We have already quoted the sentence of Ode iv. which declares that the sanctuarj^ of God can- not be changed. If this sentence is to be taken literallj-, it may perhaps suggest by its vividness tiiat the author wrote at a time not far removed from the destruction of the Temple.
We have elsewhere (in our study referred to above) pointed to two incidents which would perhaps require a date earlier than the end of the 2nd century. There are, we have said, nine semi-
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ODES OF SOLOMON
OFFENCE
quotations from the cammical Psalter, whose word- ing ilillers from that useil in the Giles. Theauthor, or, in tlie case of a tlreek orij,'inal, the translator, ought reasonably to have employed the same words as those found in a previous sacred book known, read, and generally leaint by heart by every Eastern Christian. If this argument may claim a certain i>lausibility, it can also be used in favour of an Ar.imaic original of the Odes. We cannot, inileed, discover anj' good reason why this Syrian writer or translator did not employ the words used in the OT I'cshitta, if he knew them, and we cannot reasoinfljly suppose that he did not know them if he was writing long after the end of the ■2nd century.
We have also noticed that the Johannine con- cept of the ' word ' is rendered five times by the term peh/hdnia, which means 'word' in conrreto, instead of mellthn, which is used in all the SyriS'" versions of the NT, and which means ' word ' in ahsirncto. A good acquaintance on the part of the Odist with Johannine Syriae writings would have prevented his using frequently such an inadequate word.
Mrs. M. D. Gibson has called our attention (Athcnwum, April, 1914, p. 530) to the fact that several Church historians, notably Theodore of Mopsuestia, report that in the Apostolic Age there were people who wrote ' Odes ' and ' Psalms ' like the ' blessed David.'
Some supporters of the hypothesis of the later date (t.e. A.D. 210) would attribute the whole col- lection of the Odes to the famous Bardesanes of Edessa (154-222), who played so important a r61e in the history of the Church. The grounds of this hypothesis may be summarized as follows. On the one hand, it is historically establislied that Bardesanes wrote 150 psalms in imitation of those contained in the canonical Psalter ; on the other hand, the presence of these odes in the Pistis Sophia would suggest that their author was, at least in the mind of the Gnostic writer of this last book, imbued with Gnostic ideas, otherwise he would not have had sufficient reason to quote them ; and, since Bardesanes is represented by some Fathers of the Church as inclining towards Gnosticism, he might very easily have been their first writer. The existence of a Greek savour in the style of the Odes would easily be explained by the good Hellenic culture that this Mesopotamian writer had received.
There are some linguistic features which tend to corroborate Bardesanes' authorship. The expres- sion which means ' without grudging,' very .seldom used by other Aramsean writers but found twice in the Book of ike Laws of Countries, would lend a certain amount of plausibility to this hypothesis ; and the frequent occurrence in the Odes of the Semitic phenomenon of a noun of action or a minimed infinitive placed immediately before or after its respective verb, is also a favourite stylistic method of the semi-Gnostic Christian writer, whose orthodoxy is very doubtful.
Finally, if, as Bernard remarks (op. cit. p. 42), the allusions which abound in the Odes are always to beliefs and practices current in the East, and if they have little atiinity with Western doctrine or Western ceremonial, their attribution to an Eastern writer would indeed account for many difficulties otherwise insoluble. So the present writer has tried elsewhere (op. cit. supra) to show that the puzzling Ode xxiii., which deals with a mysterious letter descending from heaven, contains in its phraseology a clear reference to the mystery of the Incarnation, which, according to the ecclesi- astical books of the Syrian Church, was accom- plished by means of a letter confided to the archangel Gabriel.
6. Their Christian doctrine and orthodoxy.—
The doctrine ol the Trinity is clearly expressed in the Odes. Ode xix. 2 : ' The Sou is the cup, and He who was milked is the Father: ami the Holy Spirit milked Ilim ' (see al.^o Ode xxiii. 20).
The belief in God the Father as Creator is also emphasized. Odeiv. 14: ' Thou, O God, hast made all tilings'; vii. 28: ' He hiith given a mouth to His creation'; ix. 4: 'Be enriched in God the Father.'
The Odist's doctrine of the Son is as follows, xli. 14, '29 : ' The Son of the Most High appeared in the ])erfection of His Father ; and light <l:iwned from tlie Word that w;is beforetime in Him ; the Christ is truly one ; and He was known before the foundation of tlie world.' He is 'the Lord Messiah ' (xvii. 14), 'our Lord Christ' (xxxix. 10), 'the Lord's Christ' (xxix. 6). 'We live in the Lord' (xli. 3). He was born of a virgin (xix. 6). ' He became like rae, in order that I might receive Him ' (vii. 5). The Crucihxion is perhajis alluded to in xlii. 3 : ' The outspread wood which was set up on the way of the Righteous One ' (see also xxvii. 3). The gall and vinegar of the Passion are mentioned in xlii. 17 : ' I was gall and bitterness to him.' The purpose of the humiliation of the Son was' that I might redeem my people' (xxxi. 11).