First of all, in bGittin 68a Solomon is said to have required male and female demons to inform him of the whereabouts of a worm which could cut through the sharpest stone, and which he required to help him in the building of the Temple. The partial parallel in the Testament is the tradition of Solomon employing demons in the construction of the Temple. Again, bGittin has male and female demons presented to Solomon tied together.
This echoes the Testament, in which demons are brought bound before Solomon for interrogation e. TSol 5. TSol What we seem to have are two very different manifestations of the same basic tradition, which must then be dated much earlier than either Bavli or the Testament.
Both manifestations of the tradition seem, therefore to have co-existed in about the sixth century in some form : the core of the tradition must therefore go back to between the final redaction of Tobit on which the Testament is also drawing and approximately the fourth or fifth centuries. These texts may be dated to the early medieval period. It is first of all interesting to note that Joseph is linked with magic in three of the texts cited by L.
Schiffman and M. There seems to be a trend in these texts of linking ideal biblical figures with magical powers. The first significant text mentioning Solomon is TS K1. A tradition appears in this text which refers to seven spirits about whom Ashmedai taught Solomon, who enter the wombs of women and deform their offspring. Seven spirits appear in the Testament, in ch. However, a similar role is attributed to the demon Phonos in TSol 9. As with the Bavli traditions, it may well be that we have different manifestations of similar demonological traditions in the Testament and in the Cairo text.
The name of Solomon occurs in an incantation in TS K1. However, in this case the context is too fragmentary for a great deal to be said. Schiffman and Swartz, it should be noted, make a number of important general points concerning the Cairo texts. Angels and demons are presented as affecting natural events and the lives of men and women by their actions.
Demons have specific roles, some, such as the seven spirits mentioned above, enter the wombs of women; others cause disease. Angels can ward of demons, again as in the Testament, in which each demon has a thwarting angel.
The names of angels are required in order for power to be exerted over them. The name of God has the power to compel angels: this is not explicit in the extant MSS of the Testament, but is rather more closely paralleled by, for example, the Hellenistic Magical Papyri.
There are clearly interesting aspects to our study to be found in the Cairo texts. However, the similarities between the Cairo texts, the Hellenistic Magical Papyri, and recension C of the Testament demonstrate the chief methodological problem faced in attempting to deal with the question of the date of the Testament: many ideas surface in the Testament which also surface in various geographical locations over a period of approximately a millennium.
We must conclude that texts such as the Cairo incantations and the Hellenistic Magical Papyri are of very limited use in attempting to date the Testament itself as a literary text. There is one early Christian text of about the fifth century which may be of greater significance.
This text, to which we have not as yet had direct access, is the first long fragment of the Syriac narrative called by W. In this fragment, St Paul relates a story about Solomon, who had been told by a demon that a certain young man would die. This presumably relates to the story of Ornias in TSol It is possible that this story was developed from that found in the Obsequies and included amongst the demonological lore of the Testament. However, it is also possible that both the Testament and the Obsequies draw on a common tradition, in which case it would only be possible to date this Ornias tradition prior to the fifth century.
Perhaps the notion that both texts are dependent upon a common written or oral tradition is the most likely. Thus whilst the Obsequies of the Holy Virgin are potentially very significant for dating the Testament, there are a number of methodological difficulties to be taken into consideration. The subjugation to Solomon of the wind echoes the traditions in the Testament concerning the demons Lix Tetrax TSol 7.
It would be interesting also to study the ideology of the Testament in light of the following statement in sura Over them we kept a watchful eye. Again, the traditions of demons subjugated to Solomon who were involved in building work and who were bound with chains is found in sura However, it seems that the traditions which the Testament has in common with other texts were in existence before the seventh century.
Various traditions found in the Testament are attested in many different documents, each with a different provenance, over a very long period of time. Thus when the relevant material is taken into account, and when the various extant MSS and papyri have been considered, a sixth century date for the Ur-Text of the Testament would seem to make good sense.
However, to say that such a date makes sense is not to say that the Testament of Solomon was written in any form in the sixth century. This does seem to be the most likely date, but our evidence is ambiguous enough to preclude any possibility of certainty.
We are hindered by the fact that the evidence of which we must take account in attempting to date the Testament is not extensive, and is made up of texts which are wildly different in date, authorship, provenance, and possibly ideology.
We are also hindered by the lack of allusions within the Testament to contemporary events, and by the extremely complex textual and redactional histories of the Testament. We are able to deal only with possibilities. In the foregoing study many different aspects of the process of dating the Testament have been considered.
The results of previous research on this issue have proved to be unsatisfactory, largely on account of a failure amongst scholars to take serious account of the textual and redactional problems presented by the Testament, and a failure to recognise the limits and ambiguities of apparent external references to the Testament or material which it contains.
There has also been a general failure to recognise the problem with exactly what text it is that is to be dated. To say that we are trying to date the Testament of Solomon merely begs the question: what exactly is the Testament of Solomon to which reference is being made? The aim of the present paper has been to clear the ground for beginning the process of dating the Testament, and also to initiate the dating process itself, without coming to dogmatic conclusions about the date of the Testament.
It is worth here outlining how future work on this issue, and other issues relating to the study of the Testament, might take shape. Only when such work as the above is undertaken will it be possible to piece together the complex history and ideology of the Testament of Solomon. Alexander, P. Vermes, F. Millar, M. Goodman vol. Betz, H. Duling, D. Epstein, I. Ginzberg, L. James, M. Mc Cown, C. Robinson, J. Brill, Schiffman, L. He said to him: "Hither! Solomon calls thee.
And when I saw the prince of demons, I glorified the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, and I said: "Blessed art thou, Lord God Almighty, who hast given to Solomon thy servant wisdom, the assessor of the wise, and hast subjected unto me all the power of he devil. And I questioned him, and said: "Who art thou? And all [19] the demons have their chief seats close to me.
And I it is who make manifest the apparition of each demon. And I again glorified the God of heaven and earth, as I do always give thanks to him. I then asked of the demon if there were females among them.
And when he told me that there were, I said that I desired to see them. So Beelzeboul went off at high speed, and brought unto me Onoskelis, that had a very pretty shape, and the skin of a fair-hued woman; and she tossed her head And when she was come, I said to her: "Tell me who art thou? There is a golden cave where I lie. But I have a place that ever shifts At one time I strangle men with a noose; at another, I creep up from the nature to the arms [in marg: "worms"] But my most frequent dwelling-places are the precipices, caves, ravines.
Oftentimes, however, do I consort with men in the semblance of a woman, and above all with those of a dark skin For they share my star with me; since they it is who privily or openly worship my star, without knowing that they harm themselves, and but whet my appetite for further mischief. For they wish to provide money by means of memory commemoration? I am a spirit which has been made into a body. And I Solomon questioned her about her birth, and she replied: "I was born of a voice untimely, the so-called echo of a man's ordure 20 dropped in a wood.
For the demon born of an echo we have an analogue in the Hebrew Bath Kol, "the daughter of a voice. And I said to her: "Under what star dost thou pass?
But she cried aloud, and said: "I am [subjected] to thee, O king, by the wisdom of God given to thee, and by the angel Joel. So I commanded her to spin the hemp for the ropes used in the building of the house of God; and accordingly, when I had sealed and bound her, she was so overcome and brought to naught as to stand night and day spinning the hemp.
And I at once bade another demon to be led unto me; and instantly there approached me the demon Asmodeus 23 , bound, and I asked him: "Who art thou? Wherefore also my star is bright in heaven, and men call it, some the Wain 25 , and some the dragon's child. I keep near unto this star. So ask me not many things; for thy kingdom also after a little time is to be disrupted, and thy glory is but for a season.
And short will be thy tyranny over us; and then we shall again have free range over mankind, so as that they shall revere us as if we were gods, not knowing, men that they are, the names of the angels set over us. And I Solomon, on hearing this, bound him more carefully, and ordered him to be flogged with thongs of ox-hide 26 , and to tell me humbly what was his name and what his business.
And he answered me thus: "I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts. And I said to him: "Is this thy only business? But the liver and gall of a fish put me to flight, when smoked over ashes of the tamarisk Tell me the name of the fish which thou reverest.
Compare Tobit , where Raphael instructs him in the use of the gall, heart, and liver for various cures. And I said to him: "Hast thou nothing else about thee, Asmodeus? I pray thee, King Solomon, condemn me not to [go into] water. But thou shalt also make the clay for the entire construction of the Temple, treading it down with thy feet. And the demon groaned terribly, and did the work I ordered him to do.
And this I did, because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future. And I Solomon glorified God, who gave wisdom to me Solomon his servant.
And the liver of the fish and its gall I hung on the spike of a reed 30 , and burned it over Asmodeus because of his being so strong, and his unbearable malice was thus frustrated. And I summoned again to stand before me Beelzeboul, the prince of demons, and I sat him down on a raised seat of honour, and said to him: "Why art thou alone, prince of the demons?
For I was first angel in the first heaven being entitled Beelzeboul. And now I control all those who are bound in Tartarus. But I too have a child 33 , and he haunts the Red Sea. And on any suitable occasion he comes up to me again, being subject to me; and reveals to me what he has done, and I support him. I Solomon said unto him: "Beelzeboul, what is thy employment? And my own demons I set on 36 to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost.
And the chosen servants of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and [desire for] murder, and for wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world. D reads simply "I bring about jealousies and murders in a country, and I instigate wars.
So I said to him: "Bring to me thy child, who is, as thou sayest, in the Red Sea. But there shall come to me another demon called Ephippas Him will I bind, and he will bring him up from the deep unto me. However, he will come to thee by any command, and will tell thee openly. I said to him: "Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated. The text must be faulty, for the word Emmanuel is the Hebrew. The sum is got by adding together the Greek numbers.
The book is really a catalog of afflictions — one may have looked up their particular suffering and they would find a remedy, or at least an angel to invoke who may have a remedy. First, the demon is forced to give a description of its origin and zodiac information along with the malady it causes.
Then the method of expulsion is given. Solomon then commands the demon to participate in the building of the temple in some supernatural way cutting stones, moving pillars, etc.
The book is a valuable source for the understanding of magic and demons, although it is very difficult to know how much of this material goes back to the first century. Certainly there are several elements in the book which are parallel to the New Testament, especially in the use of so-called power words and incantations.
Jesus does not use anything like Solomon does in this text, nor do the apostles when they cast out demons in the name of Jesus.
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