The mystical clauses of verse 3 have for centuries been an unsolved enigma to exegetists; and Alford, after summing up the many conjectures as to their meaning, expresses his feeling that the writer had a thought which he did not intend us to comprehend! Probably, however, the writer was using language understood in his time, and which may be interpreted by comparison with expressions familiar in Jewish folklore. Some of these are preserved in the apocryphal gospels. Thus, in the Pseudo-Matthew, Levi, the teacher of Jesus, astounded by the Child's learning, says, "I think he was born before the flood." In the gospel of Thomas, the teacher Zacchæus says, "This child is not of earthly parents, he is able to subdue even fire. Perhaps he was begotten before the world was made." These ideas, which correspond somewhat to the Teutonic superstition of the "changeling," are traceable in the Fourth Gospel (viii. 56-59), where Jesus is stoned for saying, "Before Abraham was I am." It will be seen that by this early writer "to the Hebrews" Jesus was not thought of in connection with David, but bore Solomon's preëminent title, King of Peace, and that conferred on him by the Queen of Sheba, King of Justice. In the "Wisdom of Solomon" the Prince of the Golden Age, historically associated with idolatrous shrines, had been rehabilitated, even apotheosized; he was now a sort of rival of Jesus in divine sonship. The writer of our Epistle therefore artistically, not to say artfully, utilizes a composite word made into a proper name under which Solomon's combined royalty and priesthood, his peace and justice, had been detached from his personality and personified. The new exaltation of Solomon personally was thus ignored, while his essential glories, his wisdom, and his reclaimed virtues, were woven into the celestial mantle of mysterious Melchizedek, and through him passed to the shoulders of the risen Christ. CHAPTER XV. THE PAULINE DEHUMANIZATION OF JESUS. The Queen of Sheba certainly deserved her exaltation as the Hebrew Athena, and the homage paid to her by Jesus, for journeying so far simply to hear the wisdom of Solomon. In Jewish and Christian folklore are many miraculous tales about the Queen's visit, but in the Biblical records, in the books of "Kings" and "Chronicles," the only miracle is the entire absence of anything marvellous, magical, or even occult. The Queen was impressed by Solomon's science, wisdom, the edifices he had built, the civilization he had brought about; they exchanged gifts, and she departed. It is a strangely rational history to find in any ancient annals.