Kebra Nagast And again Solomon sang, saying, “King Solomon hath made a litter for himself,”63 and these words are to be interpreted that Christ hath put on our body. The name Solomon in the language of the Hebrews is, being interpreted, “Christ.” And the foolish Jews imagine that the words of David, “The Lord said unto me, ‘Thou art my son and I this day have begotten thee,”64 were spoken concerning Solomon his son. “O God, give Thy judgment to the king, and Thy righteousness to the son of the king, so that he may judge thy people with righteousness and thy needy ones with justice. And he shall live and they shall give him of the gold of Arabia, and shall pray for him continually, and shall follow him [with good words], and he shall be a support for the whole earth on the tops of the mountains, and his fruit shall be greater than the cedar, and he shall flourish in the city like the grass of the earth, and his name shall be blessed for ever, and his name shall be before the sun. I have brought thee forth from the belly before the Morning Star. God hath sworn, and He will not repent, thou art His priest for ever, after the appointment of Melchizedek.”65 And concerning this prophecy and others like there unto, which David prophesied concerning Christ, the foolish Jews, who are blind of heart, say that what David said in the beginning of his book was spoken concerning his son Solomon; this do the Jews say, and they make Christ to be Solomon because of the similarity of name, and the wisdom, and because He was the Son of David in the flesh. And although those who came after David and Solomon, namely Elijah and Elisha, knew this, they ascribed Solomon’s sin to him in the Book of Kings in order that they might put to shame the Jews, who are blinded in heart and the enemies of righteousness. And Solomon the King, the son of David the King and Prophet, was himself also King and Prophet, and he prophesied many similitudes concerning Christ and concerning the Church, and he wrote four books of prophecy, and is
63Song of Solomon iii, 9. 64Psalm ii. 65Psalms lxxii, 1 ff.; cx, 4.
91
