ABSTRACT
In a related article (chapter 8 above) I have proposed and defended a reconstruction of the source which may lie behind the texts we know in Kings and Chronicles of Solomon’s inaugural vision at Gibeon. There, I noted some of the historical implications of my proposal. Here, in small tribute to one of my most valued mentors, I reproduce the reconstruction, together with a sample of the argumentation; explain the impulses behind a new approach; assess the discussion of 1 Kings 3:1–15 as a Deuteronomistic text; and offer some wider remarks about Solomon, Kings and the Deuteronomists. It was a great privilege to sit in Rudolf Smend’s Münster seminars of winter 1967/68 and summer 1968 on Joshua, when he was developing those ideas about the Deuteronomists which became so influential when published in the von Rad Festschrift (Smend 1971).
