Solomon’s Demonic Wisdom

The article explores why the Testament of Solomon, an early Christian text that draws on older Jewish traditions, is attributed to Solomon. I examine the earliest attestations of the venerable tradition that Solomon had special knowledge of and mastery over demons, such as A. J. 8.42-49. The essay suggests that the origins of this Solomonic tradition should be associated with the trope, which is not prominent in the sapiential literature of the Hebrew Bible, that when Solomon prayed for wisdom, he received extensive knowledge about the natural world. Demons, while we often call them supernatural creatures, were understood in antiquity as part of the natural world.