Jesus as the “greater than Solomon” in the land of Galilee

Christ’s Messianic identity is wrapped into his title “Son of David”. As the wisdom of God incarnate, Christ is the fulfillment of Solomon, who was the historical “son of David”. Christ even calls himself the πλειον σολομωνος (“greater than Solomon”) in Matthew 12:42. An interesting parallel between Solomon and Jesus as it relates to the Kingdom of Israel is found in 1 Kings 9:11:

Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire, that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

The odd thing about this passage is that Solomon gave sacred real estate to a Gentile king. It’s no wonder that Isaiah calls it “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Is 9:1). This real estate was in Galilee, and Christ based his ministry out of Galilee (Mt 3:13; Acts 10:15). Galilee seems to represent the “internationalization” of Israel in the time of Solomon—that the Temple should be a house of prayer for all nations (Mk 11:17). No wonder then that Christ dwelt there.