The Odes of Solomon

We consider this late-first to early-second century CE collection of poetry to be

the star of the show in this chapter. We confess that much of this judgment is

based on the sheer beauty of the language. Whoever wrote these lines poetically

describes what seems to be a profound experience of faith. It’s likely that the

work is ascribed to “Solomon” only because other Old Testament poetry is

assigned to him even if it was written centuries later (like Proverbs and espe-

cially Ecclesiastes).

The Odes of Solomon contain some genuinely moving lines, and the general

consensus, although occasionally disputed, is that these are Christian works

so deeply influenced by Jewish ideas that they represent spiritual poetry of

early Jewish Christians.

Jewish-Christianity was a part of early Christianity that eventually died out as

Christianity became an increasingly non-Jewish religious movement. Of course,

the New Testament was largely written by Jewish-Christians. When scholars

speak of Jewish-Christianity, they usually mean those Jewish-Christians who

were not entirely in agreement with St. Paul’s open attitude toward non-Jews

and who didn’t accept Jewish practices when they became Christians. St.

Paul’s “missionary” movements, however, led to increasing numbers of non-

Jews being accepted into the Christian movement without first becoming Jews,

and later, even without much familiarity with Jewish tradition.

In the poems that comprise the Odes of Solomon, you hear something of the

spirituality of these early Jewish-Christians. The poems also have the occa-

sional odd turn of phrase and even some images that are a bit unorthodox.

For example, the notion that Jesus didn’t really die raises some theological

problems; however, it may just be a poetic way of speaking of the Resurrection,

or it may be a quite unorthodox statement that Jesus wasn’t actually fully

human and therefore only appeared to die — an idea that Christians argued

about rather vehemently in the early centuries.Psalms of Solomon

Another body of Psalms not included in the Bible is traditionally assigned to

the famous son of David who became King after him, namely “Wise” King

Solomon. Historians point out that these Psalms from the first century BCE

seem to focus on the Jewish confrontation with the Romans in Palestine in

the first century BCE. Pompey took over Palestine in about 64 BCE. Here’s an

excerpt from one of the so-called Solomonic Psalms:

The lawless one laid waste our land, so that no one inhabited it;

They massacred young and old and children at the same time.

In his blameless wrath he expelled them to the west

And he did not spare even the officials of the country from ridicule

As the enemy was a stranger

And his heart alien to our God, he acted arrogantly

—Solomonic Psalm 17:11–13

There are 18 of these Solomonic Psalms, and thankfully historians have lots

of manuscripts that have preserved them. The manuscripts date from the

tenth to sixteenth centuries CE, but the Psalms are presumed to date much

earlier, of course, and were written originally in either Hebrew or Greek.

Many of these Psalms of Solomon include themes of judgment and expulsion of

foreigners or judgment of the foreigners. If you overlook this vindictive streak

(especially given the historical circumstances involved), you can enjoy some

genuinely beautiful lines that are very reminiscent of the more lyrical and evoca-

tive lines of the biblical Psalms. To be fair, the biblical Psalms also occasionally

give in to some judgmental attitudes.