Song of Solomon

ALAYMAN

ALAYMAN

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What's your hermeneutical framework for reading SoS (allegorical of God's love for Israel or Christ and the Church, literal, mere poetry, other)?
 
ALAYMAN said:
What's your hermeneutical framework for reading SoS (allegorical of God's love for Israel or Christ and the Church, literal, mere poetry, other)?
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Could you have picked a nerdier 🤓 way of asking, "How do you interpret..."

My reading schedule will take me there later this week or early next week. I'll let you know then.
 
I'd have to study it further...I've HEARD it represented in EVERY way you mentioned. Don't know that I can fully agree with any of them as the one and only.
 
It's erotic, divinely inspired (not "mere") poetry celebrating marital love.

If it's actually an allegory of Christ and the church, no one better ever raise criticism of "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs again.
 
Ransom said:
It's erotic, divinely inspired (not "mere") poetry celebrating marital love.

If it's actually an allegory of Christ and the church, no one better ever raise criticism of "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs again.
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lol, fair enough on the JIMBo reference. But isn't it fair to keep the Christocentric hermeneutic and make reasonably inferred redemptive application(s) from ALL scriptural texts?
 
ALAYMAN said:
lol, fair enough on the JIMBo reference. But isn't it fair to keep the Christocentric hermeneutic and make reasonably inferred redemptive application(s) from ALL scriptural texts?
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How beautiful and pleasant you are,
O loved one, with all your delights!
Your stature is like a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
I say I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,
and your mouth like the best wine. (Song 7:6-9)
​

Have at it.
 
Ransom said:
​
How beautiful and pleasant you are,​
O loved one, with all your delights!​
Your stature is like a palm tree,​
and your breasts are like its clusters.​
I say I will climb the palm tree​
and lay hold of its fruit.​
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,​
and the scent of your breath like apples,​
and your mouth like the best wine. (Song 7:6-9)​
​

Have at it.
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Keeping it simple, not line upon line, and knowing this is nothing you've never heard before, but the husband wife love relationship is the straightforward understanding of the communication/imagery (and IMNSHO that would be sufficiently understood to be the basis for the application as to the benefits of the marital relationship) the secondary application is that to the love of Christ for the bride (Eph 5).
 
Ransom said:
It's erotic, divinely inspired (not "mere") poetry celebrating marital love.

If it's actually an allegory of Christ and the church, no one better ever raise criticism of "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs again.
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Thank you! I was wondering who would finally raise up and mention it!
 
AverageJoe said:
Thank you! I was wondering who would finally raise up and mention it!
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Not that I am disagreeing, but plenty of respected learned divines see it through different interpretive glasses.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Keeping it simple, not line upon line, and knowing this is nothing you've never heard before, but the husband wife love relationship is the straightforward understanding of the communication/imagery (and IMNSHO that would be sufficiently understood to be the basis for the application as to the benefits of the marital relationship) the secondary application is that to the love of Christ for the bride (Eph 5).
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If the author's intent is a poem praising marital love, then because of our understanding of marriage picturing the relationship of Christ and the church, it has those implications. The problem with relegating "the love of Christ to his bride" to a secondary application is that it sidesteps the original question, about the hermeneutical framework used to interpret it--not about what the book signifies to us. I'm not opposed to a Christocentric hermeneutic, but it can be taken to excess.

The problem with the allegorical approach, as I see it, is that it relies on an external "key" to unlocking the allegory. What's the key, and why?
 
Ransom said:
If the author's intent is a poem praising marital love, then because of our understanding of marriage picturing the relationship of Christ and the church, it has those implications. The problem with relegating "the love of Christ to his bride" to a secondary application is that it sidesteps the original question, about the hermeneutical framework used to interpret it--not about what the book signifies to us. I'm not opposed to a Christocentric hermeneutic, but it can be taken to excess.

The problem with the allegorical approach, as I see it, is that it relies on an external "key" to unlocking the allegory. What's the key, and why?
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Completely agree.

This thread was conceived in light of an OT survey I’m teaching through. I have mostly elderly folk in my class and you can imagine the content I hope to avoid in this book🤭.

Anyhoo, prior to posting the thread this was some of my prep reading, which coincides with the essence of what you are saying (and I agree with). Speaking of the latter allegorical aspect of your last post, have you read any of Luther’s (political) commentary in SoS?
 
ALAYMAN said:
Speaking of the latter allegorical aspect of your last post, have you read any of Luther’s (political) commentary in SoS?
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I haven't. I've read very little of Luther, apart from The Bondage of the Will and parts of Table Talk. Do you know the title of the book?
 
ALAYMAN said:
Not that I am disagreeing, but plenty of respected learned divines see it through different interpretive glasses.
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I can't disagree with that. We're all entitled to our own interpretations..... :)
 
Ransom said:
No public-domain English edition that I can find. Feh. I'll have to do some fancy librarying, I guess.
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If you find any links, please share them.

AverageJoe
I can't disagree with that. We're all entitled to our own interpretations.....
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Well, that is the crux of my question for the OP, even though abcaines busted my chops, lol. There are a variety of hermeneutical frameworks that lead to different interpretations….

Link
 
I'm agreeing with Ransom on something? What's the world coming to?
Yes, I think it's simple and straight-forward: erotic love between a couple.
 
Well, as promised, I was soon to venture into the Song of Solomon. Today's reading took me through the entire book. To say the imagery was potent would be an understatement.

As many of you know, I have been accompanying my reading with the teaching of J Vernon McGee. So, it should be no surprise that as soon as I completed today's reading, I pulled up his studies on this book. One of the first things that struck me is the fact that for such a small book, Dr McGee devotes more than two of his studies to an introduction of this book.

As for an interpretation of Song of Solomon, mine is still in the developing stages. I am still listening through the introduction but my first take away regarding this book is the meaning of some of it's imagery and its application to believers. In his introduction, McGee mentioned a fact I've heard before. That is, in Jewish custom, men aren't permitted to read this book prior to age 30 because of the propensity of young men to improperly sensualize the illustrations. It is for this fact that McGee said he is reticent to teach this book to the unbeliever or those of a carnal mindset. He then began to talk about how our society has desecrated the intimacy of marriage. These thoughts are not new to me. In my 40+ years as a believer, nearly 18 as a married man, I still find myself struggling with a carnal mind that misconstrues the linking of intamcy in marriage with the love Christ has for His bride the church. I confess, I am a broken vessel, damaged goods, if you will, when it comes to this union God has created. I think a good many of us are to one degree or another, otherwise, we wouldn't find the linking of this book to Christ's love for the church to be disturbing as has been expressed in this thread. I have actually been convinced for years there is something missing in our understanding of the marriage union as a result of the fall that we will not recover this side of eternity. We have an image, but we see darkly.

This is just the tip of the iceberg that I'm encountering in this study. Before you start lambasting me as Job's "friends" did, please remember I too am a pilgrim on this road of having my mind renewed by God's Word, a process that will continue until my dying day.
 
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