Song of Songs

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The Song of Songs, also Song of Solomon or Canticles (Hebrew: שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים, Šîr HašŠîrîm, Greek: ᾎσμα ᾈσμάτων, asma asmaton, both meaning "song of songs"), is one of the megillot (scrolls) found in the last section of the Tanakh, known as the Ketuvim (or "Writings"), and a book of the Old Testament.[1]

The Song of Songs is unique within the Hebrew bible: it shows no interest in Law or Covenant or Yahweh, the God of Israel, nor does it teach or explore "wisdom" like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (although it does have some affinities to Wisdom literature, as the ascription to Solomon suggests); instead, it seems to celebrate sexual love.[2] It gives "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".[3] The two are in harmony, each desiring the other and rejoicing in sexual intimacy; the women (or "daughters") of Jerusalem form a chorus to the lovers, functioning as an audience whose participation in the lovers' erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader.[4]

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 Egypt. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel.[5] Christian tradition has also largely adopted an allegorical reading of the piece, taking it as relating Christ (the bridegroom) and his Church (the bride).

Structure

Illustration for the first verse, a minstrel playing before Solomon (15th century Rothschild Mahzor)

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.[6] Beyond this, however, there appears to be little agreement: attempts to find a chiastic structure have not been compelling, and attempts to analyse it into units have used differing methods and arrived at differing results.[7] The following must therefore be taken as indicative rather than determinative:

  • 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)[8]

Summary

The superscription (that is, the title prefacing the piece in the text itself, i.e., the verse, Song of Solomon 1:1) introduces the work as "the song of songs", a superlative indicating that it is the greatest and most beautiful of all songs.[9] The poem begins with the woman's proper expression of desire for her lover and her self-description to the "daughters of Jerusalem": she says she is "black" because she had to work in the vineyards and got burned by the sun. This is followed by a dialogue between the lovers: the woman asks the man to meet; he replies with a lightly teasing tone; the two compete in offering flattering compliments ("my beloved is to me as a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi", "an apple tree among the trees of the wood", "a lily among brambles", while the bed they share is like a forest canopy). The section closes with the woman telling the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love such as hers until it is ready.[10]

The woman recalls a visit from her lover in the springtime. Pastoral imagery abounds, and she says of her lover that "he pastures his flock among the lilies."[10]

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 which her mother conceived her. She reveals that this 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."[10]

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.[10]

The man describes his beloved: 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, admitting that he is ravished by even a single glance. The section then becomes a "garden poem", in which he describes her as a "locked garden" (usually taken to mean that she is chaste); the woman speaks, inviting 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".[10]

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 sentinels, who had helped her before, now beat her. She asks the daughters of Jerusalem to help her find him, and describes his physical delights; then she admits that her lover is in his garden, safe from harm, and committed to her as she is to him.[10]

The man describes his beloved; the woman describes a rendezvous they have shared. (The last part is unclear and possibly corrupt).[10]

The people extoll 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: 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 replies, inviting him to a tryst in the fields. She once more warns the daughters of Jerusalem against waking love till it is ready.

The woman compares love to death and sheol: love is as relentless as these two, and cannot be quenched by any force. She summons her lover, using the language used before: he should come "like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountain of spices".[10]

Composition

The Song offers no clue to its author or to the date, place or circumstances of its composition.[11] The superscription states that it is "Solomon's", but even if this is meant to identify the author, it cannot be read as strictly as a similar modern statement.[12] The most reliable evidence for its date is its language: Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew after the end of the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century BCE, and the evidence of vocabulary, morphology, idiom and syntax clearly points to a late date.[13] It has long been recognised that the Song has parallels with the pastoral idylls of Theocritus, a Greek poet who wrote in the first half of the 3rd century BCE;[14] against this, it clearly shows the influence of Mesopotamian and Egyptian love-poetry, and is probably even closer to Egyptian love-poetry from the first half of the 1st millennium than to Greek parallels from the last.[15][16] As a result of these conflicting signs, speculation ranges from the 10th to the 2nd centuries BCE,[11] with the cumulative evidence supporting a later rather than an earlier date.[17]

The unity (or not) of the Song continues to be debated. Those who see it as an anthology or collection point to the abrupt shifts 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.[18]

The setting in which the poem arose is also debated. Some have posited a ritual origin in the celebration of the sacred marriage of the god Tammuz and the goddess Ishtar; whether this is so or not, (most scholars seem to doubt the idea), the poem does seem to be rooted in some kind of festive performance.[19] External evidence supports the idea that the Song was originally recited by different singers representing the different characters, accompanied by mime.[20]

Themes

The Song of Songs is unique within the Hebrew bible: it shows no interest in Law or Covenant or Yahweh, the God of Israel, nor does it teach or explore "wisdom" like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (although it does have some affinities to Wisdom literature, as the ascription to Solomon suggests); instead, it seems to celebrate sexual love.[2] It gives "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".[3] Its theme is female desire, erotic reciprocity, and mutual passion,[21] and its central conceit—one with strong parallels in Greek pastoral poetry—is of the lovers as shepherds in a setting of idyllic nature, living in a world of leisure and delight untroubled by the wind and rain of a real shepherd's life.[22]

Later interpretation and influence

Judaism

Books of the
Ketuvim (Hebrew Bible)
Three poetic books
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Five Megillot
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Other books
Daniel
Ezra – Nehemiah
Chronicles

The Song was accepted into the Jewish canon of scripture because of its supposed authorship by Solomon, and because its subject-matter was taken to be not sexual desire but God's love for Israel.[23]

The Song is one of the overtly mystical Biblical texts for the Kabbalah, which gave esoteric interpretation on all the Hebrew Bible. Following the dissemination of the Zohar in the 13th century, Jewish mysticism took on a metaphorically anthropomorphic erotic element, and Song of Songs is an example of this. In Zoharic Kabbalah, God is represented by a system of ten sephirot emanations, each symbolizing a different attribute of God, comprising both male and female. The Shechina (indwelling Divine presence) was identified with the feminine sephira Malchut, the vessel of Kingship. This symbolizes the Jewish people, and in the body, the female form, identified with the woman in Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with the male sephira Tiferet, the "Holy One Blessed be He", central principle in the beneficent Heavenly flow of Divine emotion. In the body, this represents the male torso, uniting through the sephira Yesod of the male sign of the covenant organ of procreation. Through beneficent deeds and Jewish observance, the Jewish people restore cosmic harmony in the Divine realm, healing the exile of the Shechina with God's transcendence, revealing the essential Unity of God. This elevation of the World is aroused from Above on the Sabbath, a foretaste of the redeemed purpose of Creation. The text thus became a description, depending on the aspect, of the creation of the world, the passage of Shabbat, the covenant with Israel, and the coming of the Messianic age. "Lecha Dodi", a 16th-century liturgical song with strong Kabbalistic symbolism, contains many passages, including its opening two words, taken directly from Song of Songs. In modern Judaism, certain verses from the Song are read on Shabbat eve or at Passover to symbolize the love between the Jewish People and their God. Solomon B. Freehof writes of the Song:

As revealed in numerous talmudic passages, in the Targum and in the midrash, this biblical book is interpreted as referring to God's love for Israel. This interpretation (evidently the one ascribed to the Keneset Hagdola in Abot d'R. Nathan, Schechter, A #1) soon became official. In fact, anyone quoting verses from the Song of Songs giving them the literal meaning was declared a heretic who had forfeited his portion in Paradise (Tos. Sanh. XII, 10). This symbolic interpretation of the book was, with some re-interpretation, carried over into Christianity and there, too, it became official.[24]

The famed first- and second-century rabbi Akiva ben Joseph famously defended the holiness of the Song of songs, reportedly saying when the question came up of whether it should be considered a defiling work, "God forbid! No one in Israel disputed about Song of Songs, saying that it does not defile the hands. For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."[25]

Rabbi Akiva is also reported to have said, "He who sings the Song of Songs in wine taverns, treating it as if it were a vulgar song, forfeits his share in the world to come".[26]

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. Thus, Christians read the Song allegorically, treating the love that it celebrates as an analogy for the love between God and Church.[27] The Christian church's interpretation of the Song as evidence of God's love for his people, both collectively and individually, began with Origen, though clearly the roots of this interpretation go back the Jewish tradition which takes the poem to be about the relation between God and his people.

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 Virgin Mary, with each new reading absorbing rather than simply replacing earlier ones, so that the commentary became ever more complex.[28] These theological themes are not in the poem, but derive from a theological reading; nevertheless, what is notable about this approach is the way it leads to conclusions not found in the overtly theological books of the bible.[29] Those books reveal an abiding imbalance in the relationship between God and man, ranging from slight to enormous; but reading Songs as a theological metaphor produces quite a different outcome, one in which the two partners are equals, bound in a committed relationship.[29]

In contemporary times the poem has attracted the attention of feminist biblical critics. The feminist companion to the Bible series, edited by Athalya Brenner, has two volumes (1993, 2001) devoted to the Song, the first of which was actually the first volume of the whole series. Phyllis Trible had earlier published "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation" in 1973, offering a reading of the Song with a positive representation of sexuality and egalitarian gender relations, which was widely discussed, notably (and favourably) in Marvin Pope's major commentary for the Anchor Bible.

Cultural references

  • 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 Song of Songs.[30]
  • John Zorn's "Shir Ha-Shirim" premiered in February 2008.[31] 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.[32] 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.
  • 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.[33]
  • The voice of the turtle that is heard in Song of Solomon 2:12 inspired many artists.
  • Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison's 1977 novel is entitled "Song of Solomon".
  • Rose of Sharon is a major character in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath".
  • Lillian Hellman's 1939 play ‘The Little Foxes’ (and the later 1941 film adaptation) gets its title from Song 2:15: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes."[34]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Garrett 1993, p. 348.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Garrett 1993, p. 366.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alter 2011, p. 232.
  4. ↑ Exum 2011, p. 248.
  5. ↑ Sweeney 2011.
  6. ↑ Assis 2009, pp. 11, 16.
  7. ↑ Assis 2009, pp. 16–18.
  8. ↑ Kugler & Hartin 2009, p. 220.
  9. ↑ Keel 1994, p. 38.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Kugler & Hartin 2009, pp. 220–22.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Exum 2012, p. 247.
  12. ↑ Keel 1994, p. 39.
  13. ↑ Bloch 1995, p. 23.
  14. ↑ Bloch 1995, p. 25.
  15. ↑ Exum 2012, p. 248.
  16. ↑ Keel 1994, p. 5.
  17. ↑ Hunt 2008, p. 5.
  18. ↑ Exum 2005, p. 3334.
  19. ↑ Loprieno 2005, p. 126.
  20. ↑ Astell 1995, p. 162.
  21. ↑ Burton 2005, p. 201.
  22. ↑ Bloch 1995, pp. 25–26.
  23. ↑ Loprieno 2005, p. 107.
  24. ↑ Freehof 1949, p. 397.
  25. ↑ Schiffman 1998, pp. 119–20.
  26. ↑ Phipps 1979, p. 85.
  27. ↑ Norris 2003, p. 1.
  28. ↑ Matter.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Kugler & Hartin 2009, p. 223.
  30. ↑ Herz, Gerhard (1972). Bach: Cantata No. 140. WW Norton & Co. 
  31. ↑ Allan, J (February 22, 2008), "Live – John Zorn Abron Arts Centre", Amplifier Magazine (review) .
  32. ↑ Smith, S (November 27, 2008), "An Unlikely Pairing on Common Ground", The New York Times .
  33. ↑ Bordwell, David (July 1992). The Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer. ISBN 978‐0‐520‐04450‐0 Check |isbn= value (help). 
  34. ↑ ben David, Solomon, "Song", KJV, The Bible, Bible gateway, 2:15 .

Bibliography

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Song of Songs in Hebrew

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