Anonymous

“ I seat myself beside the men who pass along among the tombs, and in untimely season I assume the form of the dead; and if I catch any one, I at once destroy him with my sword. But if I cannot destroy him, I cause him to be possessed with a demon, and to devour his own flesh, and the hair to fall off his chin. ”

“ For I was first angel in the first heaven, being entitled Beelzeboul. And now I control all those who are bound in Tartarus. But I too have a child [44] , and he haunts the Red Sea. And on any suitable occasion he comes up to me again, being subject to me; and reveals to me what he has done, and I support [45] him.
27. I Solomon said unto him: "Beelzeboul, what is thy employment?" And he answered me: "I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. ”

“ And the demon answered: "I am called Ornias."
10. And Solomon said to him: "Tell me, O demon, to what zodiacal sign thou art subject." And he answered: "To the Water-pourer. And those who are consumed [18] with desire for noble virgins upon earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [19] , these I strangle. But in case there is no disposition to sleep [20] , I am changed into three forms. Whenever men come to be enamoured of women, I metamorphose myself into a comely female; and I take hold of the men in their sleep, and play with them. ”

“ I therefore, having heard this, glorified the Lord God, and again I questioned the demon, saying: " Tell me how ye can ascend into heaven, being demons, and amidst the stars and holy angels intermingle." And he answered: "Just as things are fulfilled in heaven, so also on earth (are fulfilled) the types * of all of them. For there are principalities, authorities, world -rulers', and we demons fly about in the air; and we hear the voices of the heavenly beings, and survey all the powers. ”

“ I am a demon." So I said to him: " Which? " And he answered me: " I am called Envy. For I delight to devour heads, being desirous to secure for myself a head; but I do not eat enough, but am anxious to have such a head as thou hast."
44. I Solomon, on hearing this, sealed him, stretching out my hand against his chest. Whereon the demon leapt up, and threw himself down, and gave a groan, saying: " Woe is me! where am I come to? O traitor Ornias, I cannot see! " So I said to him: " I am Solomon. ”

“ A headless demon succeeds, subject to the lightning alone. A hound-like spirit, called Rabdos, or Staff, follows, who reveals to Solomon the place of a green stone, useful for the adornment of the Temple. Next a lion-shaped demon appears, called Leôphoros, who inflicts sickness on men, and has also legions of spirits subject to himself. He is to be overcome by Emmanuel, the great among men, who is to suffer much at the hands of men, but will precipitate this particular evil spirit into the water along with his legions. ”

“ Such demons ever and anon fall like lightnings from heaven, where they have no foothold; and we men see them fall, and fondly imagine them to be falling stars.
Next comes the visit of the Queen of the South to Solomon, and then the episode of Adares, King of Arabia. The latter is oppressed by a demon, Ephippas, whose hot breath devastates his land. The demon is caught through the magic ring in a skin-bag, and brought into the Temple, where he is utilized to raise into its place the headstone of the corner, which, because of its weight, the workmen had abandoned. ”

“ Celsus draws the moral that if we desire health we ought to propitiate these thirty-six unseen powers. Origen replies that, since "in the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth," Christians have no need to consult this mob of demons, but only to trust in the living God. The course indicated by the Testament of Solomon is rather different. We are to know the name of the particular angel who can rout each particular demon, and, with the help of these names and of sundry amulets and incantations, we are to make shift. ”

“ God enabled him to learn also the art of overcoming demons for the help and healing of man. And he composed incantations by which diseases are assuaged, and modes of exorcisms, by which persons bound may expel demons so that they shall not return. And this therapy, even up to now, has the greatest power among us.
Josephus proceeds to relate how a certain compatriot of his, Eleazar by name, had drawn a demon out of a man possessed by holding to his nose a ring which had under the seal one of the roots revealed by Solomon. ”

“ And I Solomon did as she enjoined me, and restrained myself because of the wisdom dwelling in me '; in order that I might hear of her deeds, and reprehend them, and manifest them to men. And I sat down, and said to the demon: " Who art thou? " And she said: " I am called among men Obizuth; and by night I sleep not, but go my rounds over all the world, and visit women in childbirth. And divining the hour I take my stand '; and if I am lucky, I strangle the child. But if not, I retire to another place. For I cannot for a single night retire unsuccessful. ”

“ A three-headed dragon, Koruphê, next appears, who is undone by the angel of great counsel that shall dwell on the cross. A female spirit, Obizuth, all head and no limbs, follows, in whom we recognize the Medusa of Greek legend. She is followed by a spirit with the head of a man and the body of a dragon with wings.
Enêpsigos, a two-headed female demon, follows, whom the wise invoke as Kronos, who prophesies to Solomon the destruction of his kingdom and Temple by the Persians, Medes, and Chaldaeans. ”

“ And we shall lead astray the inhabited world for a long season, until the Son of God is stretched upon the cross. For never before doth arise a king like unto him, one frustrating us all, whose mother shall not have contact with man. Who else can receive such authority over spirits, except he, whom the first devil will seek to tempt, but will not prevail over? The number of his name is 644 which is Emmanuel. Wherefore, King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given *. ”

“ And the chosen servants [46] of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies [47] , and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and [desire for] murder, and for wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world."
28. So I said to him: "Bring to me thy child, who is, as thou sayest, in the Red Sea." But he said to me: "I will not bring him to thee. But there shall come to me another demon, called Ephippas. Him will I bind, and he will bring him up from the deep unto me." ”

“ I, however, have found that that accursed diagram [7] asserts the lion-shaped demon to be Michael, the angel of the Creator that is praised in the holy Scriptures. Again Celsus asserts "the next and second one to be an ox." But the diagram I had said that the ox-shaped one was Suriel. Then Celsus tells us "of a third, amphibious sort of demon who is also hissing in a way that makes you tremble." Well, the diagram declares the dragon-like one to be Raphael. Again Celsus says that "the fourth has the shape of an eagle"; but the diagram calls the eagle-like one Gabriel. ”

“ And we hear the sentences which go forth upon the souls of men, and forthwith we come, and whether by force of influence *, or by fire, or by sword, or by some accident, we veil our act of destruction; and if a man does not die by some untimely disaster or by violence, then we demons transform ourselves in such a way as to appear to men and be worshipped in our human nature. ”

“ Ornias is the first demon to appear, and he is set down to hew stones. Next appears Beelzeboul, prince and exarch of the demons, who promises to parade before Solomon all his subject spirits, and proceeds to do so, beginning with Onoskelis. Asmodeus follows after Onoskelis, and gives an account of himself which agrees with the Book of Tobit. Beelzeboul reappears on the scene, and, in a dialogue with Solomon, declares that he alone survives of the angels who (as Enoch declares) came down from heaven. He reigns over all who are in Tartarus, and has a child in the Red Sea. ”

“ Oftentimes, however, do I consort with men in the semblance of a woman, and above all with those of a dark skin. For they share my star with me; since they it is who privily or openly worship my star, without knowing that they harm themselves, and but whet my appetite for further mischief. ”

“ Now at length appear the thirty-six stoicheia or elements, the world-rulers or kosmokratores of this darkness. They are the decani of the twelve zodiacal signs, and, though human in form, have the heads and faces of dogs, asses, oxen, and birds. Each of them presides over some tract of the human body, and inflicts disease within that tract; each has an angel who can defeat its malign influence. ”

“ I have my abode in the moon, and for that reason I possess three forms. At times I am magically ' invoked by the wise as Kronos. At other times, in connexion with those who bring me down, I come down and appear in another shape. The measure of the element '^ is inexplicable and indefinable, and not to be frustrated. I then, changing into these three forms, come down and become such as thou seest me; but I am frustrated by the angel Bathanael, who sits in the third heaven. ”

“ That among these demons, even down to the least ones, there exists some one or another to whom authority (ἐχουσία) has been given, may be learned by any one from what the Egyptians say, namely, that thirty-six demons, or ethereal gods of a kind, have distributed among themselves man's body, which is apportioned into a corresponding number of parts. Some say the number of these demons is much greater. One demon then is appointed to take care of one part and another of another. ”

“ It is impossible to say when and where the Christian elements present in the Testament were worked into it, but the stress laid on the name Emmanuel and on its numerical value, on the writing of the name on the forehead, the use of the word τανυσθείς, the patripassian conceptions, all have a very archaic air, and seem to belong to about 100 A.D. The demonological shapes set before us are those with which Celsus was familiar, and in Origen's sixth book, ch. 30, we have a clue to the sort of Christians whose souls may have been satisfied by the Testament of Solomon. ”

“ For I take the men, and whirl them round with myself, and hurl the men out of the sea. For I am not covetous of men's bodies, but cast them up out of the sea so far. But since Beelzebotd, ruler of the spirits of air and of those under the earth, and lord of earthly ones, hath a joint kingship with us in respect of the deeds of each one of us, therefore I went up from the sea, to get a certain outlook ^ in his company. ”

“ I then asked of the demon if there were females among them. And when he told me that there were, I said that I desired to see them. So Beelzeboul went off at high speed, and brought unto me Onoskelis [29] , that had a very pretty shape, and the skin [30] of a fair-hued woman; and she tossed her head.
17. And when she was come, I said to her: "Tell me, who art thou?" But she said to me: "I am called Onoskelis, a spirit wrought ... [31] , lurking upon the earth. There is a golden cave where I lie. But I have a place [32] that ever shifts. At one time I strangle men with a noose ”

“ If I hear the words, 'AddnaSl, imprison Metathiax,' I at once retreat."
82. The eleventh said: " I am called KatanikotaSl. I create strife and wrongs in men's homes, and send on them hard temper. If any one would be at peace in his home, let him write on seven leaves of laurel the names of the angel that frustrates me, along with these names: lae, led, sons of Sabadth, in the name of the great God let him shut up Katanikotall. Then let him wash the laurel-leaves in water, and sprinkle his house with the water, from within to the outside. And at once I retreat." ”

“ Origen wrote as follows:—
Next Celsus reverts to the matter of the seven ruling demons, though they are never named by Christians, but are, I believe, accepted by Ophiani. And indeed I have found in a diagram, which I too got possession of through the latter, their order (taxis) set forth agreeably to the exposition of Celsus. For Celsus declares that "the first was shaped like a lion," though he does not declare the name that these most truly impious persons give to him. ”

“ This spirit was of old invoked by Iannes and Iambres against Moses, but afterwards, being confined under the pillar or column, had remained in the Red Sea until Ephippas, at Solomon's instance, fetched him thence.
The concluding incident of the Testament is Solomon's fall. Lured by passion for a Shunammite woman, he sacrifices grasshoppers to Moloch. Forthwith the Spirit of God leaves him; he is weakened, and builds temples to Baal, Raphan, and Moloch. ”

“ This papyrus belongs to that literature of charms and incantations which cannot be called exclusively either Christian or Jewish, but which formed the fringe of both religions. We hardly need affirm the Testament of Solomon to be a Christian work, unless we affirm the same of this papyrus, which Dieterich ascribes to a pre-Christian age. ”

“ And he notes significantly that those who revert to these elements "observe days, and months, and seasons, and years." Throughout this passage Paul has in view the deeply rooted astrological belief in the twelve zodiacal signs and their thirty-six decani which governed human life and conduct. These were the powers, according to Celsus (Origen, c. Celsum, viii. 58) , which really had authority, exousia (the Pauline word) , over man. "You are trying," replies Origen, "to bring back our souls under the sway of the demons, which you pretend have our bodies as their lot." ”