Odes of Solomon

Harris1911 source page 137

THE ODES OF SOLOMON 93 The proofs of these pre-existent creations can easily be made from the Scriptures : e.g. ' the Lord God had planted a garden in Eden frotn afore-time^ (Gen. ii. 8)\ and so on. The matter is discussed with some detail in Firqe Aboth vi. 10 ' Five possessions possessed the Holy One, blessed is He, in His world : and these are they : Thorah, one possession ; Heaven and Earth, one possession ; Abraham, one posses- sion : Israel, one possession ; the Sanctuary^ one possession : ...The Sanchiary: whence [is it proved]? Because it is written, The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established (Exod. xv. 17) : and it saith, And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had possessed (Ps. Ixxviii. 54).' This Rabbinical belief has affected the mind of our Psalmist, who comments upon the fall of the Egyptian temple unsympathetically, and evidently has his heart set amongst the ruins of the Sanctuary at Jerusalem. He does not think the covenant between God and the people of Israel is disannulled ; all God's promises are irrevocable ; His gifts and callings are without repentance on His part. But there are no lamentations on the part of the writer over the ruins of Jerusalem ; the temple which is in his thoughts has not developed a wailing-place. God has sealed His own people with the marks of His ownership. All creation, and both worlds, recognise this seal. And He is able to pour out blessings on His chosen, comparable to the dew of heaven, and the milk and honey 01 the earth. If we please, we may definitely call it a Judaeo-Christian Psalm : and it might very well have been composed by one of the refugees at Pella. It is not easy to see how it could have been written outside Palestine, nor by a purely Jewish hand. There are no Scripture references ; perhaps the nearest parallels are Rom. xi. 29 ('the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,' aiieTafxik-qja), and the adaptation of Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 in z;. 6, where again the temple is in the mind of the writer. The thought that God does not need us, but we need God, is a common religious expression in this period, and is found constantly m Greek literature. We may compare the Apology of Aristides, c. i, and Irenaeus (ed. Mass. 244) ' ipse quidem nullius indigens : his vero qui indigent eius, suam praebens communionem,' which is very near indeed to the language of our Ode, and may almost be taken as a quotation. The opposite sentiment can be illustrated from Schiller : ' Freudlos war der grosse Weltenmeister, Fiihlte Mangel, darum schuf er Geister, Sel'ge Spiegel seiner Seligkeit.' Clement of Rome, £/. i. ad Cor., c. 52, takes an intermediate position: 'The Lord needs nothing... except our praise.' ^ So Jerome: a principio.