Odes of Solomon

About this text

Forty-two beautiful hymns of praise and mystical devotion. Some of the earliest Christian hymns outside the New Testament. Joyful, intimate, and deeply spiritual.

Significance

Among the most beautiful early Christian devotional writings. Often overlooked but profoundly moving.

How to Read This Historical Text

Odes of Solomon is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.

Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.

For more about how The Bible Companion handles public-domain writings, Bible translations, attribution, and devotional material, see the Sources & Editorial Policy.

Key excerpts

"Fill yourselves with water from the living spring of the Lord, because it has been opened for you. Come all you thirsty and drink, and rest beside the spring of the Lord."

"My heart was cloven and its flower appeared, and grace sprang up in it, and it brought forth fruit to the Lord."

Scripture cross-references

• John 7:37-38 — "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" — same invitation
• Revelation 22:17 — "Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life"

Continue exploring

This text is one of 19 in the Early Christian Writings (Non-Canonical) category, and one of 62 across the entire library.