AUTHOR

The superscription for the whole book is Song of Songs 1:1: “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.” That is why the book is often called the Song of Solomon. Indeed, most evangelical commentators argue for Solomon as the author. A popular speculation throughout church history is that Solomon wrote Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at midlife, and Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life (perhaps in repentance of his idolatrous ways). But some suggest that Solomon may have written the Song near the end of his life in repentance, which I find to be a hopeful thought. But the reality is that we cannot know for sure.

Indeed, the Hebrew does not explicitly identify Solomon as the author; rather, it could be saying that the Song is written about Solomon or even to Solomon. I actually find that latter phrasing to be the most compelling. As we will see in our study, Solomon’s mentions in the poem are not altogether positive. In fact, I read 8:11-12 as a rebuke of Solomon for his thousands of women. Of course, it would be wonderful is Solomon wrote this as a rebuke of his own ways, but it seems more likely that this is a prophetic rebuke of Solomon in his own genre: wisdom literature. Would it not be fitting for the LORD to rebuke Solomon with his own style of writing?

Either way, we must still acknowledge our ultimate ignorance and not indulge in speculation. Those who most earnestly defend Solomon’s authorship largely do so to protect its place within the canon of Scripture. But Rabbi Akiba (who died in AD 135) seems to rightly express the mind of God’s people in regard to this book:

God forbid!–no man in Israel ever disputed about the Song of Songs [that he should say] that it does not render the hands unclean, for all the ages are not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. (Cited by Hess, The Old Testament, 495)

THEME

A celebration of the goodness and beauty of covenantal marital love between a man and a woman.

BACKGROUND

The Song of Songs was most likely written around the time of Solomon, and as the title says, it is a song, the greatest song, in fact. Jim Hamilton notes that it is only one song within the canon of Scripture’s music. Thus, we are meant to read Song of Songs alongside Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Like those books, the Song is wisdom literature, which means that it is inherently meditative. It is intended to shape how we live. Wisdom, after all, is the skill of living according to God’s design.

Because Song of Songs is a song, it is also poetry. And as poetry, we should not expect it to be what it is not. Specifically, the Song of Songs is not a manual for marriage; instead, it is a celebration of marriage. Of course, we will certainly pull out principles and applications from the text since all Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. But it is a song that is primarily meant to shape our hearts and affections by being sung, memorized, and meditated upon.

PURPOSE

The Song of Songs is fundamentally a celebration of marriage, especially love and intimacy within marriage. Indeed, I believe that the whole Song takes place while the couple is married. Their wedding is described in the center of the poem because it is being celebrated as the day they became one flesh.

That makes it radically different from other notions of marriage in the ancient world. I was just reading Euripides’ play Alcestis, which is about a woman (Alcestis) giving her life for her husband. As she is dying, she thinks about the life of her young son and daughter without her, lamenting that she will not be there to comfort her daughter for enduring through the wedding night.

And that is generally the thought process of many cultures, both ancient and modern. A woman must grit through her wedding night and all future sexuality because doing so gives her the security of marriage and the hope of children.

The Song of Songs has a radically different message that its gives specifically to young woman who are of marriage age but not yet married. It says that marriage is good, that men can be good, and that it is good to take pleasure in physical intimacy with one’s husband.

You see, we often think of the Song as being written to married couples, but that is not the explicit audience of the book. The “daughters of Jerusalem” are, which is clear from the triple refrain of the book.

Thus, I do believe that the plain reading of the text is that Song of Songs is an erotic poem celebrating intimacy and love within the covenant of marriage. As we will discuss in the study, eros in Greek is not exclusively sexual but is passionate love. And the Song is full of passion.

Yet the purpose of the book cannot be complete without looking to Christ. For most of church history, nearly everyone read Song of Songs as an allegory of Christ and the church. Only recently have theologians become more comfortable with viewing it as an erotic poem about marriage. But I think we go too far if we scrap the allegorical interpretation entirely. Allegory can certainly get out of hand as we see with Origen, but Paul uses Sarah and Hagar allegorically in Galatians.

Thankfully, Scripture itself gives us a guide for the allegory. Paul says of marriage in Ephesians 5:32, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” This means that we cannot speak about marriage, especially Christian marriages, without ultimately setting our eyes upon Christ and His love for His bride. Like the tabernacle, Song of Songs is filled with garden imagery because it is giving us a glimpse of life before the Fall, of a man and woman again being naked and unashamed. But ultimately Christ gives us in fullness what marriage can only reflect in part.