The Song of Songs is a special book in the Bible. The Song of Songs sings about the longing of a young man and a young woman. Love is sung about using visual language. The book is said to have been written by King Solomon, but this is doubted by linguists. Song of Songs can literally be read as a song about the natural love between man and woman. The book can also be interpreted as images, allegorically. Then the Song of Songs is about the relationship between God and his people Israel or about the love of Christ for his church.
The name of the Song of Songs
Song of Solomon is an originally Hebrew book that is included in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew language the name of the book is ‘Shir Hashirim’ . Translated into Dutch, this means The Song of Songs. So the Song of Songs is the most beautiful or the best song. The reformer Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) translated the Bible into German. He called the book Das Hohelied’ . Later the book of the Bible was given the name ‘Song of Songs’ in the Dutch translation.
Song of Songs one of the Jewish festive roles
The Bible book Song of Songs is one of the festive roles of the Jews. There are five party roles in total. In Hebrew these festive roles are called megillôt . These festive scrolls are Bible books from the third part of the Old Testament, the so-called Scriptures. The five festive roles are: Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. Each of these scrolls is read at a different party. The Song of Songs is read in the synagogue on the eighth day after the Jewish Passover (Pesach). By the way, Easter is not mentioned anywhere in the Song of Songs. It is more the experience of the exodus from Egypt, which is celebrated at Passover, in which Israel sees the love of God expressed.
The author of Song of Songs
The inscription of Song of Songs reads: ‘Song of Solomon’ (Song of Songs 1:1). That does not necessarily mean that King Solomon actually wrote the book. Although people used to think that way. Solomon wrote a lot. “He wrote three thousand proverbs and a thousand and five songs” (1 Kings 5:12). King Solomon also had a special interest in women. He had seven hundred principal wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3). His preference for feminine beauty and his poetic abilities make it not implausible that he could be the author of Song of Songs. However, the dating of Song of Songs means that scientists today assume that he was not the author.
The dating of the book Song of Songs
Voeger, based on the inscription, people thought that Solomon was the author of the Song of Songs. The book was then dated from the tenth century BC. That was the time when King Solomon lived. Later, linguists arrived at a different dating, namely between 500 and 400 BC. And some scholars suspect it was written in the early third century BC. The book contains Persian and Greek loan words, which indicates a later date. It is not entirely clear in which period the Song of Songs was created, but given the word usage it is unlikely that it was written in the tenth century, during the time of King Solomon. The most plausible dating is around the third century BC.
The Song of Solomon in the canon of the Bible
In the first century AD it was still a point of discussion whether the book Song of Solomon belonged to the books of the Bible. The book’s place in the canon was disputed. People thought it was too debauched a book. The famous Rabbi Aqiba has advocated including the booklet in the Bible. He called the Song of Solomon the most sacred scripture of all books.
Love as the theme of Song of Songs
The book Song of Songs is about the mutual love between two young people. Man and woman express their longing for each other in the songs. They seek each other through approaches and distances. They describe how beautiful they find each other. That is never rude or flat. The beauty of mutual love is sung with visual language. Song of Songs is unadulterated love lyrics.
Him : You’re so beautiful, my girlfriend, you’re so beautiful! Your eyes are doves, through your veil. Your hair flows like a herd of goats descending from Gilead’s mountains. Your teeth are like white sheep: they come out of the water two by two, ready for the shearer, and not one is missing. Like a cord of crimson are your lips, your mouth is enchanting. Your smile sparkles through your veil like the red of a pomegranate. (Song of Songs 4:1-3)
The dominant voice of the woman
In the Song of Songs the man and the woman sing about their love for each other. It is striking that the woman is the dominant voice in Song of Songs. The words that come from the woman together make up 51% of the Song of Songs. The man only accounts for 37% of the text. Together they sing three verses and the ‘girls of Jerusalem’ receive the remaining 21 verses. It is not just based on the figures that the woman, the girl, is the dominant voice in Song of Songs. The female voice is also most important based on meaning and content. The most quoted text from the Song of Songs, which is often used at wedding services, comes from the woman (Song of Songs 8: 6-7).
Wear me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. Love is strong as death, passion is oppressive as Hades. Love is a flaming fire, a blazing flame. Seas cannot extinguish her, rivers cannot wash her away. If a man wanted to buy love with all his wealth, he would be ignominiously despised. (Song of Songs 8:6-7)
The allegorical explanation: the love between Christ and his church
Early in Judaism, the book Song of Songs was read as an image of the relationship between God and his people. When the book was adopted into the Christian church, it quickly received an allegorical interpretation. One of the first Christian interpreters of the Bible was Origines (± 185-234 AD). He started to explain the Song of Solomon christologically. He saw in Song of Songs a poem about the relationship between Christ and his believers, the Christian community. In the Song of Songs, Christ’s love for the church is sung. The church of Christ then sees itself as the bride of Jesus, the bridegroom. An image that also occurs in the New Testament (John 3:39; Revelation 19:7-8 and 21: 2,9). This interpretation of Song of Songs is still current. As the description of Song of Songs below shows.
The first chapter describes the church’s great desire for the grace of Christ. We read of the great joy of the bride, because of the love of Christ. And of the good pleasure of Christ to His church. The second chapter deals with the dignity of Christ and his church. Christ’s care for His bride. A revival to public confession of Christ. (Source 1)
The natural interpretation of Song of Songs
In contrast to the allegorical explanation, the Song of Songs can also be read more literally. This natural interpretation of the Bible book is about the love of two young people for each other. Man and woman sing about each other’s beauty. The Song of Solomon is then a song of pure longing of a young man and a young woman for each other. According to this explanation, Song of Songs is one of the purest and most beautiful love songs ever written.