Odes of Solomon

Brief description:

The Odes of Solomon are probably a collection of early Christian poems or songs, most likely from the early second century.

Suggested first translation(s):

An easy-to-read, modern English translation that is freely available is the one by Samuel Zinner & Mark M. Mattison from 2020, listed below.

English translations:

• James Rendel Harris (translated ~1909)
  • The Odes and Psalms of Solomon (published 1909, 2nd edition 1911) — facsimile
• John Henry Bernard (translated ~1912)
  • The Odes of Solomon, Volume VIII, No. 3 of Text and Studies Series (published 1912) — facsimile
    • read online
• James Rendel Harris/Alphonse Mingana (translated ~1920)
  • The Ode and Psalms of Solomon, Volume I: The Text & Volume II: The Translation (volume I published 1916, volume II published 1920) — facsimile
    • This translation was reissued as The Oldest Christian Hymn-Book (edited by Michael MarYosip, published 1948 by Gresham’s)
• Sherburne Povah Tregelles Prideaux (translated ~1927)
  • The Odes of Solomon: a Selection Rendered into English Verse, S.P.C.K. (published 1927)
    • This collection was previously published in the following four journal articles:
      1. Theology, Volume 9, Issue 52, pages 219-220 (published 1924-Oct)
      2. Theology, Volume 10, Issue 55, pages 46-47 (published 1925-Jan)
      3. Theology, Volume 11, Issue 61, pages 45-48 (published 1925-July)
      4. Theology, Volume 12, Issue 67, pages 38-41 (published 1926-Jan)
• James H. Charlesworth (translated ~1973)
  • The Odes of Solomon, Oxford/Clarendon Press (published 1973)
    • reissued in an edited reprint in 1978 by Scholars Press
  • The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 2, pages 725-771, Doubleday (published 1985)
  • The Earliest Christian Hymnbook: The Odes of Solomon, (published 2009) — facsimile/preview
• John Adney Emerton (translated ~1984)
  • The Apocryphal Old Testament, pages 683-731, Oxford/Clarendon Press (published 1984)
• Sebastian P. Brock (translated ~2005)
  • Spirituality in the Syriac Tradition, pages 104-106 (published 2005) — facsimile
    • This book contains translations of Odes 8,9,13,27,30 & 40.
• Michael Lattke/Marianne Ehrhardt (translated ~2009)
  • The Odes of Solomon, Fortress Press (published 2009) — facsimile
    • This book is an English translation by Marianne Ehrhardt of Michael Lattke’s German Oden Salomos: Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar, a 3 volume set (published 1999-2005)
• Gie Vleugels/Martin Webber (translated ~2016)
  • The Odes of Solomon: Syriac Text and English Translation with Text Critical and Explanatory Notes, St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (published 2016)
• Arron Michael Butts (translated ~2020)
  • Odes of Solomon 7, 19, 41, and 42, from The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings, Volume 3. Christ, Cambridge University Press (published 2022)
• Samuel Zinner/Mark M. Mattison (translated ~2020)
  • The Odes of Solomon: The Nuhra Version (published 2020, but revised since) — text/HTML
    • local mirror — text/PDF