Testament of Solomon

The book is dedicated to what we could broadly define 'Solomonic magical objects' (ch. 2). This notion includes a series of items that are traditionally associated with the king of Israel, mostly through non-canonical sources: the ring, used to control demons (ch. 3), the bottles/containers in which he was said to constrain evil forces (ch. 4), the so-called Solomon's knot (ch. 5), a decorative/apotropaic device with a complex and multi-layered history, the shamir, mythical creature/object, known for its ability to cut through stone (ch. 6), and the flying carpet (ch. 7). Each chapter is conceived as a separate and independent piece, which can be appreciated per se; however, taken together, they create a consistent body of research, illuminating different aspects of the Solomonic tradition in a cross-cultural perspective (through Christian, Jewish and Muslim sources) and along a chronological arch which stretches approximately from Late Antiquity well into modern times, in some cases. The book can in fact be read both as a study on the reception of the figure of Solomon, but also, seen from a different angle, as a research on the impact of certain objects and of their inherent aesthetic, morphological or technical qualities. In this sense, the different chapters can be considered as case studies, illuminating the way in which 'magic' manifests itself at a material level, either being embedded in the very medium of the object, in its function, in its main recognized property, in its shape, etc.

The story of King Solomon's conjuring and overcoming a list of 36 demons of the world, using magic words to make them retreat.
Written soon after the failed revolution of the Maccabees, after 3rd Enoch & the Letter to Philocrates.
Related to Jannes and Jambres' book of Moses and the Magicians.

Perseus's decapitation of the Gorgon Medusa is suggested as a possible inspiration for the gruesome figurative drawings in PGM XXXVI. The same drawings prefigure an iconographic template later identified with Mars in the talismanic image magic of medieval and Renaissance Europe – one whose magical reputation persisted until very recently.

According to the transliterations of the ancient literary corpus of the Near Eastern and Western Civilizations, evil has been extant since the beginning of time: it arguably reared its head in the first book of the Old Testament (Gen. 3.1, 4.8, 6.1-4); Mesopotamian literature,  antedating the Pentateuch by at least several centuries, describes wars, the wraths of the gods, and a tyrannical king; and, originating millennia earlier, Sumerian poems  depict spiritual anguish in the afterworld and tribal warfare. The primary focus in this essay will be on “The most significant biblical passage for the ‘fallen angels’ tradition . . . the notoriously difficult Gen. 6:1-4” (Stuckenbruck 355). I will examine, of course, the passage itself, the terminology used therein, and the various translations. Furthermore, I will attempt to explicate theories on the origin of evil and provide the verses that were utilized to support these theories. The views of select philosophers and theologians on the implications of the Mesopotamian and apocryphal texts in the testaments will be explored. Finally, Judaic and Christian mindsets will be considered to discern the differing views on the etiology of evil (angels, demons, Nephilim, giants), their interpretations of canonical and apocryphal documents, and the basis of their theological tenets.

“The influence of 1 Enoch on the New Testament,” writes the celebrated pseudepigrapha scholar R. H. Charles, “has been greater than that of all the other apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books taken together.” If the number of publications comparing Enochic and biblical literature is an adequate litmus test, then Charles’s claim has been substantiated with respect to the New Testament at large and the Synoptic Gospels in particular. The flurry of studies reading the New Testament in tandem with 1 Enoch continues unabated. As a result, more attention has recently been given to how 1 Enoch 1–36, known as the Book of the Watchers, influences readings of demonological pericopes in the Synoptic Gospels. It is becoming increasingly evident that the demonological framework presented in the Book of the Watchers influences the perspective that the synoptic authors work from. Without knowledge of the former we cannot fully comprehend the latter.

In this paper I take this claim as axiomatic for Mark 1:21–27. I argue that the tradition about the watchers and their offspring stands behind the account of the man with an unclean spirit in the Capernaum synagogue. I further contend that Mark has constructed this account as an intercalation that becomes intelligible once the framework from the watchers tradition is registered. The central portion of the “sandwich,” Mark 1:23–26, presents the content of Jesus’s teaching mentioned in the outer frames, Mark 1:21–22 and Mark 1:27. Contrary to several recent interpretations, I argue that Jesus’s teaching in the synagogue and his exorcistic activity are one and the same. Jesus’s pedagogy is “not like the scribes,” insofar as he does not act as a “text broker” in the synagogue, mediating written traditions to the illiterate masses. Nor is his authority over unclean spirits dependent on the technology of writing, as is the case with the apocalyptic intermediary Enoch, whose prestige is rooted in his scribal attainments. Rather, according to Mark 1:21–27 Jesus is qualified to teach and exorcise demons in synagogues because he mediates directly between the deity and the spirit world.

Many Byzantine folk-exorcisms take the form of historiolae, i.e. short stories about the victorious confrontation
of a saint or an angel with the devil, providing both the mythical foundation and the guarantee of effectiveness of
the actual exorcism, often intended to free the “patient”, as well as from the demon, from the diseases caused by
it. Sometimes, the historiola ends with a prayer by the holy protagonist, asking and obtaining from God the
grant of special blessings for those who will copy the text of the story or will read it aloud, in this way
“performing” it. In the case of the so-called “exorcisms of Gello”, some manuscripts have retained the names of
the people who had copied the text, or of their family members, literally introduced into the story and into the
characters’ dialogues. The most remarkable case, however, is that of a 15th century manuscript of the Testament
of Solomon, where an unknown exorcist added his instructions on how to treat the possessed while reading
aloud the text. The celebrant repeated on the unfortunate “patient” the same, often violent, actions that Solomon
practiced against disease-inducing demons, beating, binding and abusing him in different ways: this provided a
kind of performative shock-therapy focused on the re-enactment of the text.

The goal of this paper is to illustrate in a comparative perspective the most notable late antique and medieval traditions regarding the signet ring of King Solomon. The analysis will be conducted by focusing particularly on the constituting material of the ring, and on its possible symbolic relevance, while also exploring the main functions and powers attributed to the object.

Cet article vise à analyser d’une façon comparative les traditions les plus remarquables quant à l’anneau ou sceau (khotam, khâtim) de Salomon, de l’Antiquité tardive à la fin du Moyen Âge. Je me suis concentrée sur son matériau constitutif et sur sa pertinence symbolique. J’ai exploré également les fonctions et les pouvoirs attribués à l’objet, dans le but de distinguer les caractéristiques originelles qui lui furent attribuées et les développements plus tardifs. J’ai commencé par l’analyse de descriptions célèbres faites par des pèlerins chrétiens qui visitèrent Jérusalem au IVème siècle, en les comparant avec d’autres récits pertinents de la tradition islamique (hâdîth, tafsîr coraniques et les Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyâ’ de al-Kisâ’î) et en concluant mon enquête avec quelques incursions dans le milieu juif. Malgré les changements qui se sont produits à travers les siècles et qui ont transformé l’anneau – à l’origine un dispositif d’exorcisme – en une sorte d’outil pour la traduction universelle, et en dépit des particularités propres à chaque tradition religieuse, toutes les sources prises en compte montrent une sorte de continuité souterraine. Cette continuité tire son origine du pouvoir intrinsèque attribué à certains métaux, tels que l’ḥashmal, l’électrum et le nuhâs.

This study examines how the sexualization of the demonic in the Testament of Solomon echoes several features and traits of Egyptian monasticism and tentatively explores what such similarities may (or may not) tell us about the provenance of the Testament. This study also offers a synopsis of the relationship between sexual temptation and the demonic in early Jewish and Christian literature.

For a copy, feel free to send me a message or email ([email protected])

‘The Archer and the Cross: Chorographic Astrology and Literary Design in the Testament of Solomon’, pp. 219-44 in T. Klutz (ed.), Magic in the Biblical World: From the Rod of Aaron to the Ring of Solomon, JSNTSup 245. London: T & T Clark International, 2003.

RESUMEN La versión árabe del Testamento de Salomón incluye un texto sobre una ordalía de remi-niscencias bíblicas en la que el monarca debe finalmente impartir justicia ante la acusación de fornicio contra una joven. Se trata de un texto interesante en la tradición árabe cristiana, no tanto por la rareza del mismo, sino sobre todo por la dimensión y características narrati-vas del relato, cuya fuente es Nm 5,11-31, con referencias a Lc 10,38-42, o en su defecto a Jn 12,2. PALABRAS CLAVE: Testamento de Salomón, ordalía, cristianismo, apócrifo, tradición árabe cristiana. AN ORDEAL ATTRIBUTED TO KING SOLOMON IN A CHRISTIAN ARABIC APOCRYPHON ABSTRACT The Arabic version of the Testament of Solomon includes a text about an ordeal of biblical reminiscences in which the monarch must finally impart justice as a consequence of the accusation of fornication against a young woman. This is an interesting text in the Christian Arabic tradition, not so much for the rarity of it, but above all for the dimension and narrative characteristics of the story, whose source is Nm 5:11-31, with references to Lk 10,38-42 or Jn 12:2.

Taking the cue from a recent Italian translation of the Testament of Solo­mon (Roma 2013), several loci vexati and exegetical difficulties of the Testament itself are discussed, along with a short sketch of recent advancements in evaluating direct and indirect tradition of the text.