Search

Part of 13 Psalms and Odes of Solomon - 13.2 Odes of Solomon - 13.2.2 Greek13.2.2.1.1 P. Bodmer XI as Part of a Codex in the Bibliotheca BodmerianaThe original language of the Odes of Solomon was most probably Greek (but see 13.2.1). Before the discovery and publication of P. Bodmer XI in 1959 (13.2.2.1.2), scholars were puzzled about the existence and size of a collection called ᾠδαὶ Σολομῶντος “Odes of Solomon” in two lists of canonical works (13.2.1.2); in addition to the evidence of these lists, we knew only of five enigmatic Coptic quotati…

Part of 13 Psalms and Odes of Solomon - 13.1 Psalms of Solomon13.1.1.1 Psalms of Solomon and the BibleThe collection of eighteen pseudepigraphical poems called Psalms of Solomon has never been part of the Hebrew Bible (MT; I.1.2.2) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX; I.1.3.1.1). Although Rahlfs incorporated the collection’s 613 cola (twenty-five monocola, 216 bicola, fifty-two tricola) into his Handausgabe,1 he himself had to admit that these psalms of varying lengths were not to be found in ancient OT manuscripts.2 It is mainly due to Rahlfs that we now find an English translation of Psalms o…

Part of 13 Psalms and Odes of Solomon - 13.2 Odes of Solomon - 13.2.2 Greek13.2.2.2.1 Lactantius and His Collection of the Odes of SolomonWithin the textual history of the Odes of Solomon, only three lines have survived in Latin quoted in the works of Lactantius. Lucius Caelius Firmianus qui est Lactantius, the “Christian Cicero,” lived from ca. 250 to ca. 325 C.E.; he wrote the seven books of Divinae institutiones “Divine Institutes” ( Div. inst.) between 304 and 311 …

Part of 13 Psalms and Odes of Solomon - 13.2 Odes of Solomon13.2.3.1 Editio Princeps of the Odes of SolomonUntil 1909, our knowledge about the existence of the ᾠδαὶ Σολομῶντος “Odes of Solomon” was based on two Greek lists of canonical works (13.2.2.1), a Latin quotation by Lactantius (13.2.2.2), and five Coptic quotations in the Gnostic tractate Pistis Sophia (13.2.2.3). This unsatisfying situation changed dramatically in 1909 with the publication of The Odes…

…

Part of 13 Psalms and Odes of Solomon - 13.2 Odes of Solomon - 13.2.2 Greek13.2.2.3.1 Editio princeps of the Coptic Quotations from the Odes of SolomonMore than half a century before the editio princeps of the late-fourth century C.E. parchment codex Askew(ianus) was published by the German oriental scholar Julius Heinrich Petermann (13.2.1.4),1 the posthumous Appendix of the Polish-British orientalist Charles Godfrey Woide (1725–1790) appeared in 1799, containing the Coptic text, together with a Latin translation, of the “quinque Odae Salomonis.”2 According to Harnack, this sole codex of the Coptic-Gnostic tractate Pistis Sophia seems “to have been written with the purpose of dis…

[German Version] The eulogy (from Gk εὐλογíα/ eulogía, “well speaking, praise”) did not develop as a distinct genre either in classical antiquity or in Christianity. Besides the general sense of “high praise,” in English “eulogy” has become a technical term for laudatory praise of someone who has died. In French the plural ( eulogies…

[German Version] I. Wisdom of Solomon 1. Canonicity and versions. The Wisdom of Solomon ( Sapientia Salomonis) is classified as a deuterocanonical or apocryphal book (Apocrypha). Both terms reflect its inclusion in the Septuagint, but the Muratorian Canon (Muratorian Fragment) even recognizes the book of Wisdom written in Greek by “friends of Solomon” as part of the New Testament. In general, though, it is classed among the antilegomena of the Old Testament. In the LXX, which itself influenced the (initially an…

[German Version] I. Bible 1. Literary analysis. The primary source for Solomon (Heb. ְׁשׁלמה/ šĕlōmōh) is 1 Kgs 1–12. It has a chiastic structure centered on the account of the design, construction, and dedication of the Jerusalem temple (II, 4; 1 Kgs 5–8); it is flanked by descriptions of Solomon’s illustrious wisdom and reign (1 Kgs 3f. and 9f.), with narratives of his rise and decline constituting the outward framework (1 Kgs 1f. and 11f.). This overall structure is a product of Deuteronomistic historiogra…

[German Version] I. Term and Genre – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Liturgical Studies I. Term and Genre The Greek word ὕμνος/ hýmnos, whose etymology is obscure, originally meant, quite unspecifically, simply “song” (the verb ὑμνεῖν/ hymneín, “ to sing”; cf. Hes. Theog. 11.33; Hom. Hym. 3.178, etc.). Yet, from the ¶ 5th/4th century bce at the latest, it meant “song for a god” (cf. Plato, Leges 700 b 1–2; Xenophanes 21 B 1.13 DK; Xenophon, Cyrupaideia 18.1.23) and thence became the general term for “religious song,” and finally for “festival song,” “song o…