1. The Song of Songs

2. Introduction
The Song of Songs has long puzzled readers because its themes seem to have nothing to do with the religious concerns of the rest of the Bible.
How it came to be classed among the sacred works called "The Writings" in the Hebrew Bible is unknown.
No way of knowing the precise circumstances under which or for which the Song of Songs was composed.

3. Introduction Written by a poet, he or she, probably around 400 BCE.
Collection of poems, a single composition?
Origin - sacral sexual rites of ancient Near Eastern fertility rites. Who knows?
The artistic importance of these verses lies in their intrinsic beauty and in the enormous influence they have had on later writers, painters, and musicians.

4. Responses by Jewish rabbis
Jewish rabbis had great difficulty seeing how what seemed to be a purely secular love song could be included in the sacred canon.
The earliest rabbis are certain that it cannot possibly mean what is says literally.
If it is among the sacred books, it must have a sacred meaning.

5. Responses by Jewish rabbis
Some rabbis even argued that as the most mysterious of books, it must have the most profoundly spiritual of meanings.
One rabbi proclaimed:
"He who trills his voice in the chanting of the Song of Songs and treats it as a secular song has no share in the world to come.“

6. Medieval Christians
Early Christian scholars followed the rabbinical lead by agreeing that these verses could not possibly depict worldly love.
For Medieval Christians purity was associated with sexual renunciation, and all expressions of bodily pleasure--including sexual expression--were considered evil.

7. Medieval Christians
One bishop recommended that monks and priests not be allowed to study the book while they were still young and prone to inflamed passions.
Gregory of Nyssa, prominent Greek Bishop: "Those who interpret it literally are obscene and will be punished in Hell. Book dealing with an exchange between the Soul and God."

8. Medieval Christians
Origen of Alexandria (ca ) wrote a 10-volume commentary on the Song of Songs. In the prologue he warned that the Song of Songs is safe reading only for mature persons no longer troubled by sexual desires: "I advise and counsel everyone who is not yet rid of the vexations of flesh and blood and has not ceased to feel the passion of his bodily nature, to refrain completely from reading this little book and the things that will be said about it."

9. Allegorical interpretations
The consensus of first-century Jewish scholars was that the poem was an allegory of God's love for his people, Israel.
Some Christians thought that the Song of Songs voiced Christ's love for his Church.
The eventual Christian consensus was that they concerned God's love for the Virgin Mary.

10. Allegorical interpretations
In the Song of Songs all erotic imagery was allegorized as the yearning of the soul for union with God.
The allegorical interpretation continued its dominance in Roman Catholicism until very recently.
Was also generally accepted among Protestant scholars until the nineteenth century.
Luther, though breaking formally with the allegorical method, still criticized those who attempted to interpret the song literally.

11. Literal interpretation
Allegorical interpretation has fallen out of fashion.
A few interpreters hold that the Song of Songs is quite simply a celebration in poetic fashion of the bliss of romantic and sexual love between a man and a woman.
Male and female expression of the joy of sexuality within an established marital relationship.

12. Literal interpretation
The Song of Songs should be understood literally as an expression of the romantic and sexual relationship between two lovers.
Fusion of erotic and spiritual.
Reveal to us many interesting aspects of ancient Jewish attitudes toward sexuality.
Biblical guide to married love?

13. Who are the characters? A man and a woman.
Modern literary scholars generally agree that the brief references to Solomon were added after the fact to rationalize its place in the scriptural canon.
Solomon is hardly a model of faithfulness in marriage!
The language and style of the work indicate that it was written at least 500 years after his time.

14. Who are the characters?
The Song of Songs begins and closes with the woman speaking.
She initiates most of the meetings.
She is just as active in the lovemaking as the man.
She is just as eloquent in describing the beauty of her lover as he is describing hers.
Was the Song written by a man or a woman? We don’t know.

15. Recurrent themes

16. Mutuality of love and attraction
The woman says, "I am my lover's and for me is his desire" (7:10). She acknowledges the mutuality of love.
The couple find mutual attraction in the physical beauty and inward character qualities of each other.

17. Physical closeness
Throughout the Song the fact of physical closeness is obviously important as the lovers speak and cling to each other: "His left hand is under my head, and his right arm embraces me" (2:6; 8:3).

18. Desire for the beloved
In Song 1:7 the desire of the beloved for, a rendezvous with her lover is clear ("Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock ... ?" )
“Hurry, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or stag on the mountains of perfume!” (8:14).
Underline the power of her passion.

19. Desire for the beloved
The dreaming woman searches anxiously for her lover:
Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not....
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone....
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.

20. Sexual union
In the Song of Songs sexual intercourse occurs only within the context of the marriage covenant.
Sexual union is thereby reserved and preserved for husband and wife after marriage.
The groom compares his bride to a garden.
The bride invites her groom to come and partake of the fruits of her garden.

21. Sexual union The groom accepts her invitation.
He confesses that he has been looking forward to exploring the lush growth she has cultivated.
Lovemaking for the sake of love, not procreation, is the message of the Song.

22. Sexual union
“As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” "do not bestir love,/before it wishes"

23. Virginity and purity
The man likens his bride to a garden during the wedding ceremony proper. She is a locked garden:
“A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a garden locked, a fountain sealed.”
Modern commentators generally concur that here "the locked garden“ denotes virginity.
The "locked garden" (surrounded by a wall with a locked gate) has often been read as a metaphor for the woman's body.

24. The lover’s physical beauty
The lovers extol each other's beauty in language that is erotic and sensual.
Round red cheeks compared to pomegranates.
Lengthy necks.