Friday, November 18, 2011

Lovely Ladies of Kings 1 Chapter 3

I was recently re-reading Kings 1, chapter 3: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09a03.htm

In this story, two prostitutes go to King Solomon, each claiming to be the mother of a baby. Solomon proposes slicing the child in half and giving half to each woman, at which point one woman says, "No. Don't kill the baby - let the other woman have him", and Solomon realizes the woman who was willing to give up the baby to preserve his life must be the mother.

The profession of the women - prostitution - is presents factually, without any moral censure. Furthermore, these women are granted a personal audience with the king, and treated with respect.

Whether or not the story happened is irrelevant: What matters is that whoever wrote and/or edited this story, who had this pro-Yahweh, pro-Davidic dynasty political-religious agenda, felt comfortable casually mentioning prostitution without needing to morally censure the women involved, and felt comfortable having a wise leader respect said women and grant them a personal audience.

I think that's pretty cool.

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