Once David had been a man of war, but at seventy, age had chilled him so that nothing would make him warm. A girl is accordingly sought from the coasts of Israel—Abishag the Shunammite—to sleep with the king and warm his aged frame. Does it not seem to you—if you keep to the letter that kills^[1]—like some farcical story or some broad jest from an Atellan play?^[2] A chilly old man is wrapped up in blankets and only grows warm in a girl’s embrace. Bathsheba was still living, Abigail was still left, and the remainder of those wives and concubines whose names the Scripture mentions. Yet they are all rejected as cold, and only in the one young girl’s embrace does the old man become warm. Abraham was far older than David; still, so long as Sarah lived, he sought no other wife. Isaac counted twice the years of David yet never felt cold with Rebekah, old though she was. I say nothing of the antediluvians, who, although after nine hundred years their limbs must have been not old merely, but decayed with age, had no recourse to girls’ embraces. Moses, the leader of the Israelites, counted one hundred and twenty years, yet sought no change from Zipporah.

Who, then, is this Shunammite, this wife and maid, so glowing as to warm the cold, yet so holy as not to arouse passion in him whom she warmed? Let Solomon, wisest of men, tell us of his father’s favorite; let the man of peace recount to us the embraces of the man of war. Get wisdom, he writes, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve you: love her, and she shall keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom, and with all your getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote you. She shall bring you to honor, when you do embrace her. She shall give to your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver to you.^[3]

Almost all bodily excellences alter with age, and while wisdom alone increases, all things else decay. . . . So even the very name Abishag, in its mystic meaning, points to the greater wisdom of old men. For the translation of it is, My father is over and above, or, my father’s roaring. The term over and above is obscure, but in this passage is indicative of excellence and implies that the old have a larger stock of wisdom and that it even overflows by reason of its abundance. ^[4] THE TEMPERANCE OF DAVID. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: But he did not know her, that is, he did not get close to her, not because he was by now devoid of concupiscence but because he restrained the movements of concupiscence, fearing that it might be believed that he, who had many women, had asked for that girl out of lust. He paid for his inordinate desire for Bathsheba through his restraint toward this girl and inflicted this punishment on himself: indeed, the sin with Bathsheba^[1] remained fixed in his memory until his death. ^[2]

Thus fathers often call their sons their servants, yet without denying the genuineness of their nature. In fact, they often affectionately call their own servants children, yet without losing sight of the fact they did purchase them originally. For they use the one appellation from their authority as fathers, but in the other they speak from affection. Thus Sara called Abraham lord, although she was not a servant but a wife. And while the Apostle joined Onesimus the servant to Philemon the master as a brother, Bathsheba called her son a servant even though she was his mother when she said to his father, Your servant Solomon. Afterwards also Nathan the Prophet came in and repeated her words to David, Solomon your servant. Nor did they mind calling the son a servant, for while David heard it, he recognized the nature of what they were referring to, and even while they said it, they did not forget genuineness [of his sonship], praying that the one they called a servant might be made his father’s heir; for to David he was his son by nature.

So then, when we read this we interpret it fairly without considering Solomon a servant because we hear him called this. Instead we understand him to be a natural and genuine son. In the same way, if the saints, when referring to the Savior who is confessed to be in truth the Son and the Word by nature, say, Who was faithful to him that made him, or if he says of himself, The Lord created me, and, I am your servant and the Son of your handmaid,^[1] and the like, no one should on this account deny that he is proper to the father and from him. Rather, as in the case of Solomon and David, let them think properly about the Father and the Son. For if, though they hear Solomon called a servant, they acknowledge him to be a son, are they not deserving of many deaths, who, instead of preserving the same explanation in the instance of the Lord, whenever they hear Offspring, and Word, and Wisdom, forcibly misinterpret and deny the generation, natural and genuine, of the Son from the Father; but on hearing words and terms proper to a work, immediately condescend to the notion of his being by nature a work and deny the Word—doing this even though it is possible, from his having been made man, to refer all these terms to his humanity?^[2] And are they not also proven to be an abomination to the Lord, when they use differing weights^[3] with them, using one set of measurements here and another there in order to blaspheme the Lord? But perhaps they grant that the word servant is to be understood in a certain way, but lay stress upon the phrase who made as some great support of their heresy. But this argument of theirs also is but a broken reed. For if they are aware of the style of Scripture, they must at once condemn themselves. For as Solomon, though a son, is called a servant, so, to repeat what was said above, although parents refer to the sons springing from themselves as made and created and becoming—in none of these do they deny their nature.

Solomon, it will be remembered, succeeded to the throne during his father David’s lifetime—a kind of succession unique among Jewish kings—for no other reason save to furnish further clear evidence that Solomon is not the man our prophecy proclaims. Nathan says to David, And when your days shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.^[1] In view of these words, how can anyone think that, because of the later verse, He shall build a house to my name,^[2] Solomon is the subject of the prophecy and fail to realize that in view of the earlier words, And when your days shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, a different Peacemaker is promised—one to be raised up not before David’s demise as Solomon was but afterwards? It makes no difference how long was the lapse of time before the destined coming of Jesus Christ. The thing that is beyond question is that he who was promised in such terms to king David was destined to come after his death, the very same who was to build a house for God such as we rejoice to see rising up today, a house not fashioned of timbers and stones but of human beings. It is these people, believers in Christ, whom Saint Paul addresses in these words: Holy is the temple of God, and this temple you are.^[3]

You must know that this chrism is prefigured in the Old Testament. When Moses, conferring on his brother the divine appointment, was ordering him high priest, he anointed him after he had bathed in water, and thenceforward he was called christ [anointed], clearly after the figurative chrism. Again, the high priest, when installing Solomon as king, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon. But what was done to them in figure was done to you, not in figure but in truth, because your salvation began from him who was anointed by the Holy Spirit in truth. Christ is the beginning of your salvation, since he is truly the first handful of dough and you the whole lump.^[1] And if the first handful is holy, plainly its holiness will permeate the lump.

In blessing David, why did the leaders who were next to the king want the young king to become more illustrious and glorious than his father? They said, May God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours, and make his throne greater than your throne.

They knew that no one who has a true paternal love could be jealous of his sons. The wish to see their sons more illustrious than them is characteristic of fathers. Only Arius and his sons oppose this truth with their madness.^[1] Therefore David was pleased with what was said by the leaders since it enabled him to worship God even when his old age prevented him from getting to his feet. Indeed he had announced the fulfillment of the promise: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who today has granted one of my offspring to sit on my throne and permitted me to witness it.

Not one of his hairs shall fall to the ground, that is, he shall not undergo any punishment of the guilty, if he proves to be innocent; but he will deserve capital punishment, if he is found to conspire against my sovereignty. Indeed, if he still aspires to take hold of the kingdom, he will be executed: punishment restrains that ambition that discipline could not bring under control.