] down to Šiloha, where the tabernacle was, not far from the spring of water, which is called Šiloha. Šiloha is a Hebrew name, which is given because the water of the spring gushes out straight up and on and off; indeed, it does not gush out regularly and all the time. And the same can be said about the Nile: since, at different intervals, it suddenly becomes full and then overflows, it is called Gihon, because its waters spread out.

Books of Sessions 1 Kings 1:33

Solomon, it will be remembered, succeeded to the throne during his father David’s lifetime—a kind of succession unique among Jewish kings—for no other reason save to furnish further clear evidence that Solomon is not the man our prophecy proclaims. Nathan says to David, “And when your days shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.” In view of these words, how can anyone think that, because of the later verse, “He shall build a house to my name,” Solomon is the subject of the prophecy and fail to realize that in view of the earlier words, “And when your days shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you,” a different Peacemaker is promised—one to be raised up not before David’s demise as Solomon was but afterwards? It makes no difference how long was the lapse of time before the destined coming of Jesus Christ. The thing that is beyond question is that he who was promised in such terms to king David was destined to come after his death, the very same who was to build a house for God such as we rejoice to see rising up today, a house not fashioned of timbers and stones but of human beings. It is these people, believers in Christ, whom Saint Paul addresses in these words: “Holy is the temple of God, and this temple you are.”

City of God 17.8

You must know that this chrism is prefigured in the Old Testament. When Moses, conferring on his brother the divine appointment, was ordering him high priest, he anointed him after he had bathed in water, and thenceforward he was called “christ” [anointed], clearly after the figurative chrism. Again, the high priest, when installing Solomon as king, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon. But what was done to them in figure was done to you, not in figure but in truth, because your salvation began from him who was anointed by the Holy Spirit in truth. Christ is the beginning of your salvation, since he is truly the “first handful” of dough and you “the whole lump.” And if the first handful is holy, plainly its holiness will permeate the lump. - "Mystagogical Lectures 3.6"

“Not one of his hairs shall fall to the ground,” that is, he shall not undergo any punishment of the guilty, if he proves to be innocent; but he will deserve capital punishment, if he is found to conspire against my sovereignty. Indeed, if he still aspires to take hold of the kingdom, he will be executed: punishment restrains that ambition that discipline could not bring under control. - "On the First Book of Kings 1.52"