Texts in Conversation
Psalms of Solomon 8 echoes Isaiah 40 and the imagery of a path through the wilderness, a pattern connected to a second exodus. In Isaiah, this signals the end of the exile, and the Psalms of Solomon reshapes it to express a similar hope for restoration.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 40:3
Hebrew Bible
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem and tell her that her time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed. For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.” 3 A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; build a level road through the rift valley for our God. 4 Every valley must be elevated and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley. 5 The splendor of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it at the same time. For the Lord has decreed it.”
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalms of Solomon 8:17
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
15 He brought the one from the end of the earth who strikes with great power; He decreed (?) war against Jerusalem, and against her land. 16 The princes of the land went to meet him with joy: they said to him, Blessed be your way! Come, enter in peace. 17 They smoothed the rough roads before he entered; They opened the gates to Jerusalem, they crowned its walls. 18 As a father (enters) the house of his sons, (so) he entered (Jerusalem) in peace; He placed his feet (there) in complete safety. 19 He captured her fortresses and the wall of Jerusalem; for God Himself led him in safety, while they wandered.
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Bradley H. McLean, Citations and Allusions to Jewish Scripture in Early Christian and Jewish Writings Through 180 C.E. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), 90, also lists Psalms of Solomon 8:17 and Sibylline Oracles 1:336, but the latter is a Christian text reflecting New Testament usages of the Isaian verse. In contrast to my argument here, Ian McDonald plays down the relevance of the fact that both the Qumranians and John the Baptist associated themselves with Isaiah 40:3, claiming that “this text represents a well known crux interpretum, and it seems likely that John read the text in a different way” ..."
Joel Marcus, John the Baptist in History and Theology (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, 2018), 177.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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