Psalms of Solomon

Historical printed page 625

SE eg THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON INTRODUCTION § 1. SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE BOOK. THE Psalms of Solomon are a collection of eighteen Psalms which were written, according to the theory (see below) now generally accepted, in the middle of the first century B.C. These Psalms passed with many other Jewish writings into Christian use, being classed some- times with the ‘apocrypha’, sometimes with the ‘antilegomena’;! but their influence on Christian literature was neither very extensive nor intense, and they had passed out of sight and almost out of memory when at the beginning of the seventeenth century they again received attention. The editio princeps was published in 1626 by John Louis de la Cerda. This edition was based, as subsequent investigation and discovery have proved,” on a faulty copy of one (H) of the eight now known Greek MSS. which contain, together with other canonical and apocryphal books, the Psalms of Solomon. Before proceeding to the question of the origin and character of these Psalms it will be convenient to consider the material available for determining the text. It may be regarded as practically certain (see below, § 4) that the Psalms were originally written in Hebrew: but this Hebrew original has perished and no testimony to it even survives. Till recently only Greek MSS. were known: nowa Syriac text of the Psalms is known: but the Syriac is not the Semitic original itself, nor a direct version of the original: it is a translation from the Greek. The hypothetical Hebrew original will be denominated ®, the Greek text &, and the Syriac 9, § 2. THE GREEK (&) MSS. The determination of the relation of the existing Greek MSS. to one another is due to Oscar von Gebhardt,’ on whose discussion the following account is based. ΑἹ] editions previous to von Gebhardt’s rest on inadequate textual material. The following is a list of the MSS. of &, with the symbols by which they are cited, the century in which they were written, and brief description : Symbol. Century. Description. C 12-13 Codex Casanatensis 1908 (Rome). Ps. 1. 1-, 26 and xvi. 8 to the end of the Psalter is missing or illegible. H (=K, Ryle and James) 10-11 Codex Havniensis 6: purchased at Venice in 1699, but since 1732 in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. J 14 Codex Iberiticus: in the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos. L 12 A Codex of the Laura Monastery on Mount Athos. M 12-13 Codex Mosquensis 147: in the Library of the Holy Synod at Moscow: formerly in the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos, whence it was removed to Moscow in 1653. P 15 (dated 1419) Codex Parisinus Gr. 2991 A: in the National Library, Paris. R 11-12 Codex (Romanus) Vaticanus Gr. 336: in the Vatican Library at Rome. Vv Ir Codex Vindobonensis Theol. Gr. 11 : now in the Royal Imperial Library in Vienna. The authority cited by Ryle and James (ψαλμοὶ Σολομῶντος, Psalms of the Pharisees, Cam- bridge, 1891) as A is the faulty seventeenth-century copy of H, which was used for the edztio princeps. 1 Swete, Introduction to the O.T. in Greek, p. 282; O. von Gebhardt (as cited below), pp. 14 ff. ? Von Gebhardt, pp. 1 ff. * O. von Gebhardt, Ψαλμοὶ Σολομῶντος : die Psalmen Salomo's zum ersten Male mit Benutzung der Athoshana- schriften u. des Codex Casanatensis herausgegeben, Leipzig, 1895. 1108.3 625 Ss