Clarifications: an introduction to the Song of Songs
Text Song of Songs 1:1 Date 19/01/20 Place Childs Hill Baptist
I'd like us to begin this evening a series of studies in the Old Testament book The Song of Songs also known as The Song of Solomon. As some of you know, I published a commentary on it in 2006, Heavenly love. The book grew from a series of sermons I preached as far back as 2002. We are about due another visit then.
In the second-century Rabbi Aqiba said `In all the world there is nothing to equal the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.' Even if we allow for some hyperbole, the statement contrasts sharply with the attitude of many today, who have little place for this book in their thinking or practice. They hardly ever quote it, read it or reflect on it. It has suffered what has been called 'functional decanonisation'.
Such extremes remind us that the book has sometimes been controversial. Over the years, among both Jews and Christians people have questioned its place in Scripture. However, from ancient times until the present day, I hasten to add, its divine inspiration has never been in serious doubt.
What I want to do in this opening sermon is to re-introduce the book. Over the years many, many people have preached and written on it – Church Fathers, Mediaeval Schoolmen, Reformers, Puritans, others. The Westminster Assembly in the 1640s said there were at least 500 commentaries on it by then but sadly they felt most served rather to obscure the book than to make it clearer! It is certainly not an easy book to study and has often been called the most difficult book to interpret in the Old Testament. Augustine found it a puzzle. Tenth-century rabbi Saadia ben Joseph spoke of the key to its locks being lost. Matthew Henry wrote 'It seems as hard as any scripture to be made a "savour of life unto life".' In 1683 a man called Richard Coore issued a book expounding 'the most difficult texts' in Scripture. It included work on 'the two mystical books of canticles and the revelations'. A modern preacher speaks candidly of 'much furious thought and casting about in my mind to make something of it, and another of being 'stark-raving bonkers' to take it on!
Why is it difficult? Several reasons. It has 470 different Hebrew words. One percent of these (47) are found only in this book. A further 120 are unusual or fairly unusual. One reason for this is that the book is poetry, which can often be difficult anyway. Like the Book of Esther it never explicitly mentions God's name. I guess that is why (also like Esther) the New Testament never quotes it directly.
The other perceived problem with it is its subject matter. Jewish rabbis used to warn against reading it before the age of 30. When recommending Bible books for his friend Paula's daughter to read, Jerome kept this one until last. If you know it, you'll understand why. Should there be a parental advisory sticker on the book? Writing to the Ephesians, Paul certainly warns believers that there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality among them. Perhaps we tend to think of that as a prohibition against thinking about sex at all. In fact, of course, it means that we must keep all our thinking and speaking pure. Rather than hindering us from doing so, the book will help us to do just that, whatever our age or situation.
A former seminary president once claimed that in most situations the Song 'would probably not minister effectively to the entire congregation'. I think he's wrong. As racy as we might feel it is at times, there is no reason not to read it or preach it in public. It will greatly help us to think as we ought to about sexual matters and about our relationship with Christ. Four things tonight then.
1. Should it be in my Bible and if so where will I find it?
As we have said, over the years, some have questioned the book's place in Scripture. An example would be CHurch Father Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428). Another was Sebastian Castillio who Calvin had to resist in Geneva in the 16th Century. From ancient times until the present day, however, again as we have said, its divine inspiration has been upheld. It should be in the Bible.
Hebrew Bibles are in three parts – Torah, Prophets, Writings (T(or)a(h) Na(vim) kh(etuvim)). The Song is the fourth book (after Psalms, Proverbs, Job) in the Writings. These books are mostly found between 1 Chronicles and Song of Songs in English Bibles. Five books (Song, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther and Lamentations) are traditionally referred to as the Megilloth or scrolls. Modest, apparently insignificant works, they come to prominence at Jewish festivals, the Song being read at the end of Passover.
Following the Greek translation known as the Septuagint, English Bibles place it after Ecclesiastes. Some like that order. They say
Ecclesiastes does a negative, preparatory, convicting work (Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again John 4:13)
The Song is more positive, complete and edifying (... but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst John 4:14).
These two, with Job, Proverbs and certain psalms, are often spoken of as Wisdom Literature, a genre dealing chiefly with how to apply truth to daily life. One writer (Duane Garrett) says that its wisdom is obvious. It prepares the reader 'for the joy as well as the trauma of love'.
2. Who wrote it and why does it have the title it has?
The title, or superscription in our Bibles is Solomon's Song of Songs. This catchy title reflects the poetry of the original Hebrew. How old the details on this title page are we don't know. However, it seems authentic. It tells us three things.
1. Solomon
This is a book by or about Solomon or at least has something to do with him. It is dedicated to him, in his style, or one that was his favourite. It is difficult to be totally sure who the author was but there is no reason to reject out of hand the tradition it was Solomon. Also called Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord (2 Sam. 12:25), Solomon has sometimes been regarded as an Old Testament Apostle John. Some see the references to him within the book as peripheral but his name is there seven times (1:1,5; 3:7,9,11; 8:11, 12). There are also references to 'the king' (1:4, 12; 7:5). The book seems to come from a time when Israel was peaceful and united. It is worth remembering that in Hebrew the name Solomon (Sh'lomo) is similar to the word Shalom, peace, as is Shulammite (the term used for the woman, 6:13). At the start of the book the idea of peace and fulfilment is in the background.
There is something attractive about the ancient Jewish view that the Song, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are works, respectively, from Solomon's earlier, middle and later years. Henry Morris takes this view. He argues that here Solomon has in mind his first love and bride, Naamah, an Ammonitess, mother of Rehoboam (2 Chr 12:13), whom Solomon must have married in his late teens. Morris backs up this speculation by noting the reference to Engedi (1:14), just across the Dead Sea from Ammon, and the use of the word pleasant, possibly a diminutive of Naamah (1:16).
The fact Solomon later went astray in the very area of human and divine intimacy, with his many wives and his idolatrous ways, does not of itself undermine the book's value. Indeed, this factor acts as a warning sign discouraging the idea that it is easy to escape such temptations.
If we accept that Solomon is the author, the book dates from somewhere in the middle of the tenth century BC Many who deny this view, on linguistic or other grounds, want to make it much later.
2. Song
It is a song - here a pleasant and joyful thing, as songs usually are, 'to stir up the affections and to heat them' (M Henry). It is poetry, which is good for stirring the emotions but can also be useful for teaching. We all know what it is to have the words of a song in our heads (an earworm) - whether we want it there or not. In English, the book is sometimes known as 'The Song' and sometimes, slightly inaccurately, as 'Canticles' (from Latin Vulgate Canticum Canticorum, Song of Songs).
3. Song of songs
This could mean a song made up of different songs, a collection, a 'best of compilation' even. One song but with various parts. However, the phrase probably means 'the best of songs' and is similar to biblical phrases such as vanity of vanities, King of kings, Holy of holies. The Aramaic Targum says that out of ten Bible songs, including those of Moses, Deborah and Hannah, this is the ninth and best. We learn (1 Kings 4:32) that Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. Here we have the very best of them, the most beautiful.
Nick Hornby has written of popular music that 'In the end it's songs about love that endure the best.' This is certainly a song about love. It is not only Solomon's best but inspired Scripture and so doubly worthy of careful and diligent study. It also has, as suggested, the greatest theme of all - Jesus Christ, the one who is love personified.
Puritan James Durham says it deals with
- The best subject (Christ and his church)
- In its most glorious aspect (their mutual love)
- Is an excellent composition with a captivating style, and
- Comprehensively provides 'an armoury and storehouse of songs' suitable 'for every case' and `for all sorts of believers'.
3. How is it constructed and what is the story here?
Like other Wisdom Literature, the Song, as we have said, is poetry. It uses terse sentences and devices such as parallelism (developing ideas through near repetition), alliteration and assonance (repeating consonants or vowels), simile or metaphor (rhetorical picture language) and refrain. As with most poetry, especially love poetry, the writing is highly imaginative and artistic (`perhaps the largest concentration of imagery anywhere in the Bible' Tremper Longman III).
Some see the Song as a collection not a single literary unit, identifying as few as six, or as many as over 30, different poems. Others argue for a greater unity. The Song may lack the plot one expects from a story but it forms a coherent totality, the result of more than merely assembling an anthology. However the Song was put together, there is a definite cohesion, with the same characters, recurrent phrases and ideas and similar language throughout. Some writers reject the idea of linear development in the book but, while there is no consensus on details, there is some agreement on the broad narrative structure.
The order is:
first, a courtship period, which probably includes formal betrothal (1:1-3:5); second, the wedding (3:6-5:1); third, married life (5:2–8:14).
One writer (S Craig Glickman) says that all commentators accept that `the wedding procession' (3:6-11) forms a unit. He believes the lovemaking sections (4:1-5:1; 7:1-10), are almost as clear-cut. As 4:1-5:1 follows the wedding procession, has the beloved being addressed for the first time as a bride and sees her wearing a veil, it is reasonable to understand it as a wedding-night scene. The section 7:1-10 has its corollary in 7:11-8:3. The section that links 3:6-5:1 and 7:1-8:3 is 5:2-6:13. This is a 'conflict and solution narrative' that can be seen as bridging the gap between the lovemaking of 4:1-5:1 and its more intense parallel in 7:1-10. That leaves the opening and closing sections, l:1-3:5 and 8:4-14. The first is probably a courtship section rather than a flashback, the only such scene occurring near the end of the book, where the climax and resolution appear. The courtship can be split after 2:3, where there is increased intensity. Glickman thus ends up with seven or eight sections: 1:1-2:3; 2:4-3:5; 3:6-11; 4:1-5:1; 5:2-6:13; 7:1-8:4; 8:5-14 (or 8:5-9/10-14).
Some writers are uneasy about the idea that the pair marry before the end. Those who take a `spiritual' view rightly point out that the relationship between Christ and his church is most often seen in terms of betrothal here on earth, marriage in the world to come. However, Puritan Edward Pearse wrote of a threefold marriage between Christ and his people - personal, mystical, heavenly.
Personal - Christ 'the Word made flesh', the incarnation. This is foundational.
Mystical - 'being joined to the Lord and being one spirit with him'. This is our initial participation in Christ.
Heavenly - the glorious union in heaven, the consummation to come. This involves full possession and enjoyment forever. In the Song it is this 'mystical' marriage that is in mind.
So we suggest this outline:
1. Clarifications An introduction 1:1
2. Craving What people rightly want and why 1:2-4
3. Courtship Self-perceptions and desires – getting it right 1:5-8
4. Commitment Models of care, devotion and fellowship 1:9-2:2
5. Coming together The nature of true love 2:3-17
6. Crisis A lover lost, a lover sought, a lover found 3:1-5
7. Ceremony Two lovers married – a wedding procession 3:6-11
8. Consummation Praising, wooing and loving 4:1-5:1
9. Coldness Close covenant communion 5:2-8
10. Conciliation True beauty and where it is found 5:9-6:12
11. Completeness True love in its maturity 6:13-8:4
12. Continuing How to continue, commence or conclude a loving covenant relationship 8:5-15
We should also note that the Song is constructed with two main characters and a sort of chorus.
1. The beloved — the woman, the Shulammite. She appears to be a young country girl, possibly from Shunem, Lower Galilee (6:13) or Naamah the Ammonitess. She is betrothed to her lover and marries him. Over half the time she is the one who speaks (55 of 117 verses). She is an active initiator. She corresponds to a woman in betrothal and marriage, God's people in `spiritual' terms.
2. The lover - the man, King Solomon. His speeches take up just under 40% of the book. He exemplifies the role of the man in a male-female relationship and Christ's love for his people.
3. The friends - From time to time we also have comments from 'the friends, the daughters of Jerusalem'. Their contribution is small, just over 5%, although they also act as an audience at some points, a sort of sounding board for the woman's ideas. Who they are is disputed. Are they ladies-in-waiting at Solomon's court, friends of the woman, general onlookers?
The nature of Hebrew is such that, although there is sometimes a doubt, it is usually clear whether a male or a female, a single person or more than one, is speaking.
There is something here, then, not only for men and for women on the matter of courtship, love and marriage, but also for all who look on and see such things happening.
It is useful, finally, to have an idea of the storyline that, I believe, underlies the unfolding of the book. Perhaps `storyline' is too strong a term - this is a song, not a novel or play. Despite the denials of some, however, a plot is detectable. We can debate details but it seems the beloved was part of a family where the father had died, or was no longer on the scene for another reason, and where she was under the authority of her half-brothers. Naturally beautiful, she was a somewhat neglected soul, forced by her guardians to work long hours under a hot sun in the vineyards and in other agricultural pursuits. One day a handsome stranger appears and shows interest in her. This man turns out to be King Solomon. He sees her hidden beauty, wins her heart, betroths her to him, marries her, takes her into his palace. Although there comes a time when she takes his love for granted, so driving him away, they are reconciled and come to a mature love that goes on into the future with no sign of end.
4. How does it apply to me?
A key question to consider is the correct hermeneutical approach. At one extreme are those who want to take it in an entirely spiritual way. It deals exclusively, they say, with the love between God and his people. At the other extreme are those who want to take it in an entirely natural way. For them, it is all about the love between a woman and her lover, and no more.
Across this spectrum are several schools of thought. In his Introduction to the Old Testament, Professor E J Young prefers a more natural approach. It reminds us, he says, 'in particularly beautiful fashion, how pure and noble true love is'. Like others, he then wants to extend the application beyond the purity of human love to include something higher, seeing here not an allegory or even a type of Christ and his church but a subject with a higher meaning.
Without necessarily using Young's word 'parable' to denote the view, it is basically his approach that I think is best. It cuts the Gordian knot and is the approach that provides the best interpretative framework. I believe that, when he wrote, the author had in mind both a natural and a spiritual understanding, and that those who originally received it as Scripture understood it both in terms of human love and intimacy and as a portrait of the loving relationship between God and his people. One writer I read (Raewynne Whiteley) puts it like this 'Song of Songs could be understood as a superb love poem, evocative and rich in imagery. As such it sets forth a high standard for mutual love and encourages the celebration of love and beauty. However, as we understand the further dimension of God's love, it becomes an intimate invitation into a relationship with God, celebrating the goodness of love, the beauty of passion and the tenderness of God.'
But on what basis do we take this view? When we look at Proverbs, another book closely connected with Solomon, we find references to the women Wisdom and Folly and the wiles of the adulteress. It is commonly accepted that such references teach us both about fidelity in marriage and in God's covenant with his people. In a similar way, the Song works on two levels. Passages such as Psalm 45; Isaiah 62:4-5; Hosea 1-3 and Malachi 2:14 do the same. When Paul speaks to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:22-25, we recall how he immediately moves to the subject of Christ and his church: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy... He adds, This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Here is a clue to a full understanding of the Song. It speaks not only about the important matter of human love between man and woman but also the mysterious intimacy that exists, and that must be cultivated, between true believers and their Lord and Saviour. Surely it is the sort of thing we find in the Song Paul has in mind when he writes for example (2 Cor 11:2) I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
For most of us, the areas of sexuality and spirituality are ones we instinctively shy away from having scrutinised but it is good to have these areas exposed to Scripture. A study of this ancient book is crucially needed in our day in both these areas.
First, because in this modern world of mass media, through advertising, cinema, television and the Internet, we are inundated with false mages of love, sex and marriage. We are bombarded with misleading ideas and, even if we keep our minds as pure as we ought, it is still very easy for inaccurate concepts to worm their way in and have their debilitating effect on us. Some have spoken of the 'saturation of virtually all channels of communication by sexual imagery of an increasingly explicit kind'. All of us - virgins or not, single, married, divorced or widowed, celibate or sexually active, young or old, male or female - need to be crystal clear on this vital subject.
Secondly, there is the vital issue of intimacy with Jesus Christ. When first converted, Jonathan Edwards spent a lot of time with the Song because it spoke to him so much of Christ's 'loveliness and beauty'. My other hope is that by looking at the book once again it will prompt a similar reaction in us. The book can helps us to see how lovely the Lord Jesus is, how attractive, how appealing. I want you to fall for him and fall before him. This book can help revive and rekindle our first love for him, where such a renaissance is needed. If we see again something of Christ's beauty and glory, his comeliness and splendour, we will be drawn to him. The Song of Songs can be of tremendous help to us in this direction. Let's pray it will be over the coming weeks.
