I. Wilson

Praying to the Temple: Divine Presence in Solomon's Prayer I. Wilson

There is a long-standing consensus that Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 8
characterizes YHWH as having been 'relocated' to heaven and therefore no
longer present in the temple. This study is the first sustained attempt
to challenge that view.


It does so by focusing on a hitherto overlooked collocation within the
chapter, and concludes that the prayer portrays YHWH as being present
both in heaven and in the building.


Such a finding inevitably has consequences for wider issues involving
divine presence both within and beyond the confines of 1 Kings 8. These
include a cluster of ideas traced to the large central section of the
chapter and involving a purely transcendent Deity, a (semi-)independent
divine "name" inhabiting the sanctuary and an effectively desacralized
temple. All three, together with the scholarly construct known as Name
Theology, are called into question if YHWH is indeed represented as
being localized within the temple.