9 - Odes of Solomon 7, 19, 41, and 42

Summary

The Odes of Solomon consist of forty-two short poems. Their provenance, date, and original language are all disputed. At least some of the Odes must have been written before the third century since Ode 11 is found in Greek in Papyrus Bodmer XI, which is datable to the third century, and since Lactantius (ca. 240–ca. 320) includes a quotation of Ode 19 in Latin translation in his Divinarum Institutionum (IV.xii.3). Parts of five odes (1.1–5, 5.1–11, 6.8–18, 22.1–12, and 25.1–12) are also found in Coptic translation in the Pistis Sophia, which is preserved in a single Coptic manuscript, probably from the fourth or fifth century, though scholars think the Pistis Sophia itself goes back to the third or fourth century. The Syriac tradition preserves the most complete witness to the Odes of Solomon, albeit in later manuscripts: Odes 17–42 are extant in a Syriac manuscript datable to the tenth century, and Odes 3–42 in a Syriac manuscript datable to the fifteenth to seventeenth century.