Page "Solomon" Paragraph 52

From a critical point of view, Solomon's building of a temple for YHWH should not be considered an act of particular devotion to YHWH, because Solomon is also described as building places of worship for a number of other deities ().

Some scholars historians argue that Solomon's apparent initial devotion to YHWH, described in passages such as his dedication prayer (), were written much later, after Jerusalem had become the religious centre of the kingdom, replacing locations such as Shiloh and Bethel.

Some scholars believe that passages such as these in the Books of Kings were not written by the same authors who wrote the rest of the text, instead probably by the Deuteronomist.

Such views have been challenged by other historians who maintain that there is evidence that these passages in Kings are derived from official court records at the time of Solomon and from other writings of that time that were incorporated into the canonical books of Kings.