Book Reviews: Michael Lattke, Die Oden Salomos in ihrer Bedeutung für Neues Testament und Gnosis. 2 Vols. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 25/1 and 25/2. Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, and Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: 1979
Abstract
Book ReviewsMichael Lattke, Die Oden Salomos in ihrer Bedeutung für Neues Testament und Gnosis. 2 Vols. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 25/1 and 25/2. Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, and Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: 1979 SAGE Publications, Inc.1981DOI: 10.1177/014610798101100312 Bruce J. Malina Creighton University, Omaha These volumes mark the first two of a planned three- volume study of that ancient set of Christian hymns known as the Odes of Solomon. In the first volume, Lattke begins with a discussion of the manuscript evidence for the Odes of Solomon in Greek, Coptic and Syriac. He then presents a new edition of the texts and, on facing pages, a German translation of each ode with critical notes at the end of each. Next come Coptic texts, with facing translation, of Odes 5, 6, 25 and 22 as found in the work known as Pistis Sophia. The volume ends with an hermaneutical essay on the Gnostic interpretation of the Odes of Solomon in the Pistis Sophia. Volume 2 of L.'s work contains exhaustive concordances: of Greek words, of Greek words in the Coptic version, of Coptic words, of Syriac words, and of Latin words found in Lactantius' Intitutiones 4.12.3. Though complete in themselves, these