King Solomon...

Black Lion · (#1 (**permalink**))

Was King Solomon black....?

Quote:

The Song of songs, which is Solomon's.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; For thy love is better than wine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Thine oils have a goodly fragrance; Thy name is as oil poured forth; Therefore do the virgins love thee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Draw me; we will run after thee: The king hath brought me into his chambers; We will be glad and rejoice in thee; We will make mention of thy love more than of wine: Rightly do they love thee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 I am black, but comely, Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, Because the sun hath scorched me. My mother's sons were incensed against me; They made me keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard have I not kept.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock , Where thou makest it to rest at noon: For why should I be as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, And feed thy kids beside the shepherds tents.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 I have compared thee, O my love, To a steed in Pharaoh's chariots.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair , Thy neck with strings of jewels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11 We will make thee plaits of gold With studs of silver.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 While the king sat at his table, My spikenard sent forth its fragrance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh, That lieth betwixt my breasts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of En-gedi.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; Behold thou art fair; Thine eyes are as doves.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs.

Is the proper translation;-

Quote:

Dark [am] I, and comely, daughters of Jerusalem, As tents of Kedar, as curtains of Solomon.

or

Quote:

'I am black but comely'

with the following,

Quote:

'Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, Because the sun hath scorched me. My mother's sons were incensed against me; They made me keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard have I not kept'.

Or...

Quote:

Stop staring at me because I am so dark. The sun has tanned me. My brothers were angry with me. They made me the caretaker of the vineyards. I have not even taken care of my own vineyard.

Again..

Quote:

Fear me not, because I [am] very dark, Because the sun hath scorched me, The sons of my mother were angry with me, They made me keeper of the vineyards, My vineyard -- my own -- I have not kept.

What is the PROPER translations of the texts (all of them), the Jews would have it that his suggesting that the sun has touched him would make him tanned and not a Cushite. The rest of the verse makes it sound as though his dark skin is somehow a bad thing.

Quote:

The "I am black" passage is not speaking of the inherent skin color; as the next verse suggests, "the sun has gazed upon me" - meaning the outer influence made the skin dark, and by staying in the shade it will lighten.

Rashi comments:
The allegory is that the congregation of Israel says to the nations: I am black in my deeds, but I am comely in the deeds of my ancestors, and even some of my deeds are comely. If I am guilty of the iniquity of the [Golden] Calf, I can counter it with the merit of the acceptance of the Torah (Song Rabbah). He calls the nations the daughters of Jerusalem because she [Jerusalem] is destined to become the metropolis for them all, as Ezekiel prophesied (16:61): “and I shall give them to you for daughters.”

So again - tanned isn't Black, and Solomon was not Cushitic, and Solomon wrote the Song of Songs but the person (or entity) to whom the words are attributed are not his, similar to when Shakespeare writes the words of King Lear, he is having King Lear speak the words and not himself.

Orthodox Judaism: Cush/Cushitic

What else have they changed or left out? I've read that all negative things were depicted as being white in ancient times.

Is this true?

To me that whole verse sounds off, there has to be an honest translation out there. I mean...

Quote:

It was the Latin of the Vulgate version of the Bible that introduced the but. 'Nigra sum sed formosa' - I am black but comely. Not black and comely, but comely despite being black. Where African Christians celebrated Sheba's colour, European Christianity gradually marginalised and tried to forget it. In Sheba they had a story of a heathen, foreign woman who had surrendered to the true faith. In her surrender, apparently, she lost her colour too. So from being the story of a wise and resourceful woman, the story changes to one of terrifying will to power and carries with it the church's terror and dread of otherness. The 'other' is overwhelmed, seduced and tamed. Sheba capitulates to Solomon, woman to man, pagan to believer, black to white. Only rarely in European art is Sheba portrayed as black. In one appalling depiction she is black, but with the long golden tresses of a Rapunzel. In Piero della Francesca's fresco in Arrezzo she is almost an English rose, with only one maid in the middle distance wearing a strange hat to hint that she has any connection with Africa at all.

The Queen of Sheba

Also why is the line of Ethiopian royalty so paleskinned?

Peace
A

LadyDay · (#2 (**permalink**))

the correct interpretation which i saw on one show about religious texts and translations is that Solomon says that he is 'black and beautiful'. comely does mean beautiful. sometimes its worth having a look at the amplified Bible

Jim999 · (#3 (**permalink**))

I thought that it had been long established that ALL Hebrews were Black. As to the song translation; Since there is NO currently existing Hebrew documents of a religious nature - except for the Dead Sea Scrolls - This due to Roman burning so as not to conflict with what they would write.
It is therefore safe to assume that whichever translation you use, it is still a Roman, Greek, or even British written song (depending on when it was written).