Harnack on the Odes of Solomon

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Giuseppe
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Harnack on the Odes of Solomon

Post by Giuseppe »

Harnack, while recognizing their [of the Odes of Solomon, n.d.r.] essentially Jewish character, has tried to maintain that they have been subjected to Christian manipulation and interpolation. Such a suggestion is quite inadmissible: the style is the same all through; there are no signs in them of juncture or of intruded matter; each ode forms a consistent unit; and if there had been Christian interpolations they would have been more Christian - they contain no sepcifically Christian dogma, and the name Jesus does not occur in them. Harnack is, of course, biased, and he has been candid enough to state his motive for alleging interpolation. He says it must be maintained, because otherwise the Odes “anticipate so much Christian doctrine that the historicity of Jesus is threatened in the highest degree”! Is that scientific? Is that the spirit in which a historical investigation should be pursued? Others have tried to get over the difficulty by asserting that the Odes are Christain writings; but this is even less admissible than Harnack's assumption. Their Jewish character is plain for every unprejudiced critic. But traditionalist critics have adopted as the leading principle of their critical method that their historical Jesus must at all hazards be conserved. This principle is a bed of Procrustes into which the evidence, whatever it may be, is compelled to fit.
(Gordon Rylands, Evolution of Christianity, p. 50-51)
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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