Irish nice summary there, maybe the reason they are not referenced more is because they are hard to get a grip on and raise more questions than answers. also there is no existential crisis in the odes despite all the drama. there's nothing to blame it all on, no alienation or something like that, scholars think 'ah nothing useful here'!
“Grace” is a technical term in Romans, but rather generic here
i think it's a technical term in the odes. 24 mentions
In Ode 33 Grace personified personally preaches to a crowd "Obey me and be saved, for I am proclaiming unto you the grace of God"
There's a thumping grace bassline in the odes
The apocalyptic quality of NT texts, and their elaborate gestures at a Christ “event,” are not evident in the odes. (I say this in spite of the BS of Charlesworth, Hurtado, and other theologically motivated readers of the Odes who want to insert them into a Christian scheme and historiography. The usual apologists on this forum can spare us the silliness of refering the “orans” prayer language of Ode 42, etc being a reference or allusion to Calvary.)
Sure the Odes are pretty much immanent, aligning with that Thomas saying "the kingdom is spread out already", if the apocalypse comes just put the kettle on and make a cup of tea? The mind is supposed to be in a place of rest far above the anthill of the earth, that type of outlook. Not what is found in Paul that's for sure, .. a 'Christ' event, well, some kind of revelation but a modest unnamed messiah i suppose, less important than the revelation itself - loved on a personal level maybe while the revelation is what saves the saviour
(this fits in with a theory i got that the Johannine Jesus is teaching he was a man)
as for the cross it does appear in the odes but without any (or hardly any) salvationary significance, almost completely undeveloped here
its all work in progress for me. i'm beginning to lean toward them actually being Jewish, Christian and Gnostic at the same time - by intent, that the author believed this to be entirely compatible. Obviously the 'Christian' and 'Gnosis' in them is not developed far enough yet to make that impossible, it only seems impossible because we see the developed forms of those two but even so, it would require effort on the authors part to believe in this compatibility. i get the feeling this might be the authors own theology in contrast to the desire to split off and separate. the odes seem keen to keep everything under one roof despite obvious pressure and they might be the only person doing that!
i see in the author someone who may have developed their own ideas just as Paul did but in the opposite direction and tried to see the truth in everything. this is a different perspective from Thomas maybe. it could be the Odes are a development of Thomas. but i'm convinced certain elements of it got transmitted into Christianity via Paul and the gospels and i think those elements stand out when you look for them in the NT