Changes

The Odes have been called the "earliest Christian hymnbook" (The Odes of Solomon: The Syriac texts Edited with Translation and Notes, J. H. Charlesworth, Oxford, Clarendon, 1973). They are 42 biblical style psalms, each psalm usually in three sections - a first narrative style about the Lord, a middle section in which, often, Jesus speaks in the first person, and a last section offering a doxology of praise.

The Odes have been called the "earliest Christian hymnbook" (The Odes of Solomon: The Syriac texts Edited with Translation and Notes, J. H. Charlesworth, Oxford, Clarendon, 1973). They are 42 biblical style psalms, each psalm usually in three sections - a first narrative style about the Lord, a middle section in which, often, Jesus speaks in the first person, and a last section offering a doxology of praise.

The Odes are contemporaneous with some of  literature of the New Testament, but exhibiting an earlier phase of development of the Church. In the New Testament (Romans), Gentile Christians are exhorted to be tolerant, less rejecting and caring for the "Old People of God" and, by implication, the remaining early Jewish believers in their midst (now a minority). Here in the Odes of Solomon, Jewish believers (gently rebuked) are urged to be tolerant and caring for the Gentiles who had come to faith and were now comomg into their midst. "And the Gentiles, who had been dispersed, were gathered together; But I [Jesus speaking] was not defiled by My love (for them); Because they had praised Me in High Places. (Odes Sol. 10:5). They went out early each morning before work and prayed together with arms outsteched, the fashion of worship of a slightly later gentile prayer position, considering this outstretching the "sign of the cross" - "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, For the expansion of my hands is His sign, And my extension is the common cross; That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One." (A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. l., Samuel Hugh Moffett, Orbis,{Odes Sol.42:1,2,}, 1998, pg.52). The Odes, have either a joining of Biblical passages, or the thought of such passages prior to their writing. An example is Ode 41:12-15 bringing together the prologue of the Gospel of John and Philippians 2. "His word is with us on the way; The Saviour who gives life and does not reject (us); The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own Righteousness...;And Light dawned from the Word, that was before time in Him."

The Odes are contemporaneous with some of  literature of the New Testament, but exhibiting an earlier phase of development of the Church. In the New Testament (Romans), Gentile Christians are exhorted to be tolerant, less rejecting and caring for the "Old People of God" and, by implication, the remaining early Jewish believers in their midst (now a minority). Here in the Odes of Solomon, Jewish believers (gently rebuked) are urged to be tolerant and caring for the Gentiles who had come to faith and were now coming into their midst. "And the Gentiles, who had been dispersed, were gathered together; But I [Jesus speaking] was not defiled by My love (for them); Because they had praised Me in High Places. (Odes Sol. 10:5). They went out early each morning before work and prayed together with arms outsteched, the fashion of worship of a slightly later gentile prayer position, considering this outstretching the "sign of the cross" - "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, For the expansion of my hands is His sign, And my extension is the common cross; That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One." (A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. l., Samuel Hugh Moffett, Orbis,{Odes Sol.42:1,2,}, 1998, pg.52). The Odes, have either a joining of Biblical passages, or the thought of such passages prior to their writing. An example is Ode 41:12-15 bringing together the prologue of the Gospel of John and Philippians 2. "His word is with us on the way; The Saviour who gives life and does not reject (us); The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own Righteousness...;And Light dawned from the Word, that was before time in Him."

There is little to be said in the Odes about the organization of this early Aramaic Church. The "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons" of the roughly contemporaneous New Testament are not mentioned, but that may not mean much. As Samuel Moffett wrote about this matter, "[hymns]are rarely required to sing of bureaucracies". The closest to a list of ministries is from Ode 12:4 - "...the interpreters of His beauty, and the narrators of His Glory, and the confessors of His purpose, and the preachers of His mind, and the teachers of His works."

There is little to be said in the Odes about the organization of this early Aramaic Church. The "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons" of the roughly contemporaneous New Testament are not mentioned, but that may not mean much. As Samuel Moffett wrote about this matter, "[hymns]are rarely required to sing of bureaucracies". The closest to a list of ministries is from Ode 12:4 - "...the interpreters of His beauty, and the narrators of His Glory, and the confessors of His purpose, and the preachers of His mind, and the teachers of His works."