2 HOURS of to the Testament of Solomon: The Demons Who Built the Temple

More sleep stories from the old books:    / @scrollsatmidnight   Somewhere in the eastern Roman world, somebody sat down and wrote the book that all of Solomon's rings and amulets implied. The Testament of Solomon is not a legend about a wise king. It reads like an interrogation transcript. A boy on the temple building site is losing half his wages and half his strength to something nobody can see. Solomon prays, and is handed a small ring with a seal cut into the stone. He does not use it to destroy anything. He uses it to ask questions — name, star, what do you do, and what undoes you — and he writes down every answer. What follows is a catalogue of the ancient world's fears with an address for each one: the demon who breaks marriages, the one who comes for newborns, the thirty-six powers of the sky and the exact words that send each of them away. The demons build the temple. And at the end the king who commanded them all is undone by five crushed insects and a name said out loud. This is the whole book, read slowly, for sleep. Nothing here asks anything of you. Chapters 0:00:00 The building site, and a boy who keeps getting thinner 0:05:51 A father runs out of ideas and goes to the king 0:14:04 An archangel delivers a small ring and leaves 0:23:31 The first demon gives up its name 0:32:48 The last of the angels who came down, in a chair 0:42:27 The interrogations become a filing system 0:51:31 The one who does not sleep, and visits women in childbirth 1:00:41 Thirty-six stars, and a remedy for every one 1:10:37 A queen arrives from the south and is called a witch 1:19:16 The stone that nobody, and nothing, could lift 1:29:47 The house is finished, and a father buries his son 1:39:47 Five grasshoppers, and the spirit goes out of him 1:50:12 Eight manuscripts, and two scholars who did the work 2:00:05 What grew out of it: circles, seals and seventy-two names Sources, all public domain F. C. Conybeare's translation in the Jewish Quarterly Review (1898) · Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews · Michael Rodkinson's Babylonian Talmud · S. L. MacGregor Mathers, The Key of Solomon the King (1889) · The Goetia (1904) · E. A. Wallis Budge, The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek (1922) · Josephus in William Whiston's translation · the King James Version · the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-06). C. C. McCown's critical edition and all modern translations are reported on, never quoted. Images: Wikimedia Commons (public domain and Creative Commons, credits in the pinned comment) and original artwork made for this episode. Next: another scroll, opened at midnight. Subscribe and it will be waiting the next time you cannot sleep. #sleepstory #testamentofsolomon #biblehistory