Commentaria in III Regum
Finally, by this anointing it was signified that the king must put on mercy, and the other virtues which are represented by oil, and that he must be the physician of his subjects, as Isaias says, chapter 3, verse 7. On the anointing of Christian kings see our John Azor, volume 2 of Moral Institutions, book 10, chapter 5, question 1, article 3, and book 11, chapter 5, question 3.
You will ask, how old was Solomon when he was anointed king? The Hebrews teach that he was twelve years old. St. Ignatius, epistle to the Magnesians; St. Jerome, epistle 132 to Vitalis; Eusebius, book 9 On the Preparation, chapter 4; Clement of Rome, book 2 of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 1; Cedrenus, Zonaras, Abulensis and Serarius followed the Hebrews. Again, Josephus says that Solomon was made king in the fourteenth year of his age. Severus Sulpicius says the sixteenth; for Josephus, book 8, chapter 2, at the end, says that Solomon lived 94 years and reigned 80; he therefore began to reign in his fourteenth year. But this is a manifest error.
I say therefore that Solomon, when he was made king, was twenty years old. This is proved because he had already taken a wife and had begotten Roboam by her; for Roboam, when after 40 years he succeeded him in the kingdom, was 41 years old; therefore he was begotten by him a year before his father reigned. For what the Rabbis and their followers say, that Solomon begot Roboam in the twelfth year of his age, is incredible, and is commonly held to be impossible. And who would believe that the most wise David gave Solomon a wife when he was only twelve?
Second, because David calls him a man, chapter 2, verse 9, saying: “Thou art a wise man, that thou mayest know what to do with him.”
Third, because Solomon died an old man, and in old age was corrupted by women. Therefore he was then about 60 years old. But he reigned 40 years. Therefore he was made king in his twentieth year. So Lyranus, Tornielli, Gordon, Salianus, Pineda, book 8, chapter 4, and others, who hold that Solomon at the beginning of his reign was 20 years old or more. Solomon was therefore born a little after David’s adultery, when he himself was in his fiftieth year, as I showed at 2 Kings chapter 11, verse 24. For if he had begun to reign in his twelfth year, he would have died in his fifty-second; which is a manly age, not an old one.
You will say: In 1 Paralipomenon 29:1, Solomon is called “a boy.” I answer, “boy,” that is, a young man, as the Septuagint translate, because with respect to so magnificent a temple which he was to build for God, he was like a boy for so great a work.
39. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID: GOD SAVE KING SOLOMON!—Hence it is plain that Solomon, publicly anointed and accepted by all the people as king, at once really began to reign, and David, now weary with old age, transferred the kingdom and its administration to him. What follows teaches this. For presently Solomon as king spared Adonias and sent him back to his house. Whence St. Ambrose, book 3 on Luke; St. Augustine, book 17 of the City of God, chapter 8; St. Jerome, epistle 132; Severus Sulpicius and others assert that Solomon began to reign while his father was still alive, and Josephus expressly, book 7, chapter 10, at the end: “Solomon having been led into the palace and placed on his father’s throne, from that day forward they were obedient to him.”
Rupert says symbolically: “While his father was still living,” he says, “king Solomon is appointed; because assuredly God the Father, who appointed Christ king, heir of all things, never died and will never die.”
Yet David so transferred the kingdom to Solomon that he did not lay down his own royal authority and right, nor the burden and care of the kingdom, but retained them until death, though so that he permitted Solomon to reign with him and passed over to him many affairs of the kingdom. This is plain from chapter 2, where David, dying, gives Solomon many commands.
45. AND SADOC THE PRIEST (the high priest, that is) AND NATHAN THE PROPHET HAVE ANOINTED HIM KING IN GIHON.—Gihon was a mountain, and on it a fountain near Mount Calvary, on which Christ crucified “reigned from the wood, God,” as the Church sings from the Septuagint.
Whence Pilate gave him this title on the cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” This kingdom of Christ, who was to be born of him, Solomon anointed here in Gihon therefore prefigured: for Solomon, that is the peaceful king, was an express type of Christ, who is “our peace, who hath made both one,” Ephesians 2:14: namely, uniting and reconciling to God in himself both Jews and Gentiles. Furthermore the name of Solomon was usurped by the Emperors of the Turks, called after Solomon Selim and Soliman; by the Frederics of the Germans (for Frederic in German is the same as rich in peace); by Irene and Irene of the Greeks.
Finally, Solomon was anointed twice: first here, before the tribe of Juda, suddenly and tumultuously, to exclude Adonias from the kingdom; second, publicly before all Israel, that it might accept him as king, whom David summoned for this purpose a little before his death, when also Sadoc was anointed to the pontificate, as is expressly said in 1 Paralipomenon 29:22. Solomon began to reign in the year of the world 2930, in the 269th year before the founding of Rome, 1020 years before the birth of Christ, according to the chronological table which I prefixed to the Pentateuch.
47. AND THE KING’S SERVANTS GOING IN HAVE BLESSED OUR LORD KING DAVID, SAYING: MAY GOD MAKE THE NAME OF SOLOMON MORE FAMOUS THAN THY NAME, AND MAGNIFY HIS THRONE ABOVE THY THRONE.—They knew this would not be hateful to David but welcome and desired. For parents wish their sons to increase in wealth and glory, and to surpass what they leave them. For as the glory of the son increases, the glory of the father increases also. Furthermore the event answered this wish of the people: for Solomon surpassed David in the greatness of his kingdom, in wealth, delights, magnificence, wisdom and glory, but not in virtue and holiness, at least in old age. So Claudian sings to the Emperor Honorius in his fourth Consulship:
Behold, the wish is fulfilled; your son now equals you in merits, and, what is more to be desired, surpasses you.
And Sidonius Apollinaris, book 8, epistle 7, to Audax: “I ask God,” he says, “that your sons may follow you, or, as it is more fitting to wish, surpass you.” See Seneca, book 3 On Benefits, chapters 36 and 37, where he also recounts various examples of sons who surpassed their parents in virtue and benefits, and exhorts descendants to do the same, adding: “Happy are they who conquer, happy they who are conquered.” And he gives the reason: “For virtue is by nature glorious, and desires to outstrip those who went before.”
Furthermore in 1 Paralipomenon 29:24 it is added: “And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons of king David gave their hand, and submitted themselves to king Solomon.” In the Hebrew it reads: They gave the hand under king Solomon. The Vulgate in expounding added “submitted themselves,” so that that stretching out of the hand was a sign of subjection; second, “they gave the hand,” that is, by giving the hand they promised fidelity to Solomon, says Lyranus; third, “they gave the hand” as a sign of congratulation and exultation, congratulating Solomon their brother on the kingdom he had obtained.
AND THE KING WORSHIPPED IN HIS BED,—as if to say: David, adoring God, praised him and gave him thanks that he had granted him before his death to see his successor, his son Solomon, sitting on the royal throne with so great applause of the people.
52. IF HE BE A GOOD MAN, THERE SHALL NOT SO MUCH AS ONE HAIR OF HIS HEAD FALL TO THE EARTH,—as if to say: If Adonias henceforth behaves himself honestly, faithfully and obediently towards me, so that he acknowledges me as king and plots no rebellion against me, I will pardon him for having seized the kingdom, and will do him no harm. But if he again tries to seize the kingdom by arts and plots, I will punish him as he deserves. And because he did this, you will experience my vengeance; as we shall see in the following chapter.
53. GO TO THY HOUSE.—These are the words of Solomon to Adonias, somewhat offended, chastising his ambition and threatening just punishment if he should attempt anything new; as if to say: For this time, O Adonias, I pardon thy ambition and the injury done me; but if hereafter thou attempt any such thing, know that I shall remember this injury, and shall chastise thee more sharply for both. Go therefore to thy house, rest there, and mind thy own affairs, and do not meddle in the public business of my kingdom; otherwise I shall punish thee justly as thou deservest.