The Judgment of Solomon refers to a story from the Hebrew Bible in which
King Solomon of Israel ruled between two women both claiming to be the mother of
a child by tricking the parties into revealing their true feelings. It has
become an archetypal example of argument to moderation and that of an impartial
judge displaying wisdom in making a ruling.
Biblical narrative The story is recounted in 1 Kings
3:16-28. Two young women who lived in the same house and who both had an
infant son came to Solomon for a judgment. One of the women claimed that
the other, after accidentally smothering her own son while sleeping, had
exchanged the two children to make it appear that the living child was hers.
The other woman denied this and so both women claimed to be the mother of the
living son and said that the dead boy belonged to the other.
After some deliberation, King Solomon called for a sword to be brought before
him. He declared that there was only one fair solution: the live son must be
split in two, each woman receiving half of the child. Upon hearing this terrible
verdict, the boy's true mother cried out, "Oh Lord, give the baby to her,
just don't kill him!" The liar, in her bitter jealousy, exclaimed, "It shall be
neither mine nor yours—divide it!" The king declared the first mother as
the true mother, as a true, loving mother would rather surrender her baby
to another than hurt him, and gave her the baby. King Solomon's judgment became
known throughout all of Israel and was considered an example of profound
wisdom. Genre
The story is commonly viewed in scholarship as an instance or a
reworking of a folktale. It is classified as Aarne-Thompson tale type
926. Many parallel stories have been found in world folklore. Several
suggestions for the genre of the story have been raised, beyond its
characterization as a folktale. The story is commonly associated with the
wisdom genre. Eli Yassif classifies it as a wisdom novella. Edward Lipinski
suggests that the story is an example of "king's bench tales", a subgenre of the
wisdom literature to which he finds parallels in Sumerian literature. Stuart
Lasine classifies it as a law-court riddle. Some scholars think that the
original folk story underwent significant literary reworking, so that
in its current form it can no longer be defined as a folktale. Jacob Liver notes
the absence of any "local coloring" in the story, and concludes that the story
is "not an actual folk tale but a scholarly reworking of a folk tale which
in some way reached the court circles of Jerusalem in the times of Solomon".
Similarly, Jeev Weisman characterizes it as "a wisdom anecdote which originated
in the court circles". Jewish interpretation
According to the Midrash, the two women were mother- and daughter-in-law, both
of whom had borne sons and whose husbands had died. The lying
daughter-in-law was obligated by the laws of Yibbum to marry her
brother-in-law unless released from the arrangement through a formal ceremony.
As her brother-in-law was the living child, she was required to marry him
when he came of age, or wait the same amount of time to be released and
remarry. When Solomon suggested that the infant be split in half, the lying
woman, wishing to escape the constraints of Yibbum in the eyes of God, agreed.
Thus was Solomon able to know who the real mother was.
"Splitting the baby" The expressions "splitting the baby" or
"cutting the baby in half" are sometimes used in the legal profession for a form
of simple compromise: solutions which "split the difference" in terms of
damage awards or other remedies. Representations in art
The Pompean "House of the Physician" was discovered to be the location of the
first known painting of a Biblical story, the Judgement of Solomon.
This theme has long been a popular subject for artists and is often chosen
for decoration of courthouses. In the Netherlands, many 17th century
courthouses contain a painting or relief of this scene. Elsewhere in Europe,
celebrated examples include: Fresco by Raphael
The Judgement of Solomon by William Blake
Etching by Gustave Doré Woodcut by the school of Michael
Wolgemut in the Nuremberg Chronicle Paintings by Andrea Mantegna, Poussin
and Franz Caucig Relief sculpture on the Doge's Palace in
Venice by an unknown artist Stained glass window by Jean Chastellain
in St-Gervais-et-St-Protais church of Paris
= Other media = The scene has been the subject of
television episodes of Dinosaurs, Recess, The Simpsons, the Seinfeld
episode The Seven, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It has influenced
other artistic disciplines, e.g. Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle
and Ronnie snatching Kat's baby in EastEnders.
The HIM song "Shatter Me With Hope" includes the line "We'll tear this baby
apart, wise like Solomon". A surgical technique that involves
dividing the placenta with a laser as a treatment for Twin-to-twin transfusion
syndrome is named 'Solomon technique'. See also
Books of Kings Solomon
The Dog in the Manger Footnotes
^ See Hugo Gressmann, "Das salomonische Urteil", Deutsche Rundschau 130, pp.
212-228 ^ Eli Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale:
History, Genre, Meaning, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999, pp.
29-30 ^ Edward Lipinski, "Ancient Types of
Wisdom Literature in Biblical Narrative", in Alexander Rofé and Yair
Zakovitch, Isac Leo Seeligmann Volume, Jerusalem: E. Rubenstein, 1983, pp.
51-55 ^ Stuart Lasine, "The Riddle of
Solomon’s Judgment and the Riddle of Human Nature in the Hebrew Bible",
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45, p. 61
^ Jacob Liver, "The Book of the Acts of Solomon", Biblica 48, p. 82
^ Jeev Weisman, Political Satire in the Bible, Jerusalem: Bialik Institute,
1996, p. 213. George W. Coats also characterizes it as an anecdote
^ Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi. "The Judgment of
Solomon, object 1 "The Judgment of Solomon"". William Blake Archive.
Retrieved January 2, 2014. ^ "Jewish Law - Commentary/Opinion - The
Brilliant Wisdom of King Solomon". jlaw.com.
^ Stephanie E. Keer and Richard W. Naimark, Arbitrators Do Not
“Split-the-Baby”: Empirical Evidence from International Business Arbitrations
from the Energy Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee
^ [1] ^ Slaghekke, F.; Lopriore, E.; Lewi, L.;
Middeldorp, J. M.; Van Zwet, E. W.; Weingertner, A. S.; Klumper, F. J.;
Dekoninck, P.; Devlieger, R.; Kilby, M. D.; Rustico, M. A.; Deprest, J.; Favre,
R.; Oepkes, D.. "Fetoscopic laser coagulation of the vascular equator
versus selective coagulation for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome: An
open-label randomised controlled trial". The Lancet.
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62419-8. External links
D. L. Ashliman, Child Custody: folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 926, variants on
the tale