Friday, April 22, 2022

Genealogy records

David's children are listed, and some appear in genealogies. Solomon though--only the one son is listed (although the Ethiopians claim Menelik I was also his son). I wonder why. Maybe he only had the one (think "Henry VIII" except that he didn't have to get rid of any wives). Maybe, given the civil war that quickly ensued, Rehoboam made sure that his brothers got left out of official genealogies to forestall any other claimants. Maybe too many were from non-Israelite mothers, and rather than sort out who was who (and maybe make Rehoboam mad, since his mother was Ammonite) they just left the mob out.

Maybe Solomon just wasn't as important as David for inclusion of all his details in the Chronicles--the chroniclers were different people too. Later kings didn't have the iconic status of David, or even Solomon, and I imagine the full family tree would have been long and tedious, so they just listed the heirs.

...

In looking this up I found that some ancient sources identified Nathan the prophet with Nathan the son of David. "Nathan the time traveler, confronting his father before he is born?" Weird.

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