Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
In the "Wisdom of Solomon" (xviii.) there is a complete picture of
the two opposing Destroyers. The divine destroyer ("thine Almighty
Word") leaps down with his sword and slays the firstborn of Egypt; the
antagonist Destroyer begins the same kind of work among the Israelites
in Egypt, but Moses by prayer and the "propitiation of incense" sets
himself "against the Wrath" and overcomes him,--"not with physical
strength, nor force of arms, but with a word." The incense used by
Moses to put the demon to flight recalls the "perfume" used by Tobit,
on the advice of the angel, to put to flight Asmodeus; and Asmodeus is
notoriously the Persian Aêshma, a name meaning "Wrath," who occupies
so large space in the Parsî scriptures. [55] The especial antagonist
of Aêshma "of the wounding spear," is Sraosha, "the incarnate Word,
a mighty-speared god." (Farvardin Yast, 85.) As Moses overcomes "the
Wrath" "with a word," Zoroaster is given a form of words to conquer
Aêshma ("Praise to Armaîti, the propitious!") and the Vendîdâd says,
"The fiend becomes weaker and weaker at every one [repetition] of
those words." The Zamyâd Yast says, "The Word of falsehood smites,
but the Word of truth shall smite it." Aêshma is the child of Ahriman,
the Deceiver of the World, and a Parsî would recognize him in the
declaration ascribed to Jesus, "The devil is a liar and so is his
father." (John viii. 44.)
That Jesus regarded the whole realm of evil as absolutely antagonistic
to the Good is reflected in the epistle "To the Hebrews." There his
mission is to abolish the devil (ii. 14), which is very different
from abolishing death (2 Tim. i. 10). For a long time the devil was
suppressed in the "Lord's Prayer," but in that brief collection of
Talmudic ejaculations the only original thing is, "Deliver us from the
evil one." In the Clementine Homilies Jesus is quoted as having said,
"The evil one is the tempter," and "Give not a pretext to the evil
one." Nay, the single clause preserved in Matthew, that it is an enemy
that sows tares,--these being as much parts of nature as corn,--is
a sentence that divides the Ahrimanic creation from the Ahuramazdean
creation as clearly and profoundly as anything ascribed to Zoroaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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