Song of Songs
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The Song of Songs (
The two lovers are in harmony, each desiring the other and rejoicing in
Marvin H. Pope in his highly-regarded commentary argues that the Song would have been ritually performed as part of ancient fertility cults and that it is "suggestive of orgiastic revelry".[7] Though scholars have differed in assessing when it was written, with estimates ranging from the 10th to 2nd century BCE, linguistic analysis suggest an origin in 3rd century.
In modern Judaism, the Song is read on the Sabbath during the Passover, which marks the beginning of the grain-harvest as well as commemorating the Exodus from Biblical Egypt.[8] Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel. In Christianity, it is read as an allegory of Christ and his bride, the Church.[8][9]
Structure
There is widespread consensus that, although the book has no plot, it does have what can be called a framework, as indicated by the links between its beginning and end.[10] Beyond this, however, there appears to be little agreement: attempts to find a chiastic structure have not found acceptance, and analyses dividing the book into units have employed various methods, yielding diverse conclusions.[11]
The following indicative schema is from Kugler and Hartin's An Introduction to The Bible:[12]
- Introduction (1:1–6)
- Dialogue between the lovers (1:7–2:7)
- The woman recalls a visit from her lover (2:8–17)
- The woman addresses the daughters of Zion (3:1–5)
- Sighting a royal wedding procession (3:6–11)
- The man describes his lover's beauty (4:1–5:1)
- The woman addresses the daughters of Jerusalem (5:2–6:4)
- The man describes his lover, who visits him (6:5–12)
- Observers describe the woman's beauty (6:13–8:4)
- Appendix (8:5–14)
Summary
The introduction calls the poem "the song of songs",
The woman recalls a visit from her lover in the springtime. She uses imagery from a shepherd's life, and she says of her lover that "he pastures his flock among the lilies".[15]
The woman again addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, describing her fervent and ultimately successful search for her lover through the night-time streets of the city. When she finds him she takes him almost by force into the chamber in she was conceived[a]. She reveals that this is a dream, seen on her "bed at night" and ends by again warning the daughters of Jerusalem "not to stir up love until it is ready".[15]
The next section reports a royal wedding procession. Solomon is mentioned by name, and the daughters of Jerusalem are invited to come out and see the spectacle.[15]
The man describes his beloved: Her eyes are like doves, her hair is like a flock of goats, her teeth like shorn ewes, and so on from face to breasts. Place-names feature heavily: her neck is like the Tower of David, her smell like the scent of Lebanon. He hastens to summon his beloved, saying that he is ravished by even a single glance. The section becomes a "garden poem", in which he describes her as a "locked garden" (usually taken to mean that she is chaste). The woman invites the man to enter the garden and taste the fruits. The man accepts the invitation, and a third party tells them to eat, drink, "and be drunk with love".[15]
The woman tells the daughters of Jerusalem of another dream. She was in her chamber when her lover knocked. She was slow to open, and when she did, he was gone. She searched through the streets again, but this time she failed to find him and the watchmen, who had helped her before, now beat her. She asks the daughters of Jerusalem to help her find him, and describes his physical good looks. Eventually, she admits her lover is in his garden, safe from harm, and committed to her as she is to him.[15]
The man describes his beloved; the woman describes a rendezvous they have shared. (The last part is unclear and possibly corrupted.)[15]
The people praise the beauty of the woman. The images are the same as those used elsewhere in the poem, but with an unusually dense use of place-names, e.g., pools of Hebron, gate of Bath-rabbim, tower of Damascus, etc. The man states his intention to enjoy the fruits of the woman's garden. The woman invites him to a tryst in the fields. She once more warns the daughters of Jerusalem against waking love until it is ready.
The woman compares love to death and
Composition
The poem seems to be rooted in festive performance, and connections have been proposed with the "sacred marriage" of
Debate continues on the unity or disunity of the book. Those who see it as an anthology or collection point to the abrupt shifts of scene, speaker, subject matter and mood, and the lack of obvious structure or narrative. Those who hold it to be a single poem point out that it has no internal signs of composite origins, and view the repetitions and similarities among its parts as evidence of unity. Some claim to find a conscious artistic design underlying it, but there is no agreement among them on what this might be. The question, therefore, remains unresolved.[24]
As an erotic poem
The consensus among scholars of the Bible is that the Song of Songs is an erotic poem, and not an elaborate metaphor.[25][26][27][28]
According to Yale University Press, "Marvin H. Pope suggests that the poem is what it seems, an unabashed celebration of sexual love, both human and divine, rooted in the fertility religions of the ancient Near East, the sacred marriage rite, and the funeral feast."[29][30]
Others attribute it "theo-eroticism".[31] Or speak about "the beautiful poem of erotic love".[32]
Barnabas Aspray wrote "[T]he Song of Songs in its literal sense is nothing more than a celebration of erotic love between two human beings."[33]
The historian and rabbi Shaye J. D. Cohen summarises:
Song of Songs [is a] collection of love poems sung by him to her and her to him: [– –] While authorship is ascribed to Solomon in its first verse and by traditionalists, [modern Bible scholarship] argues that while the book may contain ancient material, there is no evidence that Solomon wrote it.
[– –] What is a collection of erotic poems doing in the Hebrew Bible? Indeed, some ancient rabbis were uneasy about the book’s inclusion in the canon.[34][35]
Canonisation and interpretation
Judaism
The Song was accepted into the Jewish canon of scripture in the 2nd century CE, after a period of controversy in the 1st century. This period of controversy was a result of many rabbis seeing this text as merely "secular love poetry, a collection of love songs gathered around a single theme",
Other rabbinic scholars who have employed allegorical exegesis in explaining the meaning of Song of Songs are Tobiah ben Eliezer, author of Lekach Tov,[43] and Zechariah ha-Rofé, author of Midrash ha-Hefez.[44]
Song of Songs is one of the overtly mystical Biblical texts for the
Through beneficent deeds and
In modern Judaism, certain verses from the Song are read on
Christianity
The literal subject of the Song of Songs is love and sexual longing between a man and a woman, and it has little (or nothing) to say about the relationship of God and man; in order to find such a meaning it was necessary to turn to allegory, treating the love that the Song celebrates as an analogy for the love between God and Church.
Over the centuries the emphases of interpretation shifted, first reading the Song as a depiction of the love between Christ and Church, the 11th century adding a moral element, and the 12th century understanding of the Bride as the
In modern times the poem has attracted the attention of feminist biblical critics, with Phyllis Trible's foundational "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation" treating it as an exemplary text, and the Feminist Companion to the Bible series edited by Athalya Brenner and Carole Fontaine devoting two volumes to it.[52][53]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints specifically rejects the Song of Solomon as inspired scripture.[54]
Islam
In his book Demystifying Islam, Muslim apologist Harris Zafar presents the traditional Muslim contention that the Song of Songs mentions Muhammad by name in Chapter 5, Verse 16. Whereas most translators will render the first words of that verse in terms such as "His mouth is most sweet, he is altogether lovely," Zafar argues that the last word (Hebrew: מַחֲּמַדִּים, romanized: maḥămaddîm, lit. 'lovely'), with the plural suffix "-im" (which is occasionally used to indicate intensity, and is normally understood to do so for both of the adjectives in this verse),[55][56][57] expressing respect and greatness (as the plural form seems to do in the common Hebrew appellation of God, Elohim (pl. maiestatus)), should be translated "Muhammad", for the translation "His mouth is most sweet; he is Muhammad".[58][b]
Musical settings
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2019) |
Excerpts from the book have inspired composers to write vocal and instrumental compositions, including:
- "Chi e costei", a setting of Song of Songs 6:10 in Il Primo libro delle musiche a 1–2 voci e basso continuo (1618) by Francesca Caccini
- A'l Mishkavi Baleylot for soprano and harp (1992) and Spring Calls for soprano and ensemble (2006) by Lior Navok
- Alex Weiser's After Shir Hashirim (2017) draws its inspiration from the text and cantillation of the Song of Songs.[59]
- Andrew Rose Gregory of The Gregory Brothers released the album The Song of Songs, with words and music based on the biblical text, with The Color Red Band in 2011.[60]
- Animals As Leaders's self-titled album includes a track titled "Song of Solomon".
- Asma Asmaton from the album Rapsodies by Vangelis and Irene Papas.[61]
- Κραταία ως θάνατος αγάπη in the album Magnus Eroticus (Μεγάλος Ερωτικός) by Manos Hadjidakis.[62]
- C'est un jardin secret... for solo viola (1976) by Tristan Murail
- Canticum Canticorum by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: 29 five-part a cappella pieces in fourth volume of motets. (1584)
- David Lang's "Just (After Song of Songs)" (2014) was premiered in 2014 by Trio Mediaeval and Garth Knox Saltarello Trio. The piece is featured in the film Youth by Paolo Sorrentino.
- Dieterich Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri: Cantata VI, Vulnerasti Cor Meum. (1680)
- Eliza Gilkyson's "Rose of Sharon" on her album "Your town tonight" is based on her reading of Song of Songs in a hotel room Gideon Bible, as explained in her intro to the song.
- Flos Campi by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a suite for solo viola, small chorus and small orchestra (1925), each movement headed by a verse from the book
- J. S. Bach's Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, while mainly based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins, also uses words and imagery from the Song of Songs.[63]
- John Zorn's "Shir Ha-Shirim" premiered in February 2008.[64] The piece is inspired by Song of Songs and is performed by an amplified quintet of female singers with female and male narrators performing the "Song of Solomon". A performance at the Guggenheim Museum in November 2008 featured choreography for paired dancers from the Khmer Arts Ensemble by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro.[65] In 2013 a new version featuring the five singers without the two narrators premièred in NYC at Alice Tully Hall and at the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival and released on the album Shir Hashirim.
- Kate Bush's "Song of Solomon" from her album The Red Shoes includes lyrics which quote and reference the Song of Songs.[66]
- Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur
- Lyudov Streicher (1888–1958) composed a musical setting for the Song of Songs.[67]
- Nightstone (1979) for voice and piano by Arnold Rosner
- Rami Bar-Niv's Uri Tsafon (Song of Songs 4, 16: Awake, North Wind) (1972)[68]
- Song of Solomon (1989) by Steve Kilbey
- Song of Solomon (2017) classical wedding suite composition for orchestra, organ and two voices by Chris M. Allport
- Subject of the Song I Hate Heaven by The Residents, which is featured in their bible inspired album Wormwood.
- Symphoniae sacrae I (1629) by Heinrich Schütz
- The chorus of Stephen Duffy's 1985 song "Kiss Me" was based on the comparison of wine to love in Song of Songs.
- The opening track "Glass" off of Bat For Lashes's 2009 album Two Suns begins with a line from the Song of Songs.[69]
In popular culture
Art
- Catherine L. Morris' 2009 collection The Song of Songs: A Love Poem Illustrated presents a series of paintings that visualize the book.[70]
- Egon Tschirch's (de) "Song of Solomon", a 1923 expressionist nineteen-picture cycle, was rediscovered in 2015.
- Marc Chagall's "Song of Songs", a five-painting cycle, is housed in the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice.
Theater and film
- In Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Wrath, a film about sexual repression in a puritanical Protestant family, the first few verses of Song of Songs chapter 2 are read aloud by the daughter Anne, but soon after her father forbids her to continue. The chapter's verse paraphrases Anne's own amorous adventures and desires.[71]
- Song 2:15: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes."[72]
- In The Woman in the Window (1944), the character played by Edward G. Robinson reads The Song of Songs prior to his romantic entanglement with Joan Bennett.
- Several works have taken their name from the phrase "the voice of the turtle", found in 2:10-2:13.
- The 1986 Malayalam classic film Namukku Parkkan Munthirithoppukal uses several verses from the Song of Songs which forms one of its major plot elements.
- The 2014 film The Song is based on the Song of Songs.[73]
- S. Ansky's play The Dybbuk contains a recitation of the Song of Songs by Khanan's father when he is a young yeshiva boy. This becomes a major plot point in the play as it allows for the two lovers to identify the promise of marriage that their fathers made as classmates before departing.
Novels
- In Elizabeth Smart's novel of prose poetry By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, several lines of the Song are spoken by the protagonist while she undergoes police questioning about her relationship with her companion, poet George Barker.
- Leon Garfield's masterwork The Pleasure Garden (1976) concludes with a reading of the first three chapters of the Song.[74]
- Rose of Sharon (an epithet in the Song) is a major character in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.
- The song is mentioned repeatedly in Sholem Aleichem's Jewish Children.[75]
- Toni Morrison's 1977 novel is entitled Song of Solomon.
See also
- Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q106, 4Q107, 4Q108, 6Q6, fragments including portions of the Song of Songs.
- Hortus conclusus
- Ivory tower
Notes
- ^ The action of the conception is attributed specifically and exclusively to the woman's mother.
- ^ Zafar claims that this word is otherwise translated "altogether lovely", which is not correct. The word mahamaddim represents "lovely" and is part of the phrase ve-kullo mahamaddim, where ve-kullo represents "altogether". Zafar does not explain how to read the word ve-kullo, and translating mahamaddim as he suggests would result not in "His mouth is most sweet; he is Muhammad" but "His mouth is most sweet; all of him is Muhammad."
- ^ Garrett 1993, p. 366.
- ^ Alter 2011, p. 232.
- ^ Fox, Michael V. The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs. 2005. Pages 231–232 [arguing the lovers are not married], 414–415 [see the following quote]. "…a poem that accepts premarital sexuality so naturally that it does not even try to draw attention to its own liberality. But of vast areas of Israelite life, society, and attitudes we know nothing."
- ^ Alter, Robert. Strong as Death Is Love: The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel, A Translation with Commentary. 2016. ISBN: 9780393352252. See his commentary on "My vineyard I have not kept" in Song of Songs 1:6.
- ^ Andruska, J. L. "Unmarried Lovers in the Song of Songs". The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 72, Issue 1, April 2021, Pages 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flab019. "Unmarried human lovers appear to have been characteristic of the love song genre in the ancient Near East."
- ^ a b Exum 2012, p. 248.
- ISBN 978-0-300-13949-5.
- ^ a b c Sweeney 2011, p. unpaginated.
- ^ a b Norris 2003, p. 1.
- ^ Assis 2009, pp. 11, 16.
- ^ Assis 2009, pp. 16–18.
- ^ Kugler & Hartin 2009, p. 220.
- ^ Garrett 1993, p. 348.
- ^ Keel 1994, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kugler & Hartin 2009, pp. 220–22.
- ^ Loprieno 2005, p. 126.
- ^ a b Exum 2012, p. 247.
- ^ Keel 1994, p. 39.
- ^ Bloch & Bloch 1995, p. 23.
- ^ Bloch & Bloch 1995, p. 25.
- ^ Keel 1994, p. 5.
- ^ Hunt 2008, p. 5.
- ISBN 978-90-04-31477-1.
- ^ Exum 2012, p. 3334.
- ISBN 978-0-664-25785-9. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
For example, most scholars think that the Song of Songs originated as a set of erotic poems of very high quality, which were only later treated as scriptural: this was achieved by regarding the lovers in the poems as representative, allegorically, of God and Israel (Jesus and the Church, in the Christian version of the allegory).
- ISBN 978-0-06-223497-1. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
most scholars see it as a bit of erotic poetry to remind us that God invented sexual desire, and it is a good gift.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-2881-1. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
The view of most scholars today is that the Song of Songs should be taken at face value as erotic love poetry celebrating human love and sexuality, rather than as a divine allegory.
- ISBN 978-0-19-531021-4. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
The reigning consensus among contemporary scholars is that the Song is a collection of poems about human love.
- ^ "Song of Songs". Yale University Press. 2 June 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-300-13949-5.
- ^ Nagy, Gregory (9 January 2021). "The theo-eroticism of mythmaking about Aphrodite's love for boys like Adonis". Classical Inquiries. Harvard University. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ Paulsell, Stephanie (25 August 2013). "Devotion in the Study of Religion". Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-7936-2562-5. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
the Song of Songs in its literal sense is nothing more than a celebration of erotic love between two human beings.
- ^ "Free Hebrew Bible Course with Shaye Cohen". Biblical Archaeology Society. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ Hoffman, Joel E (8 May 2015). "Shaye J.D. Cohen's Lecture Notes: INTRO TO THE HEBREW BIBLE @ Harvard (BAS website) (78 pages)". Academia.edu. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ Scolnic, Benjamin Edidin (1996). "Why Do We Sing the Song of Songs on Passover?". Conservative Judaism. 48: 53–54.[permanent dead link]
- JSTOR 1453261.
- 31b for the Rabbinic homily on this verse, "'Come my beloved' - so the congregation of Israel said to the Holy One, blessed be He . . ."
- ^ Loprieno 2005, p. 107.
- ^ Japhet, Sara (2007). "Rashi's Commentary on the Song of Songs: The Revolution of Prashat and Its Aftermath" (PDF). Rashi: The Man and His Work: 199.
- ^ Phipps 1974, p. 85.
- ^ Schiffman 1998, pp. 119–20.
- S2CID 164390241.
- OCLC 927095961.
- ISBN 978-0-8091-0261-7.
- ^ "Homilies on the Song of Songs". Holy See.
- ^ Gregory of Nyssa; Claudio Moreschini. Homilies on the Song of Songs (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2024-01-09. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - doi:10.2307/1584812
- De Civitate Dei, XVII, 20. As quoted in Nathalie Henry, The Lily and the Thorns : Augustine’s Refutation of the Donatist Exegesis of the Song of Songs, in Revue des Études Augustiniennes, 42 (1996), 255-266 (ivi p. 255)
- ^ Matter 2011, p. 201.
- ^ a b Kugler & Hartin 2009, p. 223.
- ^ Pardes 2017, p. 134.
- ^ Brenner & Fontaine 2000, p. passim.
- ^ Introduction to the Song of Solomon
- ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm (1898). Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. Clarendon Press. pp. 417–418.
- ^ Delitzsch, Franz (1891). Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. T. & T. Clark. p. 124.
- ^ Ginsburg, Christian David (1857). The Song of Songs: Translated from the Original Hebrew with a Commentary, Historical and Critical. By Christian D. Ginsburg. Longman & Company.
- ^ Harris Zafar, Demystifying Islam, p.24, Dev Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi, 2014.
- ^ "Cantata Profana Performs Gustav Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde – Concert Program" (PDF). YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. YIVO. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
- ^ "The Song of Songs, by Andrew Rose Gregory". Andrew Rose Gregory. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
- ^ "Vangelis | A musical journey | (Page 8 of 15) | Vangelis Papathanassiou". www.nemostudios.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- JSTOR 40327219.
- ^ Herz, Gerhard (1972). Bach: Cantata No. 140. WW Norton & Co.
- ^ Allan, J. (February 22, 2008). "Live – John Zorn Abron Arts Centre". Amplifier Magazine (review). Archived from the original on November 12, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- ^ Smith, S (November 27, 2008). "An Unlikely Pairing on Common Ground". The New York Times..
- ^ "Song Of Solomon (the)". Kate Bush Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
- ^ Weisser, Albert (1954). The Modern Renaissance of Jewish Music, Events and Figures, Eastern Europe and America. Bloch Publishing Company.
- ^ "Uri Tsafon". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-11-07.
- ^ "Bat for Lashes - Glass Lyrics on Genius". Genius.com. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
- ISBN 978-1-60020-002-1.
- ISBN 978-0-520-04450-0.
- ^ ben David, Solomon, "Song", KJV, The Bible, Bible gateway, 2:15.
- ^ "THE SONG Movie – The Story – Coming Soon to Digital HD + DVD". Thesongmovie.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-670-56012-7.
- ^ "LibriVox". Librivox.org. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
References
- Alter, Robert (2011). The Art of Biblical Poetry. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02819-1.
- Assis, Elie (2009). Flashes of Fire: A Literary Analysis of the Song of Songs. T & T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-02764-1.
- Bloch, Ariel; Bloch, Chana (1995). The Song of Songs: A New Translation, With an Introduction and Commentary. Random House. ISBN 978-0-520-21330-2.
- Brenner, Athalya; Fontaine, Carole (2000). A Feminist Companion to Song of Songs. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-84127-052-4.
- Exum, J. Cheryl (2012). "Song of Songs". In Newsom, Carol Ann; Lapsley, Jacqueline E. (eds.). Women's Bible Commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-23707-3.
- Garrett, Duane (1993). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8054-0114-1.
- Schiffman, Lawrence H. (1998). Texts and traditions : a source reader for the study of Second Temple and rabbinic Judaism. KTAV Pub. House. OCLC 461915171.
- Hunt, Patrick (2008). Poetry in the Song of Songs: A Literary Analysis. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0465-7.
- Keel, Othmar (1994). The Song of Songs: A Continental Commentary. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-9507-1.
- Kugler, Robert A.; Hartin, Patrick (2009), The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-4636-5.
- Loprieno, Antonio (2005). "Searching for a common background: Egyptian love poetry and the Biblical Song of Songs". In Hagedorn, Anselm C. (ed.). Perspectives on the Song of Songs. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017632-2.
- Matter, E. Anne (2011). The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0056-0.
- Norris, Richard Alfred (2003). The Song of Songs: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2579-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-103418-3.
- Phipps, William E. (1974). "The Plight of the Song of Songs". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. XLII (1): 82–100. ISSN 0002-7189.
- Sweeney, Marvin A. (2011). Tanak: A Theological and Critical Introduction to the Jewish Bible. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-1435-6.
External links
- The original Hebrew version, vowelized, with side-by-side English translation Archived 2013-04-15 at archive.today by Mamre Institute (Mechon Mamre)
- Full English text
- Song of Songs at Bible Gateway(various translations)
- Song of Solomon public domain audiobook at LibriVox