Page:Testament of Solomon.djvu/14

14 ridiculed and Origen disowned. It is probable therefore that the Testament was the favourite book of the Ophiani, or of some analogous sect which combined a belief in Emmanuel with a mass of pre-existent Jewish superstitions. It is also quoted as a genuine writing of Solomon in the Greek dialogue of Timothy and Aquila, a Christian monument of uncertain date, but anyhow based on an earlier dialogue of the middle of the second century.

One of the best commentaries on the Testament is the Arabian Nights. There, especially in the legend of the Brazen City, we meet again with the ring of Solomon, and with the spirits confined in bottles; in others of these tales we meet with dragon-like demons, enveloped in a whirlwind of dust, with the belief in a moira or destiny carried by the possessor, and to be cast on the ground on occasions. All these and kindred beliefs were probably as rife among the Jews of Palestine and Egypt in the first century as they were among Arabs in the thirteenth century or even in the present day. Even an interpreter of the N. T. can ill afford to disregard this great repertory of Semitic folk-lore.

We must not assume that the evil heresies inspired by Beelzeboul and by the Demon of Deception were Christian. For there were heresies within Judaism; and Christianity is as likely as not to be one of the heresies glanced at in a Jewish document of the first century. Beelzeboul, the father of heresies, also declares that he "destroys kings, and allies himself with foreign tyrants." The foreign tyrants may be Titus and Vespasian, and the reference to kings a reminiscence of the Herodian dynasty.

For convenience of reference I have divided the Testament into sections or short chapters; and in conclusion I add an appendix of all the names and of the unknown words used in spells. Many of the names of demons appear to be Greek words with Aramaic endings. The spells may most of them be mere gibberish, but an oriental scholar may detect in some of them depravations of Coptic, or Aramaic, or Persian formulae. Every demon, so Origen tells us, had