The Nautical Journeys of Hebrews and Phoenicians: Echo of the Magnification of Solomon, Allegory of the Ideal Monarch

Abstract

The biblical source mentions on three occasions the nautical journeys of Solomon, king of Judah and Israel, and Hiram of Tyre to Ophir in search of riches (1Kgs 9:26-28; 10:11; 10:22). Throughout the study, we point out that the mention of the journeys constitutes a theological construction, composed between the twilight of the 6th century BC and the first half of the 5th century BC, to magnify, in contrast with the nautical failure of Jehoshaphat king of Judah (1Kgs 22:49), the figure of Solomon as the prototype of the ideal monarch to whom pagan nations, represented by the Phoenicians, render servitude,. The later biblical tradition, manifested by the Greek, Latin and Arabic translation, will continue to magnify the figure of the monarch, placing the location of Ophir on an increasingly more distant horizon.