‘Song of Songs’, also known as ‘Song of Solomon’, or in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate used by Roman Catholics, ‘Canticle of Canticles.’ The Bible Project Summary Video found here takes the position that Solomon was not the author of the book. For arguments that Solomon was indeed the author and the male lover in the story read the introduction to this book in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary and/or the introduction in the CSB Study Bible. Instead of Song of Songs having no structure and being composed of individual love songs, Craig Glickman sees a chiastic structure for the whole book, a modified structure from his article follows:
The Song of Songs is a poem whose components form a chiastic structure. A chiasm takes the form:
A Their Story Begins (1:2–2:7)
B Invitation to Enjoy a Spring Day (2:6–17)
C Night of Separation Preceding Wedding (3:1–5)
D Wedding Day and Night (3:6–5:1)
C′ Night of separation following wedding night (5:2–7:9)
B′ Invitation to Enjoy a Spring Day (7:10–8:4)
A′ Their Story Complete (8:3–14)
where A and A′ mirror each other and where the central element, D, conveys the main point of the poem.[1]
Modern English translations usually have a heading to identify who is speaking in the song. They determine this by context and whether the 2nd and 3rd Hebrew personal pronouns are singular or plural and whether they are masculine or feminine. Hebrew 1st person pronouns are not distinguished by gender. Using these methods translators will usually agree but not always. For example, the NKJV on 2:15 says the speaker is ‘her brothers,’ while the CSB has the speaker as the ‘woman’ with a footnote on the word ‘woman’ that reads, “The speaker could be the woman, the man, or both”[2] and says nothing about any ‘brothers.’
The Bible Project video mentioned that both Jewish and Christian interpreters have used allegorical methods to interpret this book. They mention Jewish interpreters have seen the book as God’s love for Israel while Christian interpreters have believed it showed Christ’s love for the church. This was the standard method of interpreting the book by Christians until the middle of the eighteenth century. As an example of how individual verses were interpreted 1:13 reads, “The one I love is a sachet of myrrh to me,
spending the night between my breasts.”[3] Jewish interpreters “Rashi and Ibn Ezra said this phrase refers to the tabernacling of God over the ark of the cherubim.”[4] Matthew Poole (17th century)” wrote, “Or this phrase may note the church’s intimate union with and hearty affection unto Christ.”[5]
Duane Garrett got it right, “The Song of Songs, therefore, should be taken as it stands. It is a song of love and an affirmation of the value of the bond between a man and a woman. In this way it adds greatly to our appreciation of God’s creation.”[6]
1] Glickman, Craig. 2017. “Song of Songs.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 1022. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Rooker, Mark F. 2011. “The Book of the Song of Songs.” In The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament, 548. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic.
[5] Poole, Matthew. 1853. Annotations upon the Holy Bible. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.
[6] Garrett, Duane A. 1998. “The Poetic and Wisdom Books.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 255. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
