LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Odes: Solomon
built 635 days ago
The Odes of Solomon is a collection of 42 odes attributed to Solomon. Various scholars have dated the composition of these religious poems to anywhere in the range of the first three centuries AD. The original language of the Odes is thought to have been either Greek or Syriac, and to be generally Christian in background.
Source:
The Odes of Solomon are a priceless jewelled window onto the early development of Christ belief, part of a "proto-Christian" stream. Their composer inhabits a community which has cultified the communicating aspect of God, a layer superimposed upon the traditional Jewish worship of God, but still oriented toward him. There is as yet no firm development of an incarnation—certainly not in "flesh"—and the Word or Son is probably not yet perceived as a separate entity, only a highlighted aspect of God, an emanation from him that serves a revelatory, mediatorial function, channel of the knowledge which brings salvation to the elect.
Source:
Forty of the forty-two Odes of Solomon are extant in Syriac, five are preserved in Coptic, and one in Greek. An eclectic text has been edited and translated into English by G. J. Charlesworth (no. 1292). Other translations into Egnlish were published by J. R. Harris and A. Mingana (The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, 2 vols. Manchester: University of Manchester; London, New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1916-1920, Vol. 1, text and facsimile; vol. 2, transl.), by J. H. Bernard (The Odes of Solomon [T&S 8.3] Cambridge: CUP, 1912), and by M. MarYosip (The Oldest Christian Hymn-book, foreword by M. Sprengling. Temple, Text.: M. MarYosip, 1948).
Source:
The Odes of Solomon consist of 42 psalms. They are believed to have originated in either Antioch or Edessa and were originally written in Syriac. All scholars believe the Odes to be Christian; for example Charlesworth believes them to be the "earliest Christian hymn- book." (Charlesworth, The Odes of Solomon, p. vii).
Source:
The Odes of Solomon were, perhaps, composed for liturgical use. In the Syriac manuscripts, all of the Odes end with a hallelujah, and the Harris manuscript marks this word in the middle of an ode by the Syriac letter hê (
Source:
The date of the Odes of Solomon is no longer as puzzling as it was at the beginning of the century. Most scholars now think they are from the years A.D. 70-125; the similarities to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of John indicate for some that they were written near the end of the first century A.D. (cf. Charlesworth, nos. 1297, 1295, 1290).
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Solomon