The Testament of Solomon is an Old Testament pseudepigraphical work, purportedly written by King Solomon, in which he describes how he summoned and controlled demons with his ring to help build the First Temple in Jerusalem. The text is believed to have been written between the 1st and 5th centuries AD and provides insight into early Jewish and Christian beliefs about magic, astrology, and demons.
Background on Solomon
According to the Bible, Solomon was the son of King David and ruled over Israel from around 970 to 931 BC. He was known for his great wisdom and wealth. Under his reign, Israel enjoyed a golden age of peace and prosperity. His most famous achievement was building the First Temple in Jerusalem, which served as the center of Jewish worship until its destruction in 586 BC.
The Bible praises Solomon for his God-given wisdom. In 1 Kings 3, when God appears to Solomon in a dream and offers to grant him anything he wishes, Solomon humbly asks for wisdom to rule God’s people justly. Pleased by this request, God also grants him riches and honor. Solomon’s wisdom was legendary throughout the ancient Near East.
Overview of the Testament of Solomon
The Testament of Solomon is a composite text combining various sources from Jewish and Christian traditions. It contains four primary sections:
1. An introduction presenting Solomon’s wisdom and preparation to build the Temple (chapters 1-11)
2. Instructions given to Solomon concerning demons, including how to summon them and make them submit to his command (chapters 12-34)
3. Private conversations between Solomon and individual demons, revealing their astrological affinities, sacred names, powers, adversarial activities, and how they can be thwarted (chapters 35-58)
4. Solomon’s construction of the Temple with the aid of demons and djinn (chapters 59-64)
The Testament combines Solomonic legends from the early rabbinic period with occult practices and beliefs about demons that arose in the early centuries of the Common Era under various cultural influences including Hellenistic magic. The composite nature of the work is shown by the abrupt transitions between sections and layers of composition over time.
Solomon’s Control of Demons
A major focus of the Testament is on Solomon’s power to summon, control, and command demons through the use of his magic ring. God is said to have given Solomon power over demons after he completed the building of the Temple of Jerusalem:
“Then did God grant me wisdom and intelligence, and I learned all (kinds of) wisdom and arts…and the Lord God Almighty gave me a ring having a seal consisting of God’s finger-print. And he said to me: Solomon, son of David, the gift which the Lord God has given you is therefore exceeding precious, even that lordship which shall not be divided or shared by any other man than you alone�With that very ring, O king, you shall lock up the demons of the air, male and female; and with their aid you shall build Jerusalem.” (Testament 3:4-6)
Thus, Solomon’s magic ring bearing the sigil of God’s name allowed him to force demons into submission and slavery. Chapters 18-23 give instructions for drawing sacred circles and hexagrams at specific astrological times to summon certain spirits. Chapters 24-34 contain magical conjurations and seals to compel the obedience of demons when called.
Conversations with Individual Demons
The longest section of the Testament (chapters 35-58) involves private dialogues between Solomon and individual demons, who are commanded to reveal their activities, powers, and how they can be countered through magic.
For example, the demon Enepsigos claims responsibility for causing headaches, sloth, and insomnia. He reveals his activities:
“I am Enepsigos, one of the three angels of youth�I cause headaches in addition to my responsibility for disturbing sleep. If I see a young man or girl sleeping soundly I put into his or her head that he or she should move to another city or take a long trip. Then the parents talk in this way: ‘It would be good for this (young man) or this (young girl) to take a long trip, to move somewhere else and establish a career.’ And as soon as the young people hear this, they do not sleep properly.” (Testament 19:5-6).
Enepsigos then reveals the means to thwart him through invoking the name of his adversary, the archangel Remiel. Similar conversations expose the names, realms, activities, and vanquishing spells for demons of lust, anger, envy, deception, and more.
Solomon’s Construction of the Temple
The final section describes how Solomon forced the demons into laboring on the construction of the Temple. For example, the demon Ephippas reveals:
“Then [Solomon] ordered us to fetch the building stones from the mountains, and he was actually able to make us do this. He tortured us with bonds and imprisonment and daily ordered us to bring the stones to the Temple site through magic tortures�And after the Temple had been built�he imprisoned us, thirty-six of us, in the depths of the Temple where we stayed a long time.” (Testament 46:13-14)
Ephippas then laments, “Now I have told you everything you need to know about how Solomon seized control over us.” The enslaved demons functioned as the workforce that quarried, transported, and assembled the heavy stones to build the Temple.
Purpose and Themes
The Testament of Solomon provides insight into popular Jewish and early Christian beliefs about ritual power, astrology, demons, and magic. By revealing the activities of demons afflicting humanity and how to thwart them, the text functions as an apotropaic catalog of demonic threats countered by the power of God’s name.
The depiction of Solomon forcing demons into slave labor likely criticizes the unjust exploitation of human forced labor in its context. It also promotes Jewish nationalistic views by portraying the Temple as divinely ordained and supernaturally constructed through Solomon’s wisdom and magic ring bearing God’s seal.
Some key themes in the text include:
– Demonology and occult practices were mainstream, not heretical beliefs
– The utility of astrology and divination
– The power of sacred names and seals in controlling spirits
– Evidence of cultural syncretism in fusing Near Eastern, Hellenistic, and Jewish folk beliefs
– Solomon as the archetypal wise magician who epitomizes human dominion over the spiritual realm
– The Temple as divinely approved and protected from demonic forces through Solomon’s apotropaic magic
Jewish, Christian, and Occult Influences
The Testament of Solomon reflects the cultural crossroads of Palestine in the early centuries of the Common Era. It integrates Jewish mythology about Solomon with Near Eastern astrological lore, early Christian traditions, and Hellenistic magical practices.
This cultural fusion resulted in ideas not found in the canonical scriptures, such as angelic teachings of astrology. For example, the archangel Michael reveals:
“I, Michael, have been appointed to serve before the Lord God Almighty�to reveal to people�the influences and activities of the stars and the methods whereby demons work injury, together with the names of the angels who oppose them.” (Testament 18:1-3)
Such notions derive from Babylonian astrology absorbed in the multi-cultural context. The text also invokes Christian ideas, such as the claim that a demon came out of King Solomon’s son Rehoboam and caused him to fall into idolatry (64:8).
The magical techniques emphasize preparation through purity rituals, astrologically propitious timing, drawing of circles and seals, and invoking sacred names of power – reflecting Hellenistic occultism from the Greco-Roman period.
Historical Origins and Significance
The composite nature of the Testament makes dating it difficult, but most scholars place its composition between the 1st to 5th centuries AD. The textual history remains complex and debated, but the earliest fragments come from Coptic translations from the 4th-5th centuries AD. The original text was likely composed in Greek or Hebrew.
Rabbinic sources like the Talmud contain legends about Solomon’s exploits and wisdom that share affinity with the Testament, indicating the text derives from early Jewish folklore. But the Christian interpolations and Hellenistic occult elements point to origins in the cultural melting pot of Roman Palestine.
The text remains significant as a source of popular beliefs about magic, astrology, and demonology in early Judaism and Christianity. Despite itspseudepigraphical nature, early readers considered it an authentic work of King Solomon. This reveals the mainstream approval of such occult arts prior to their suppression as heretical in later centuries.
Additionally, the Testament had an influence on later occult traditions. It was an important text for medieval ceremonial magicians who would invoke its prescribed names and seals of power. The text also shaped demonological literature and contributed to notions of demons causing afflictions that require spiritual countermeasures.
Relation to Canonical Scripture
The Testament of Solomon is not considered canonical by any major branch of Judaism or Christianity. It is one of many Old Testament pseudepigraphical works falsely attributed to famous biblical figures like Enoch, Moses, the Twelve Patriarchs, and others.
Unlike canonical scripture, these pseudepigrapha were not written or approved by prophets. They reflect popular religious imagination rather than divine revelation. The speculative legends, ritual magic, astrology, and occultism in texts like the Testament often contradict the theology of the Hebrew Bible.
However, the Testament does illustrate how biblical heroes like Solomon were revered and legends of their mastery expanded with mystical elements. Its literary influence helped disseminate Jewish folklore about Solomon controlling demons to exert divine power over the spiritual realm.
But passages claiming secret wisdom from angels and magical techniques of summoning demons go beyond canonical texts. Scripture affirms the supernatural but prohibits magic, divination, and occult practices as abhorrent to God (Deut 18:9-13). Thus, the Testament’s ritual magic and esoteric revelations do not represent the teachings of biblical religion. They offer imaginative extrapolations of Solomon’s wisdom shaped by cultural crosscurrents.
Conclusion
The Testament of Solomon provides a fascinating window into popular religious beliefs about demons, magic, astrology, and the occult in early Judaism and Christianity. The text fuses ancient Jewish traditions about King Solomon with Near Eastern astrology, Hellenistic magical practices, and early Christian lore.
Though non-canonical and pseudepigraphical, the Testament reveals how biblical heroes were venerated and ascribed mastery over supernatural realms. It also illustrates religious syncretism as cultures intermixed ideas and ritual technologies. As an imaginative embellishment of the biblical record, the Testament offers useful insights about the development of esoteric traditions surrounding Solomon’s legend and the cultural diversity of Palestine during the first centuries of the Common Era.
