The Odes of Solomon for Awakening: A Commentary on the Mystical Wisdom of the Earliest Christian Hymns and Poems (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781955046039)

"Both Hierodeacon Simeon's lovely translation and Abbot George's deeply insightful commentary do great justice to this most ancient and exquisite work. It will rightfully hold an honored place in any seriously spiritual library." -Brother Julian-Ozana

With penetrating insight, Abbot George Burke illumines the practical value of the Odes of Solomon for spiritual seekers, and the timelessness of these ancient writings. With a unique perspective of a lifetime of study and practice of both Eastern and Western spirituality, Abbot George mines the treasures of the Odes and presents them in an easily intelligible fashion for those wishing to put these priceless teachings into practice.

The Odes of Solomon is a great work of mystical depth, divine insight, and spiritual illumination and is, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the truly great spiritual and literary discoveries of the Twentieth Century. But unlike the Dead Sea Scrolls which were dramatically discovered by shepherds in a desert cave, the Odes were prosaically found in neglected manuscripts gathering dust on the shelves of London libraries.

Who wrote the Odes, and when?

Although the identity of the author of the Odes remains a mystery, the closeness of the tone and content of the Odes to the tone and content of the writings of St. John the Evangelist, together with St. Ignatius' familiarity with and use of the Odes (St. Ignatius was a disciple of St. John) suggest that the Odes could have grown up in the spiritual soil prepared by St. John and his disciples, in or around Antioch.

Spiritual translation and commentary

More than a mere scholarly, cultural or historical interpretation of the Odes, both the translator and the author delve into their deep and practical spiritual content. The translator says of the Odes, "many of the scholars' difficulties arise from the fact that they do not grasp the levels of mystical experience the Odist is expressing. Their erudition belongs to the external and exoteric spheres, and the author of the Odes is writing out of the depth of a mystical experience which belongs to an entirely different realm."