Odes of Solomon

Harris1911 source page 134

ODE I. {Pistis Sop It in ii6.) ^The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall not be without Him'. ^They wove for me a crown of truth, and it caused thy branches to bud in me. ^por it is not like a withered crown which buddeth not : but thou livest upon my head, and thou hast blossomed upon my head. *Thy fruits are full-grown and perfect, they are full of thy salvation. OoK I. This Ode is not in our Syriac text, but in the Coptic version of the Pistis Sop/iia, where it is said to be the 19th Ode. I have identified it with the missing first Ode of our collection, on the supposition that in the collection of Solomonic Psalms known to the author of the Pistis S(>p/iia, the eighteen Psalms of Solomon stood first, and not, as in the Syriac collection, in the last place. The question is discussed, more at length, under Ode 5. The argument of the Psalm is that God is the crown of the soul, whose supreme experience is the knowledge of His truth. This crown is of the amarant variety; it fadeth not away. On the contrary, it buds and blossoms and is full of immortal fruit. The similitude is not uncommon in the book of Odes to which we have placed this Psalm as an introduction. [Diettrich and Bernard think the reference is to a crown put on the head of newly-baptized persons'. We may also compare the crown offered to the worshipper of Miihra on iiis admission to the rank of miles. He sets it aside declaring Mithra to be his only crown ^] ODE 2. {Dcest.) ODE 3. {Priora dcsitut) I put on : 2^\,icl his members are with him. And on them do I hang, and He loves me: ^for I should not have known how to love the Lord, if He had not loved me. ^For who is able to distinguish love, except the one that is loved? ^ I love the Beloved, and my soul loves Him : ^and where His rest is, thcrcalsoam I ; ^and 1 shall be no stranger, for with the Lord Most High and Merciful there is no grudging. ^1 have been united ' Or it. •' Hcmard -.J.T.S for Oct. lyio, \>. 7. DicUrich : Die Reformation for May 1910, p. 307 n. ^ CumoiU: Afottuntcnts, i. 318.