27. I Solomon said unto him: "Beelzeboul, what is thy employment?" And he answered me: "I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants[1] of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies[2], and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and [desire for] murder, and for wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world."
28. So I said to him: "Bring to me thy child, who is, as thou sayest, in the Red Sea." But he said to me: "I will not bring him to thee. But there shall come to me another demon, called Ephippas. Him will I bind, and he will bring him up from the deep unto me." And I said to him: "How comes thy son to be in the depth of the sea, and what is his name?" And he answered me: "Ask me not, for thou canst not learn from me. However, he will come to thee by my command, and will tell thee openly."
29. I said to him: "Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated." And he answered: "By the holy and precious name of the Almighty God, called by the Hebrews by a row of numbers, of which the sum is 644, and among the Greeks it is Emmanue1[3]. And if one of the Romans adjure me by the great name of the power Eleêth, I disappear at once."
30. I Solomon was astounded when I heard this; and I ordered him to saw up Theban[4] marbles. And when he began to saw the marbles, the other demons cried out with a loud voice, howling because of their king Beelzeboul.
31. But I Solomon questioned him, saying: "If thou wouldst gain a respite, discourse to me about the things in heaven." And Beelzeboul said: "Hear, O king, if thou burn gum, and incense, and bulbs of the sea[5], with nard and saffron, and light seven lamps in an earthquake[6], thou wilt firmly fix thy house. And if, being pure[7],- ↑ ἐκλεκτοὺς δούλους.
- ↑ αἱρέσεων κακῶν
- ↑ The text must be faulty, for the word Emmanuel is the Hebrew. The sum 644 is got by adding together the Greek numbers. Cp. note 4, p. 30.
- ↑ We hear of Pentelic marble in Strabo, but the reference in the text may be to Thebes in Egypt.
- ↑ Perhaps the "sea-bulbs" were the balls of hair-like texture which the sea washes up on Mediterranean shores, e.g. in Tunisia.
- ↑ εἰν σεισμῷ. Perhaps ἐν εἰρμῷ, "in a row," should be read.
- ↑ καθαρὸς ὤν. For the condition here insisted on cp. Dieterich, Abraxas,
