Odes of Solomon

Harris1911 source page 142

98 THE ODES OF SOLOMON recalls a sentence in i Cor., where the writer says that God is zealous ' that those things should be known, which have been given us by His grace': this is very like i Cor. ii. 12, 'that we may know the things that have been freely given us of Cod.' Whether the coincidence should be pressed will depend to some extent upon the existence of further and similar echoes of New Testament s[)eech. Near the close of the Psalm the Creek word Tra^/arjo-ia occurs in the Coptic; but the Syriac 'coming' suggests irapovala. Happrjaia, as the Pis/is Sophia shows, is one of the words which the Coptic transliterates : so we must retain it, or else find a Greek word which may be misread either as 7rapp>;crt'a or irapova-ia. We have suggested that TrapdX.vai<: is the right word. This is confirmed by the preceding clause, ' Members that had fallen they straightened and set up.' Here the Coptic has erexere for the two Syriac words which we render by ' straightened and set up.' The Syriac has been translating a compound verb by two simple verbs ; and the original was evidently diuj/j^ujaar. W'c may now compare Is. xxxv. 3 and Heb. xii. 1 2 ; especially note to. iza.pa.\(.\vpiva. yoVara wopQuifTaif.. We now see the meaning of the words which follow, 'they gave strength to their paralysis'; it is a reflexion from layvcra-Tf., yoiaru iTapaXf.\vp.kva.. The correctness of the reference to Isaiah may be further seen from the following words ' and light to their eyes,' which are a reflexion from 'then shall the eyes of the blind be opened." It is clear then that the writer is working from Isaiah and not from Hel)rews : and in that case the airoppoia of which the Pistis Sophia makes so much is the stream of water which, in the prophecy, makes glad the wilderness and tiie solitary place. We can now explain the variation between the Syriac and Coptic in v. 10. The 'dry sand' is the (pr]fjio<; Sn/zojcra of Is. xxxv. i, and the Syriac should be 'all upon the thirsty land drank of it.' [The Ode is translated into English i)y Barnes in JZxposi/or (July 1910). He suggests that we read 'wind " tor ' hand ' in 7: i as if the harp were an Aeolian harp ! Perhaps ' hand ' is wrong, as there is the trace of a connecting line before the actually visible Olaph. If it is not 'hand,' I suspect it is 'plectrum.'] OUE 7. ^As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the impulse of joy over what is lovely, and brings in of its fruits without re- straint : ^my joy is the Lord and ni\- impulse is toward Ilim': this path of mine is excellent-: ^fov 1 have a helper, the Lord^ *IIe hath caused me to know lliniseif, without grudging, by His ' ///. my runniiif; : cf. Cant. i. ,^. * So Schulthess. ' U.-L. remove r^T^yA t" the end of previous vcrbc.