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Song of Solomon Commentary On The Book Song of Solomon By FR. TADROSS Y. MALATY Reverend Father Tadros Y. Malaty has kindly permitted that his books be published in the COeRL. He has requested that we convey that any suggestions or amendments regarding their translation are welcome, and should be forwarded to: [email protected] Introduction ITS STATUS FOR THE JEWS The Jewish Church has delivered the Christian Church that book among the books of the Old Testament. This book holds a special status among the other books because it carries a symbolic style declaring the mutual love between God and His church, or between God and the human soul as a member in the church. The Hebrew edition of the Torah, which Ezra the scribe had gathered in the fifth century B.C., contained this book. It was translated to Greek, among the books of the Septuagint edition in the third century B.C. , without any doubt of its spiritual meanings. During the time of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hakham Shemey tried to exclude this book from the Holy Bible, because of his desire to literally interpret it. However, the Jewish Traditional Helil School emphasized that the book is canonical, and the council at Jamnia 1(95 – 100 A.D.) also confirmed that it is canonical. In the year 135 A.D., Hakham Akiba emphasized the importance of this book. He said, "The book is all holy, however, the book of Song of Solomon is the most holy book.. The whole world did not give us a more important book than this one." In the Jewish translation 2: "The songs and chants which Solomon, the prophet and king of Israel, had uttered through the Holy Spirit before God, were ten, but this song was the best." Midrash3 Emphasized that: "The book of Song of Solomon is the best song presented to God, through the Holy Spirit. It is the song where God praises us and we praise Him!" Perhaps some may wander: Why did the divine inspiration use this flirting style in expressing the mutual love between God and His church? 1. Through the divine inspiration, God used to talk to us with the same style which we use in our daily life. Moreover, He also uses the same expressions we use, so that the inspiration is not strange to us. As an example, we mention that the Bible mentioned that the Lord was angry, or was sorrowful, or relented, although God does not become angry because He is full of love, does not relent because the future is in front of Him and nothing is hidden before Him, and does not become sad because He does not suffer. However, when the Bible talks about the wrath of God, He wants to declare to us that when we sin, we fall under God's judgment, and this is a natural fruit for our sins, because we are away from God's love. In the same manner, the divine inspiration uses the human expressions when it was written, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and their ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil." (Ps. 34: 15,16) Does this mean that God has eyes and ears or face. But He talks about God's care for us with the same language we use! 1 James Hastings: Dictionary of the Bible, N.Y., p. 930. 2 When the Jews came back from the Babylonian captivity, they were unable to understand the Hebrew language of their fathers. Therefore, some of the books of the Bible were orally translated into Aramaic, then the Aramaic was translated in writing and was called "El Targoom". 3 Midrash are Jewish studies in the Holy Bible, like sermons, (Refer to our book: "Tradition and Orthodoxy", 1979, ch. 8, p. 29.) 5 Also, when the Holy Bible mentions God's chair or throne, does this mean that God has a limited throne to sit upon? All these were written so we may understand God's kingdom, His glory and splendor, according to our language and human expressions! In the same manner, the divine inspiration talks to us about the deepest part of our spiritual life, which is our unity with God through the mystical spiritual love. Therefore, He uses our human language in expressing love between the bride and the groom, not because our relationship with Him is based on carnal love but as symbols carrying in their depth the secrets of the unutterable love. This is not a strange matter, for all the Gentiles have used it when talking about the divine passion, when the soul is thrown in God's bosom to live alone with Him to satisfy all her depths. 2. This interpretation of the divine love as a spiritual marital love which binds the soul with God is not strange in the Bible, for the prophets of the Old Testament as well as disciples of the New Testament have used it. We shall see that when we talk about the "The Heavenly Banquet." 3. The expression of this book cannot be applied to the carnal love, and cannot agree with what some have said that it is a song which Solomon has sung it when marrying Pharaoh's daughter. We mention some examples: 4 A. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine." (Song of Sol. 1:2) Thus the bride is communing with her Groom, but she asks for the kisses of someone else "his mouth". However, she declares to him that his love "your love" is better than wine. How can a bride ask that someone else beside her groom kiss her, while she is communing with her groom? This is impossible to be applied to the carnal love. But this is the communing of the church to her Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ, so she asks for the kisses of the Father, that is, His plan for salvation, which was fulfilled through the practical love of the Son, as the Bible said, "The Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (John 1:18) B. "Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth; therefore, the virgins love you." (Song of Sol. 1:3) The bride is praising the fragrance of her bridegroom and that his name is ointment poured forth, she declares that the virgins love him. How can a bride rejoice that the other virgins love her bridegroom? But the bride here represents the church, who wants all believers, that is all virgins, to love her bridegroom. C. "Lead me away! We will run after you." (Song of Sol. 1:4) After she started talking in a singular form, she switched to the plural form. Is the speaker here singular or plural? If they were a group, then how can they meet and make love with only one? How can a bride ask her bridegroom to lead her, but take others with her to make love with him? From these examples, we find out that this book was not meant to express physical love between a bride and her bridegroom, but rather it is a divine love binding God with His church. THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK AND ITS TITLE: Solomon the Wise wrote this book, and he also wrote many sonngs. (1 Kings 4: 32) This book was called "Song of Songs" to show that repeating the word "song" refers to its superiority over the other songs. This resembles the saying of "King of kings or Lord of lords, or holy of holies, or Sabbath of sabbaths, or heaven of heavens or vanity of vanities or slave of slaves. 5…" 4 Fr. Abdel Messih El Nekhely: "Lights on the Song of Solomon", p. 22,23. 5 Rev. 7:14, 19:16, I Tim. 6:15, Ecc. 1:2, Deut. 10:17, Gen. 9:35. 6 ITS CHARACTERISTICS: 1. Since Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes realizing the reality of the earthly life that it is vanity of vanities, then he has experienced the heavenly life and found it "song of song." In the book of Eccelesiastes, Solomon the Wise declared that abundance of knowledge does not satisfy the soul. But in the book of Song of Songs, the soul is completely satisfied with the divine love and does not need anything beside Him. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon mentioned that there is nothing new under the sun, but in the book of Song of Songs, the soul, entering God's bosom, sees everything new. 2. The Jews understood this book that it symbolizes the relationship between God (the Bridegroom) with His people (the bride), until the coming of the Messiah. The Christians understood this book that it represents the relationship between the Messiah the Savior and His 7church the bride. The Christians took three approaches in the symbolic interpretations of this book, and all these approaches compliment and supplement one another. These are: A. Origen, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and others see that this book refers to the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His church, that is the community of believers. B. St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, and Bernard of Claivaux relate that this book expresses the relationship between the Lord Christ and the human soul, on a personal level. Origen took this approach in his interpretation 6, along with the previous approach. C. Some of the Catholics interpret this book as addressing the divine incarnation, and relate that the bride is the Virgin St.
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