King Solomon and Peer Pressure

King Solomon and Peer Pressure August 28, 2015

I had a piece on the website “The Toast” drawn to my attention. It pokes fun at the way women are depicted in artistic renditions of Solomon and his wives. For one example, it gives the painting below with the added caption shown:

Solomon tempted by wives

Click through for more examples, as well as the funny introduction.

There are serious things that may be worth talking about, too. The way that patriarchal societies keep women alienated from the reins of power, and then present even their influence as something to watch out for, ought to disturb us. The close connection between such patriarchy and the elimination of the female divine in ancient Israel could also be explored.

But given that the article compares the Bible’s “Don’t worship Asherah” message to “Don’t do drugs” messages in the present day, perhaps it would be even more interesting to explore the role of peer pressure in people maintaining faith, switching faiths, abandoning and/or finding faith?

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like this:

All the other Canaanite nations have Asherah poles


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