PSALMS OF SOLOMON. - An apocryphon comprising a group of 18 brief religious compositions, inserted among the "Solomonic" books in certain codices of the Greek translation of the Bible. In content and literary form they come very close to the Psalms: this explains their title.
Like the Davidic Psalter, the small collection deals with various subjects under the religious aspect; the praise of God is joined with the didactic genre; the vivid description of a grave humiliation suffered by the Holy City and the people corresponds to the expectation of a very different future, when the Messiah, presented in a particular way as the king of Israel (16:1 ff.), will mark a new historical period. The particular circumstances bring into relief the problem, treated several times in the texts of the Old Testament, of the righteous man persecuted and oppressed and of the proud security of sinners. In the 18 songs one can point to almost all the literary genres found in the Davidic Psalter.
The similarities increase if one compares the phraseology and the external form of the various compositions. Except for the first, all the psalms have a title, in which the famous King of Israel is always named, while different terms are used to indicate the literary genre, such as "psalm" (2; 3; 5; 13; 15; 17; 18), "hymn" (10; 14; 16), "apostrophe against flatterers" (ἀναλογή; 4), or "psalm with ode" (15; 17). Often there is also a determination regarding the particular subject, such as "on Jerusalem" (2); "on the righteous" (3), etc. In 18:9 there is the term Βιδ/αλαμ, which in the Greek translation of the Davidic Psalter corresponds to the enigmatic Hebrew selah.
All admit the single authorship. There is no extrinsic document regarding the personality of this author, but internal examination easily reveals him to be a pious Israelite, much attached to the Law and to religion and sustained in misfortune by a deep and tenacious messianic hope of a nationalistic character. The many allusions to the humiliation of Jerusalem and to the profanation of the Sanctuary (especially 17:11 ff.) suggest the time immediately following the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey the Great, when he, in order to put an end to the interminable civil strife of the last Hasmoneans, in 63 B.C.
penetrated even into the Holy of Holies, driven there perhaps above all by an uncontrollable curiosity for the mystery with which the Jews surrounded that place (Tacitus, Historiae, V, 9). Much more problematic is the linking of the "righteous," of whom there is frequent mention (2:36; 3:8; 4:1, 6, 8, etc.), with the ancient group of the Hasideans (v.) of the time of the Maccabean struggles (cf. 1 Macc. 2:42).
The Psalms of Solomon have come down to us only in the Greek text. Since they are found in biblical manuscripts, they have been published in the critical editions of the Bible. H. B. Swete (The Old Testament in Greek, III, 4th ed., Cambridge 1912, pp. 765-87) reproduces cod. 253, while A. Rahlfs (Septuaginta, II, Stuttgart 1935, pp. 471-89) reports the edition of O. Gebhard (Texte und Untersuchungen, 12, II), Leipzig 1895. A Syriac text was discovered by R. Harris, which contains the Psalms of Solomon together with the Odes of Solomon. He published it in collaboration with A. Mingana (The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, I. The text, Manchester 1916; II. The translation with introduction and notes, ibid. 1920). Scholars, however, agree that these are translations of a Hebrew or Aramaic text, composed after 63 by a Jerusalemite Jew.
Bibliography7 works
TESTAMENT OF PSALMS OF PSALMS OF S
An apocryphal writing, in which it is narrated how S., during the construction of the Temple, using a magic ring received from the archangel Gabriel, compelled the demon Ornias and other evil spirits to perform various works. It continues by describing the extraordinary power of this King against the occult forces; finally it is noted how he lost all superhuman power because of his love affairs with foreign women (cf. 1 Kings 11:1 ff.).
The parenetic purpose of the author is evident. The account is based on Jewish legends concerning the magical virtues of S., to which Flavius Josephus also alludes (Antiq. Iud., VIII, 47).
The author of the work is recognized as a Christian writer of the 3rd century, who probably made use of Jewish documents of the 1st century A.D. The writing has come down to us only in the original Greek text, already published in PG 122, 1315-58, of which C. C. McCown (The Testament of Solomon, Leipzig 1922) has given a critical edition.
Angelo Penna