The “Song of Songs,” otherwise known
as the “Song of Solomon,” is an example of ancient Near Eastern love poetry
that has been utilized to symbolize YHWH’s relationship with His people. The
title, “Song of Songs,” is actually a superlative in Hebrew, meaning “The
Greatest Song.” It is this superlative that helps decide the question
concerning whether the Song is meant to be a literal description of desire
between a man and a woman or it is to be understood as a symbolic description
of God’s pursuit of His people and their pursuit of Him. Along these lines,
what aids us in understanding that it is the latter rather than the former is
the fact that, if taken literally, the Song is only about a couple of really
good looking people who are lusting after one another. This is because the
desire of the man for the woman is only in terms of her physical appearance.
The only characteristic mentioned of her beyond the physical is that she is
chaste. Likewise, the main characteristics of the man that the woman desires
are physical, although she mentions a few other attributes concerning his
riches. Although there is nothing wrong with lifting up the physical desire of
a couple for one another, it hardly would be titled, “The Greatest Song” in a
culture and Scripture that has numerous songs about God’s love and protection
for His people. The greatest song in a religious context such as this would be
a song about God. Hence, it is far more likely that it is being used in
Scripture as a symbolic representation of the relationship between God and His
people (a metaphor used quite often throughout Scripture). What would also be
problematic is that the young couple seems to have sex before marriage,
which would not have been talked about as a good thing in ancient Israel.
However, it makes for the perfect analogy of God and His people who passionately
pursue one another, not willing to wait until the day of the wedding.
Theology: What the text seems to do instead is display God’s relentless
pursuit of His people. He pursues them as an infatuated young man pursues a young
woman he is in absolute lust and love for. He seeks to marry her and make their
relationship permanent. He prepares a place for her to dwell with Him in
intimate fellowship. He chooses her over all of the other maidens. She is His
jewel. He, therefore, has set His love upon her. Because of this, even the
other maidens, i.e., other nations, exalt God because of His love and
faithfulness to His people. However, sometimes God is hidden, and the way to find
Him is through the shepherds. If one lives by them they will eventually find
God and be found by God.
Ethics: God’s people respond to God’s love by exalting Him as the most
desirable of all things. They praise Him for His pursuit of them. They exalt
Him for His great strength to protect them. They, therefore, desire to be with
God as a young woman desires and pursues a young man with whom she is
infatuated. She, therefore, relentlessly pursues Him, looking for Him everywhere,
inviting Him to take her into an intimate communion with Him. She finds the
greatest of pleasures in communion with Him.
In her pursuit of Him, she also finds
Him mysteriously not there sometimes when she looks for Him. She remains
faithful nonetheless, rather than letting her affections run off after another.
Likewise, when God seems absent His people are to remain faithful and not
pursue the world in these times, but rather continue to pursue Him by holding
Him up as their ultimate love. Eventually, they will see their beloved God
again if they stay close to His shepherds, and never give up the search.
The biggest lesson to take from the
book is that a relationship with God is reciprocal. It is not just about God
pursuing His people. It is also about their pursuing God. Without one or the
other, there is no relationship with Him. In other words, a relationship takes
two parties pursuing one another. God will relentlessly pursue those who He
sets His sights on, but that will be proven out by those who relentlessly pursue
Him in return. One who does not pursue another never really belongs to the
other. This is the lesson of “The Greatest Song.”
Please don’t stop with Song of Songs, do Fifty Shades of Grey next.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t theology wonderful?
My breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
ReplyDelete– Song of Sol. 8:10
Laban had two daughters: and the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel.
– Gen. 29:16-17
Apparently Rachel was not only beautiful but was also “well favored,” which was the same terms employed by the author of the Song of Solomon when describing “breasts… like towers.”
Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times… Why embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
– Proverbs 5:19-20
Also note what Marvin H. Pope wrote in his article, “The Bible, Euphemism and Dysphemism In” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. I:
Poetic allusions to the most intimate of female charms are sometimes overlooked or studiously ignored by translators. In the Song of Songs 2:17 the lady invites her lover to be like a gazelle on “cleft mount(s)” and in 8:14 the invitation is to “spice mound(s).”
The lady of the Song speaks of her unguarded vineyard (1:6), and there is frequent reference (2:16; 4:5; 5:1; 6:2) to the garden(s) where the lover grazes, not among “lilies” (as traditionally understood), but on the lotus, an ancient and famous sexual symbol. The body part praised as a rounded crater (mixing bowl) never to lack mix (7:2) is hardly the navel but a receptacle not far below. The all-spice part(s) of the lady (4:13) are not “shoots” but a “groove” or “conduit” [the vulva].
Song of Songs 5:4 states, “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him” which is suggestive of intercourse…”Hand” appears as a euphemism in another part of the Bible which states, “You have loved their bed, You have looked on their manhood [literal Hebrew, ‘looked on their hand’].” (Isaiah 57:8, NASB) And the Dead Sea scrolls refer to a member of the Hebrew religious community at Qumran being fined for exposing his “hand.”
There is even sexual suggestiveness in the use of the word “couch” in Song of Songs 1:12-13 (which states, “While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.”–RSV). The double entendre meaning of “couch” is illuminated by Rabbi Judah’s ancient remark that Jerusalem men were lewd: “One would say to his colleague, ‘On what did you dine today? On well-kneaded bread or on bread not kneaded; on white wine or dark wine; on a broad couch or a narrow couch; with a good companion or a poor companion?’” “All these queries,” Hisda explained, refer “to fornication.”
Also note the following verses:
ReplyDeleteLet us get up early to the vineyard… There will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell and at our gates [or doors] are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
– Song of Songs 7:12-13
“Gates” or “doors” are euphemisms for the genitalia. And the two-pronged “mandrake” root is crotch-shaped. Since ancient times “mandrakes” have been related to sexual potency. Take Genesis chapter 30 in which Jacob’s barren wife tells him she has “hired him [a child] with mandrake.” Speaking of “pleasant fruits,” notice how “breasts” are described as “clusters of grapes,” and be sure to keep an eye on further appearances of “fruit” in the Song of Solomon:
Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters of grapes… I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine.
– Song of Songs 7:7-8
As the apple tree among the trees of the world, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
– Song of Songs 2:3
Fellatio?
The smell of your nose, like apples.
– Song of Songs 7:8
Translated literally it’s puzzling. “Noses” do not “smell like apples.” The Anchor Bible dissects the linguistics, concluding that this refers to the scent of a woman’s “vulva.” The reference to “apples” also mirrors verse 2:3 where the female “sits in the shadow” of the male’s “apple tree” and finds his “fruit” “sweet” to her “taste.” Should not her “fruit” smell equally as “sweet” to him?
Your navel [literal Hebrew, “groove” or “slit”] a rounded crater, may it never lack punch!
– Song of Songs 7:2
Not to leave out...
ReplyDeleteThe Patriarch’s Nuts: Concerning the Testicular Logic of Biblical Hebrew
(Great article!)
http://www.jmmsweb.org/issues/volume5/number2/pp41-52
And
https://redeeminggod.com/boners-in-the-bible/
Ed, do you think your points contradict or support what I said above? I’m wasn’t sure.
ReplyDelete