Written by F. C. Conybeare, is to challenge the scholarly consensus of its time (which viewed it as a late, 5th-century Christian work) and argue instead for its origins as an early, pre-Christian Jewish text (perhaps 1st century A.D.), later subject to a light Christian revision (recension).
SCHOLARLY CONTEXT AND PUBLICATION
The Greek text of the Testament of Solomon was first published by Fleck in 1837, within the fourth volume of his Wissenschaftliche Reise. A German translation by Bornemann followed in 1844 (Zeitschrift für die histor. Theologie, III, pp. 9–56), who also contributed essays analyzing the text (Conjectanea in Salomonis Testamentum, 1843, 1849). A reprint of Fleck's text and another German translation later appeared in Fürst's Orient. Conybeare notes his own debt to Bornemann's accurate translation and footnotes, though he was unable to consult all of Bornemann's Conjectanea.
THE NARRATIVE FRAMEWORK OF THE TESTAMENT
The Testament (§1) opens with King Solomon engaged in building the Temple in Jerusalem. He possesses supernatural wisdom, described as the Spirit or Glory of God, which grants him power over spirits. The narrative begins abruptly when a vampire-like demon named Ornias begins to afflict the king's favorite young servant, stealing half his pay and food and sucking his thumb, causing the boy to waste away (§2-4).
In response, Solomon enters the Temple and prays to the Lord Sabaôth. Grace is granted, and the archangel Michael delivers a magical ring to Solomon. This ring bears a seal engraved with a pentalpha (a five-pointed star) and endows Solomon with complete authority over all demons (§5).
Armed with this ring, Solomon commands the boy to throw it at the demon (§6). When the boy does, Ornias is captured and brought before the king (§7-9). This event establishes the Testament's primary structure: Solomon proceeds to summon the demons one by one, interrogating each about its name, its associated star or constellation, and, crucially, the specific angel that can thwart its power ("frustrate" it).
THE DEMONIC HIERARCHY AND KEY FIGURES
After capturing Ornias—who identifies as an offspring of the angel Uriel and subject to the Water-pourer (§10)—Solomon puts him to work hewing stones for the Temple (§11). He then compels Ornias to fetch the prince of demons, Beelzeboul (§12-13).
Beelzeboul, the exarch (ruler) of demons, appears and identifies himself as the last of the fallen angels from heaven (as described in Enoch) who now reigns over Tartarus (§14-15, §26). He promises to parade his subject spirits before Solomon, beginning with Onoskelis, a female spirit with a beautiful shape who strangles men or consorts with them (§16-17). She is frustrated by the angel Joel (§19) and is set to spinning hemp (§20).
Next, Asmodeus appears, giving an account of himself that aligns with the Book of Tobit, explaining his business is to "plot against the newly wedded" and estrange their hearts (§21-22). He is frustrated by the archangel Raphael and the smoke from the liver and gall of the Glanos fish (§24). Solomon condemns him to make clay for the Temple's construction (§25).
Beelzeboul later reveals he has a child, Abezithibod, in the Red Sea (§26, §28). He himself is frustrated by the "holy and precious name" of God, which the Greeks call Emmanuel (whose numerical value is 644) and the Romans call Eleêth (§29). He is then set to saw Theban marbles (§30).
Other notable demons include:
Tephras (spirit of ashes), frustrated by the archangel Azael (§33).
A headless demon (Envy), who devours heads (§43-44) and is frustrated by the "fiery flash of lightning" (§46).
Rabdos (Staff), a hound-like spirit who reveals a green stone for the Temple's adornment (§47-49).
Leôphoros (lion-shaped), who is to be overcome by Emmanuel (644), described as "the great among men, who is to suffer much" and who will "plunge us from the steep under water"—an allusion to the Gadarene miracle (§51-52).
A three-headed dragon (Koruphê), undone by the "angel of great counsel that shall dwell on the cross" (§54).
Obizuth, a female spirit with only a head (like Medusa), who strangles newborn children (§57-58) and is frustrated by the angel Afarôf, interpreted as Raphael (640) (§59).
Enêpsigos, a two-headed female demon also invoked as Kronos (§64).
A horse-fish demon (Kuno[s]paston), perhaps Poseidon, who sinks ships (§67-68) and is frustrated by the angel Iameth (§69).
A spirit from the tombs, an offspring of the giants, who is destroyed by the Saviour, "a man whose name, if any one shall write it on his forehead, he will defeat me" (§70-71).
THE KOSMOKRATORES AND ASTROLOGICAL LORE
A central section of the Testament details the appearance of thirty-six spirits who identify themselves as "the thirty-six elements (stoicheia), the world-rulers (kosmokratores) of this darkness" (§72). These figures, with animalistic heads (dogs, asses, oxen), are the decani of the twelve zodiacal signs. Each decanus (lord of ten degrees of the zodiac) presides over a specific part of the human body and inflicts disease upon it; likewise, each is frustrated by a specific angel or magical formula, often written as an amulet (§73-106).
Conybeare argues this section is crucial for understanding the Testament's origins. The phrase kosmokratores tou skotous ("world-rulers of this darkness") appears in the New Testament (Paul, Eph. vi. 12). However, Conybeare asserts Paul is not the source, but is merely alluding to a complex demonological system that the Testament explains in full detail.
This system is independently attested by the pagan philosopher Celsus (c. 170 A.D.), who, in his work against Christianity (Origen, c. Celsum, viii. 58), described these same thirty-six body-ruling demons, though he used their Egyptian names (Khnoumên, Khnakoumen, etc.) while the Testament uses mock-Hebrew ones. The system is also confirmed by the Latin writer Julius Firmicus Maternus (Matheseos, lib. iv. 21), who explicitly names them decani.
This astrological belief—that unseen powers govern fate and time—also illuminates other Pauline passages. When Paul laments that the Galatians are turning back "to the weak and beggarly elements (stoicheia)" (Gal. iv. 9) and "observe days, and months, and seasons, and years" (Gal. iv. 10), he is referring precisely to this belief in the decani (called stoicheia in Testament §72) who governed human life.
Where Celsus argued for appeasing these demons and Origen[1] argued for trusting only in Jesus, the Testament presents a third, magical path: mastering them through knowledge of their countervailing angels. Conybeare likens this approach to the practices of the Essenes, who, according to Josephus (De Bello Iud., ii. 142), cherished "the names of the angels" as secret lore.
THE ARABIAN DEMON AND THE CORNER-STONE
The narrative continues with Adares, King of Arabia, sending a letter to Solomon asking for help against a devastating wind-demon named Ephippas (§117-118). Solomon sends his servant with the magic ring and a leather flask; the servant successfully traps the demon in the flask (§119-121).
When brought to Jerusalem, Ephippas is commanded to lift the massive headstone of the corner for the Temple, which the human and demon workmen had been unable to move (§118, 123). Ephippas states he is subject to the "only-ruling God, who is to be born of a virgin and crucified by the Jews" (§122).
This legend of the corner-stone, Conybeare argues, could not have been inspired by the New Testament's messianic interpretation (1 Pet. ii. 6-7; Ps. cxviii. 22; Isa. xxviii. 16). The Testament's version is "repugnant" to the NT, suggesting the Testament preserves an independent, and perhaps earlier, tradition.
Ephippas, with the aid of Abezithibod (Beelzeboul's son from the Red Sea), then brings an enormous column from the sea and suspends it in mid-air in the Temple, where the two spirits remain supporting it (§124, §127). Abezithibod identifies himself as the demon invoked by Iannes and Iambres who hardened Pharaoh's heart against Moses (§125-126).
CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS, DATING, AND JEWISH ORIGINS
Conybeare identifies several passages as "unmistakably Christian" (Fleck, p. 124, 127, 129, 138). These references, such as those to Emmanuel (644) (§52, §65), the Son of God stretched upon the cross (§65), the virgin-mother (§65, §122), and the Saviour's name written on the forehead (§71), are nonetheless highly archaic.
He notes the use of tanustheis (stretched) for crucifixion, a term used by 2nd-century writers but not the NT, and a "Patripassian" conception (identifying the suffering Saviour as the "sole-ruling God," §122), which also appears in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Levi, ch. 4). This evidence, Conybeare suggests, points to a date around 100 A.D. for these Christian additions.
The Testament shares a world of belief not just with the NT, but with magical papyri, such as one (Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 138) that mentions "the ring which Solomon laid on the tongue of Jeremiah."
Crucially, Conybeare connects the Testament to a passage in Josephus (Antiquities, viii. 2. 5), where the historian states that God taught Solomon the "art of overcoming demons" and that Solomon "composed incantations." Josephus even describes witnessing a man named Eleazar use a ring with a root under the seal—ascribed to Solomon—to draw a demon out of a man's nose. This provides strong evidence that the Testament of Solomon is, or is based on, the very collection of Jewish incantations Josephus knew in the 1st century.
Conybeare concludes the Testament is likely a Jewish text, possibly the "favourite book" of a Gnostic sect like the Ophiani (whom Celsus described as using similar demonology, Origen[2, 7], c. Celsum, vi. 30-33), which was later quoted as genuinely Solomonic in the 2nd-century Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila.
SOLOMON'S FALL AND CONCLUSION
The Testament ends with Solomon's downfall. He falls in love with a Shunammite woman and, to sleep with her, agrees to sacrifice to her gods, Moloch and Raphan (§128). He is tricked into sacrificing five grasshoppers, and "at once the Spirit of God departed from me" (§129). He becomes weak, "the sport of idols and demons," and builds temples to false gods. He concludes by stating he wrote his Testament so that readers might "attend to the last things, and not to the first" (§130).
In summary, Conybeare presents the Testament of Solomon not as a late Christian fantasy, but as a vital 1st-century Jewish magical text, deeply embedded in the astrological and demonological world of Hellenistic Judaism. This text provides essential context for understanding the beliefs of early Gnostics, the Essenes, and even the writers of the New Testament.