Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 130
cus. Some scholars think that this Teacher is Jesus Christ. . The Zadokite document throws further light on the presence of Jesus in Damascus. Fragments of this book were also found in the valley of Qumran. All this evidence dates from the first century A. D. Its importance and its historical significance is obvious. (v) The Odes of Solomon consists of 42 Syriac Odes of Christians of the first century. In 1908 James Rendel Harris, famous Syriac scholar, was able to locate this forgotten treasure. What he found was a sixteenth century manuscript. 1. Some Odes included in this manuscript are put in the mouth of Jesus Christ who addresses the world in these words:. They who saw me marvelled at me, because I was persecuted, and they supposed that I was swallowed up: for I seemed to them as one of the lost. . And I did not perish, for I was not their brother nor my birth like theirs. . And they sought for my death and did not find it. (ODE 28 verses 8, 14, 15). . And I rose up and am with them; I will speak by their mouth. . I did not perish, though they devised it against me. . And I made a congregation of living men amongst his dead men; and I spoke with them by living lips. v. 6, 14, 18). (ODE 42. One of the Odes speaks of a land resembling paradise, an eminence. Here apparently Jesus and his followers found shelter and became settled. Biblical scholars think that the Gospel of. St. John and these odes are drawn from the same source. 2 From this one can easily see the historical significance of these Odes. (vi) The years 1945-47 are very important. They proved most productive for scholars interested in reconstructing Jewish and early Christian history. To this period of three years belong two most important treasures of historical evidence couched in the two ancient languages Hebrew and Coptic. . Of these one was found in the Qumran Valley near the Dead. Sea and the other in Nag Hammadi, a village in Egypt. The. Nag Hammadi documents were contained in a sealed jar. The 1 The Lost Books of the Bible (The World Publishing Company, New. York, 1944. Second Part "Forgotten Books of Eden". "The Odes of. Solomon" (p. 120-140). 2 Ode 11 John and Qumran. 134