Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.7
vid played 'in order that the evil spirit might depart from him'. 11Q5 (HQPs a )
27 describes the various psalms which David composed, including 'songs to be
sung over the afflicted (hpgo'im)' (27.9-10). 248
Solomon too had a reputation as a maker of spells, deduced, presumably,
from his knowledge of plants described in 1 Kgs. 4.33. The Wisdom of Solomon
develops the thought: Solomon knew 'the powers of spirits (pneumatön bias)'
and 'the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots' (Wis. 7.20). And Josephus
takes up the same tradition: 'God granted him knowledge of the art used against
demons for the benefit and healing of men. He also composed incantations
(epödas) by which illnesses are relieved, and left behind forms of exorcisms
(tropous exorkoseon) with which those possessed by demons drive them out,
never to return' (Ant. 8.45). Dennis Duling notes a recension of Psalm 91
(HQPs a ) which contains Solomon's name just before the term 'demons' in column
I. 249 Such legends are greatly elaborated in the later Testament of Solomon,
250 but the evidence that Solomon's reputation had already grown in this direction
at the time of Jesus is clear enough. 251
The point of course is that such a development may have influenced the expectation
regarding the royal Messiah. That the eschatological 'son of David'
might have power over evil spirits, like the first son of David, 252 would probably
not cause too much surprise for many of Jesus' contemporaries.
During the second half of the twentieth century scholars placed more emphasis
on the miracle-working power of the expected prophet. The history of Is-
248. Pgo'im is better translated 'afflicted or stricken' (i.e., by evil spirits) than by 'possessed'
(Garcia Martinez). My colleague Loren Stuckenbruck notes that several of the instances
of 'possession' in Second Temple literature are more accurately defined as 'affliction' (referring
to Jub. 10.7-14; ps.-Philo 60.1; lQapGen 20.16-17; cf. 1 En. 15.12).
249. OTP 1.945.
250. See further D. C. Duling, 'Solomon, Exorcism, and the Son of David', HTR 68
(1975) 235-52; also his Introduction to 'Testament of Solomon', OTP 1.944-51; also 'The
Eleazar Miracle and Solomon's Magical Wisdom in Flavius Josephus's Antiquitates Judaicae
8.42-49', HTR 78 (1985) 1-25. The Testament claims to be written by Solomon 'to the sons of
Israel . . . that they might know the powers of the demons and their forms, as well as the name
of the angels by which they are thwarted' (15.14). The Testament is not usually dated before the
third century, but probably contains earlier material (Duling, ABD 6.118).
251. See also K. Berger, 'Die königlichen Messiastraditionen des Neuen Testaments',
NTS 20 (1973-74) 1-44 (here 3-9). Meier, Marginal Jew 2.737 n. 46, justly criticizes C. Burger,
Jesus als Davidssohn (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1970) for failing to take up the
question of Solomon and Jewish traditions about him as an exorcist and healer in his examination
of the Jewish background of the 'son of David' title.
252. There is a debate as to whether Solomon was known at the time of Jesus as 'son of
David' (as in Prov. 1.1; Eccl. 1.1; T. Sol. title; 1.7; 5.10; 20.1). This may be relevant, since nowhere
in the Jesus tradition is the name 'son of David' associated with an exorcism (contrast
Mark 10.47-48/Matt. 20.31-32; Matt. 9.27; 12.23; 15.22).
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