Psalms 152 to 155 are additional

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

found in two Syriac biblical manuscripts and several manuscripts of 's "Book of Discipline", first identified by the orientalist librarian

Giuseppe Simone Assemani Giuseppe Simone Assemani ( Classical Syriac : ܝܵܘܣܸܦ ܒܲܪ ܫܸܡܥܘܿܢ , ( ''Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani'', , ; July 27, 1687 – January 13, 1768) was a librarian, Lebanese Maronite orientalist, and Catholic bishop. For his efforts, an ...

in 1759. Together with Psalm 151 they are also called the Five

Apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

Psalms of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

or the "Five Syriac Psalms". In addition to Psalm 151, Psalms 154-155 were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls in 11QPs^a, though 151-155 all were likely composed in Hebrew.

Psalms 152-155

Psalm 152

"Spoken by David when he was contending with the lion and the wolf which took a sheep from his flock."Wright, W. (1887),
Some Apocryphal Psalms in Syriac
, '' Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology'', 9, 257–266 This text has survived only in Syriac James H. Charlesworth with James A. Sanders, ''More Psalms of David (Third Century B.C.-First Centiry A.D.). A New Translation and Introduction'', in James H. Charlesworth (1985), ''The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha'', Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2), p. 609 although the original language may have been

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. The text has six verses, the tone is non-rabbinical, and it was probably composed in Israel during the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

(c. 323–31 BC).

Psalm 153

"Spoken by David when returning thanks to God, who had delivered him from the lion and the wolf and he had slain both of them." This text has survived only in Syriac. Date and provenance are like Psalm 152. It is listed as the fifth of the apocryphal psalms by Wright.

Psalm 154

This Psalm survived in Syriac biblical manuscripts and also was found in

, in the

Dead Sea scroll The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Cav ...

11QPs(a)154 (also known as ''11Q5'' – The Great Psalms Scroll), a first-century AD manuscript. It is listed as the second of the apocryphal psalms by Wright who calls it "The Prayer of Hezekiah when enemies surrounded him". Gurtner suggests that this psalm may have sectarian resonances: the "many ones" (154:1) and the "community" (154:4) may refer to the people and community at Qumran.

Psalm 155

This psalm is extant in Syriac and was also found in the

Dead Sea Scroll The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Cav ...

11QPs(a)155 (also called ''11Q5'' – The Great Psalms Scroll), a first-century CE

manuscript. Because the psalm is a generic psalm of repentance it is not possible to suggest date and origin, save that its origin is clearly pre-Christian. The psalm has been compared to Psalms 22 and 51 as well as the

Prayer of Manasseh The Prayer of Manasseh is a short, penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah. The majority of scholars believe that the Prayer of Manasseh was written in Greek (while a minority argues for a Semitic original) in the second or firs ...

References

External links

5 Apocryphal Psalms of David
{{DEFAULTSORT:Psalms 152-155 Dead Sea Scrolls Jewish apocrypha Jewish texts in Aramaic Jewish texts Old Testament pseudepigrapha Psalms Texts in Hebrew Texts in Syriac