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Dr. J. Rehdel Harris,
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Apbctyphal Poet
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T7 HJS literature of the world has been
:i ' enriched.' by more than twoscore
. . . hymns .from .the jame pens that
made..King Solomon the' most famous of
all sonr writers..
-For centuries lost to human ken, buried v
in ittdeciphered Syriacupon, the fragment '
of a manuscript that formed part of a coU
lection unread and even unseen on the
banks of the Tigris, these forty-two ; new
odes of the great King Solomon were re-t
; trievcd by thesy distinguished . English
' scholar, J.RendelH arris. 1
Long and patient study of those price
less pages followed always in secret,
always with the scholar's jealous trembling
les some one, some prof ound student with
attainments similar to his own,' shquld sur :
Crise his knowledge in some chance remark
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ar r;o inkling. . '
It mattered: not that to him,' as - to '
' other1 men of learning, the songs of Solo '
mow civr but. the empty vaunt of other
7''"unkriown't'gifted singers whose ' names art r. : "
forever lost under : the grandeur of the';
J-"mighty name to which they attributed their
Poem; '...-'.. V' :
, , Forjwenty centimes and more mankind
has accepted, the wonderfully beautiful, the
passionately exalted strophes that glowMe
fiery gems -amid' the often .dull chronicles
VHE circumstance that. King Solomon, did
mot write any of the poems attnbuted to .
, himt in no way lessens t the, beauty of
the verses for the ordinary reader, or
detracts from their importance as contributions
:to the literature of the world and as indices to
the character of the Jewish people.
Indeed, the very fact that all the songa and .
,odes and psalnia of . Solomon are now assumed
to have been the production of, a variety' of
poets,', who sought -for. their verses '.deathless
.fame by ascribing-the authorship to the divinely
favored genius of centuries that were distant
even when the Christian era began, is considered
now of the utmost importance -. to ' one , of the
most vexed t and- vital of historical 'queetidns
4heraWhgraete-oi-4lM-Jawi6lwiligion. . .. I'm
, Previously, it. was almost' a tenet of 'faith
with historians and critics, that the books of the
Old Testament were inflexible and infallible in":
their portrayal of - the 'Jewish religion as -one
PORTLAND,
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of the Old Testament as the veritable com
positions of that inspired Solomon who
reared - tn . witintitto . I tmftle fnuitd
room tn capacious heart for the love of .
a thousand helpmeets. .
- Modern criticism , grown so old that it '
might be classed as ancient lore, had
'stripped that puissant king' of 'his' giant's
robe of poesy and had apportioned it among
a whole, school of lingers more numerous, '
perhaps,' than the cities that gave birth tu
Homer. '-Yet criticism must perforce con-
tinue to attach Solomon's name to all poems
that have once gained glory from the honor
of his authorship;
of the sternest, most merciles8 justice, to the
point of cruelty. . n s- ;
But these new odea have given ' renewed
strength to the arguments of later critics'that
adduce proof upon proof to show' that Chris
tianity itself, derived much of - its pitifulness, .
its exemplary gentleness,-from f i- very religion
it rejected. - The creat Wrnnn "eVinla n
.Adolf llarnaclc. has discerned in th 4.lin
and sentiment stranarelv akih to rimlW
iuwer; vj, AprtBion-ana xne proiound lepth ot
emotion which characterized, the Fourth Gospel
' of bt.jJohn. ; ' :
.' And so, although apparently sealed with the
. great 6eal of Solomon, this important discovery,
xnai comes 10 us. irom
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xngnsn scnoiar, swituy takes on a value that
elevates it 'far above the level of mere apos
trophes in ' piety. In fact, it bids fair to
"Iea,d the way, after ages of injustice," to'the true
, ' ' '
OREGON, SUNDAV MORNING, OCTOBER 16 1910
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appraisement of the genius and the nature of
a race, r-
. Doctor Harris, when he had translated
forty-two of the odes from the Srriac, gave his
discovery to the world in a book, which had its
title " influenced by the 1 ineradicable . popular
acceDtance of Kinsr Solomoii'a-authorsluD of all
th noems that-have htcn attributed to him.
HThe Udes ana rsaims ot oolomon" was tne
title, although, to the higher criticism, the name
of Solomon in this connection 'represents only
, the desigbatioa of .a school or calf of ancient
literatute that flourished under . his reputation.,
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documentary evidence of 'some; sort, have of late
learned' to1 treat, with more i reaoect the fables'
and -tales that have been handed -down' from1
father to son, even' though' hundreds of genera-
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. . .. ,. .! .. . .-.
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tions have . passed, since the events could have
occurred, it may be, men, tnui aiuuursQip
of Solomon, which criticism now so haughtily
rejects as belonging to these inspired poems,
shall in the future prove to have something
more substantial to indorse it than the uni-,
versal, popular. report and belief which prevailed
in the days when Jerusalem was approaching
its downfall. As it is, even the higher criticism
is prepared to admit that the new odes are as
authentically the work of King Solomon as were
those that have been admired in the pages of the
Old Testament,
Hence, to' those ' who '. still cherish the
kaownr and loved throughout their pious lives,
IH. OCVMj I W Z U X I VII 111 I - V wmmv -
the fresh noems can- be. accepted as treasure
troves, beyond price; and to those who pride
themselves on taking "their Scriptures with the
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salt : of the higher criticism, the odes shedan
effulgent, marvelously transforming light upon
the life, the times and the people among whom
the Savior labored for the souls' salvation.
Doctor Harris himself, speaking of his su
prising disclosure in the volume, says .' ''
"It contains an important addition to om?
knowledge of the literature which immediately '
anticipates or-directly follows the time' "of -Christ.
It contains, on the one hand, a hitherto .
unknown version of the Psalms of Solomon,
collection which has' often been studied, from -the
standpoints both of the "higher and lower
criticism,, and which is, by common consent,
referred to the middle of the first centuiy, B.
C; and on the other hand-itpxesen$j new
collection .which" I have caUet,"'foTTthe eake of
distinction, and in harmonjr.wi,th. the references
in ancient writers,' by the name of the Odes oi
Solomon. ...', t -, , . ' ,
' ' "They are. here edited and. translated from
a Syrian "manuscript in my own possession,1 and
it will probably be no rash prediction "to say that
their value and antiquity will be at once recog
nized by students and critics, and that they will
be assigned, either wholly or in part, to the first
century of the Christian era.' ,
'Apart altogether from the question -of t
half century more or less in , the dating of a
document, it lies outside controversy,' that the
new odes are marked by a vigor and exaltation
of spiritual life, and a mystical insight, to which
we can only find parallels in the most illuminated .
periods of the history of the church.
"They -differ, in this respect, by the whole
breadth of the firmament, from ;the : extant :
Psalms of Solomon, with which they are Asso
ciated in t-our -manuscript. - In . these there : is :
little originality, and not much hope the hard ;
experiences through which Jerusalem passed at -the
hands of the Romans . in the invasion, o!
Pompey have left a gloom over the sky even i9;
the moments of temporary relief and 'hvth
time1 of exultation ' over the 'fall of' the: great
oppressor." i ' ,- , " . .s , , . r
' CAREFULLY .WRITTEN
Doctor Harris states that the manuscript :K
may be from three to four centuries' old and had '
been lying on hia shelves for a couple of 'years,
along with a heap of leaves from various Syriao .
manuscripts which' came from the neighborhood
of the Tigris. , In, spite of its relative late date, ,
the text is a good one; carefully, if somewhat j
coarsely, written..' The original text is reprc-i
duce4, page far pfige,. and a number of 4 other V
schoiars have-been engaged, of late, in making T.
translations' from : the Syriac as reproduced in '
Doctor Harris' work. He himself, before giving
his translations of all the forty-two new odes,
furnishes an exhaustive criticism of the whole
manuscript, and compares ; it with the' whole
range of existing knowledge that applies to tha-.-general
subject of the Psalms of Solomon-, His--,
most important commentary, however, is thai
which he makes upon the odes themselves. . ,
"In the odes," he says, "we have few quota 1
iions or adaptations from . previous ' writings, V
whether Jewish or Christian? therea little that
can be traced to the Old Tcstarnentiahnost noth
ing that is to be credited to the Gospels or otfwwt
branches of the Christian literature. . . ;
"Their radiance is no ! reflection from the
illumination 'vf other days,: their inspiration is r
firsthand 'and immediate, it answers very wU
to the smnmary which Aristides made of the Ufa i
of the early Christian church when 'he describe '
them as indeed 'a new people with whom soma-
thing divine-is mingled- :.' - . ' ' - '
"They are thus," adds their discoverer, feal '
together distinct from the extant Psalms of Sol
omon, which are bound VP with them in out '
manuscript." , , ' ,'.. V
Professor James A. Montgomery, an Ameri
can scholar, who has made'one of the most thor
'ough reviews, of Doctor Harris remaTkahle find,
has been probably the first to attempt the desig -nation
of the bdes by separate namo3. His.clus
sification b very helpful in any account of thomr
. can present the text. of hut. a single ue, Mm b.
'ti C L. I f
as an examnie oi .ine.rc3t. .. , x ,
Among those titles which Professor ilont -
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