The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021)
Public-domain translation of the Odes of Solomon from Coptic, Syriac, and Greek manuscripts. (ref)
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THE ODES OF SOLOMON:
THE NUHRA VERSION (2021)
by Samuel Zinner and Mark M. Mattison
The Sabbath Queen by Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874 – 1925)
The 2020 version was first published on-line on November 1, 2020.
This 2021 version was published on-line on June 19, 2021.
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ENDORSEMENTS
For scholars of the sacred literature of the early centuries of the Common Era, the various
versions of the Odes of Solomon – in Coptic, Syriac, and Greek – are critical witnesses to the
intellectual and spiritual ferment of those times. These versions reflect the circulation and
popularity of the Odes in their time, but their incomplete and divergent nature, combined with
the relative scarcity of scholars who blend proficiency in the three languages of their
transmission with text critical competency, have hindered scholarly and general publics from
engaging with them more fully. Now for the first time Zinner and Mattison have produced a
lucid English translation of the Odes in their entirety, incorporating Zinner’s plausible and
convincing reconstruction of Ode 2. The Nuhra edition represents a fresh new take on an
important subject of scholarship, and I am certain that it will provide a stimulus and departure
point for any future discussion of this subject.
Charles Häberl
Rutgers University
Author of (with James McGrath) The Mandaean Book of John:
Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020)
https://www.amesall.rutgers.edu/faculty-140/core-faculty/99-dr-charles-haberl
The Odes of Solomon often echo traditional Jewish language and belong to the most beautiful
early-Christian texts. The Nuhra translation is a very fine piece of scholarly work, and entirely
remarkable. The annotations contain numerous philological advances, and Zinner’s convincing
reconstruction of the text of the long-lost Ode 2 marks a significant breakthrough.
Bernhard Lang
University of Paderborn
University of Aarhus
Author of Hebrew Life and Literature (New York: Routledge, 2016)
Sprüche der Väter: Das Weisheitsbuch im Talmud [Pirkei Avot].
Reclams Universal-Bibliothek (Ditzingen: Reclam, 2020)
https://kw.uni-paderborn.de/en/institut-fuer-katholische-theologie/biblische-theologie/team/ehemalige-
professoren/prof-dr-dr-h-c-bernhard-lang/
DEDICATION
With his kind approval, the authors are privileged and pleased to dedicate The Odes of Solomon:
The Nuhra Version (2021) to Elliot R. Wolfson (Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in
Jewish Studies Professor, University of California Santa Barbara).
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THE ODES OF SOLOMON:
THE NUHRA VERSION (2021)
PREFACE
I first read the Odes of Solomon in my youth while on my back looking up at the slowly shifting
clouds of the California Mojave Desert. The soft spirit of the wind surrounded me and the warm
sand supported me while Joshua trees and primeval creosote bushes flanked me, bushes already
long ancient when the anonymous Solomonic odist walked the earth. My first impression, which
has since only been strengthened, was that the odist’s personal spiritual identity was shaped
above all by a profound love for the Jewish Torah, to which he constantly alludes by deploying a
rich variety of its standard (but often startlingly applied) poetic synonyms from literature of the
Second Temple era. It is this aspect of the Odes of Solomon that has held my interest over the
decades since that day in the Mojave Desert. My youth is now gone, and the world that existed
then is gone, but it all lives on in my heart. Translating the Odes of Solomon was a welcome act
of nostalgia, and it would not have been possible without Mark Mattison’s encouragement and
helpful feedback on my translation’s various drafts, for which I am grateful. I also thank Charles
Häberl and Bernhard Lang for their helpful comments on the manuscript and for their kind
endorsements.
I was song, and God the rhyme . . .
Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours I:50
Samuel Zinner
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8971-2490
26 October 2020
I first encountered the Odes of Solomon as a young man in Bible college, but it wasn’t until a
passion for mystical Christianity was enkindled in me decades later that this text took on a whole
new meaning. I was captivated by this rare glimpse into the spiritual ferment of Jesus’ followers
before Christianity became a distinct world religion – a liminal faithfulness that can be expressed
only in the language of poetry, not dogma. The idea of translating the Odes appealed to me, but I
quickly dismissed the thought since I could only work with the Coptic and Greek texts. Years
later, when Samuel Zinner proposed to translate the Syriac Odes if I would translate the Coptic
and Greek, I couldn’t refuse. It’s both a pleasure and an honor to work with someone of such
vast knowledge and exceptional philological skills. I’ve enjoyed our many hours of poring over
the digital photographs of the Greek manuscript and puzzling over its unique features. I’m also
grateful to Lance Jenott, who graciously gave of his time in reviewing my work on the Coptic.
Of course, I remain solely responsible for any errors in my work.
Mark M. Mattison
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4645-8653
26 October 2020
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INTRODUCTION
by Samuel Zinner and Mark M. Mattison
The Odes of Solomon, likely completed early in the second century CE in Syria, have been
preserved in three languages: Coptic, Syriac, and Greek.
The five Coptic odes are quoted in Codex Askewianus (B.M. MS. Add. 5114), a fourth- or
fifth-century CE leather Coptic manuscript containing a text titled Pistis Sophia.1 Officers of the
British Museum purchased it from Dr. Anthony Askew in 1785.2 These odes, copied from an
earlier Greek or Coptic text, are particularly noteworthy for including Ode 1. Pistis Sophia is
therefore the only extant witness to Ode 1, as the first two odes are missing from the Syriac. The
following odes are quoted in Pistis Sophia: Ode 5:1-11 in ch. 58; Ode 5:12-15 in ch. 59; Ode
1:1-5 in ch. 59; Ode 6:8-18 in ch. 65; Ode 25:1-12 in ch. 69; and Ode 22:1-12 in ch. 71.
The Syriac odes have been preserved in two manuscripts. Cod. Syr. 9 (Ms H), composed
sometime between the thirteenth and fifteen centuries CE,3 is missing the first three leaves,
which contained the first two odes and part of the third. The pages of this manuscript had been
stacked in the office of J. Rendel Harris for at least two years before he went through them in
1909 and realized they contained the long-lost Odes of Solomon.4 Codex Nitriensis (B.M. MS.
Add. 14534), dating to the ninth or tenth century CE,5 contains Odes 17:7b – 42:20. It was
brought from an Egyptian monastery to England by Dr. H. Tatum in 1843, but the pages
containing the Odes of Solomon weren’t identified until 1912.6
Finally, a Greek copy of Ode 11, simply titled “An Ode of Solomon,” has been preserved in
pages 57 through 61 of the Papyrus Bodmer XI, a third- or fourth-century Greek papyrus found
in 1952 near Dishna, Egypt and currently conserved in the Bodmer Library in Cologny,
Switzerland. The Papyrus Bodmer XI is noteworthy as the only extant Greek manuscript
containing any of the Odes of Solomon. Particularly noteworthy is the presence of several lines
(vv. 16c-h and 22b) which are not found in the Syriac and may in fact have been interpolated
from the lost Ode 2 (see pp. 30-31 below).
The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021) is the product of an extensive collaboration
between Semitic and Indoeuropean languages expert and award-winning Holocaust scholar
Samuel Zinner, PhD, and author Mark M. Mattison, an independent scholar of early Christian
texts. Together we’ve launched the Nuhra Project (on-line at www.nuhra.net), a collaborative
partnership dedicated to promoting awareness, study, and appreciation of the second-century
Odes of Solomon. It’s a multidisciplinary, interfaith, holistic project, embracing both academic
research and artistic expression – a celebration of the core spirituality of the Abrahamic
religions. The heart of our project is the The Nuhra Version (2021), which we’ve committed to
the public domain. It may be freely copied and used, in whole or in part, for any purpose. The
annotations to The Nuhra Version (2021) which detail textual variants and explain our translation
choices are Copyright © 2021 Samuel Zinner, edited by Mark M. Mattison.
SIGLA
[ ] Missing text
< > Conjectural emendation
( ) Explanatory Gloss
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NOTES
1
Michael Lattke, Odes of Solomon: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009), 2.
2
James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Odes of Solomon: The Syriac Texts (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1973), 5.
3
Lattke, Odes of Solomon, 4.
4
Charlesworth, The Odes of Solomon, 5, 6.
5
Lattke, Odes of Solomon, 4.
6
Charlesworth, The Odes of Solomon, 6.
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION TITLES
Samuel Zinner has proposed that the Odes of Solomon were intentionally organized into
three sets of fourteen, the numerical value of the Hebrew name “David” (d=4 + w=6 + d=4 = 14),
according to the same pattern of Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew: “The book of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ, the son of David . . . So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen
generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the
deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.” (Matt. 1:1, 17, RSV) Thus it should
come as no surprise that this collection of odes was attributed to Solomon, the biological son of
David.
If we divide the forty-two odes into three units or “Books,” that is, Odes 1-14, Odes 15-
28, and Odes 29-42, an intriguing pattern emerges. We notice that the penultimate odes of both
Book I and Book II are strikingly brief (Ode 13 has only four verses; Ode 27 has only three). At
first glance, this pattern does not seem to hold for Book III, given that its penultimate ode (Ode
41) has sixteen verses. However, the proposed threefold division for the Odes of Solomon could
explain the strangeness of Ode 42 being composed of what virtually all scholars agree look like
two separate odes, namely, verses 1-2 and verses 3-20. Moreover, verses 1-2 are famously but a
variation of Ode 27, Book II’s penultimate ode. So in a subtle or even clever way, Ode 42:1-2
could actually be intended to function as Book III’s penultimate ode. The reason it was combined
with the next “ode,” that is, Ode 42:3-20, would have been to formally limit the text to a total of
forty-two odes in order to maintain an allusion to the Davidic formula 14 x 3 = 42. Ode 42:15
even contains an echo of the traditional formula, “son of David, have mercy on me/us” (Mark
10:47; Matt 20:30), although, congruent with Mark 12:35-37, the odist changes the title to “son
of God.”
Accordingly, The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021) divides the text into three
Books, each with appropriate brief titles that reflect some of the more striking motifs of each
unit.
Lastly, following the precedent of some earlier translations, The Nuhra Version (2021)
adds titles to each of the forty-two odes. Earlier translators created titles by choosing a favorite
phrase or idea in each ode. By contrast, Zinner determined the total word count for each ode, and
then halved the respective numbers in order to locate the mathematical middle of each of ode.
Whatever statement was found in the mathematical middle of each ode was then used for their
respective titles. In this way, the titles have an objective quality by literally reflecting each ode’s
central idea. The sole exception is the fragmentary Ode 3, whose middle cannot be determined.
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THE ODES OF SOLOMON: THE NUHRA VERSION (2021) is committed to the public domain
THE ODES OF SOLOMON: THE NUHRA VERSION (2021)
Translation from the Syriac by Samuel Zinner
Translations from the Coptic and Greek by Mark M. Mattison
Please cite as: Samuel Zinner and Mark M. Mattison, The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021)
(Aulla, Italy/Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2021). Online: https://www.nuhra.net/nuhra-2021/
BOOK I: TREES, TEMPLE, AND TRUTH
From the Coptic
ODE 1
For It Is Not Like a Dry Wreath
1 The Lord is upon my head like a wreath,
and I will not be removed.
2 Braided for me was the wreath of truth,
and it caused your branches to bloom within me.
3 For it is not like a dry wreath that blooms not,
4 but you live upon my head
and have bloomed upon me.
5 Your fruits are full and ripe;
they are full of your healing.
A hypothetical reconstruction from the Greek
(From Ode 11:16c-h, 22b)
ODE 2
Immortal Land
1 I saw trees beautiful and fruitful,
and self-grown was their wreath.
2 Their timber flourishes, and their fruits rejoiced.
Their roots were from immortal land,
3 and the river of joy watered them,
even around the land of their eternal life.
4 Blessed are those who <see> your waters.
From the Syriac
ODE 3
And God’s Limbs Are With Me
1 [My limbs with light]
I am covering.
2 And his limbs are with <me>,
and to them I cling,
and he loves me.
3 For I could not have known how to love the Lord,
if he had not loved me.
4 Who is able to understand love
except one who is loved?
5 I love the beloved
and my soul loves him.
And where his rest is,
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there, too, am I.
6 Nor will I be a stranger,
because with the Lord Most High, the Merciful, there is no envy.
7 I have been united (with the Most High)
because the lover has found the beloved,
because I love him who is a son
so that I, too, will become a son.
8 For he who cleaves to him who is immortal
will become immortal as well;
9 and one who delights in life
will become living.
10 This is the spirit of the Lord, who is not false,
who teaches humans to know his ways.
11 Be wise and knowing, and be watchful.
Hallelujah!
ODE 4
And the Elect Archangels are Clothed With Your Seal
1 No one changes your (celestial) Holy Place, my God,
and no one can change it and put it in another place,
2 because there is no authority over it.
For your (celestial) Sanctuary you designed
before you made (earthly) places.
3 What is older will not be changed
by those that are younger.
You have given your heart, O Lord, to your faithful ones.
4 Never will you stop, nor be without fruits.
5 For a single hour of your faithfulness
is more than all days and years.
6 For after putting on your goodness, who is there
who will be condemned?
7 Because your seal is known,
and your creatures are known to it:
8 And your hosts have it
and the elect archangels are clothed with it.
9 You gave us your partnership in intimate union;
it is not that you need us,
but that we need you.
10 Sprinkle upon us your dew,
and open your abundant fountains
that pour forth milk and honey to us.
11 For there is no regret with you
that you should regret anything that you have promised.
12 And the ending was clear to you.
13 For what you gave,
you gave freely,
so that you will not remove
and take away the things you gave.
14 For all was clear to you as God,
and arranged in your view from in the beginning.
15 And you, O Lord, have made all things.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac From the Coptic
ODE 5
For They Have Devised a Scheme
1 I give you thanks, O Lord, 1 I will thank you, O Lord,
because I love you. because you are my God.
2 O Most High, do not forsake me, 2 Do not forsake me, O Lord,
because you are my hope. because you are my hope.
3 Freely have I received your steadfast love; 3 You gave me your justice freely,
I will live by it. and I was saved by you.
4 When my persecutors come, 4 Let my persecutors fall,
let [even] them not see me. and let them not see me.
5 A cloud of darkness will fall on their eyes, 5 Let a cloud of darkness cover their eyes,
and a murky mist will darken them. and a murky mist darken them.
6 And they will have no light to see 6 And let them not see the (light of) day,
to take hold of me. lest they take hold of me.
7 Let their plan wax <weak>, 7 Let their plans prove powerless,
and let what they have cunningly devised return upon their own heads. and let what they have planned come down upon them.
8 For though they have devised a plan, 8 They have devised a plan,
even it did not succeed for them. and it has not succeeded for them.
9 Though they readied themselves with wickedness, And they have been defeated, (though) they have power.
even while they were found to be in vain. 9 And what they readied (with) wickedness
10 For my hope is in the Lord, has fallen down on them.
and I will not fear. 10 My hope is in the Lord,
11 And because the Lord is my salvation, and I will not fear.
I will not fear. 11 For you are my God, my Savior.
12 And he is like a wreath on my head, 12 The Lord has been a wreath for my head,
and I will not be removed. and I will not be removed;
13 Even if everything should be shaken, 13 and if everything should be shaken,
I will stand firm. nevertheless I will not be shaken.
14 And if everything visible should perish, 14 And if everything visible should perish,
I would not die, nevertheless I will not perish,
15 because the Lord is with me, 15 because the Lord is with me,
and because I am with him. and I also am with the Lord.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac From the Coptic
ODE 6
And the Restrainers Could Not Restrain It
1 As the wind moves through the lyre,
making the strings speak,
2 so the spirit of the Lord speaks throughout my limbs,
making me speak by his love.
3 For he destroys alienation,
and everything is of the Lord.
4 For thus it was from in the beginning
and will be to the end,
5 so that nothing should oppose him,
and nothing stand against him.
6 The Lord has multiplied knowledge of himself,
and is eager that those things given to us
by his goodness should be known.
7 And he gave to us his praise on account of his name;
our spirits praise on account of his holy spirit.
8 For there went forth a stream, and it became a river great and broad; 8 A stream went forth, (and) it became a river great and broad.
it flooded everything, and it covered and carried the Temple. It swept away everything along with it and turned toward the Temple.
9 And those who are restrainers among people could not restrain it, 9 They could not restrain it by the dams and the places they built,
nor the skills of those who restrain waters. nor were those who restrain water able to restrain it by their skills.
10 For it went over the face of the whole earth, and it fulfilled everything. 10 It was brought over the whole earth, and it encompassed everything.
11 And all the thirsty upon earth drank, 11 Those who were on the dry sand drank;
and their thirst was relieved and quenched, their thirst was relieved and quenched
12 for from the Most High the drink was given. 12 when they were given the drink from the Most High.
13 Blessed, then, are the ministers of that drink, 13 Blessed are the ministers of that drink,
those who have been entrusted with it. those who have been entrusted with the Lord’s water.
14 They have refreshed parched lips, 14 They have refreshed parched lips,
and they have raised up the will that had fainted. and those who were weak received heartfelt joy.
15 And souls that nearly departed they have held back from death. 15 They have held back souls that had breathed their last so they would not die.
16 And limbs that had fallen, they straightened and set upright. 16 They have set upright limbs that had fallen.
17 They gave strength for their coming and light to their eyes, 17 They have given strength to their <coming> and light to their eyes.
18 so that everyone recognized them in the Lord. 18 For all of them have known themselves in the Lord,
And they lived by the water that lives forever. and they were saved by water of eternal life.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac
ODE 7
And So God Was Merciful to Me
1 Like the impulse of <love> over <infancy>,
so is the impulse of joy over the beloved,
who brings in joy’s fruits unhindered.
2 My joy is the Lord, and my impulse is toward him.
This my path is good,
3 for to me it is a help because of the Lord.
He has caused me to know him in his simplicity without envy,
diminishing his greatness with his kindness.
4 He became like me, so that I could receive him.
He appeared to have a likeness like mine, so that I could put him on.
5 And I trembled not when I saw him.
Because of who he is, he was gracious to me.
6 Like my nature he became, so that I could learn to know him,
and like my form, so that I could avoid turning away from him.
7 <From> the Father of knowledge is the utterance of knowledge.
8 The one who created Wisdom
is wiser than his works.
9 And the one who created me when I did not yet exist,
knew what I would do after I came into being.
10 And so he was merciful to me in his abundant mercy,
and granted me to ask from him and to receive from his offering.
11 Because of who he is, he is imperishable,
the fulfillment of the ages and their Father.
12 He granted that he would be seen by those who are his,
so that they can recognize the one who made them,
and so that they might not suppose that they were from themselves.
13 For he laid out his path towards knowledge;
he widened (knowledge) and lengthened it, and brought it over all the fullness.
14 And he set over (the fullness) the footprints of his light,
and (the light) reached from in the beginning to the end.
15 For by (the path) was (the light) served,
and (the light) rested in a son.
16 And because of his salvation he will take hold of everything,
and the Most High will be known in his saints,
17 to announce to those who have songs of the coming of the Lord,
that they may go out to meet him, and may sing to him with joy
and with the lyre of many tones.
18 They will go before him, those who see,
and they will be seen in front of him.
19 And they will praise the Lord in his love,
because he is near and sees.
20 And hatred will be lifted from off the earth,
and together with envy it will be drowned,
21 for what is not knowledge has been destroyed,
because the knowledge of the Lord has come.
22 The singers will sing the goodness of the Lord, the Most High,
and they will bring their songs,
23 and their heart will be like the day,
and their sound like the majesty of the Lord’s beauty.
And nothing that has breath will be without knowledge or without speech,
24 for he has given a mouth to his creation,
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to open the voice of the mouth to him,
and to praise him.
25 Praise his power,
and tell his goodness.
Hallelujah!
ODE 8
For I Do Not Turn Away My Face from My Own
1 Open, open your hearts to exultation in the Lord,
and your love will grow from the heart to the lips,
2 to bring forth fruits to the Lord, a holy life,
and to speak with awareness in his light.
3 Rise and stand upright, you who once were brought low!
4 You who were in silence, speak,
for your mouth has now been opened.
5 You who were despised, from now on be lifted up,
because your vindication has been raised.
6 For the right hand of the Lord is with you,
and he became your helper.
7 And peace was prepared for you,
before your war ever was.
8 Hear the utterance of truth,
and receive the knowledge of the Most High.
9 Your flesh will not know what I say to you,
nor will your garment know what I show to you.
10 Observe my secret, you who are kept by it!
11 Observe my faithfulness, you who are kept by it!
12 And know my knowledge, you who know me in truth!
13 Love me with (fervent) love, you who love!
14 For I do not turn away my face from my own,
because I know them.
15 And before they came into being
I understood them,
and their persons I sealed.
16 I fashioned their limbs,
and my own breasts I prepared for them,
that they might drink my holy milk and live by it.
17 I was well pleased in them and I am not ashamed of them.
18 For they exist as my work and (by) the power of my thoughts.
19 Who then will stand against my work,
or who is there that will not submit to them?
20 I willed and formed mind and heart,
and they are mine.
And near my own right hand I set my chosen ones.
21 And my righteousness goes before them,
and they will not separate themselves from my name,
because it is with them.
22 Seek much
and abide in the love of the Lord,
as beloved in beloved,
and as those who are kept in the one who lives,
and as the redeemed in the one who was redeemed.
23 And you will be found imperishable
through all ages,
for the sake of your Father’s name.
Hallelujah!
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ODE 9
That Those Who Have Known God May Not Perish
1 Open your ears and I will speak to you.
2 Give me your soul, so that I may also give you my soul.
3 The utterance of the Lord and his desires
are the holy thought he thought about his anointed one.
4 For by the will of the Lord is your life,
and (the intention of) his mind is eternal life,
and your end is immortality.
5 Be enriched in God the Father,
and receive the (the intention of the) mind of the Most High!
Be strong and be redeemed as his favor!
6 For I proclaim peace to you, his saints,
so that none of those who hear may fall in the war,
7 and that also those who have known him may not perish,
and that those who will receive will not be ashamed.
8 The eternal wreath is truth
– blessed are they who put it on their head –
9 a stone of great price.
For there have been wars because of the wreath,
10 and Victory took (the wreath) and gave it to you.
11 Put on the wreath in the steadfast covenant of the Lord!
And all those who have conquered will be written in his book,
12 for their inscription is your victory.
And Victory sees you in front of her,
and she desires that you be redeemed.
Hallelujah!
ODE 10
And I Took the Age Captive
1 The Lord directed my mouth by his speech,
and opened my heart by his light.
2 And he caused his deathless life to dwell in me,
and granted me to speak the fruit of his peace.
3 To convert the souls of those wanting to come to him
and to lead captive a good captivity for freedom,
4 I was made powerful and became strong and took the age captive,
and for me it was to the glory of the Most High, even to God my Father.
5 And the peoples who had been scattered were gathered together,
and I was not defiled by their sins against me.
Because they had praised me in high places,
6 the footprints of light were laid on their heart.
And they lived by my halakhah and were redeemed,
and they became my people forever and ever.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac From the Greek
ODE 11
Like the Land That Flourishes
1 My heart was circumcised, and its flower appeared, 1 My heart was circumcised, and its flower appeared.
and steadfast love sprang up in it, Grace sprang up in it
and it brought forth fruits for the Lord. and brought forth fruit for God.
2 For the Most High circumcised my heart by his holy spirit, 2 The Most High circumcised me by his holy spirit,
and laid bare my hidden self to him, and laid bare my hidden self to him,
and filled me with his love. and filled me with his love.
3 And his circumcision of me became my salvation, 3 His circumcision became my salvation.
and I ran on the path in his peace in the way of truth, I ran the way of truth in his peace;
4 from the beginning even to the end I received knowledge of him. 4 from the beginning to the end I received knowledge of him.
5 And I was firmly established upon the rock of truth, 5 By setting me on a firm rock where he set me,
where he had set me. I was firmly established.
6 And speaking waters reached my lips 6 And the speaking water reached my lips
from the fountain of the Lord who is without envy. from the lavish Lord’s fountain of life.
7 And I drank and became drunk with the living water that dies not, 7 I drank and became drunk with the immortal water,
8 and my drunkenness was not without knowledge, and my drunkenness wasn’t senseless.
but I forsook vanities, 8 But I turned back from vanities
9 and returned to the Most High, my God, 9 to the Most High, my God,
and was enriched by his gift. and was enriched by his gracious gift.
10 And I left folly behind, cast to the ground, 10 I left folly lying on the ground;
and I stripped it off and cast it from me. I stripped it off and cast it from me.
11 And the Lord renewed me with his garment 11 The Lord renewed me with his garment,
and gained me by his light, and regained me by his light,
12 and from above he gave me rest in imperishability. 12 and recalled me to life by his imperishability.
And I became like the land that flourishes and laughs in its fruits, I became like the land that flourishes and laughs in its fruits,
13 and the Lord was as Sun shining on the face of the land. 13 and the Lord became to me as Sun on the face of the land.
14 My eyes shone, 14 My eyes shone,
and my face received the dew, and my face received the dew.
15 and my breath rejoiced in the sweet fragrance of the Lord. 15 My breath was gladdened by the fragrance of the Lord’s goodness.
16 And he conveyed me to his paradise, 16 He led me into his paradise,
where is the wealth of the Lord’s joyful pleasure. to the fullness of the Lord’s joy.
17 And I worshipped the Lord because of his glory. I saw trees beautiful and fruitful,
18 And I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who are planted in your land, and self-grown was their wreath.
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and who have a place in your paradise, Their timber flourishes, and their fruits laughed.
19 and grow in the growth of your trees. Their roots were from immortal land,
And they have passed from darkness to light. and the river of joy watered them,
20 Behold, all your workers do well, even around the land of their eternal life.
who work good works, 17 I worshipped the Lord because of his glory
21 and who turn away from wickedness to your sweet gentleness. 18 and said, Lord, blessed are they who are planted in the land,
And they have turned back the bitterness of trees from them those who have a place in your paradise
when they were planted in your land. 19 and grow in the growth of your trees,
22 And everything became like your remnant, turned from darkness to the light.
and like an eternal memorial of your faithful servants. 20 Behold, your workers are good;
23 For the place of your paradise has plentiful room, they work good changes
and nothing lies fallow in it, 21 from wickedness to kindness.
but everything is filled with fruits. The bitterness of the plants is changed in your land,
24 Glory to you, O God, 22 and everything is according to your will.
the eternal delight in paradise! Blessed are <those who see> your waters
Hallelujah! and the eternal memorials of your faithful servants.
23 The place of your paradise has plentiful room,
and is not fallow,
but even fruitful.
24 Glory to you, O God,
by the eternal delight of your paradise.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac
ODE 12
And It Knows Neither Its Descent nor Its Course
1 He has filled me with utterances of truth,
so that I could speak it.
2 And like the flowing of water,
truth flowed from my mouth,
and my lips declared its fruits.
3 And he caused his (or: truth’s) knowledge to abound in me,
because the mouth of the Lord is the truthful utterance,
and the opening of his light.
4 And the Most High gave the message to his ages,
the interpreters of his splendor,
and the narrators of his glory,
and the praisers of his thought,
and the proclaimers of his mind,
and the explainers of his works.
5 For the utterance’s fluent eloquence is beyond expression,
and like its expression, so are its swiftness and sharpness,
and its course is endless.
6 And never does it fall, but it remains standing,
and it knows neither its descent nor its course.
7 For like its work, so is its hope,
for it is the light and the dawning of thought.
8 And by (the utterance) the ages spoke to one another,
and those who were silent acquired speech.
9 And from it came love and harmony,
and they spoke to each other the message they had.
10 And they were urged on by the utterance,
and they knew him who had made them, because they were in harmony.
11 Because the mouth of the Most High spoke to them,
and by it his interpretation flowed quickly.
12 For the Tabernacle of the utterance is the bar nasha,
and (the utterance’s) truth is love.
13 Blessed are they who by means of it have understood everything,
and have known the Lord in his truth.
Hallelujah!
ODE 13
And Declare Praises on Account of God’s Spirit!
1 Look, the Lord is our mirror!
Open the eyes and see them in him,
2 and learn the nature of your face!
And declare praises on account of his spirit!
3 And wipe off the <eyeshadow> from your face,
and love his holiness, and put it on (instead)!
4 And you will be without blemish at all times with him.
Hallelujah!
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ODE 14
Because of Your Glory
1 As the eyes of a son towards his father,
so are my eyes, O Lord, always towards you.
2 Because with you are my breasts (for milk) and my delight.
3 Do not turn away your love from me, O Lord,
and take not your sweetness from me.
4 Stretch out to me, O Lord, your right hand at all times,
and be my guide until the end, according to your will.
5 Let me be beautiful before you, because of your glory,
and because of your name let me be saved from evil.
6 And your repose, O Lord, let it abide with me,
and also the fruits of your love.
7 Teach me the odes of your truth,
that I may produce fruits in you.
8 And open to me the lyre of your holy spirit,
so that with all its notes I may praise you, O Lord.
9 And according to the abundance of your mercies,
so will you grant it to me.
And hasten to grant our petitions;
10 and you are capable of providing all our needs.
Hallelujah!
BOOK II: REST, REVIVAL, AND WREATHS
ODE 15
And I Received Salvation from God
1 As Sun is a joy for those who seek his day,
so is my joy the Lord,
2 because he is my Sun.
And his rays awakened me,
and his light dispelled all darkness from my face.
3 By him I acquired eyes
and saw his holy day.
4 I had ears,
and I heard his truth.
5 The thought of knowledge has been mine,
and I have lived fully in delight through him.
6 The way of Error I have forsaken, and have walked towards him,
and have received salvation from him without envy.
7 And according to his generosity he gave to me,
and according to the magnificence of his beauty he made me.
8 I put on imperishability by his name,
and took off perishability by his steadfast love.
9 Death was destroyed before my face,
and Sheol was abolished by my speaking.
10 And deathless life rose in the Lord’s land,
and immortality became known to his faithful ones,
and it was given without any loss to all those who trust in him.
Hallelujah!
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ODE 16
God Spread Out the Earth and Settled the Waters in the Sea
1 As the ploughman’s work is the ploughshare,
and as the helmsman’s work is ship-steering,
so also is my work the praise of the Lord by his psalms.
2 My occupation and my craft are in his hymns,
because his love has nourished my heart,
and he made his fruits to bubble up even to my lips.
3 For my love is the Lord,
and therefore I will sing to him.
4 For I am made strong in his hymns,
and in him I have confidence.
5 I will open my mouth, and his spirit will speak through me
the glory of the Lord and his beauty,
6 the work of his hands and the labor of his fingers,
7 for the sake of his mercies’ abundance and of his speech’s strength.
8 For the speech of the Lord searches what is concealed,
and his thought (searches) what is revealed.
9 For the eye sees his works
and the ear hears his thought.
10 He spread out the earth and settled the waters in the sea,
11 stretched out the heavens and fixed the stars,
12 and put in order the creation and established it,
and he rested from his works.
13 And created things run in their courses,
and fulfill their tasks,
and they know not how to stop and be still.
14 And his hosts are subject to his speech.
15 The storehouse of the light is the sun,
and the storehouse of the darkness is the night.
16 And the sun makes the day to be bright,
and night brings darkness over the face of the earth.
17 And their welcoming each other completes the beauty of God.
18 And there is nothing apart from the Lord,
because he was before anything came into being.
19 And the ages are by his speech,
and by the thought of his heart.
20 Glory and honor to his name!
Hallelujah!
ODE 17
And I Opened the Gates That Were Closed
1 I was then crowned by my God,
and my wreath is living.
2 And I was justified by my Lord,
and my salvation is imperishable.
3 I was loosed from vanities,
and I was not condemned.
4 With her hands she cut off my bonds.
I received the face and the likeness of a new person,
and I walked in it and was redeemed.
5 And the thought of truth led me on,
and I followed after it and did not go astray from it.
6 And all who saw me were amazed,
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and I seemed to them like a stranger.
7 And the one who knew and magnified me
is the Most High in all his fullness.
And he glorified me by his kindness,
and raised my knowledge to the height of truth.
8 And from there he gave me the way of his halakhot,
and I opened the gates that were closed,
9 and broke in pieces the iron bars.
My own iron dissolved and melted before me.
10 And nothing to be seen was closed to me,
because I was the gate for everything.
11 And I went to all my prisoners to free them,
that I might not leave anyone bound or who binds.
12 And I gave my knowledge without envy,
and I gave my study through my love.
13 And I sowed my fruits in hearts,
and transfigured them by me.
14 And they received my blessing and lived,
and they were gathered to me and were redeemed,
15 because they became my members,
and I became their leader.
16 Praise to you, our leader, anointed master.
Hallelujah!
ODE 18
For Your Will Is Perfection
1 My heart was lifted up in the love of the Most High and expanded,
that I might praise him on account of <his> name.
2 My limbs were strengthened
that they might not fall from his power.
3 Infirmities removed themselves from my body,
and they ceased by the Lord according to his will,
because his kingdom is firm.
4 O Lord, because of those who are lacking,
do not deprive me of your utterance!
5 Nor, because of their works,
withhold from me your perfection!
6 Let not the light be conquered by the darkness,
nor let truth flee because of falsehood.
7 Let your right hand appoint victory for our salvation,
and from every place receive
and protect everyone from getting held fast by misfortunes.
8 You are my God; falsehood and death are not in your mouth,
for your will is perfection.
9 And vanity you do not know,
because neither does it know you.
10 And error you do not know,
because neither does it know you.
11 And ignorance appeared like ocean spray,
and like the stench of the sea.
12 And the vain people thought that it was something great,
and they became like its likeness and grew futile.
13 And they knew, those who know
and meditate, and they were not defiled by their thoughts,
14 because they were in the mind of the Most High.
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And they derided those who were walking with Error,
15 and they instead spoke the truth
from the breath that the Most High breathed into them.
16 Glory and sublime majesty to his name!
Hallelujah!
ODE 19
Those Who Receive Are of the Right Hand of God
1 A cup of milk was offered to me,
and I drank it with the sweet taste of the Lord’s sweetness.
2 The son is the cup,
and he who was milked is the Father,
and she who milked him is the holy spirit,
3 because his breasts were full.
And because it was unfitting that his milk should be released in vain,
4 the holy spirit opened her womb
and mixed the milk of the Father’s two breasts.
5 And she gave the mixture to the age,
without their knowing,
and those who receive it in its fullness are of (God’s) right hand.
6 The young woman’s womb (like a bird net) caught it,
and she received conception and gave birth.
7 And the young woman became a mother through abundant mercies,
and she was in labor and bore a son.
And she felt no pain,
8 because (the labor) was not in vain.
9 And she did not need a midwife
because like a strong man he sustained her life.
10 <And> she brought forth because of will,
and she brought forth because of declaration,
and she acquired because of abundant majesty,
11 and loved because of redemption,
and guarded because of kindness,
and declared because of grandeur.
Hallelujah!
ODE 20
Do Not Kill Your Own Soul
1 I am a priest of the Lord,
and to him I serve as a priest,
2 and to him I offer the sacrifice of his thought.
3 For his thought is not like the thought of the age,
nor like the thought of the flesh,
nor like those who serve according to the flesh.
4 The sacrifice of the Lord is justice,
and purity of heart and lips.
5 Sacrifice your mind without blemish,
and let not your feelings oppress another’s feelings,
nor let your soul oppress another’s soul.
6 Do not kill your own soul by owning a foreigner,
nor seek to defraud your neighbor,
nor deprive him of the covering of his nakedness.
7 But cover yourself with the Lord’s steadfast love without envy,
and come into his paradise
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and make a wreath for yourself from his tree,
8 and set it on your head and rejoice,
and lean on his resting place.
9 And his glory will go before you,
and you will receive of his kindness and of his steadfast love,
and with truth your health will flourish in the glory of his holiness.
10 Glory and honor to his name!
Hallelujah!
ODE 21
A Medicine and a Helper for Me
1 My arms I lifted up
on account of the compassion of the Lord,
2 because he had cast off my bonds from me.
And my helper had lifted me up
on account of his compassion and of his salvation.
3 And I put off darkness
and clothed myself with light.
4 And my soul acquired limbs
free from pain,
or sickness or suffering.
5 And instead a medicine and helper for me
was the thought of the Lord
and his partnership of intimate union in imperishability.
6 And I was lifted up in his light
and I passed before his face.
7 And I was near him,
praising and thanking him.
8 My heart overflowed
and was found in my mouth,
and luminously dawned upon my lips.
9 And on my face increased
the exultation of the Lord in praise of him.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac From the Coptic
ODE 22
Your Name Surrounded Me
1 The one who brought me down from on high, 1 The one who has brought me down from on high,
he also brought me up from the depths below. he also brought me up from the depths below.
2 And the one who gathers together those who are in the middle, 2 The one who has taken those in the middle,
he is also the one who proclaimed and cast them down for me. he also taught <me> about them.
3 The one who scattered my enemies and my foes, 3 The one who has scattered my enemies and my foes,
4 he who gave me authority over bonds, 4 he who has given me the authority over bonds,
that I might loose them, that I might loose them,
5 he who overthrew the seven-headed dragon by my hands, 5 he who has smitten the seven-headed serpent by my hands,
it is you, even you who set me over its roots he also has set me over its root,
that I might destroy its offspring. that I might destroy its offspring.
6 You were there and helped me, 6 And you were with me, helping me.
and in every place your name surrounded me. In every place your name surrounded me.
7 Your right hand destroyed the evil one’s venom, 7 Your right hand has destroyed the slanderer’s venom.
and your hand leveled the way for your faithful ones, Your hand has leveled the way for your faithful ones.
8 and selected them from the graves, 8 You have redeemed them from the graves,
and separated them from the dead. and removed them from the midst of the dead.
9 You took bones of the dead 9 You have taken dead bones
and over them you stretched bodies. and clothed them with a body.
10 And they were motionless, 10 And they who were motionless,
and you gave them energy for life. you gave them energy for life.
11 Your way was imperishable, 11 Your way has become imperishable, and your face.
and you brought your face into the age, even into (the realm of) destruction, You have brought your age to destruction,
so that everything might be dissolved and (then) renewed, so that everything might be dissolved and made new,
12 and your rock become the foundation for everything. 12 and that your light might be a foundation for everything.
And on it you built your kingdom, You have built your wealth upon them,
and it became the House of Abode for the holy ones. and they have become a holy dwelling.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac
ODE 23
And Who Would Hear It
1 Joy belongs to the holy ones,
and who will put her on but they alone?
2 Steadfast love belongs to the chosen ones,
and who will receive her
but those who have trusted in her from in the beginning?
3 Love belongs to the chosen ones,
and who will put him on
but those who have had him from in the beginning?
4 Walk in the knowledge of the Lord whose generosity is without envy,
and you will know the steadfast love of the Lord,
exultation in him, and the perfection of his knowledge.
5 And his thought became a Decree,
and his Will descended from on high.
6 And it was sent like an arrow
that is shot from the bow with force.
7 And many hands rushed at the Decree,
to steal it and to take it and to read it aloud,
8 and it evaded their fingers.
And they became afraid of it and of the seal upon it
9 because they were not permitted to break its seal,
for the seal’s authority was greater than that of their own.
10 Then those who saw the Decree followed it
that they might learn where it would settle,
and who would read it aloud,
and who would hear it.
11 But an (angelic) Wheel received the Decree,
and the letter of decree settled upon the Wheel.
12 And there was with the Wheel
a sign of the kingdom and of the government.
13 And everything that tried to disturb the Wheel,
it mowed down and cut up in pieces.
14 And the Wheel made a heap of a crowd standing in the way,
and the wheel filled in rivers,
15 and it ploughed through and uprooted many forests
and made a wide path.
16 Heads fell to the ground,
because the Wheel and the Decree that had come upon the Wheel
had rolled as far as to their feet.
17 The Decree contained commandments.
And because all places were gathered together (by the Decree),
18 at the Decree’s head there appeared the head that revealed itself,
even the son of the truth that is from the Father, the Most High.
19 And he received and inherited everything.
And the scheming of many was extinguished.
20 And all those who had led astray hardened themselves in their obstinacy and fled,
and all the persecutors were erased and blotted out.
21 And the Decree became a large tablet,
wholly written by the finger of God.
22 And (the tablet) was backed up with the authority of the Father,
and of the son and of the spirit of holiness,
for them to rule (as king) forever and ever.
Hallelujah!
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ODE 24
The Thought Which Made Them from of Old
1 The dove fluttered onto the anointed one,
because his head belonged to her.
2 And she cooed (psalms) about him,
and her voice was heard.
3 And the inhabitants were afraid,
and the sojourners were shaken.
4 The bird flew, forsook its wing,
and every creeping thing died in its hole.
5 And the depths were opened, even those that had been covered.
And they sought the Lord like women about to deliver.
6 And no food was given to them by him,
because it did not belong to them.
7 And the depths were submerged with the Lord’s submersion,
and they perished in accord with the thought
by which they had been made from of old.
8 For they were subject to perishability from in the beginning,
and the end of their perishability was life.
9 And everyone who was lacking perished because of the depths,
because they could not give the answer that would let them remain.
10 And the Lord destroyed the thoughts
of all who did not have the truth.
11 For the arrogant in heart
lacked wisdom,
12 and so they were rejected,
because the truth was not with them.
13 Because the Lord showed his way
and spread abroad his steadfast love.
14 And those who came to know it,
they know his sanctity.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac From the Coptic
ODE 25
You Set a Lamp at My Right and at My Left
1 I was rescued from my bonds 1 I was rescued from my bonds;
and fled to you, O my God, I fled to you, O Lord.
2 because you were the right hand of my salvation 2 For you have been a right hand for me, saving me,
and my helper. and saving me, and helping me.
3 You have restrained those who rise against me, 3 You stopped those who rise against me
and they were no more to be seen, and they did not appear,
4 because your face was with me, 4 because your face was with me,
which saved me by your steadfast love. saving me by your favor.
5 But I was despised and rejected in the eyes of many, 5 I was despised before many, and they cast me out;
and I was like worthless lead in their eyes. I became like worthless lead before them.
6 And from you was my strength and help; 6 Your strength came to me, to help me.
7 you set a lamp at my right and at my left, 7 For you have set lamps at my right and at my left,
so that all around me there will be nothing without light. so that no side of me would be without light.
8 And I was clothed with the covering of your spirit, 8 You have sheltered me under the shadow of your mercy,
and she removed from me my garments of skin. and I rose above the garments of skin.
9 Because your right hand lifted me up, 9 Your right hand is what lifted me up,
and you took away sickness from me. and you have taken sickness away from me.
10 And I grew strong in your truth, 10 I became strong in your truth,
and holy by your righteousness. holy by your righteousness.
11 And all my enemies grew afraid of me, 11 Those who rise against me were driven far from me,
and I became the Lord’s by the Lord’s name, 12 and I was justified by your kindness,
12 and I was justified by his kindness, because your rest is forever and ever.
and his rest is forever and ever.
Hallelujah!
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From the Syriac
ODE 26
Who Can Compose the Odes of the Lord?
1 I poured out praise to the Lord,
because I am his.
2 And I will recite his Kedushah ode,
because my heart is with him.
3 For his lyre is in my hands,
and the odes of his repose will never cease in silence.
4 I will call to him with all my heart;
I will praise and exalt him with all my limbs.
5 For from the east to the west is his hymn,
6 and from the south to the north is his thanksgiving,
7 and from the top of the hills to their farthest reach is his fullness.
8 Who can compose the odes of the Lord,
or who recite them?
9 Or who can teach (the Lord’s) soul to live,
so that they would redeem (the Lord’s) soul?
10 Or what person could impose upon the Most High,
so that with their mouth (the Most High) might speak?
11 Who is able to interpret the Lord’s Wonders?
For because to interpret would be to interpret away oneself,
and (the Lord’s Wonders) that had been interpreted would remain.
12 For it is enough to know and to rest,
for in rest the psalmists remain in existence,
13 like a river that has a richly abundant spring,
and that keeps flowing for the help of those who study it.
Hallelujah!
ODE 27
The Extension of My Hands
1 I stretched out my hands, honoring as holy my Lord,
2 because the spreading out of my hands is his sign,
3 and my outward-stretching (course) is the level wood (bridge).
Hallelujah!
ODE 28
I Seemed to Them Like One of the Lost
1 As the wings of doves over their nestlings,
and as the beaks of their nestlings towards their beaks,
so also are the wings of the spirit over my heart.
2 My heart is delighted and rejoices,
like the embryo who exalts in its mother’s womb.
3 I trusted; therefore I was also at rest,
because trustworthy is the one in whom I trusted.
4 He richly blessed me,
and my head rests upon him.
And the war blade will not separate me from him,
nor the sword,
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5 because I prepared myself before destruction came.
And I was set firmly on the imperishable bosom of his wings,
6 and deathless life embraced and kissed me.
7 And from that life is the spirit within me,
and she cannot die,
because she is life.
8 They who saw me were amazed,
because I was persecuted.
9 And they supposed that I had been swallowed up,
because I seemed to them like one of the lost.
10 And (their) unrighteousness (against) me became my salvation;
11 and I was their abomination.
Because there was no envy in me,
12 because I did good to everyone,
I was hated.
13 And they surrounded me like mad dogs
who ignorantly attack their masters.
14 Because their thinking is corrupt
and their sense perverted.
15 But I, I held waters in my right hand,
and I endured their bitterness by my sweetness.
16 And I did not perish,
because I was not their brother,
for my birth was not like theirs.
17 And they sought my death, but were unable,
because I was older than their memory.
And in vain they cast lots over me.
18 And those who came into existence later than I had,
they sought in vain to destroy the memory of the one who had come into existence before they had.
19 For the thought of the Most High is beyond finding out,
and his mind surpasses all wisdom.
Hallelujah!
BOOK III: FIGHT, FLIGHT, AND FREEDOM
ODE 29
And He Appeared to Me, the One Who Is the Lord
1 The Lord is my hope,
in whom I will not be ashamed.
2 For by his glory he made me,
and by his goodness he gave to me,
3 and by his love he lifted me up,
and by his majestic beauty he exalted me.
4 And he caused me to ascend out of the depths of Sheol,
and from the mouth of Death he drew me.
5 And I laid low my enemies,
and he vindicated me in his steadfast love,
6 for I trusted in the Lord’s anointed.
And he appeared to me, the one who is the Lord,
7 and showed him his sign,
and led me by his light,
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8 and gave me the rod of his power,
that I might subdue the peoples’ schemes,
and lay low the greatness of the powerful,
9 to wage war by his speech,
and to seize the victory by his power.
10 And the Lord cast down my enemy by his speech,
and he became like the chaff that the wind carries away.
11 And I gave praise to the Most High,
because he magnified his servant,
even the son of his handmaid.
Hallelujah!
ODE 30
And the Honeycomb of Bees
1 Draw water for yourselves from the living fountain of the Lord,
because it has been opened for you.
2 And come, all you who are thirsty, and take a drink,
and rest beside the fountain of the Lord,
3 because it is beautiful and bright and gives rest to the soul.
4 For much sweeter are its waters than honey,
and the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it,
5 because it goes forth from the lips of the Lord,
and from his heart; the Lord is his name.
6 And it came, boundless and unseen,
and until it was set in the middle they did not know it.
7 Blessed are those who have drunk from it and have found rest by it.
Hallelujah!
ODE 31
And Take Immortal Life for Yourselves
1 The depths were dissolved before the Lord,
and darkness was destroyed by his appearance.
2 Error went astray and perished because of him,
and Contempt could find no path to walk on,
because the Lord’s truth had submerged it.
3 He opened his mouth and spoke steadfast love and joy,
and he recited a new song of praise to his name,
4 and he lifted up his voice to the Most High,
and offered to him those who came to be children through his hands.
5 And his person was vindicated,
because thus his holy Father had granted to him.
6 Come forth, you who have been oppressed, and receive joy,
7 and gain your souls by his steadfast love;
and take immortal life for yourselves.
8 And they condemned me when I stood up,
I who had not been condemned.
9 And they divided my spoils, though nothing was owed to them.
10 But I endured and was silent and kept quiet,
that I might not be moved by them.
11 But I stood unmoved like a solid rock
that is beaten by the breakers and endures.
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12 And I bore their bitterness for humility’s sake,
so that I might redeem my people and inherit them,
13 and that I might not make void the promises to the patriarchs,
those to whom I had been promised for their descendants’ redemption.
Hallelujah!
ODE 32
The Truth Who Is Self-Existent
1 For the blessed is joy from their hearts,
and light from him who dwells in them,
2 even the utterance from the Truth who is self-existent.
3 Because he was strengthened by the holy power of the Most High,
he is also unshaken forever and ever.
Hallelujah!
ODE 33
And Forsake the Ways of This Destruction
1 And Steadfast Love, she ran, returning to release Destruction,
and she descended into him to reduce him to nothing,
2 and he destroyed Abbadon before him,
and made all his work to perish.
3 And he stood on a lofty peak and sent out his voice
from one end of the earth to the other.
4 And he drew to himself all those who obeyed him,
making sure his appearance was not that of the evil one.
5 But a mature young woman stood up,
proclaiming and calling and saying in command,
6 O you sons of humanity, repent, and you their daughters, convert,
7 and forsake the ways of this Destruction,
and come near to me,
8 and I will enter into you,
and bring you forth from Abbadon
and make you wise in the ways of truth.
9 Do not perish and do not be destroyed!
10 Listen to me and be redeemed!
For among you I proclaim the steadfast love of God,
11 and by me you will be redeemed and blessed.
I am your judge,
12 and those who put me on will not be rejected,
but they will gain imperishability in the new age.
13 My chosen ones, keep my halakhah,
and my ways I will make known to those who study me,
and I will cause them to trust in my name.
Hallelujah!
ODE 34
Nothing Within the Good Person Is Divided
1 No way is hard
where the heart is single,
nor will any blow strike
where thoughts are clear,
2 nor is there any storm in the depth of the illuminated mind.
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3 When surrounded on every side (by light),
nothing within the good person is divided.
4 The likeness of what is below
is what is above.
5 For everything that exists is above,
and nothing exists below
except the illusion of those who are without knowledge.
6 Steadfast Love was revealed for your salvation.
Trust, and live, and be saved.
Hallelujah!
ODE 35
And It Was More Than a Shelter to Me
1 The fine rain of the Lord overshadowed me in serenity,
and he set a cloud of peace above my head,
2 which kept me continually,
and it became salvation for me.
3 All things were shaken and moved with fear,
and there went forth from them a smoke and a judgment.
4 But I was calm in the decree of the Lord,
and it was more than a shelter to me,
and more than a foundation.
5 And I was carried like a child by its mother,
and the decree gave me milk, the dew of the Lord.
6 And I grew through his gift,
and found rest in his fullness.
7 And I spread out my hands in the ascent of my soul,
and I erected myself towards the Most High,
and I was conveyed to his Presence.
Hallelujah!
ODE 36
I Was Great Among the Great Ones
1 The spirit of the Lord rested upon me,
and she raised me on high
2 and made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord,
before his fullness and his glory.
While I was praising him by the composition of his odes,
3 she gave birth to me before the face of the Lord, even while being the bar nasha.
I was named the enlightened son of God
4 while I was glorious among the glorious ones,
and great among the great ones.
5 For like the greatness of the Most High, so she made me,
and according to his renewing he renewed me.
6 And he anointed me from his fullness,
and I became one of those near to him.
7 And my mouth was opened like a cloud of dew,
and my heart gushed out a flood of righteousness.
8 And a peace offering was mine,
and I was established in the spirit of governance.
Hallelujah!
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ODE 37
When My Voice Reached God
1 I stretched out my hands to the Lord,
and to the Most High I lifted up my voice,
2 and I spoke with the lips of my heart,
and he heard me when my voice reached him.
3 His answer came in response to me,
which gave me the fruits of my labors,
4 and gave me rest in the Lord’s steadfast love.
Hallelujah!
ODE 38
These are Deceiver and Error
1 I went up into the light of Truth as into a chariot.
And Truth led me and carried me
2 and made me cross gaping chasms and valleys,
and rescued me from cliffs and waves.
3 And he became for me a haven of salvation,
and placed me on the ladder of immortal life.
4 And he went with me and brought me rest, and did not let me err
because he was and is Truth.
5 And I was in no danger,
because I walked with him.
And I did not stray at all,
because I obeyed him.
6 For Error fled from him
and would not meet him.
7 But Truth went along the level path,
and whatever I did not know, he showed me,
8 even all the poisons of Error,
and the scourges that people think to be Death’s sweetness.
9 And I saw his destroyer, who is Destruction,
I saw the bride who is destroyed while she was being adorned,
and the bridegroom who destroys and is destroyed.
10 And I asked Truth: Who are these?
And he said to me: These are Deceiver and Error,
11 and they mimic the beloved and his bride,
and they lead astray and destroy the whole age.
12 And they invite everyone to the wedding feast,
and give them to drink the wine of their intoxication.
13 And they make them vomit their wisdoms and thoughts,
and make them senseless.
14 And then they throw them out.
And then they go about
while insane, destroying,
while there is no mind in them;
for they do not even look for it.
15 And as for me, I was made wise so that I did not fall into the hands of the deceivers.
And I was glad because Truth had gone with me.
16 And then I was firmly established, and lived, and was redeemed,
and my foundations were laid by the hand of the Lord,
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because he planted me.
17 For he set the root
and watered it, and fixed it and blessed it,
and its fruits are forever.
18 It struck deep and grew up and spread out,
and became full and large.
19 And the Lord alone was glorified
for his planting and his cultivation,
20 for his care and for the blessing of his lips,
for the beautiful planting of his right hand,
21 and for the presence of his planting,
and for the understanding of his mind.
Hallelujah!
ODE 39
Then You Will Cross Without Danger
1 Raging rivers are the power of the Lord
that send upside-down the heads of those who despise him,
2 and entangle their steps and sweep away their crossings,
3 and snatch their bodies and destroy their souls.
4 For they are more sudden than lightning, and swifter,
5 but those who cross them firmly will not be shaken,
6 and those who walk in them without blemish will not be agitated.
7 Because the sign in the rivers is “the LORD,”
and the sign becomes the path of those who cross in the name that is “the LORD.”
8 Put on, therefore, the name of the Most High, and know him;
then you will cross without danger,
for the rivers will obey you.
9 The Lord has made a bridge over the rivers by his speech,
and walked and crossed (over the rivers) on foot,
10 and his footprints remained (suspended) above the waters, and did not fade away,
but (the footprints) became like firmly fixed (planks of a) wood (bridge).
11 And the waves were lifted up on this side and on that,
but the footprints of our anointed master remain,
12 and are not washed away and are not lost.
13 And a path has been made for those who cross after him,
even for those who follow his trustworthy halakhah and who venerate his name.
Hallelujah!
ODE 40
And My Lips Bring Forth a Song of Praise
1 As the honey drips from the honeycomb of bees,
and milk flows from the woman who loves her children,
so also is my hope in you, my God.
2 As a spring gushes out its waters,
so my heart gushes out praises of the Lord,
and my lips bring forth a song of praise to him.
3 And my tongue is sweet in his songs,
and my limbs are fattened with his odes,
4 and my face rejoices with exultation in him,
and my spirit exults in his love,
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and my soul shines in him.
5 And reverence will trust in him,
and redemption will be made firm in him.
6 And the inheritance (of redemption) is deathless life,
and those who receive (deathless life) are imperishable.
Hallelujah!
ODE 41
For the Father of Truth Remembered Me
1 All the infants of the Lord will praise him,
and will welcome the firmness of his faithfulness,
2 and his children will be known to him.
So let us sing in his love!
3 We live in the Lord by his steadfast love,
and life we receive by his anointed one.
4 For a great day has shone upon us,
and wonderful is he who has given to us of his glory.
5 Let us, therefore, all agree together in the name of the Lord,
and let us honor him in his goodness.
6 And may our faces shine in his light,
and let our minds study his Love, reading it in a low voice by night and by day.
7 Let us exult in the exultation of the Lord!
8 All those will be amazed who see me,
because I am of another kind.
9 For the Father of truth remembered me,
he who gained me from in the beginning.
10 For his wealth conceived me,
and the thought of his heart,
11 and his speech, she who is with us in all our way,
the savior who makes alive and does not reject our souls.
12 The man who was humbled and exalted by his own righteousness,
13 the son of the Most High has appeared in the fullness of his Father,
14 and light dawned from that speech which was in (the Father) from of old.
15 The messiah is one with the Truth,
and he was known from before the foundation of the age.
16 To make souls live forever by the truth of his name,
a new hymn to the Lord from those who love him!
Hallelujah!
ODE 42
And Death Vomited Me Up
1 I stretched out my hands and drew near to my Lord,
for the spreading out of my hands is his sign,
2 and my outward-stretching (course) is the plain wood (bridge)
that was suspended over his level way.
3 And I became worthless even to those who knew me,
so that I had to disappear from those who were not able to keep me in their clutches.
5a All my persecutors died,
4 and I will remain with those who love me.
5b And those who proclaimed concerning me studied about me,
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5c because I am alive,
6 and I stood up and will be with them.
And I will speak by their mouths,
7 for they have rejected those who persecute them.
And I placed on them the yoke of my love.
8 Like the arm of the bridegroom on the bride,
so is my yoke on those who know me.
9 And like the marriage tent spread out in the married couple’s house,
so is my love over those who are faithful to me.
10 And I was not rejected, although I was thought to be,
and I did not perish, although they supposed it of me.
11 Sheol saw me and was in misery,
and Death vomited me up and many together with me.
12 To Death I was vinegar and bitterness,
and I descended as far as his lowest depth.
13 And he let his feet and head weaken,
because he was not able to endure my presence.
14 And I made a synagogue of the living among Death’s dead,
and I spoke to them with living lips,
so that my utterance would not prove void.
15 And those who had died ran to me,
and they called out and said,
Son of God, have pity on us!
16 And treat us according to your kindness,
and bring us out from the bonds of darkness,
17 and open the gate for us, so that by it we can come out with you,
for we see that our death has not touched you.
18 May we also be saved with you,
because you are our savior.
19 And I heard their voice
and set their faithfulness on my heart,
20 and I set my name on their head,
because they are the free children,
and they are mine.
Hallelujah!
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THE ODES OF SOLOMON: THE NUHRA VERSION (2021)
ANNOTATIONS
By Samuel Zinner
Edited by Mark M. Mattison
Please cite as: Samuel Zinner, The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021) Annotations
(Aulla, Italy). Online: https://www.nuhra.net/annotations-2021/
ABBREVIATIONS
1QM: War Scroll from Qumran, Cave 1 (Dead Sea Scrolls)
1QS: Rule of the Community from Qumran, Cave 1 (Dead Sea Scrolls)
4Q434: Barkhi Nafshi from Qumran, Cave 4 (Dead Sea Scrolls)
Apos. Con.: Apostolic Constitutions
BT: Babylonian Talmud
C: Coptic
Ca.: Circa
Cf.: Compare
Ch.: Chapter
Chs.: Chapters
E: Ethiopic
e.g.: for example
fem.: feminine
G: Greek
H: Hebrew
Ḥag.: Ḥaggiga (BT tractate)
i.e.: that is
JPS 1917: The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH 1917
LXX: The Septuagint (3rd to 1st Century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible)
masc.: masculine
Ms H: Codex Harris (Rylands Cod. Syr. 9)
Ms N: Codex Nitriensis (BM Add. 14538)
n.: note
NETS: New English Translation of the Septuagint
NRSV: New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
NT: New Testament
OS Sin: Old Syriac Sinaiticus
P. Bodmer: Papyrus Bodmer
RSV: Revised Standard Version of the Bible
S: Syriac
Šabb.: Šabbat (BT tractate)
SyrP: Peshiṭta (Syriac translation of the Bible)
Tg. Pss.: Targum Psalms
v.: verse
vv.: verses
Our translation tends toward being literal while not excluding idiom; explanatory glosses in parentheses
throughout facilitate understanding of the text. On the basis of Steiner 2000, Zinner has rendered the Syriac
conjunctive waw consistently as “and,” except in a few instances where English grammar demands otherwise;
in such cases “even” is used. As in the NRSV, divine pronouns are in lower case (e.g., “he,” “his,” “you,”
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etc.). Following the precedent of the Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation (1985) we have also
adopted the following conventions for capitalization: When referring to God, we capitalize “Father”; mentions
of the divine spirit are in lower case, e.g., in phrases such as “spirit of the Lord” and “holy spirit”; lower case
is used for “messiah” and/or “anointed one”; mentions of a divine “son” are also in lower case. Syriac ṭybwtˀ
corresponds semantically to Hebrew ḥsd, which the 1985 JPS TANAKH renders as “steadfast love,” and
Zinner has adopted this for translating the Syriac ṭybwtˀ. Following the editorial models of van der Lugt’s
trilogy Cantos and Strophes in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (2005; 2010; 2013) and Lattke 1980, transliteration of
the Syriac generally includes the twenty-two consonants; vowels are not generally rendered since they can be
disputed in some instances. Lower case “odist” refers to the Odes of Solomon’s composer; upper case “Odist”
refers to the literary figure who speaks in the first-person in the text. Abbreviations of ancient Jewish and
Christian texts and of journal titles follow The SBL Handbook of Style.
The first two odes have not been preserved in Syriac; however, Ode 1 is quoted in the fourth-century Coptic
manuscript of the Pistis Sophia.
1:1a “wreath.” Harris 1909, rev. ed. 1911, Harris and Mingana 1920, and Charlesworth 1983 translate “crown.”
Vleugels and Webber 2016 translate “garland,” pointing out that “crown” could give the modern reader the mistaken
notion of a metal head-piece encrusted with jewels instead of a head-piece made of twigs. The Pistis Sophia ch. 59
quotations of Ode 1a and Ode 5:12a are similar but not identical. C Ode 1:1a reads pjoeis hijn taape nthe nouklom,
“The Lord is upon my head like a wreath,” while C Ode 5:12a reads pjoeis o´ nouklom etaape, “The Lord has been a
wreath for my head.”
1:1b The Pistis Sophia ch. 59 quotations of Ode 1:1b and Ode 5:12b are identical: auō ntinarpəfbol an. The notable
differences between C Ode 1:1a and C Ode 5:12a are not congruent with the hypothesis that Pistis Sophia’s author
was confusing the two verses, which is incompatible with the scribe having to copy Odes 1 and 5 from different pages
of a codex (or scroll). Instead, the scribe was deliberately associating the two passages because of their marked
similarity. On this basis we can be confident that the Coptic scribe’s Greek Vorlage had an identical reading for Ode
1:1b and Ode 5:12b, which in turn suggests the Syriac text read the same in Ode 1:1b and Ode 5:12b. We can
therefore posit that Ode 1:1b in Syriac read as in Ode 5:12b wlˀ ˀttzyˁ, “and I will not be moved/shaken” or “removed.”
In the Ct stem the verb zwˁ includes the meanings “to depart,” “to be removed.” Cf. the translation of C Ode 1:1b in
Worrell 1911, 34, “and I shall not depart from Him.” It is not clear whether the Greek version had added the
explanatory gloss “from him” (ap’ autou), which is absent in the Syriac, or if this was added by the Coptic translator.
1:2,3 This imagery derives in a general way from Psalm 1, especially Ps 1:3 which describes the one who meditates
on the Torah. Ps 1:3, “like a tree . . . whose leaf doth not wither” (JPS 1917), shapes Ode 1:3, “not like a dry wreath
that blooms not.” Ps 1:3c, “and whose leaf doth not wither,” is, as van der Lugt 2013, 580 documents, the middle stich
of Ps 1 (7+1+7 stichs). Because the middle stich of Ode 1 (4+1+4 stichs), which is v. 3, thematically and lexically
imitates the middle stich of Ps 1, which is also v. 3 of that text, this suggests that Ode 1 may have imitated not only
the imagery and language of Ps 1, but its stich numerical pattern as well. It is therefore likely that Pistis Sophia cites
the entirety of Ode 1.
1:5b “healing.” Harris 1909, rev. ed. 1911, Harris and Mingana 1916-1920, Charlesworth 1983, and Lattke 2009
translate “salvation”; but see Worrell 1911 “healing.” In biblical idiom, fruits (like leaves) do not bring salvation, but
health, healing, or life; cf. Ezek 47:12; Rev 22:2; Prov 11:30; and especially the Syrohexaplar on Sir 1:18: “The
wreath of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and therewith the Lord causes to sprout peace full of healing.”
Ode 2 has not survived in any manuscript. Samuel Zinner’s hypothesis that Ode 11:16c-16h and G 11:22b may
originally have been a part of Ode 2 is based on several observations: First, the six stichs of v. 11:16c-h in the Greek
text do not appear in the Syriac, but are evidently interpolated. As Reinink 1974, 65 explains pace Charlesworth, it is
most unlikely that parablepsis could explain the omission of such a lengthy portion of text, and the six stichs “form a
self-contained unit that can be easily removed from the context. . . .” Especially in the case of G 11:22b, interpolation
is more likely than the possibility that it was original to the text but omitted by the Syriac, since this line actually
disrupts the structure of 22a and c. (See the annotation on Ode 9:8b). On the other hand, the Letter of Barnabas and
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the G/E Apocalypse of Peter already attest some of these extra lines in the early second century (cf. Barn. 11:10 and
the Apoc. Pet. 15ff. transfiguration narrative), and the language and imagery are consistent with the Odes as a whole.
It therefore appears that these lines may be original to the Odes of Solomon, but intentionally misplaced in the Greek
text of Ode 11. Since they’re not attested elsewhere in the Syriac, it seems plausible that they may have come from
the text’s lost portions, that is, from Ode 1 or Ode 2, or from the lost beginning of Ode 3. The lines seem more akin to
Ode 1 than to the extant portion of Ode 3. However, a plausible case can be made that Pistis Sophia cites the entirety
of Ode 1. The most plausible placement for the seven extra Greek lines would therefore be in Ode 2. With respect to
G Ode 11:22b and the emendation of a perplexing word usually read as drōstes to horōntes (“those who see”), see the
annotation on Ode 11:22 below.
3:1 “[My limbs with light] / I am covering” or “putting on.” Since the beginning of Ode 3 is also missing, it’s
impossible to know for certain what the Odist is “putting on.” Since 3:10 mentions “the spirit,” Barnes 1910 and
Morrison 1980 opt for “the spirit of the Lord.” Since 4:6 reads “put on your grace,” Bruston 1912 suggests “grace.”
While the Odes of Solomon mention various differing things that are “put on,” only “light” in Ode 21:3 occurs near a
mention of limbs, the noun that follows Ode 3:1. In 3:2, the confused scribe first wrote “and my limbs,” then
corrected it to “and his limbs.” If the first part of 3:1 had read “my limbs,” it is possible the scribe was accidentally
repeating the term “my limbs” in 3:2.
3:2 “And his limbs are with <me>, / and to them I cling, / and he loves me.” As noted above, the scribe was confused
when copying this verse, first writing “my limbs” but then changing it to “his limbs.” While the scribe correctly
settled for “his limbs,” the rest of the verse indicates that confusion lingered. The statement “his limbs are with him”
at best sounds like a tautology or pleonasm, but the lines that follow indicate the emendation “his limbs are with me”
is required. The scene is one of the Odist hanging on in passionate love to the limbs of the divine body. The
background is a metaphorical interpretation of Song of Songs passages such as Song 7:11, “I am my beloved’s, and
his desire is toward me.”
3:5b “soul.” Although Syriac np̄ eš/nap̄ šā can denote a person in their entirety as a living being or to the center of
emotions, it can also refer to the detachable soul or spirit in contrast to the body; see Steiner 2015.
3:7 “son.” Harris and Mingana 1920, 211 compared Ode 3 to the mystical verses of the Islamic poet Jalāl ad-Dīn
Rūmī (1207-1273 CE). According to the jurist and Sufi Imām al-Ghazālī (ca. 1058-1111 CE), the use of the divine
name “Father” can be theologically legitimate from an Islamic perspective if understood non-literally in the sense of
“creator.” The same qualification might be extended to cover the use of “son of God” for Jesus if “son” is understood
in the sense of “one near to God.” See Nasr 1972, 135, n. 14.
3:8a “For he who cleaves to him.” An allusion to Gen 2:24; Deut 10:20; 30:20.
4:1-3 The general thought here is paralleled in 2 Bar. 4:2-6; namely, the pre-existent celestial or archetypal Temple
endures and cannot be destroyed, and this is used as a coping strategy for the loss of the earthly Temple. Cf. also 1QS
III:15-17.
4:6a “your goodness.” Others translate “your grace.” The Syriac reads ṭybwtk. Although the lexica define ṭybwtˀ as
“grace” or “kindness” and ṭbh/ṭbtˀ as “goodness,” the fact is that Syriac ṭybwtˀ also sometimes renders Hebrew ṭwb,
“goodness,” as in Ps 23:6. This can explain the interchange in Ms N and Ms H between ṭybwtˀ and ṭbtˀ in Ode 29:2b.
Because Ode 4:5 paraphrases Ps 84:11, and because of the double use of ṭwb in Hebrew Ps 84:11-12, it is arguably
more likely that ṭybwtˀ in Ode 4:6 refers to goodness. In any case, we should not overlook that the semantic and
theological/doctrinal fields of “goodness” and “grace” often overlap significantly.
4:9a “partnership (šwtpwtˀ) in intimate union.” The Syriac noun šwtpwtˀ can refer to business partnerships, but just as
well to the intimate partnership of marriage, including to the act of sexual intercourse. To render šwtpwtˀ as
“fellowship” here seems to reflect the influence of English NT translations that render the Greek equivalent koinōnia
as “fellowship.” Currently, the English word “fellowship” is most likely to make one think of the social interaction
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involved in group religious study and singing rather than in the intimate union of the human with the divine. This
ode’s language of spiritual intimacy couched in erotic terms is based on a spiritual reading of the Song of Songs.
4:13c “remove,” ttwp; Harris suggests the emendation ttw<b>, “turn,” “turn back.” Reinink 1974, 65 suggests the
emendation may be unnecessary if ttwp is the imperfect of ntp, in the sense of “remove.”
4:14b “from in the beginning.” The construction mn bryšyt, idiomatically rendered “from/at the creation,” also occurs
in 6:4a; 7:14b; 23:2c, 3c; 24:8a; and 41:9b. The noun bryšyt, which is used in Aramaic and later Hebrew in the sense
of “creation,” is an artificial construct derived from (Hebrew) Gen 1:1, where the first word is berešit, that is, the
preposition b, “in” + the noun rešit, “beginning.” The hyperliteral rendering of “from in the beginning” for mn bryšyt
is intended to hint at the artificial noun’s origins in Gen 1:1.
5:1-11 These verses are quoted in ch. 58 of the Coptic Pistis Sophia.
5:7a “<weak>”; S lˁwbynˀ, “tumors”; C atcom, “without power.” While the S reading is possible, it is unusual, and in
light of the C reading it is therefore probable that S requires emendation. One could posit an original lˀ ˁwšnˀ, “without
power,” given that ˁwšnˀ, “power,” “strength,” “hardness,” has the base notion of being hard, which could have
facilitated a transition to the idea of tumors. Moreover, the C version reads com where S Ode 25:6 reads ˁwšnˀ.
However, as Charles Häberl remarked in a private communication, ˁuḇyā compounded with lā could become “without
hardness; infirm,” which could be a possible equivalent to atcom. Without revealing his reasoning or supplying any
references, Grimme 1911, 8 considers S lˁwbynˀ equivalent to Hebrew lšwˀ, which he renders with German zunichte.
Accepting Zinner’s emendation of S lˁwbynˀ as originally two words, lˁ+noun, and accepting Häberl’s suggestion of
ˁwbyˀ, the line lˁ ˁwbyˀ thwˀ trˁythwn lā ˁuḇyā can be rendered idiomatically into English as “Let their plan wax
<weak>.” Grimme 1911, 8 posits the S originally read plural “plans” in agreement with C. Exegetes agree Ode 5
alludes to Ps 17:7 (see Lattke 2009, 67), but the nearby Ps 5:11 must be included, which has the Hebrew pl. ˁṣwtyhm;
SyrP pl. mwlknyhwn; LXX diabouliōn autōn. On the other hand, sing. ˁṣt/ ˁṣwt occurs eleven times in the Psalter, and
the pl. only twice. In the S text of the Odes, trˁytˀ, one of the odist’s favorite terms, never occurs in the pl. Worrell
1911, 35 reads ˁwbynˀ in Ode 5:7a as a sing. The similarly worded S Ode 5:8-9, which rephrases and develops v. 7,
reflects Ps 33:10 more closely than C Ode 5:8-9.
5:12b “and I will not be removed (ˀttzyˁ).” The Ct stem of zwˁ includes the meanings “to be removed,” “to depart” (see
the annotation on Ode 1:1b). “Not . . . removed” in Ode 5:12b anticipates “I will stand” (v. 13b) – that is, continue to
exist/live, as well as “perish” (v. 14a) and “not die” (v. 14b). Just as in English, in Syriac the verb for “depart” can
also suggest death.
5:12-15 These verses are not quoted in ch. 58 of the Coptic Pistis Sophia, but in the commentary section of the
following ch. 59 – with interpolations. Specifically, in ch. 59 “light” is substituted for “Lord” and the text is slightly
expanded, particularly in verses 12 and 14. The reconstruction presented here reflects the more original Syriac version
of 5:12-15. See Worrell 1911, 36, n. 14. Soon after the Coptic citation of Ode 5:12-15, Ode 1:1-5 is cited.
6:7 Charlesworth 1983 translates: “And His praise He gave us on account of His name, / Our spirits praise His Holy
Spirit.” This approach treats the l-prefix of lšmh in v. 7a prepositionally (l- =“on account of”) and the l-prefix of lrwḥh
in v. 7b as the sign of an accusative. However, nothing stands in the way of consistently treating the l-prefix of both
lšmh and lrwḥh prepositionally. We can paraphrase loosely as follows: “By means of his name, he (i.e., the Lord) has
enabled us to praise him; by means of his holy spirit we praise (the Lord).” The prefix l- used prepositionally can
mean not only “to,” but also “by, for, of, on account of, according to,” etc. (See R. Payne Smith 1901, 2:1866.)
Arguably, the l- of lrwḥh in Ode 13:2b, the only other occurrence in this text of lrwḥh, has the same function: “and
announce praises by his spirit.” In Ode 14:8a the harp of the holy spirit enables the Odist to praise the Lord, not to
praise the holy spirit. The same thought recurs in Ode 16:5.
6:8-18 These verses are quoted in ch. 65 of the Coptic Pistis Sophia.
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6:8-10 “It flooded (grp) everything, and it covered (wšḥq) and carried (wˀyty) the Temple” (v. 8b). The verb grp can
mean either “to wash away” or “to flood” (cf. the noun grwpyˀ, “a flood”). Here the verb šwq, usually meaning “to
grind,” “to pulverize,” is interpreted as “covered,” that is, “inundated”; see the entry on šwq in Shamun 2014:
“transitive 1) to overcome / to overwhelm, to submerge / to oppress, to crush / to flood.” Here šḥq repeats and
intensifies the imagery of grp. “Carried” could also be rendered “carried away,” but not “carried to” (Vleugels 2011).
Ode 6:8b can be understood negatively, reflecting an Essene attitude toward the Temple (Vleugels 2011). The Pistis
Sophia interprets Ode 6:8b as the Temple (identified metaphorically as Jesus) being bathed in the waves of the divine
light of knowledge. The Coptic author has correctly recognized in Ode 6:8 an allusion to Isa 11:9, “for the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Alternatively, the Temple being carried or carried
away by flood waters might also involve the idea that the Temple is like Noah’s saving ark; see Wenham 2003, 44).
Significantly, Ode 6:8-10 is reworked in Ode 7:13-14, where the metaphor for divine knowledge changes from water
to a path of light. (Ode 38:18 varies the metaphor yet again, to that of the divine planting: “It struck deep and grew up
and spread out, / and became full and large.”)
6:10: Instead of “and it fulfilled everything,” Charlesworth 1983 translates “and it filled everything.” However, wmlˀ
in Ode 6:10, like šwmlyˀ in Ode 7:13c, more likely carries the meaning of “and it fulfilled/perfected” in the spiritual
sense rather than “and it filled” in a physical sense.
6:17 “their coming,” mˀtytˀ, corresponding to Hebrew byˀt and Greek parousia. The Coptic version reads parhēsia,
corresponding to Greek parrēsia, which becomes a loanword in Syriac, pārēsīā, parhēsīā, boldness/liberty of speech;
confidence/courage, as well as in Hebrew, parēsia. Because the Greek loanword parrēsia is a favorite term of the
Coptic Pistis Sophia author, there are strong grounds for suspecting an intentional alteration of the text from an
original Coptic parhousia to parhēsia. The Syriac reading mˀtytˀ is supported by another observation. As the
annotation on Ode 6:8, 10 documents, Ode 7 repeats and varies several elements of Ode 6. These repetitions include
dmtyth (Ode 7:17a), a form of the same noun in Ode 6:17. Not only are both instances of this verb put in the 17th verse
of each of these two odes, but the arrival of the humans made possible in Ode 6:17 is actually described in Ode 7:17-
18.
7:1a “<love> over <infancy>.” Based on slight emendations proposed by Morrison 1980, 138.
7:2b “my path is good” (ˀwrḥy špyrˀ). The allusion is to drk . . . ṭwb in Ps 36:5 (SyrP ˀwrḥˀ . . . špyrˀ; LXX odō . . .
agathē). Consequently, špyrˀ in Ode 7:2 is not to be rendered “excellent” (Harris and Mingana 1920) nor “beautiful”
(Lattke 2009).
7:3a “for to me it is a help (mˁdrnˀ) because of the Lord (l-mryˀ).” mˁdrnˀ can mean either “helper” or “help,” and the
latter is the correct rendering for 7:3a. The help refers back to the good path of 2b. The construction l-mryˀ simply
means “due to the Lord,” or more poetically, “because of the Lord.” See Nöldeke § 247. Pace Brock 1975, 143;
Joosten 1998; and Lattke 2009, 92, l-mryˀ in Ode 7:3a reflects a common Semitism, not a Greek Vorlage. (Zinner
thanks Charles Häberl for his helpful discussion on this aspect of Ode 7:3a).
7:7 “<From>.” Conjectural restoration on the basis of Morrison 1980, 294. “Father.” See the annotation on Ode 3:7.
7:18a “those who see.” Ode 7:17-19 reworks Ps 68:25-27. Consequently, the noun ḥzyˀ in Ode 7:18a, which
sometimes functions as the technical term “seers,” here simply means “witnesses,” or in more poetic language, “those
who see.” The parallelism of verses 17-19 and their basis in Ps 68:25-27 indicate that those who sing and those who
see are not distinct, but form a single group. The “coming of the Lord” in Ode 7:18a rephrases the “goings” or “paths”
of God in Ps 68:25, which according to Tg. Pss. are the paths of God on the water of the Red Sea, which “the house of
Israel has seen” (ḥmwn; SyrP ḥzw). See the annotation on Ode 11:22b, “those who <see> your waters.”
7:10b “his offering,” not “his being.” The offering or sacrifice is that of God’s condescension mentioned earlier in v.
7:3c, which refers to God’s gracious act of creating humans in the divine image (Gen 1:26-28) so that they might be
capable of knowing God.
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8:20a “I willed and formed” could also be rendered “I willed to form”; see Drijvers 1980, 342.
8:22a “seek much and abide”; see Reinink 1974, 65-66, referring to Nöldeke § 337 and § 335: “weasgaw belongs to
beˁaw: ‘pray much’,” responding to Charlesworth’s note: “However, the copulative Waw prefixed to the following
verb signifies that we have three separate verbs.” The verb bˁw can also mean “seek,” “study” (see annotation on Ode
17:12). Prayer is not the only mode of seeking.
9:8b This stich is a beatitude that artfully intervenes between a two-part statement in v. 8a and v. 9a. The beatitude’s
theme agrees with both what precedes and follows it. This case is therefore not comparable to the eulogy in G 11:22b.
The eulogy introduces a theme discordant to 22a and c that disrupts the verse structurally.
10:5a “And the peoples who had been scattered were gathered together.” Here “the peoples” are not the Gentiles, but
the ten northern tribes of Israel in the Diaspora. This is supported by 10:6c, “and they became my people forever and
ever,” an allusion to Hos 1:9-2:1, where the ten tribes are promised that their status as “not my people” will be
reversed. Cf. John 11:52, which also refers to the gathering of the ten tribes, “and not for the nation only, but to gather
into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (RSV). The phrase “the children of God” is derived here from
Hos 2:1.
10:5b “and I was not defiled by their sins against me.” Literally, “and I was not defiled by my sins.” Emerton 1984 is
one of the rare scholars who renders this stich literally, resisting emendations. All suggested emendations from Harris
1909 to Lattke 2009 may likewise be disregarded. However, the literal text is translated here in a paraphrasing way on
the basis of an analogy in Ode 28:10, 11: “And my unrighteousness became my salvation; / and I was their
abomination. / Because there was no envy in me.” The term “my unrighteousness” can also be rendered “my
injustice” or “my oppression,” which refers not to acts of unrighteousness or injustice the messiah commits, but to
acts that are committed against him. Similarly, in Ode 10:5b, when the messiah is made to say “my sins,” this refers to
the sins the peoples imputed to him. In Ode 28:10, “my injustice” (= “the injustice of others done against me”) is the
analogy that clarifies “my sins” in Ode 10:5.
10:6b “And they lived by my halakhah and were redeemed.” On the rendering halakhah, see the annotation on Ode
17:8a.
11:1-24 is also preserved in the Bodmer “Composite” codex, a third- or fourth-century Greek manuscript.
11:10a See Reinink 1974, 66, who points out in criticism of Charlesworth’s translation “And I rejected the folly cast
upon the earth” that “šebqêt is to be correlated with šadyâ, otherwise we would expect dešadyâ.”
11:16c-h, which is not present in the Syriac, appears to be an interpolation in the Greek version of Ode 11. On
Zinner’s hypothesis that these lines are from the lost Ode 2, see the annotation on Ode 2.
11:16d Greek “self-grown was their wreath.” Lattke 2009 translates “and their crown was grown naturally.” The term
for “self-grown” is derived from Isa 37:30; see Carmignac 1961, 90.
11:22a Whereas the Syriac reads “everything became like your remnant,” the Greek reads “everything is according to
your will.” Both tropes are amply attested in Semitic texts. If thelēma (“will”) was meant as a pun on leimma
(“remnant”), the variants may have been intentional. In ancient texts, variations between original and translated
manuscripts were normal. Therefore, if the author was bilingual, composing the first version in Syriac and then
rendering it into Greek, both readings could be equally valid, with no need to emend one to conform to the other.
11:22b “Blessed are <those who see> your waters.” This stich, not found in the Syriac, likely may originally have
followed 11:16c-h (on which see the annotation on Ode 2). The perplexing word in this stich, usually read as drōstes,
has been emended in a number of ways by scholars. It appears that the scribe tried to modify for clarity the letter that
most presume to be a delta. However, this letter does not resemble any of the manuscript’s deltas. It does resemble
many of the scribe’s cursive alphas, including that of hudatōn in the same stich. The penultimate alpha in aiōnias in
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11:24 has been secondarily modified for clarity in a way similar to the presumed delta in 11:22b. Occasionally, the
scribe’s omicrons and alphas look virtually identical; e.g., in the same ms, see the scribe’s omicron in the word
adelphos in Jude 1:1 (for image, see the last page of The Greek Ode of Solomon Illustrated Greek-English Interlinear
at https://www.nuhra.net/manuscripts). If the disputed letter in 11:22b originally had been an omicron, it would have
read orōstes, a perplexing word that is in fact found elsewhere in the Bodmer “Composite” codex. Fortunately, it is
clear what it was intended to mean in that instance. That other instance is 1 Pet 1:8 in P. Bodmer 8, which uses the
odd form orōstes for horōntes, “seeing” (see the image at https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Pap.Bodmer.VIII). Adopting
this reading in Ode 11:22b, the stich could be reconstructed as “Blessed are those who see your waters” (cf. Ode 7:18a
and Ode 30:6-7). See the annotation on Ode 7:18a.
11:23a-b “For the place of your paradise has plentiful room, / and nothing lies fallow in it.” Cf. 2 En. 8:8: “And here
[in paradise] there is no unfruitful tree, and every place is blessed” (R. H. Charles translation).
12:1a “utterances.” The Ms (H) has ptgmˀ in the plural. See Morrison 1980, 136 for reasons to retain the plural points,
pace Harris and Mingana 1920, 273 and Newbold 1911, 185.
12:3a “And he caused his (or: truth’s) knowledge to abound in me.” The subject in 12:3a is truth, not the divine
word/speech. See Morrison 1980, 136 and Reinink 1974, 66.
12:4 Much of Ode 12 is inspired by the Torah-centered Psalms 19 and 119. Ode 12:4 (like Ode 19:10-11) structurally
mimics Ps 19:8-10. One example is Ode 12:4e “and the preachers,” wmsbrnˀ, which is a reflex of sbrthwn, a reading
later to be preserved in SyrP Ps 19:5.
12:6b “and it knows neither its descent nor its course”; see Reinink 1974, 66, which points out that v. 6b simply
rephrases v. 6a. Emending the active “knows” (ydˁ) to the passive “is known” (ydyˁ) is unwarranted.
12:12a “bar nasha.” Because of ongoing scholarly debate about how Syriac/Aramaic bar naša should be translated,
the phrase has been transliterated both here and in Ode 36:3. The form of the phrase br ˀnšˀ does not match the
spelling of the messianic title Son of Humanity (cf. NRSV Son of man) found in SyrP Dan 7:13, nor in the OS or
SyrP gospels. However, it does match the form in SyrP Ezek 1:26, where it is used of the celestial human-like figure
seated on the divine merkabah (chariot) throne. This Ezek 1:26 figure is in fact the inspiration for the later Son of
Humanity figure in both Daniel 7 and 1 Enoch’s Parables, two texts that have informed the gospels’ Son of Humanity
figure. Among recent translations of Ode 12:12a, Vleugels and Webber 2016 is to be preferred: “For the tabernacle of
the message is the Son of Man.” Pace Charlesworth, Lattke, et al., in Ode 12:12a br ˀnšˀ is no more a collective
singular than is the same phrase in Ode 36:3b, where it stands parallel to the title “son of God.” See annotation on Ode
36:3b.
12:13 “Blessed are they who by means of it have understood everything, / and have known the Lord in his truth.” Cf.
2 En. 42:14 (Recension A): “Blessed is he who understands all the Lord’s works, and who through his works knows
the creator/artisan” (Zinner’s translation from the Slavonic text in Vaillant 1952, 44).
13:1b “Open the eyes (ptḥw ˁynˀ) and see them in him.” The Syriac text is unusual in that ˁynˀ, “eyes,” lacks a
pronominal suffix; one would normally expect “your eyes.” Lattke 2009, 192-193 sees evidence for a Greek Vorlage,
pointing out that the construction is not Semitic. However, if the odist was bilingual, this could be a case of Greek
interference. Alternatively, keeping in mind that poetry in any culture can push the limits of language, it may be that
the odist was simply being deliberately enigmatic. In Ephrem De virginitate 31:12, which Harris and Mingana 1920,
19-20 refer to as dependent on Ode 13, we read qnw ˁynˀ nsytˀ, “they acquired a hidden eye.” Cf. Ode 15:3a, “By him I
acquired (qnyt) eyes.”
13:2b “And declare praises on account of his spirit!” This is generally translated “And declare praises to his spirit,”
but the prepositional prefix l- in lrwḥh can mean not only “to,” but also “by, for, of, on account of, according to,” etc.
See R. Payne Smith 1901, 2:1866. See annotation on Ode 6:7b.
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13:3a The Ms reads ṣydtˀ, “huntress,” likely a corruption of ṣdydˀ, “eyeshadow.” Of all suggested emendations, ṣdydˀ
is the only one that not only coheres with v. 3a, but which also connects directly to the central theme of “eyes” in v. 1.
Moreover, ṣdydˀ is an Enochic term, which is congruent with the allusions to Enochic themes in the nearby Ode 11:23
and Ode 12:12-13. See 1 En. 8:1, which traces the origin of eyeshadow to the teaching of Azazel, the leader of the
fallen angels, the “sons of God” who in Gen 6:1-4 descended to earth to mate with human women who subsequently
gave birth to giants, whose disembodied spirits became later tradition’s evil spirits or demons. Harris and Mingana
1920, 19-20 reference Ephrem De virginitate 31:12 as dependent on Ode 13. Ephrem here reworks Ode 13:3-4 as:
“their blemishes they have wiped away by/in it [the mirror], and their ornamentations (ṣbtyhwn) have become
beautiful by/in it.” The noun ṣbtˀ can also mean “cosmetics.” See Sokoloff 1273b for the corrupted form ṣbdˀ for ṣbtˀ
(ṣb{d}<t>ˀ). It is likely that Ephrem’s ṣbtˀ was suggested by the disputed word in Ode 13:3a, cleverly transvalued in a
positive sense. It is even possible that ṣbtˀ in the sense of “cosmetics” was the original reading behind the corrupted
ṣydtˀ in Ode 13:3a.
14:5-6 Instead of “let me/let it,” the verbs could be read as “I will/it will.”
14:5b-6a “and because of your name (mtl šmk) let me be saved from evil (byšˀ). And your repose.” Verse 5b is not an
allusion to the “Our Father,” but a compression of mtl šmk in Ps 23:3 (SyrP), “because of your name,” and byštˀ,
“evil,” in Ps 23:4 (see SyrP). “Repose” (nyḥwtˀ) in Ode 14:6a then makes sense as a reflex of “waters of repose
(nyḥˀ),” as in SyrP Ps 23:2b.
15:1-2 Here the sun is personified, as in Ps 19:4. Ode 15 reworks Ode 11, but at half the length.
15:10b “became known.” Reinink 1974, 67 points out that the statement is ethpe., not ettaph., as Charlesworth (1973)
mistakenly thought.
17:4a “With her hands she cut off my bonds.” The sudden shift to the feminine pronoun is enigmatic, but so is much
of the text of the Odes of Solomon. The suspicion of missing or corrupted text should not be pressed without
compelling argumentation or evidence.
17:7c Ms H: “he glorified me”; Ms N: “he was glorified.”
17:8a “halakhot.” Harris 1909 translates “precepts,” which agrees with Satzungen, “statutes,” in Flemming and
Harnack 1910, 47, who supply the footnote: “‘The way of his statutes’: the Mosaic law cannot be meant, but rather
specific rulings [based thereon].” The rendering “precepts” for hlaktā or hellaktā, literally “walking,” which can also
mean “manner of walking,” would be equivalent to halakhic precepts, the term halakha being derived from the
Hebrew halakh, “to walk.” According to R. Payne Smith 1879, 1:1015, hlaktā/hellaktā in a metaphorical sense means
“custom” (mores), which also belongs to the semantic field of Syriac nāmōs/nāmōsā, the Greek loanword used in the
Peshiṭta for torah. An allusion to precepts in 17:8a in the context of the descent to sheol is congruent with another
descent passage in Ode 22:2b, which in the Coptic reads “(he) also taught <me> about them.” Further support is found
later in Ode 17:12, in the same descent to sheol context as in 17:8a. See the annotation on 17:12.
17:11a Ms H: “my prisoners”; Ms N: “the prisoners.”
17:12 “And I gave my knowledge without envy (dlˀ ḥsm), / and I gave my study (or “learning,” wbˁwty) through my
love.” While it is clear that “without envy” (dlˀ ḥsm) in v. 12a stands in poetic and semantic parallelism to “with love”
(bḥwbˀ) in v. 12b, the usual renderings of wbˁwty in v. 12b offer nothing semantically similar to “knowledge,” its
poetic parallel in v. 12a. Lattke translates “consolation,” Charlesworth “resurrection,” and Harris and Mingana
“prayer.” The key is to recognize that the verb bˁy can render Hebrew drš in its late sense of to study, as in Ps 111:2,
“The works of the LORD are great, studied (drwšym; SyrP wmtbˁyn) by all them that have delight therein” (see
Brettler 2009b, 64). “Knowledge” in Ode 17:12a thus connects back to “knowledge” in Ode 17:7d, and
“manner/behavior of precepts” (ˀwrḥˀ dhlkth) in 17:8a anticipates “my study” (wbˁwty) in 17:12b.
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17:15 “because they became my members, / and I became their leader.” The passage is likely influenced by Syriac Ps.
Sol. 17:41, “. . . he (i.e., the messiah) is the head (ryšˀ) of a great people.” The Greek text (v. 36) reads “that he may
rule (archein) a great people.” (NETS) “Leader” is one of the standard ways to render ryšˀ.
17:16 “Praise to you, our leader, anointed master.” To maintain the distinction between the messiah and God, here and
in 24:1 and 39:11, this translation renders “master” rather than “Lord” or “lord.” The odist derives the phrase mryˀ
mšyḥˀ (used three times in the Odes of Solomon) from Ps. Sol. 17:32. The similar phrase christos kuriou occurs in Ps.
Sol. 18 superscription and 18:7; the equivalent occurs in Ode 29:6. Praise is appropriate for a human figure such as the
king in Psalm 72 (whom Tg. Pss. identifies as the messiah), as illustrated by verses 15, 17, “that they may . . . bless
him all the day . . . May his name endure for ever; may his name be continued as long as the sun. . . .” Verse 17 reads
in Tg. Pss.: “May his name be invoked for ever; and before the sun came to be his name was determined; so all the
peoples will be blessed by his merit, and they shall speak well of him” (Cook translation).
18:1b “that I might praise him on account of <his> name.” With Schultheß 1910, The Nuhra Version (2021) emends
“my name” to “his name.” See Lattke 2009, 253: “The suggested emendation” [‘his name’ by Schultheß] does not, in
fact, make any better sense [than the manuscript’s ‘my name’]. . . .” On the contrary, the emendation makes better
sense with reference to Ode 6:7a: “And he gave to us his praise on account of his name.”
18:3b “and they ceased.” Literally, “and they stood (mobile).” Ms H: “it stood”; Ms N: “they stood.”
18:4b Ms H: “do not remove/deprive me”; Ms N: “do not cast away from me.” “Do not deprive me of your
utterance!” This is based on Ps 119:43.
18:7c “and protect everyone from getting held fast by misfortunes.” This rendering is informed by Reinink 1974, 67.
18:12b Ms H: “they”; Ms N: “and they.”
19:1b “and I drank it with the sweet taste of the Lord’s sweetness.” The two different terms for sweetness here,
bḥlywtˀ dbsymwth, are matched perfectly in the ḥlyˀtˀ and wbsymyn of Tg. Ps. 19:11b: “and more pleasant (wbsymyn)
than honey or the sweet (ḥlyˀtˀ) honeycombs” (Cook 2001). This is the first of many allusions to Psalm 19 in Ode 19.
19:2c Ms H: “and the holy spirit milked him”; Ms N: “and she who milked him is the holy spirit.”
19:2-3 That God the Father would be described with breasts is congruent with the Hebrew biblical divine name ˀEl
Šaddai understood as “ˀEl with breasts” and with LXX Song 1:2, which attributes female breasts (mastoi) to the male
lover, whom later tradition allegorizes as God; see Bregman 2017, 261, 272. LXX Song 1:2 is the source of the
description of Jesus with female breasts (mastoi) in Rev 1:13; see Rainbow 2007. The language of divine “breasts”
and “womb” in Ode 19 is inspired by Gen 49:25; see Drijvers 1980, 344-345. Despite some interpreters’ claims, the
breasts in Ode 8:16b and Ode 14:2 are not those of the messiah, but of God the Father, just as in Ode 19:2-3.
19:3b The stich alludes to the description of the messianic age in Isa 65:23 when one will not toil in vain (see the
annotation on Ode 19: 7b-8). Milking is a chore or toil, but in the divine sphere it is not done in vain.
19:4a “her womb” could be easily emended to “his womb,” i.e., the father’s womb, which would create a parallel to
John 1:18 “the bosom/womb (kolpos) of the father.” However, Morrison 1980, 82, 368 presents strong reasons for
retaining “her bosom,” the reading of both H and N. Because both mss are pointed fem., pace Lattke 2009, 273,
emending to masc. is not “a very minor change to the manuscript text. . . .” Lattke writes that this emendation “can be
justified by appeal to the probable Greek original.” This overlooks that the two manuscripts factually exist, while a
Greek Vorlage is hypothetical.
19:4b-5a “mixed the milk . . . gave the mixture to the age.” The mixing of the milk is an adaptation of Lady Wisdom
mixing wine and water in Prov 9:5. (The Lady Wisdom passages of Proverbs 8-9 are also the source of many of the
statements about Lady Torah in Psalm 19.)
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19:6a “caught it.” The verb gpt, a form of gwp, includes not only the meanings “to couple” and “to embrace,” but also
“to catch with a net,” including the catching especially of doves. The noun gwp means “net,” “dragnet,” but the noun
gpˀ, “wing,” also comes to mind in the context of Ode 19. The noun gpˀ occurs in Odes 24:4 and 28:la, c. Ode 28:5
uses the term knpˀ, which means both “wings” and “bosom.” The term for “womb” in Ode 19:6, krsˀ, occurs also in
Ode 28:2. The odist thinks of the divine spirit as a dove. By using the verb gpt, Ode 19 suggests that the young
woman’s womb is like a net that catches the bird-like holy spirit.
19:6, 7 “young woman” (btūltā), not necessarily “virgin,” although the latter state is usually to be presupposed for a
btūltā. On this rendering, see Wenham 1972. I would add to Wenham’s observations that SyrP renders nˁrwt btwlwt in
Hebrew Esther 2:2 simply as ˁlymtˀ.
19:7a “abundant mercies” originate not from the young woman but from God. The language brḥmˀ sgyˀˀ does not
match Luke 1:58 in either OS Sin or SyrP. The phrase in Ode 19:7a reflects instead a combination of mrḥmnˀ and
wsgyˀˀ ṭybwth in Exod 34:6. It is probable, however, that Exod 34:6 has inspired Luke 1:58. The same Torah verse is
alluded to in John 1:16-17, which is introduced by a mention of John the Baptizer in 1:15. If Ode 28:2 appropriates
Luke 1:44b, “the babe [i.e., John the Baptizer] in my womb leaped for joy,” then the Odist is compared to John the
Baptizer, not to Jesus. It should not be overlooked that the Odist drinking the divine milk in Ode 19:1 is comparable
to the young woman who later conceives by assimilating the same divine milk, carried by the holy spirit, into her
womb.
19:7b-8: “and she was in labor and bore a son. / And she felt no pain, / because (the labor) was not in vain.” This
passage’s trope of painless birth is inspired by 2 Bar. 73:7. Isaiah 11 and 65 inspired the description of the messianic
kingdom in 2 Bar. 73-74, and the 2 Baruch passage has influenced both Odes 18-19 (cf. dmlkwth in 2 Bar. 73:1 with
mlkwth in Ode 18:3c and cf. wkwrhnˀ ntrḥq in 2 Bar. 73:3 with kwrhnˀ ˀtrḥqw in Ode 18:3a). See SyrP Isa 65:23,
“They shall not labor (nlˀwn) (variant nˀlwn, wail/howl) in vain (lsryqwtˀ), or give birth (nwldwn) for a curse (llwṭtˀ).”
From this verse, Ode 19:7-8 has joined sryqwtˀ to nwldwn, substituting sryqwtˀ with the synonymous spyqˀyt
(corresponding to Gk. kenos and Heb. rq/ryq; the latter is cognate to Syriac sryqwtˀ). This was likely facilitated by
reading the verb in Isa 65:23a as “wail,” “howl,” and understanding it as congruent with nwldwn, “give birth” in 23b.
In turn, Isa 65:23 anticipates Isa 66:7: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was
delivered of a man-child.” Cf. the term spyqˀyt in the Magnificat, Syr P Luke 1:53.
19:9b “a strong man” (gbrˀ)”; cf. gbr/gbrˀ in J. Payne Smith 1903, 59b: “man (especially a strong or mighty man. . .).”
It makes no sense to talk of a woman who gives birth “like a man” since men do not give birth. Because the verb ˀḥy
does not mean “deliver,” in this verse gbrˀ must refer not to the infant but to God as life-sustainer, which contextually
suggests a divine role as midwife, as in Pss 22:10-11 and 71:6.
19:10-11 “will … declaration … abundant majesty … redemption … kindness … grandeur.” These are all divine
attributes that originate from God, not from the young woman. The six terms mimic the six Torah titles in Ps 19:8-10.
The implication is that the young woman’s son is a manifestation of the divine word/speech.
19:10a “<And> she brought forth” (<w>yldt). An initial waw has possibly dropped out of the text. There should be
some hesitation, however, in adopting this emendation, given that a structural parallel in the six stichs of Ode 12:4
(also inspired by Ps 19:8-10) also has one line (12:4b) that lacks an initial waw.
19:10b, 11c The double use of the cognate terms “declaration” in 10b and “declare” in 11c form an inclusio, and
reflect the repetition of the verb “to give birth” (yld) in 10a-b. This is congruent with the repetition of the verb mḥwˀ
in SyrP Ps 19:2-3 and its cognate in Tg. Pss. in the same two verses. The repetition of the verb “to give birth” (yld) in
Ode 19:10a-b is congruent with the odist’s penchant for using repetition for emphasis (see, e.g., the repetition of the
phrase “I will not fear” in Ode 5:10-11). The verb yldt in Ode 19:10a-b has been inspired partly by a reading that
agrees with the cognate plural noun “infants” (ylwdˀ) in SyrP Ps 19:8b.
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19:10c “majesty.” The base lemma of the noun “majesty,” ˀḥdnˀ, is the verb ˀḥd, whose Hebrew cognate ˀḥz coincides
with the name Ahaz, to whom Isa 7:14 is addressed: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the
young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (JPS 1917) The terms “majesty” and
“grandeur” are political terms pertaining to God’s reign or kingdom. With Ode 19:10 bˀwḥdnˀ sgyˀˀ cf. 1 Macc 15:29,
“and you have taken possession of many places (SyrP sgyˀˀ dˀwḥdnh) in my kingdom.”
20:5a Ms H: “your”; Ms N: “my.”
20:5a-b “your mind.” Literally, “your kidneys”; “your feelings,” literally, “your intestines/bowels.”
20:6a “kill your own soul” (bdmˀ dnpšk). Because dmˀ can mean not only “blood,” but also “bloodshed” (homicide;
see R. Payne Smith 1901, 2:910), this perplexing term can be understood upon further reflection as “with/through
(causing) the bloodshed of your own soul.” The idea is that owning a slave kills the soul of the owner. As Lattke
2009, 292 clarifies, the text speaks of possessing, not acquiring; that is, the ownership, not the initial act of purchase.
The statement would then be addressed to those who own, that is, who have already purchased, a slave. This naturally
implies a total ban on slavery, which brings to mind Essene values. The inspiration for bdmˀ dnpšk in Ode 20:6a is
Gen 9:5, “your blood of your lives” (dmkm lnpštykm), SyrP dmkwn dnpštkwn: “And surely your blood of your lives
will I require,” (JPS 1917) and Gen 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood
be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.” (NRSV) The verb tbˁˀ in Ode 20:6b is a reflex of “require”
(ˀdrš) in Gen 9:5, which the SyrP renders with ˀtbˁ.
20:7b Ms H: “the paradise”; Ms N: “his paradise.”
20:9b Ms H: ṭybwth, “grace” (=“steadfast love”); Ms N: ṭbwth, “goodness.”
21:1a Ms H: “arms”; Ms N: “arm.”
21:4b “free from pain,” literally, “pain was not in them.” Ms N: “not”; Ms H: omits.
21:5a “And instead a medicine and helper.” The opening two words here present a challenge to the translator. The
adverb ytyrˀyt (composed of ytyr + ˀyt), “exceedingly,” “abundantly,” “increasingly,” “instead” is followed by
mˁdrnytˀ, which most translators render “help,” but it can also refer to medicine, which in view of the mention of
sickness in Ode 21:4 would seem to be the meaning here. However, Ode 21:5c subsequently reads “and his
partnership” (wšwtpwth), a term that commonly refers to either the act of marriage or the act of intercourse. SyrP Tob
8:6A uses mˁdrnytˀ to describe Eve as a helper for/to Adam. It would therefore seem that mˁdrnytˀ in Ode 21:5 cleverly
means simultaneously “medicine” and “helper.” To render šwtpwtˀ as “fellowship” seems to reflect English NT
influence, where it usually renders Greek koinōnia. Although to render šwtpwtˀ as “fellowship” is not incorrect, it
seems increasingly archaic and does not suggest to the average scripture reader the intimate union of marital
partnership between God and humans that šwtpwtˀ implies. To mention the other main use of šwtpwtˀ, in modern
English one speaks of a business partner or associate, not a business fellow.
21:6b Ms H: “worked/served/worshipped”; Ms N: “passed.” Lattke 2009, 304 contests the reading ˁbdt in Ms H, but
an examination of the photograph in Harris and Mingana 1920 shows no trace of a point above the third letter, while a
prominent smudged point is visible beneath it. The Ms H reading is congruent with 2 En. 21:1, “standing before the
Lord’s face doing his will, . . . singing with gentle voice before the Lord’s face,” while the Ms N reading reflects 2
En. 22:6, “Michael lifted me up, and led me to before the Lord’s face.” (R. H. Charles translation) Ode 21 anticipates
Ode 36, and the latter also shows contacts with 2 En. 22, by which we can deduce that the praises these two odes
mention allude to the Qedušah (Kedushah) of Isa 6:3 (see 2 En. 21:1; 1 En. 39:12).
21:9b “in praise of him,” Ms N, literally, “in/with his praise”; Ms H: “and his praise.”
22:1-12 is quoted in ch. 71 of the Coptic Pistis Sophia.
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22:2b “proclaimed and cast … down” (rmˀ). The annotation on Ode 21:5a documents how the term mˁdrnytˀ could
simultaneously mean both “a help/er” and “medicine.” It would seem that in Ode 22:2, the verb rmˀ simultaneously
carries both the meanings “cast/throw down” and “announce.” As far as we can determine, this double meaning would
be impossible to express in a single English word. Consequently, this translation opts for “announces their downfall.”
The Coptic translation reads “taught,” which overlaps with the semantic field of “announce.” Because rmˀ can mean
“announce,” there is no need to emend rmˀ to rdˀ in order to harmonize the Syriac and Coptic texts. Ms N: “cast them
down”; Ms H: omits “them.” The Coptic literally reads, “taught them about them.” The reading “taught me about
them,” preserved in the commentary section of the Coptic Pistis Sophia, in part reflects the more original Syriac
version. See Schmidt and MacDermot 1978, 314-317.
22:5b Ms H: “roots”; Ms N: “root.”
22:6b Ms H: “was blessed by me”; Ms N: “surrounded me,” which is congruent with the Coptic version in Pistis
Sophia.
22:7a Ms H: “evil one’s venom”; Ms N: “the venom of evil.”
22:10b Ms H: “help”; Ms N: “energy.”
22:11 This translation follows the punctuation of both manuscripts. The punctuation can be changed to produce the
reading: “Your way and face were imperishable, and you brought your world to destruction.” With Ode 22:11, cf. Wis
19:6a, “For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew,” referring to the events surrounding the exodus from
Egypt.
22:12c Ms H: “you became”; Ms N: “it became.”
23:1-3 The triadic structure of Ode 23:1-3 is deliberate and anticipates the ode’s concluding triad of Father, son, and
holy spirit. The three initial nouns of verses 1-3 are respectively fem. fem. masc. In v. 22b Ms N reads masc. qdyšˀ;
Ms H has masc. dqwdšˀ; on the basis of Morrison 1980, 357-358, The Nuhra Version (2021) emends this to fem.
dqdyštˀ. If we accept this emendation in v. 22b, then the triad of Father, son, and holy spirit would be masc. masc.
fem. and would form a chiastic contrast with the fem. fem. masc. pattern of the three respective initial nouns of verses
1-3.
23:4a Ms H: “the Most High”; Ms N: “the Lord.”
23:4b Ms H omits “and you will know the steadfast love of the Lord.”
23:5a “Decree.” The letter or epistle, ˀgrtˀ, is clearly a scroll that contains a royal decree, and so in Ode 23 the sense is
“decree,” and not simply “letter.”
23:5b Ms H: “His”; Ms N: “And his.”
23:6a “arrow.” The Decree partly represents the Law or Torah, and the Hebrew word torah derives from the verb
yarah, whose principle meaning is to shoot (an arrow).
23:8b “seal.” All royal decrees were sealed, so there is no necessary influence here from Revelation’s scroll sealed
with seven seals (Rev 5:1-9), which contrasts with the single seal in Ode 23. Ode 23 is independently inspired by the
same passage that influenced Revelation 5, namely, Ezekiel 2-3, which in turn shaped the “words” and “book” that
are sealed in Daniel 12, as well as the “seal” in Ode 23.
23:9a Ms H: “his seal”; Ms N: “her seal.”
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23:11 The wheel (gigglā) is an angel-wheel (in Hebrew ofan, pl. ofanim) of the divine merkabah (chariot) of Ezekiel
1; see Mingana 1915, 172. Ezekiel 10 uses both the Hebrew word ofan and the Aramaic galgal (pl. galgali); see
Evans 2017, 305. In Ezekiel 1, the wheels accompany the flaming cherubim. Cognate to Ezekiel 1 is Gen 3:24: “the
cherubim, and the continuously rotating flaming sword.” Lichtenstein 2015 identifies this rotating sword as a scythed
chariot wheel, but fails to make a connection to the flaming cherubim and wheels (ofanim) of Ezekiel 1. The angel
wheel of Ode 23 who mows and cuts down all opposition is entirely congruent with the scythed wheel of Gen 3:24.
23:12b “of the kingdom and of the government,” dmlkwtˀ wdmdbrnwtˀ. Clearly, mdbrnwtˀ is used synonymously with
mlkwtˀ, which excludes translations of mdbrnwtˀ such as “providence” (Charlesworth 1983) and “plan of salvation”
(Lattke 2009). The key to understanding the background “of the kingdom and of the government” is to notice that in
Ode 23:11-12 the Decree, which represents simultaneously the Torah and the messiah, settles over or upon the wheel
that represents the divine chariot and throne, and “with the Decree,” that is, with the Torah and the messiah, “there
was . . . a sign of the kingdom and of the government.” The allusion is to Isa 9:6: “of his government . . . and over his
kingdom,” which the SyrP renders with šwlṭnˀ (an apt synonym of mdbrnwtˀ) and mlkwtˀ. See Ode 36:8.
23:15a Ms H: “forests”; Ms N: “peoples.”
23:16 The passage is difficult; to make it more lucid, The Nuhra Version (2021) rearranges the lines in the following
sequence: v. 16a, v. 16c, v. 16b.
23:16c Ms H: “feet”; Ms N: “foot.”
23:16b Ms H: “was coming”; Ms N: “had come.”
23:17a “The Decree contained commandments.” Ms H: “The Decree was one of command (pwqdnˀ)”; Ms N: “It was
a Decree and a command (pwqdnˀ).” SyrP Ps 19:9b uses pwqdnˀ to translate the Torah title “commandment of the
Lord,” in Hebrew mṣwt YHWH.
23:17b Ms H: “Because”; Ms N: “And because.”
23:18a “The Decree’s head.” Baynes 2012, 185-196 shows how the term “head” in Ode 23:10 is partly derived from
Psalm 40. The letter of Ode 23 that is God’s thought and will is inspired by Psalm 40, in which the Psalmist mentions
God’s “thoughts” (v. 6), after which we read in vv. 8-9: “Then I said, ‘Look, I have come; in a scroll of a book it is
written of me. / To do your will, O my God, I desired – and your law. . . .” (NETS) In the phrase “in the scroll of a
book” (en kephalidi bibliou), the term kephalis is a diminutive form of kephalē (“head”), which explains the talk of
“the head” of the epistle/letter in Ode 23. The Peshiṭta, independently of the LXX, similarly renders (but in the plural)
“head of the writings/books” (ryš ktbˀ).
23:18a-b “at the Decree’s head there appeared the head that revealed itself, / even the son of the truth. . . .” Morrison
1980, 148 refers to the similar construction “Father of truth” in Ode 41:8 and points out that while the two phrases
could be rendered “the true son” and “the true Father.” Nevertheless, because truth is such a core trope for the odist, it
is better to avoid “true” and employ “truth” in order to express the theme most expansively. Morrison adds that in
relation to truth, “Father” connotes “originator,” while “son” connotes “expression.” As Morrison 1980, 86, 148
remarks, because “son of the truth” occurs in the Odes of Solomon only here, it must have a special meaning, and that
meaning is suggested by the mention of the divine will that descends, which hints at the descent of the Torah, and
these together indicate that “son of the truth” points to Jewish traditions that equate truth with the Torah and that
speak of truth as “the seal of God.” (Above all, this pertains to the Talmudic passage in the Gemara, Šabb. 55a, “The
Holy One Blessed be He, his seal is truth”). Morrison suggests the possibility here of the “Jewish-Christian” idea of
Jesus as the nomos.
23:20b Ms H: “irritated”; Ms N: “erased.”
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23:22a “And (the tablet) was backed up with the authority of,” literally, “and the name of . . . was upon it.” “Name” in
this context idiomatically refers to “authority,” as in the trinitarian formula in Matt 28:19; see Milavec 2003, 62-54.
23:22c “for them to rule as king (lmmlkw) forever and ever.” The verb lmmlkw is plural, the basis for adding “them”
in the translation. The stich adapts Exod 15:18 (cf. SyrP nmlk lˁlm ˁlmyn), which Ps 146:10 slightly abbreviates. This
is significant because Exod 15:18 is added to the Kedushah in Jewish liturgy, but absent in Christian versions of the
Sanctus. This suggests that the odist correlates the Father, son, and spirit of holiness with the Kedushah’s thrice-
repeated “holy.” An allusion to the Kedushah is also congruent with the angel-wheel (gyglˁ) of Ode 23:11, whose
feminine gender is compatible with an allusion to the feminine holy spirit.
24 Pace almost all exegetes, only Ode 24:1-2 alludes to Jesus’ baptism; from v. 3 on, the allusion is to his crucifixion.
The dove-spirit rests on Jesus’ head at his baptism. Later, in v. 4, as Morrison 1980, 268 observes, the bird-spirit
departs from Jesus at his death.
24:1a Ms N: “our anointed master’s head”; Ms H: “the anointed one.” In this case, Ms H’s shorter reading is to be
preferred as the more original.
24:1b “because his head belonged to her.” See Franzmann in Lattke 1986, 379: “A dove is also mentioned in 24:1,
singing over the Messiah and possessing him; (that is, he is subordinate to her). This verse . . . must be translated as
‘because the head was hers.’ Thus if the dove does represent the Spirit, we have here and ordering of the characters
with the Spirit above the Son.” Ibid., 418: “. . . the common construction, hwˀ ly . . . denotes ‘to have’ or ‘to possess.’ .
. .” Based on Franzmann’s keen observation, we can now recognize in the dove here a symbol of the holy spirit as
Jesus’ mother (congruent with Jesus’ statement in the Gospel of the Hebrews, “my mother the holy spirit”), which
naturally explains why he is subordinate to the dove in Ode 24.
24:1-2 The variation between ˁl (“onto”) in 1a and ˁlwhy in 2a suggests that the latter is more likely to mean “about,”
as recognized by Greßmann 1920, 28, and by Morrison 1980, 267.
24:2a As Lattke 2009, 345 remarks, doves are not songbirds, so wzmrt in 2a means “and she cooed,” not “and she
sang.” However, Greßmann (see annotation on 24:1-2) sees in wzmrt an allusion to the psalms. While doves are not
songbirds, they are a traditional symbol of mourning/moaning (e.g., Isa 59:11), and the setting of the crucifixion
implied in Ode 24 may suggest a hint at lament psalms, such as Psalm 22, whose famous verb “forsake”/“abandon”
(šbq) appears in Ode 23:4.
24:4a “the bird flew, forsook its wing.” Ms H reads prḥtˀ šbqt gpyh, “The bird forsook her wings.” In view of the
parallelism with 4b it is natural to view prḥtˀ as a collective singular noun. Ms N reads prḥt šbqt gpyh, “She flew, she
forsook her wings.” Prḥt in Ms N could involve an accidental omission of the terminal letter ˀ. The reading of Ms H is
lucid enough; the bird stops flying. Ms N starts with the bird flying and subsequently abandoning flight. The reading
of Ms N involving flight and subsequent rest actually accords well with this ode’s overall basis in the story of Noah’s
flood. The dove that flies and then rests would be an echo of Gen 8:12, “Then he . . . sent forth the dove; and she did
not return to him any more.” See also 4 Ezra 5:6ff.
24:7b-c “and they perished in accord with the thought / by which they had been made from of old.” The translation of
this verse has been informed partly by Vleugels 2011, 309.
25:1-12 is quoted in ch. 69 of the Coptic Pistis Sophia.
25:2 Coptic “saving me, / and saving me.” Pace Lattke 2009, 358, this is not an “erroneous repetition” (dittography).
Repetition is common in songs and poetry of all times and cultures.
25:3b Ms H: “and I will not see him anymore”; Ms N: “and they were no more to be seen.”
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25:7b Ms H: “and all around me there will be nothing that is not light.” Ms N: “so that all around me there will be
nothing that is not light,” which is congruent with the Coptic.
25:8a “Covering.” The Coptic word here usually means “shade”; but see Lattke 2009, 362. “spirit/mercy.” The Coptic
of the Pistis Sophia literally reads “mercy” instead of “spirit,” a difference of only one letter, suggesting that the letter
pi was possibly omitted at some point in the transmission history of this ode (see Lattke 2009, 362-363). Significantly,
the Pistis Sophia elsewhere equates “mercy” with “spirit” (see Book I, chs. 61 and 62).
25:8b “she removed,” that is, the spirit removed; see Morrison 1980, 377; 386. Ms H: “the garments”; Ms N: “my
garments.”
25:9a “Because your right hand lifted me up,” an allusion to Ps 118:16a. While it agrees with the LXX and SyrP
against the Hebrew, nevertheless, careful analysis will not sustain the claim of Lattke 2009 that the odist here relies on
the LXX. Carbajosa 2008 supplies evidence that the LXX and Peshiṭta have independently rendered the Hebrew text
in a similar way. Carbajosa demonstrates that virtually all agreements between the Greek and Syriac Psalters against
the Hebrew Psalter can be explained by the same process of independent translation involving coinciding
interpretations. While the odist does not know the Peshiṭta Psalter, he does at times independently render the Hebrew
(or Aramaic) in a way similar to the later Peshiṭta translators.
25:10a Ms H: “the truth”; Ms N: “your truth.”
26:2-3 “his Kedushah ode,” zmyrtˀ qdyštˀ dylh, literally, “his holy ode;” refers to the “holy, holy, holy” (SyrP qaddiš
qaddiš qaddiš) of the Qedušah (Kedushah) prayer of Isa 6:3 (see the annotation on Ode 21:6b). This is supported by
Ode 26:3b, “and the odes of his repose (dnyḥh) will never cease in silence (nšlyn),” which agrees with both the
traditional description of the angelic recitation of the Qedušah as never-ceasing and never-silent and as recited in
rest/tranquility (cf. the Morning Service Qedušah in S. Singer 5719/1958, 46, “in tranquil (bnḥt) joy of spirit.”) See 1
En. 39:9-14; 2 En. 21:1; 22:3; Rev 4:8; Apos. Con. 7.35, 3.
26:7 “fullness,” or “whole-offering.”
26:8-11 The Nuhra Version (2021) translation here is based on the interpretation of Morrison 1980, 498-500; 532.
26:11a “the Lord’s Wonders” is a Torah title (see Brettler 2009a, 147, and Brettler 2009b, 66) derived by the odist
from Ps 111:4a and Ps 106:2 (see the latter in SyrP; cf. also Ps 119:27). Ode 26:11 is about Torah interpretation.
26:13b “and that keeps flowing (wrdˀ) for the help of those who study (dbˀyn) it.” The verb “flowing” artfully harks
back to (drdˀ) in v. 9a, where it has the meaning “to teach.” Given the context of interpretative concerns in verses 11-
12, and in view of the double entendre that wrdˀ delivers in v. 13b, one is justified in detecting another double
entendre in dbˀyn in v. 13b. The verb bˀyn can render Hebrew drš in its late sense of to study, as in Ps 111:2, “The
works of the LORD are great, studied (drwšym; SyrP wmtbˀyn) by all them that have delight therein.” (See Brettler
2009b, 64).
27:1 “honoring as holy my Lord”; in view of 26:2-3, this likely alludes to the Qedušah (Kedushah) of Isa 6:3 (see the
annotations on Odes 21:6b; 26:2-3; 36:2-3, specifically 2b).
27:2 Ms H: “is his sign”; Ms N: “was prevented.”
27:2 “the spreading out (dmtḥˀ) of my hands is his sign (ˀth).” The noun ˀtˀ in Ode 23:11 is rendered “emblem” by
Vleugels and Webber 2016. “Emblem” or “banner” would be a fitting translation for ˀtˀ throughout the Odes of
Solomon. The Hebrew cognate is used for military banners throughout the Qumran War Scroll (1QM) and in other
Hebrew texts.
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27:3 “and my outward-stretching (course)” (wpšyṭwty). While pšyṭwtˀ can mean either “simplicity” or “extension” (as
well as “singleness,” “generosity,” “innocence,” “publication,” etc.), a larger contextual reading of the Odes of
Solomon suggests that here the meaning is primarily “extension.” However, only an intertextual analysis can reveal
what this “extension” is specifically. The dynamic nature of poetry demands that pšyṭwtˀ in 27:3 is more than just a
substantival restatement of the verb pšṭt (“I extended”) in v. 1a. The dynamic poetic development is shown by the
introduction of “wood” (qysˀ) in v. 3. With the exception of the parallel passage in 42:1-2, the only other occurrence
of qysˀ is in Ode 39 (v. 10b), where we also have in v. 7 the further lexical agreements “his sign” (see Odes 27:2 and
42:1b) and “way” (see Ode 42:2b). Of pšyṭwtˀ, we read of its cognate pštˀ in Jastrow 1246b that it can mean
“extension, natural course of a river.” A comparison of Odes 27 and 39 suggests that pšyṭwtˀ in Ode 27 means an
extension in the sense of a river’s course. “the level wood (bridge).” In SyrP Isa 40:3-4 we learn that in Syriac the
adjective špy, “level,” is a synonym of dtryṣ in v. 3 so that the latter, like its Hebrew equivalent yšr, can mean not only
vertically “straight,” “upright,” but also horizontally “straight,” that is, “plain,” “level,” “flat.” SyrP Wis 10:4 calls
Noah’s ark qysˀ špyˀ (“the plain/smooth/level wood”), which is synonymous with qysˀ dtryṣ in Ode 27:3. The latter
means in this instance “plain/level wood.” This becomes qysˀ pšyṭˀ in Ode 42:2a, which is again synonymous with
both parallel phrases in Wis 10:4 and Ode 27:3. In the phrase in Ode 42:2a, the term pšyṭˀ (“plain”) overlaps
semantically with tryṣ (“plain, level”) in 27:3. Ode 42:2b then mentions ˀwrḥh dtryṣˀ (“his level path”), as in Isa 40:3-
4, over which is suspended the plain/level wood. We learn what this level wood is in Ode 39, namely, a (symbolic)
wood bridge built by the Lord over the waters. For helpful discussions of these passages, see Morrison 1980, 412-419,
and Connolly 1911.
28:1a “As the wings of doves over their nestlings.” This is clearly inspired by Deut 32:11 and related to SyrP Gen 1:2.
BT Ḥag. 15a explains that the spirit of God in Gen 1:2 hovered “like a dove hovering over its young. . . .” It must not
be overlooked that the stretching and spreading of hands in Ode 27 involves the language of bird wings, as in Deut
32:11, and it is to this verse that Ode 28:1 alludes.
28:1b Ms H: “as the beak”; Ms N: “as the beaks.”
28:3a Ms H: “at rest”; Ms N: “also at rest.”
28:4b “my head rests upon (lwth) him.” When applied to persons, the preposition lwt can mean either at or with, and
here we should understand it not as with, but as at, with the sense on, upon, in analogy to the Lord and his wreath
who/which in Ode 5:12 is b-ršy, “on my head,” not “with my head.” 28:4 is consequently a play on Odes 1:1, 4; 5:12;
and 9:8-11.
28:5a Ms H: “I was prepared”; Ms N: “I prepared myself.”
28:6a Ms H: “and deathless life came forth and kissed me”; Ms N: “and deathless life embraced and kissed me.”
28:7a Ms H: “the spirit within me”; Ms N: “the spirit who is within me.”
28:7c Ms H: “living”; Ms N: “life.”
28:10 “And (their) unrighteousness (against) me became my salvation.” Literally, “And my unrighteousness became
my salvation.” See the annotation on Ode 10:5b.
28:15b Ms H: “endured”; Ms N: “forgot.”
28:16c Ms H: “my birth was not like theirs”; Ms N: “they did not recognize my birth.”
28:17c Ms H: “they attacked me”; Ms H margin and Ms N: “cast lots upon.”
28:18a Ms H: “later than I”; Ms N: omits “than I (had).”
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28:19b “mind,” literally “heart.”
29:2b Ms H: ṭbwth, “goodness”; Ms N: ṭybwth, “grace.”
29:6b “And he appeared to me, the one who is the Lord.” For this translation, see Morrison 1980, 111-112. All of the
following translations are confused and should be abandoned: Charlesworth 1983, “and considered that He is the
Lord”; Lattke 2009, “and it seemed to me/I saw that he is the Lord”; Harris and Mingana 1920, “And He appeared to
me that He is the Lord.”
29:7a Ms H: “him”; Ms N: “me.” Since scribes tend to smooth out texts rather than complicate them, the more
difficult reading is often considered more likely to be closer to the original. On that basis, Ms H is the preferable
reading. Ode 29:7 may thus be an apt example of the fluidity or shifting boundaries between the personal identities of
the Odist and the messiah (see Becker 2013).
30:5b “and from his heart; the Lord is his name.” The construction dmryˀ šmh has perplexed exegetes and translators.
The first key to understanding this verse is to recognize the influence that Ps 23:2-3 has exerted on the description of
waters of rest that restore the soul in Ode 30:3-5. “Waters of rest” in Ps 23:2b parallel “his name” in 23:3b. The
implied “waters” and explicit mention of “name” in Ode 30:5 thus imitate the “waters” and “name” in Ps 23:2-3.
There is thus no justification for emending or changing the meaning of šmh in Ode 30:5b, as Charlesworth and others
have done. The next key is to recognize dmryˀ šmh as the odist’s attempt to emulate in Syriac the equally perplexing
Hebrew construction bYH šmw in Ps 68:5, that is, “YH is his name,” preceded by the preposition b, usually
understood as the b of essence or identity. An alternative rendering of Ode 30:5b could be, “and from the mind of the
Lord (goes forth) his name.” Just as divine waters, a symbol of the Torah as divine revelation, go forth from the
Lord’s mouth, so from the Lord’s mind originates the revelation that is his name. A synonymy between divine word
and name would accord with later kabbalistic doctrine, according to which the Torah is the divine name, the
Tetragrammaton.
30:6b “in the middle (bmṣˁtˀ)”; there is no pronomial suffix to mṣˁtˀ, which should therefore not be rendered “in their
midst” (pace Lattke 2009). On the basis of Ode 22:2 it is evident that mṣˁtˀ in 30:6b is a technical term for the region/s
between the heights and the depths, which on the basis of Ode 34:4-5 can be identified as the (highest) heaven and
earth (see Grimme 1911, 54). The middle includes the region of departed souls who, according to 1 En. 48:1 (cf. 1 En.
39:5), drink from fountains of wisdom.
31:2b Ms H: “Contempt gave”; Ms N: “Folly found.”
31:4b Ms H: “hands”; Ms N: “hand.”
31:12b “inherit,” not “instruct,” pace Charlesworth 1983. See Lattke 2009, 440.
31:13b “to whom I had been promised.” For this rendering, see Harris and Mingana 1920, 370-371. Although Lattke
2009, 441 n. 266 considers these arguments of Harris and Mingana unconvincing, Lattke fails to tell his readers why.
32:2 “who is self-existent.” Ms N: “which is of itself”; Ms H: “which is from/out of itself.” Lattke’s translation,
reflecting Ms N, strikes one as odd: “and the word from that Truth which was her (own) self.” Charlesworth’s “self-
originate” moves in the right direction, but the theological idea conveyed by “which is of itself” is not that of origin,
since truth or God as such is without origin, even self-origin. The theological idea expressed is rather that of divine
self-existence, which hints at the traditional understanding of the Tetragrammaton based on Exod 3:14-15.
33:1a “And Steadfast Love, she ran, returning to release Destruction.” Contextually viewed, the feminine personified
Steadfast Love is to be correlated with the feminine bird-like holy spirit. This same basic figure appears in Revelation
12 as a celestial woman who is essentially a reflex of the Tanakh’s Lady Zion. As Morrison 1980, 195-196 explains,
in Ode 33:1 Grace (Steadfast Love) returns not to forsake Destruction, but as in Rev 20:2-3, where after being bound
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for a thousand years, the devil “must be loosed for a little while,” so that he can then finish his final campaign of
deception that will soon lead to his definitive destruction.
33:2 The passage may seem confusing, but Reinink 1974, 68 explains that the Destroyer destroys Abbadon in order to
create the false impression that he was in fact opposed to evil, an interpretation supported by v. 4b, “making sure his
appearance was not that of the evil one.”
33:5a “But a mature (gmyrtˀ) young woman (btwltˀ) stood.” While gmyrtˀ can mean “perfect,” the nuance in most of
Syriac literature is “completion.” As in Ode 19, so here btwltˀ can mean not only “virgin,” but also “young woman.”
What is meant here is “a mature young woman,” that is, someone who has passed childhood and adolescence and is
now at the beginning of adulthood. In other words, here gmyrtˀ has to do with age, not with spiritual or moral
perfection. Similarly, in the Qur’an 19:17 the angel Gabriel appears to Mary during the Annunciation in “the likeness
of a perfect man,” fatamathala lahā bašaran sawiyyan. The Syriac text The History of the Blessed Virgin Mary
indicates that what the Qur’an means by “perfect man” is an old or aged man, so as not to present a temptation to the
youthful Mary. The History of the Blessed Virgin Mary folio 10a-b, p. 20: “Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, appeared
unto her in the form of a venerable old man (gbrˀ sbˀ), so that she might not flee from him” (see Budge 1899).
33:13a hlkw by, literally “walk in/by.” On the rendering halakhah, see the annotation on Ode 17:8a.
33:13b “my ways I will make known to those who study (bˁy) me.” The verb bˁy can render Hebrew drš in its late
sense of to study, as in Ps 111:2, “The works of the LORD are great, studied (drwšym; SyrP wmtbˁyn) by all them that
have delight therein.” See Brettler 2009a, 2009b.
34:1a-b,d “No way (ˀwrḥˀ) is hard / where there the heart is single (pšyṭˀ),” “where thoughts are clear (tryṣtˀ).” The
vocabulary of this passage clearly forms a link between Ode 27:3 and Ode 42:2-3, which indicates the meaning of
tryṣtˀ here is not “upright,” but “clear,” as in Isa 40:3-4, on which see the annotation on Ode 27:3.
34:1c “strike.” The noun mḥwtˀ here must be pointed to read “blow,” “stroke,” “wound,” “plague,” or “burden,” not
“fence” (pace Vleugels and Webber 2016). “Blow” supplies a fitting poetic parallelism to “storm”/“stormwind” in v.
2b, while “fence” does not. Moreover, “fence” (“parapet,” “railing,” Sokoloff-Brockelmann, 737b) is traditionally a
mostly positive symbol of protection (including against plagues, see 4Q434,11), whereas Ode 34:1-2 demands a
negative valence for mḥwtˀ.
34:3a “When surrounded on every side, / nothing within the good person is divided.” For this rendering, see Lattke
2009, 469. What surrounds the good person can be deduced from Ode 25:7a, “you set a lamp at my right and at my
left,” which agrees with Ode 34:3 being immediately preceded by a reference to light in the word nhyrtˀ
(“illuminated”/“enlightened”).
34:5b “and nothing exists below.” Charlesworth’s translation “from below” is unjustified; there is no preposition mn
in the Syriac text. Charlesworth has overlooked that the verse is a spatial reworking of 2 Bar. 44:8: “Because
whatever is now is nothing, but what shall be is very great.” The immediately preceding conclusion in Ode 33 is also
based on 2 Baruch 44.
35:1a “Fine rain,” or possibly “dew” (see R. Payne Smith 1901, 2:3938). Ms H: “serenity”; Ms N: “gentleness.” The
phrase rsysh dmryˀ in v. 1a conforms structurally to the phrase ṭlh dmryˀ (“the dew of the Lord”) in v. 5. Cf. Deut
32:2.
35:2b Ms H: “and was mine in salvation”; Ms N: “became salvation for me.”
35:3b Ms H: “judgment”; Ms N: “a judge.”
35:4a “But I was calm in the decree (ṭgmˀ, that is, teḡmeh) of the Lord.” The term ṭgmˀ can be explained on the basis
of the “spirit of judgment (dynˀ)” in SyrP Isa 4:4, where dynˀ can also bear the meaning “decree.” (SyrP Ps 19:10b
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renders the Hebrew Torah synonym mšpṭ, “judgment,” with dynˀ). The Hebrew phrase here in Isa 4:4 is rwḥ mšpṭ,
“spirit of judgment,” which Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders with “word of decree (gmyrˀ).” In Ode 35:4a, the ṭgmˀ
dmryˀ is a strictly singular, not a collective singular, and conforms structurally and doctrinally to rsysh dmryˀ in v. 1
and ṭlh dmryˀ in v. 5. The basis is in Deuteronomy 32, where Moses’ doctrine, that is, the Torah, is likened to dew.
Accordingly, in Ode 35, the “fine rain of the Lord” and “the dew of the Lord” hint at the Mosaic Torah, and the same
is the case with the ṭgmˀ dmryˀ, “the decree of the Lord.” In Ode 23:17 the Torah is called a “command,” pwqdnˀ,
which occurs as a Torah title twice in SyrP Ps 19:9, translating Hebrew pqwd and mṣwt (“precept,” “commandment”).
Just as pwqdnˀ in Ode 23 occurs nowhere else in the Odes of Solomon, the same is the case with ṭgmˀ in Ode 35.
35:4b Emerton 1984 renders v. 4’b’s ṭllˀ as “dew,” but notes that the text could represent a defective spelling of
“shade.”
35:4c structurally mimics Ps 19:11. Its construction “and more than” (wytyr mn) does not agree with SyrP Ps 19:11,
but it matches Tg. Pss.
35:7 The translation here has been informed partly by Lattke, 2009.
36:1a As Lattke 2005 documents, Ms N reads ˁl, which results in the statement, “I rested upon (ˁl) the spirit of the
Lord.” Ms H also originally read ˁl, but the scribe secondarily superimposed a terminal y, correcting the reading to ˁly,
which produces the statement, “The spirit of the Lord rested upon me (ˁly),” coinciding with Isa 61:1. Lattke 2005,
348 writes that this would be congruent with Ode 28:1c, “so also are the wings of the spirit over my heart.” With
Lattke 2009, The Nuhra Version (2021) adopts the corrected Ms H reading ˁly. Nevertheless, the shared Ms H and Ms
N reading ˁl makes sense, and because of its double attestation one could make a plausible case for it as the original
reading. The odist is often subversive in his scriptural allusions (cf. Lattke 2005, 248). If ˁl is the original reading, we
would have in this case a subversive reading of Isa 61:1.
36:2-3 Ms H punctuation:
2 and made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord
before his perfection and his glory.
While I was praising him by the composition of his odes,
3 she gave birth to me before the face of the Lord.
Ms N punctuation:
2 and made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord
before his perfection and his glory,
while I was praising him by the composition of his odes.
3 She gave birth to me before the face of the Lord.
The Nuhra Version (2021) has adopted a different punctuation, one which continues the sentence of v. 3a into 3b,
which does not, however, change the basic sense of v. 3. Ode 36:2b, “his fullness and his glory,” alludes to Isa 6:3,
“the whole earth is full of His glory.”
36:3b See Morrison 1980, 98, which points out that Odes of Solomon contains 19 instances of the conjunction kd, and
that Charlesworth translates it as “because” only in Ode 36:3 and 4, whereas the most natural meaning is “while” in
both 36:2b and 4a. Because of ongoing scholarly debate about how Syriac/Aramaic bar naša should be translated, the
phrase has been transliterated both here and in Ode 12:12a. Pace Reinink 1974, 68, it is not “purely speculative” for
Charlesworth to render bar naša here as “Son of man,” nor is it necessary to prove that “Son of man” was a messianic
title after the first century CE. Charlesworth’s evidence that Ode 36 has been shaped by 1 En 48:2, in which the title
“Son of man” occurs, is sufficient justification for his rendering of Ode 36:3.
36:4a Ms H: “the ones who glorify”; Ms N: “the glorious ones.”
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36:7b Ms H: “like a flood”; Ms N: omits “like.”
36:8b “the spirit of governance (dmdbrnwtˀ).” See the annotation on Ode 23:12, which documents that verse’s (and
this one’s) allusion to Isa 9:6, where a figure traditionally identified as the messiah assumes the government and
kingdom of David. The statement in Ode 36:8, “and I was established in the spirit of governance,” is a claim to have
assumed messianic rule.
37:1a Ms H: “my Lord”; Ms N: “the Lord.”
38:2a Ms H: “chasms”; Ms N: “open (gaping) chasms.”
38:3b Ms H: “arms”; Ms N: “ladder.”
38:4b Ms H: “was”; Ms N: “was and is.”
38:7a “along the level path” (bˀwrḥˀ tryṣtˀ). As in Odes 27:3; 34:1d; and 42:2b, here tryṣtˀ means “level,” not
“upright/straight.”
38:8b Ms H: “that people think to be”; Ms N: “that are thought to be.”
38:9b Ms H: “the bride who is destroyed”; Ms N: either “the bride who is destroyed” or “the bride who destroyed.”
38:13b Ms H: “make them”; Ms N: “make her” (scribal error).
38:14b Ms H: “insane”; Ms N: “begging/asking” or “demanding/commanding.”
38:15a Ms H: “deceiver”; Ms N: “deceivers.”
39:4 Ms H: “lightning”; Ms N: “lightnings.”
39:7a “the LORD” stands for “the name YHWH,” as 7b and 8a indicate. Ode 39:7-8 anticipates 42:20: “And I placed
my name upon their head.” The construction of Ode 39:7a has been influenced by Ps. Sol. 15:6 (Syriac 15:8):
“because the sign of the Lord is upon the righteous for their salvation.” (Harris translation)
39:11b “the footprints of our anointed master.” Lattke 2009 overlooks the origin of this language in either the Hebrew
or Syriac version of Ps 89:52, “the footsteps of your messiah/anointed one.” It cannot have been derived from the
LXX, which reads instead, to antallagma tou christou sou, “what had been exchanged for your anointed.” (NETS)
39:13b “his trustworthy halakhah.” See the annotation on Ode 17:8a.
40:3a-b Ms N. Cf. Ms H: “And my tongue in his songs / and my limbs in his odes.”
40:5a “reverence.” Ms H: “he who is fearing/reverencing”; Ms N: “fear/reverence,” with a positive valence (cf.
40:5b), pace Latke 2009, 563. This ode alludes to Psalm 19 (cf. Ode 40:1 with Ps 19:11), in which “the fear of the
Lord” is a title for the Torah (Ps 19:10). In Ode 40:5a, fear/reverence is personified.
41:1a Ms H: “All”; Ms N: “All of us.”
41:1b Ms H: “they will receive/welcome”; Ms N: “we will receive/welcome.”
41:2a Originally the Ms N scribe wrote “and they will be known to his children,” then corrected this to read “and his
children will be known to him.”
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41:3a Ms H: “live”; Ms N: “rejoice.” Nowhere in Ms H is ṭybwtˀ associated with joy or rejoicing. By contrast, in Ode
15:8b ṭybwtˀ removes mortality; the theme of rescue from death in Ode 29:4 is followed in the next stich (v. 5a) by a
mention of ṭybwtˀ; in Ode 37:4 from ṭybwtˀ comes rest, a traditional term for immortality. Consequently, in Ode 41:3b,
the preferable reading arguably is Ms H’s “live.” Cf. Deut 30:19.
41:4b Ms H: “has given to us”; Ms N: “has given.”
41:6b “and let our minds study (wnthgwn) his Love, reading it in a low voice by night and by day (bllyˀ wbˀymmˀ).”
“Minds,” literally “hearts,” but ancient Semitic-speaking peoples believed the heart was the organ of thought. For the
rendering of hgh (=Syriac hgy) as “study . . . reading in a low voice,” see Sommer 2012, 209, and Brettler 2012, 196.
Researchers have long recognized in wnthgwn . . . bllyˀ wbˀymmˀ an allusion to Ps 1:2, “and in his law he meditates
day and night,” but in fact the allusion is instead to Josh 1:8, which in SyrP reads, rnˀ bh bllyˀ wbˀymmˀ. The use of the
verb rny rather than hgy in Ode 41:6b indicates, however, that the odist does not use SyrP Joshua.
41:9b is dependent on the Hebrew text of Prov 8:22, while Ode 41:10a agrees with LXX Prov 8:25. The most natural
explanation for this is that the odist has independently rendered the Hebrew text of Proverbs in a way that coincides
with the way the Greek translator rendered Prov 8:25. Ode 41:9-10 then transitions to Lady Wisdom of Proverbs 8,
which extends the theme of Torah in Ode 41:6b, since Torah is Lady Wisdom (see Sirach 24). Psalm 119 also alludes
to Proverbs 8, and Psalm19 is informed by Proverbs 8.
41:14 “in him (bh),” not “with him;” the latter idea is expressed differently, not with the prepositional prefix b-, but
with lht, as in SyrP John 1:1.
41:15a Lattke 2009, 579, understands the line to mean “The Christ/Messiah in truth is one.” However, Grimme 1911,
95-96 translates the line as “The anointed one is one with (divine) truth,” which arguably fits the context better. In this
case, Truth is a title for God (see v. 9a “the Father of truth”), as in Ode 32:2 and throughout Ode 38. “Truth” in 41:15a
refers back to the Most High and Father of verses 13-14 and anticipates “the truth of his name,” that is, the Father’s
name, in v. 16a.
42:1-2 Verses 1-2 seem integral to Ode 42, and not a later interpolation, because with them included in the text, Ode
42 has a total of 42 stichs, which does not strike one as accidental.
42:2a “and my outward-stretching (course) is the plain wood (bridge).” On this translation, see the annotation on Ode
27:3.
42:2b “that was suspended over his level way.” On the translation “level” for dtryṣˀ, see the commentary on Ode 27:3.
On the translation “his level way” rather than “the way of the upright one,” see Connolly 1913-1914, 468, and Lattke
2009, 584. In Syriac, although tryṣˀ might plausibly in some instances be construed as “the upright one,” it is not tryṣˀ
but zdyqˀ that generally renders “the righteous one.”
42:3b-d Ms H has a shorter and variant text: “to those who knew me / who were not able to keep me in their
clutches.”
42:4-5 The passage is difficult; to make it more lucid, The Nuhra Version (2021) rearranges the lines in the following
sequence: v. 5a, v. 4, v. 5b-c.
42:13b Ms H: “for/because they”; Ms N: “for/because he.”
42:19b Ms H omits this stich through haplography (the inadvertent omission of repeated letters).
42:20a Ms H reads wsmlt, a misspelling of wsmt, “and I set,” which is Ms N’s reading.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Flemming, Johannes, and Adolf Harnack. Ein jüdisch-christliches Psalmbuch aus dem ersten Jahrhundert. Aus dem
Syrischen übersetzt von Johannes Flemming. Bearbeitet und herausgegben von Adolf Harnack. TU 35.4; Leipzig:
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References
- Mark M. Mattison, "The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021)." Academia.edu. The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021) (download: Direct Download).
- Public-domain translation of the Odes of Solomon from Coptic, Syriac, and Greek manuscripts.
- Academia page: The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (2021).
- Direct download: Direct Download.