Judgement of Solomon

Its folkloristic nature is apparent, among other things, in the dominance of direct speech which moves the plot on and contributes to the characterization.

In Uther's edition of the Aarne-Thompson index,[2] this tale type is classified as a folk novella, and belongs to a subgroup designated "Clever Acts and Words".

The novella emphasizes such human traits as cleverness, eroticism, loyalty, and wiliness, that drive the plot forward more than any other element".

The common motif in those parallel versions is that the wise judge announces an absurd procedure, which is reasonable in some perverse way: splitting the baby, according to the principle of compromise; or a tug of war, in which one can possibly presume that the true mother will be motivated to pull harder.

But the procedure is actually a concealed emotional test, designed to force each woman to decide between her compassion for the baby and her will to win.

[10][11] A fresco found in the "House of the Physician" in Pompeii depicts pygmies introducing a scene similar to the biblical story.

[16] According to Raymond Westbrook, the story is essentially a hypothetical problem, introduced to the recipient as a pure intellectual challenge and not as a concrete juridical case.

The description of the case eliminates the possibility of obtaining circumstantial evidence, thereby forcing the recipient to confront the dilemma directly and not seek indirect ways to solve it.

[17] Some scholars think that the original folk story underwent significant literary reworking so that in its biblical crystallization it can no longer be defined as a folktale.

[18] Similarly, Ze'ev Weisman notes that the story seems "more of a paradigmatic anecdote created in the milieu of courtly wisdom than a folktale".

[33] As stated before, most of the story is reported by direct speech of the women and Solomon, with a few sentences and utterance verbs by the narrator.

The story comes to its climax with the shocking royal order to cut the boy, which for a moment casts doubt on the king's judgment.

[34] In its immediate context, the story follows the account of Solomon's dream at Gibeon, in which he was promised by God he would be given unprecedented wisdom.

Most scholars read the story at face value and conclude that its major purpose is to demonstrate the fulfilment of the divine promise and to illustrate Solomon's wisdom expressed in juridical form.

According to this analysis, the story in its current context gives equal weight to the compassion of the true mother and to the godly wisdom that guided Solomon in the trial.

[37] According to Marvin Sweeney, in its original context, as part of the Deuteronomistic history, the story exalted Solomon as a wise ruler and presented him as a model to Hezekiah.

Later, the narrative context of the story underwent another Deuteronomistic redaction that undermined Solomon's figure in comparison to Josiah.

[38] In its current context, the story implicitly criticizes Solomon for violating the biblical law that sets the priests and Levites at the top of the judicial hierarchy (Deuteronomy 17:8–13).

[42] The women's designation as prostitutes links the story to the common biblical theme of God as the protector of the weak, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows" (Psalms 68:5).

They also bear similarity to the proselyte who is sometimes mentioned in the Hebrew Bible with the widow and the fatherless, in that they are socially marginalized and deprived of the right to advocacy.

[44][45] The women are not explicitly condemned for their occupation,[46] and some think that the narrator does not intend to discredit them for being prostitutes, and their conduct should be judged against universal human standards.

[47] On the other hand, Phyllis Bird thinks that the story presupposes the stereotypical biblical image of the prostitute as a selfish liar.

[50] Jerome T. Walsh combines the two meanings, and suggests that in ancient Near East, some prostitutes also provided lodging services (cf.

A striking feature in the biblical story, untypical to its parallels,[52] is that it does not begin with a credible report of the omniscient narrator about the events that took place before the trial; it immediately opens with the women's testimonies.

When Solomon suggested splitting the infant in half, the lying woman, wishing to escape the constraints of Yibbum in the eyes of God, agreed.

[56] If the above-mentioned Pompean fresco indeed depicts the Judgment of Solomon, it is the first known painting of a biblical story (presently moved to the Museo Nazionale in Naples).

Elsewhere in Europe, celebrated examples include: Giacomo Carissimi: Judicium Salomonis, Oratorio for 3 chorus, 2 violins and organ.

[58] In other instances, lawyers and legal commentators may use "split the baby" to refer to any compromise or ruling in which both sides can claim partial victory.

Some commentators have noted, however, that this usage is inconsistent with the Biblical narrative, in which Solomon's solution did not involve actually splitting the baby or finding a compromise but, rather, provided evidence that led to a total victory for one of the claimants.

For example, in a dispute between two neighbors, a British judge gave one of them, pop-star Robbie Williams, permission to have a luxurious swimming pool and gym dug out, but machine-powered digging or excavation work was forbidden and his neighbor, rock-star Jimmy Page, had to be given real-time, complete electronic monitoring of the vibrations throughout the entire construction process.