Texts in Conversation
The Psalms of Solomon and Revelation describe a messiah descended from David who defeats his enemies with words. In the Psalms, this king destroys rebellious nations by his command, and in Revelation, Jesus is a warrior with a sword in his mouth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalms of Solomon 17:24
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
20 From their leaders to the least (of them) all were sinful; The king was a lawbreaker, and the judge disobedient, and the people sinful. 21 Look, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, at the time You see fit, God, so that he may reign over Your servant Israel. 22 And strengthen him so that he may shatter unrighteous rulers, and so that he may cleanse Jerusalem of nations that trample (her) down to destruction. 23 Wisely, righteously he shall drive out sinners from (the) inheritance; He shall destroy the pride of the sinner as a potter's jar. 24 With a rod of iron he shall shatter all their possessions; He shall destroy the godless nations with the word of his mouth; 25 At his rebuke nations shall flee from him, And he shall rebuke sinners for the thoughts of their heart.
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Revelation 19:14
New Testament
11 Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war. 12 His eyes are like a fiery flame and there are many diadem crowns on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except himself. 13 He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God. 14 The armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth extends a sharp sword so that with it he can strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he stomps the winepress of the furious wrath of God, the All-Powerful. 16 He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Date: 92–96 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The author of Psalms of Solomon 17 has a clear set of expectations for what the “Anointed One,” the Messiah (a term used in Psalms of Solomon 17:32; also see 18:5, 7), will do. He will purge the Holy Land of both the sinful Judeans and the Gentiles, who are “lawless” in the sense that they live without the Torah (Psalms of Solomon 17:22–24, 30b, 36b). This is a violent expectation, even if the weapons are unconventional: “He will destroy the lawless nations by the word of his mouth” (Psalms of Solomon 17:24; compare Revelation 19:11–15). This Son of David will gather the righteous Judeans scattered throughout the nations (Psalms of Solomon 17:26, 31; see also 11:1–3) and will rule them with perfect justice, judging the twelve tribes and keeping them centered in the fear of the Lord through his rod of discipline (Psalms of Solomon 17:26–27; see also 18:7). He himself will be “pure from sin, so that he may rule a great people” (Psalms of Solomon 17:36) ..."
David A. DeSilva, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 143.
* 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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