Solomon is described as having “wisdom [that] excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men: than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all nations round about” (1 Kings 5:10-11).
Ancient historical records may explain how Solomon’s wisdom was tested against “all men.”
Hiram, king of Tyre, congratulated Solomon on his coronation, saying: “Blessed be the Lord this day, who hath given unto David a wise son over this great people” (1 Kings 5:21). Hiram aided Solomon in building the temple and, later, his own palace (1 Kings 6-7).
While Hiram and Solomon had a good working relationship, they allegedly had more personal correspondence as well, as evidenced by writings from Jewish historian Josephus.
In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus wrote: “Moreover, the king of Tyre sent sophisms and enigmatical sayings to Solomon, and desired he would solve them, and free them from the ambiguity that was in them” (8.5.3).
In Against Apion, Josephus further added: “[T]here was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, which cemented the friendship that was betwixt them [Hiram and Solomon]; for they sent mutual problems to one another, with a desire to have them unriddled by each other; wherein Solomon was superior to Hirom, as he was wiser than he in other respects: and many of the epistles that passed between them are still preserved among the Tyrians” (1.17).
Perhaps the individuals mentioned in 1 Kings 5:11 had also sent Solomon “enigmatical sayings,” therefore establishing Solomon’s famed wisdom as greater than “all men.”
Josephus further cited a remarkable quote from the otherwise unknown, now lost writings of Dius, which according to Josephus were titled The Histories of the Phoenicians. Dius wrote: “They say further, that Solomon, when he was king of Jerusalem, sent problems to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would send others back for him to solve, and that he who could not solve the problems proposed to him should pay money to him that solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to the proposals, but was not able to solve the problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal of money, as a penalty for the same.”
There is possible biblical evidence for such payments.
1 Kings 9 records Solomon gifting Hiram 20 cities in Galilee (verse 11). However, Hiram was displeased by these cities (verse 13). Yet in the very next verse, Hiram is recorded as paying Solomon 120 talents of gold—over $200 million in today’s value, according to some estimates. Why would Hiram pay so much money for something that was so displeasing? Clearly, something is “missing in translation.”
The paragraph layout of the Masoretic text reveals a paragraph separation between verses 13 and 14. Though it is sometimes lumped together with the verses before it, verse 13 actually ends with a paragraph marker, and verse 14 begins a new thought: “And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.”
Cartelli di matematica disfida is Italian for “bills of mathematical challenge.” These were infamous in Renaissance-era Italy, where skilled mathematicians would test the mettle of their fellows by issuing a series of challenges to each other to solve. These were the “knightly duels” of the scholarly world, and success meant gaining clients and money.
Perhaps this out-of-the-blue payment from Hiram was in the context of Solomon and Hiram’s own cartelli di matematica disfida.
