Psalms of Solomon

A collection of Jewish psalms sometimes appended to Greek biblical manuscripts.

The Psalms of Solomon are Jewish psalms from the mid-first century BCE, sometimes copied at the end of Greek biblical manuscripts. That appendix habit explains why readers meet them beside Septuagint books. Later Christian canons generally treat them as related literature. They are not a book of the Trent decree and not a book of the Protestant sixty-six. Being bound after the Psalms of David is a manuscript custom. It does not rename them as part of the Psalter, and it does not give them the status of the canonical psalms.

Related literature for later Christian canons; not a Trent or Protestant 66 book.

Date

Mid-1st century BCE (medium confidence)

Confidence

medium

Languages

Hebrew, Greek

Traditional authorship

Solomon

Authorship note

Bearing Solomon's name; not received as Scripture by the major traditions

• Greek Pss. Sol. · Greek Psalms of Solomon

  Medieval Greek copies of a 1st-century BCE book · Greek · Eighteen Greek psalms

  The Psalms of Solomon survive in medieval Greek manuscripts, and a Syriac translation also exists. They are not among the Qumran biblical scrolls, and they are not copied in Vaticanus or Sinaiticus as part of the Psalter. The poems themselves are usually dated to the first century BCE, after Pompey, which is much earlier than the manuscripts. Greek Christian scribes preserved a Jewish psalm collection that the Hebrew Bible did not include. Manuscript date and composition date stay separate in this entry.

• preserves

  Greek-speaking Jews

  The Psalms of Solomon is not a book of the Tanakh. Josephus, near the end of the first century, describes twenty-two Jewish books his people trust and sets later writings in a lower rank. The later rabbinic Bible, counted as twenty-four books, likewise leaves The Psalms of Solomon outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. The eighteen psalms are Jewish poems of the first century BCE, angry about foreign rule in Jerusalem. They are not part of the Hebrew Psalter and they were not found among the Qumran biblical scrolls. Jewish copying or quotation, where it exists, is reception. It is not the same fact as a place in the Hebrew canon, and it is not a Christian council’s decision.

• preserves

  Byzantine scribes

  Christian scribes preserved the Psalms of Solomon in Greek manuscripts, sometimes near the Septuagint, without putting them in the Hebrew or the later Protestant canon. Early lists do not treat them as a church book equal to the Psalms of David.

• ProtestantRelated literature

  Not among the Protestant 66.

• CatholicRelated literature

  Not a Trent deuterocanonical book.

• OrthodoxRelated literature

  Sometimes appended to Greek collections; not universally equal canon.

• EthiopianRelated literature

  Not named on the published EOTC 81 list used here.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Not part of the Tanakh.

• LXXBroader canon

  Appears in some Greek manuscript traditions.

• Early ChristianRelated literature

  Jewish psalms transmitted beside biblical books.

• Second TempleRelated literature

  First-century BCE Jewish psalms.

No council, confession, or canon list in this dataset names Psalms of Solomon. Tradition status is recorded in the section above.

No direct quotation or literary dependence on another writing in this dataset is recorded for Psalms of Solomon.

No dated canon event in this dataset is tied to Psalms of Solomon.

• Westminster Confession I.2–3 names the 66-book Protestant canon and says the books commonly called Apocrypha are not of divine inspiration and are not part of the canon of Scripture.
• Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), lists the Catholic canonical books including the deuterocanonical writings received in the Vulgate.
• Brenton’s public-domain Septuagint translation includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Additions, and Maccabees as part of the Greek Old Testament corpus.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church publishes an 81-book list that includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, speaks of 22 Jewish books and distinguishes later writings as not equally trusted.
• The Psalms of Solomon survive in medieval Greek manuscripts and in Syriac. They are not a section of the Hebrew Psalter and they are not in Codex Vaticanus or Codex Sinaiticus.