Odes of Solomon

Pistis Sophia is a Gnostic text composed in Egypt, perhaps a translation from Greek with Syrian provenance.

After the discovery of portions of the Odes of Solomon in Pistis Sophia, scholars searched to find more complete copies.

In 1909, James Rendel Harris discovered a pile of forgotten leaves from a Syriac manuscript lying on a shelf in his study.

The Codex Nitriensis came from the Monastery of the Syrian in Wadi El Natrun, sixty miles west of Cairo.

Papyrus Bodmer XI appears to be a Greek scrap-book of Christian religious literature compiled in Egypt in the 3rd century.

Internal evidence suggests that this additional material is original to the Ode, and that the later Harris manuscript has omitted it.

Some have claimed that Ode 4 discusses the closing of the temple at Leontopolis in Egypt, which would date this writing about 73 AD.

[12] One of the strong arguments for an early date is the discovery of references to, and perhaps even quotations from, the Odes in the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch.

[15] The Odes have clear similarities to the Gospel of John, which suggests the writer was in the same community as where the book was written.

[7] There is wide agreement that the Odes are related to the Gospel of John and the Dead Sea scrolls, thus Charlesworth concludes that the writer was an Essene convert to the Johannine community.

[18][disputed – discuss] According to James H. Charlesworth, "the key characteristic in these hymns is a joyous tone of thanksgiving for the advent of the Messiah who had been promised (cf.

[21] It has been argued by some that the Odes support the doctrine of predestination; for example, they state, "And before they had existed, I recognized them; and imprinted a seal on their faces."

[24][7][25][26] According to the American New Testament scholar Thomas R. Schreiner, the soteriology of the Odes is highly grace oriented being underlined by a doctrine of election and he argued the writer saw salvation as a work of God which is not accomplished by human merit.

It is also plausible that Ignatius of Antioch who opposed docetism (or vice versa) referenced the Odes of Solomon in his writings.

[35] The Odes possibly contain the earliest non-biblical attestation of the virgin birth, depending on the date of writing.

[3] The book mentions the "Father, Son and the Holy Spirit"[3] and seem to have trinitarian theology without any indications of subordinationism unlike later Tertullian and Origen would have.

The statement could also be an allusion to the Exodus story, where Jewish women had very quick childbirth, which is why the Egyptian midwives could not come fast enough.

There are parallels in both style, and theology, between Odes and the writing of Ignatius of Antioch, as well as with the canonical Gospel of John.