Psalter of Solomon. Under this title is extant in a Greek translation a collection of eighteen psalms or hymns, evidently modelled on the canonical psalms, breathing Messianic hopes, and forming a favorable specimen of the later popular Jewish literature. It was first edited by De la Cerda, according to an Augs- burg manuscript, now no more extant, in his Adversaria Sacra (Lugd. 1626), and then again by Fabricius in his Codex Pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. (1722, 2d ed.), i, 914 sq. An English version is given by Whiston, A utht ntic Records (Lond. 1827), vol. i. Of late it has been edited by Hilgenfeld, who collated for this purpose a Vienna codex in his Zeitschrift (1868), p. 134-168, and in his Messias Judaorum, who was followed by Geiger and Fritzsche. Later transcribers have made Solomon the author of these psalms, but the psalms themselves are against this assumption; on the contrary, they are the best proof of their later origin. Some — as Ewald, Grimm, Oehler, Dillmann, Weiffenbach— assign these psalms to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (q. v.); others — as Movers, Delitzsch, and Keim— to the time of Herod ; but neither of these dates is correct. It is now generally held by critics like Langen, Hilgenfeld, Ndldeke, Haus- rath, Geiger, Fritzsche, Wittichen, that they originated soon after the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey, and this opinion is corroborated by the tenor of especially the 2d, 8th, and 17th psalms. Looking at the circum- stances of the time which is presupposed in these psalms, we find the following: A generation to which the rule over Israel had not been promised took pos- session of it by force (oie, ovk tTDjyytiXio uera jiiag a(p£t\ovro, xvii, 6). They did not give God the honor, but put on the royal crown and took possession of Da- vid's throne (xvii, 7, 8). In their time Israel sinned. The king was in transgression of the law (tv irapavo- fiia), the judge was not in truth (ou/c iv ukifiiui), and the people were in sin (/cai 6 XaoQ tv afiapriq, xvii, 21, 22). But God put these princes down by raising against them a foreign man who did not belong to the tribe of Israel (xvii, 8, 9). From the ends of the world God brought a strong man, who made war with Jerusalem and the country. The princes of the land, in their in- fatuation, met him with joy, and said, " You are wel- come ; come hither ; enter in peace." The doors were
PSALTER OF SOLOMON
V5S
PSALTERY
opened to him, and he entered like a father in the house J of his sons (viii, 15 20). Once in the city, tie also took
the castles and broke the walls of Jerusalem with the battering-rams (viii, 21 ; ii, 1 I. Jerusalem was trodden down by the heathen (ii, 20); even the altar ol God wa- ascended b\ foreign people (ii, 2). The most prom- inent men and sages of the council were killed, and the blood "i the inhabitants of Jerusalem was shed like the water ol impurity (viii, 23). The inhabitants of the country were carried away as captives into the West, and the princes for a derision t xvii. 13, 14; ii, 6; viii. 24). At last, the dragon who took Jerusalem was killed at the mountain of Egypt on the sea (ii, 29). It hardly needs any further explanation that all these events fully agree with the history of Pompey. The princes who arrogated to themselves the throne ol I »a- vid are the Asmonseans (q. v.), who, since the time of Aristobulus I. called themselves kings. The lasl princes of this house, Alexander Jannaius and Aristobulus II. favored the Sadducees, and in the eyes of the Pharisaic author they are sinners and unlawful. The "foreign and strong man" whom God brings from the ends of the earth is Pompey. The princes who meet him are Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II; the adherents of the latter admit Pompey into the city, and he soon takes the other part with lone (iv Kfiioi. ii, I), which was held by Aristo- bulus's party. All the other circumstances fully agree with what we know of Pompey 's campaign in Palestine; and the fact that the 2d psalm speaks of the manner in which Pompey died, in B.C. 1<S. fully proves the as- sumption that it was written soon alter this event, while the 8th and 17th psalms, as well as the greater part of the others, may have been written between f>:'> and 48. The spirit which runs through these psalms is that of Pharisaic Judaism. They breathe an earnest moral tone and true piety; but the righteousness which they preach, and the absence of which they deplore, is the one which can only he attained by keeping the Phar- isaic ordinances, the duccuoovvi) irpoarayfiarwv (xiv,
1 l. After death man is judged according to his works. He is at liberty to choose between righteousness or un- righteousness (comp. especially ix. 7). By doing the former he will rise to eternal life (Hi, 16); by doing the latter, eternal damnation is his destiny (xiii. 9 sip; xiv.
2 sq.; w i. Iii opposition to the unlawfully arrogated reign of the Asmonseans, which is already overthrown by Pompey, the author looks for the Messianic king of the house of David who will bring Israel to the prom- ised glory (xvii, 1,6, 23-51 ; xviii,6 10; comp.\ ii.'.": xi).