Song of Songs is also known as Song of Solomon. because authorship has traditionally been attributed to Solomon, though there is some doubt about this. In the Hebrew text the title is "Solomon's Song of Songs". Song of Songs means that it is the greatest of songs.
This is a difficult book to know how to make sense of it. People have looked for parallels in prophetic, apocalyptic, love songs from other nations, Jewish wedding songs, but nothing quite like it has been found. It is placed in the Wisdom section of the Bible, and so is giving godly wisdom on amorous love relationships.
On the other hand there are many who see it as an allegory of the relationship between Christ and the Church or between God and Israel. Actually this is not in conflict from the love relationship view, for the Church is the bride of Christ, so elements of both could be there.
So we see something of what the love relationship between a husband and wife is meant to be like, and also insight into the relationship between man and God. These insights are given in poetic form, so we must not treat it as a simple "theological text".
No comments:
Post a Comment