INTERPRETING THE “SONG OF SONGS”

I have never taught on Solomon’s Song of Songs. I am just not confident about how to interpret it correctly, although I lean towards an allegorical interpretation. Allegory takes historical events and even people and assigns to them deeper spiritual meanings.

For example, Paul had taught that Ismael and his mother Hagar represented bondage and Mt. Sinai, while Isaac, Abraham’s other son, represented freedom and God’s promise (Galatians 4:21-32). Likewise, Jesus is properly understood as the “lamb of God” and its ultimate fulfillment.

Can we understand the sexuality of the Song of Songs in terms of an allegory pointing to a higher spiritual truth? Many have! Former professor of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College, C. Hassell Bullock, had written:

·       Some scholars believe that Rabbi Akiva (martyred A.D. 135) alluded to the interpretation of the Song as allegory when he called it “the holy of holies” among Biblical books.

·       The Targum [a Jewish retelling] of the Song, the first full allegorical treatment that has survived, interprets it as an allegory on the history of Israel from the time of the Exodus to the coming of the Messiah and the building of the third Temple, viewing the “beloved” as the Lord and the maiden as Israel.

The Church had also adopted the allegorical interpretation of the Song:

·       Athanasius (296-373), Archbishop of Alexandria, found in the Song the doctrine of the deity of Christ, commenting, for example…that it was the plea of ancient Israel to the Word that He become flesh.

According to Bullock, Matthew Henry also understood the Song as allegorical, “depicting God and Israel in their mutual relationship.” However, even though I cannot understand the Song as merely a description of human love, I cannot find any evidence within the Song itself that it is essentially about God’s love for His people.

Admittedly, there are many metaphors in the Song – the maiden is compared to a flower, the beloved shepherd to an apple tree, love is compared to fruit, and wine as a vineyard (227). However, none of these metaphors take us to God.

However, there are Biblical metaphors that treat human love as a type or representation of God’s love for us. Even our marriages are a mere foretaste of our ultimate New Covenant marriage to our Redeemer:

·       And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (Hosea 2:19-20 ESV)

After teaching about the marital responsibility of the husband and of the wife, Paul claimed that this mirrored our eternal marriage:

·       This mystery [of marriage] is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:32; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7-9)

However, does equating human love with God’s love and marriage to His Church pertain also to the Song? Bullock insists:

·       To abandon the allegorical method altogether and [to] rule it invalid might constitute one of the many exegetical manipulations of the Western mind that superimposes our psychological and literary structures upon the ancient oriental writer. Although our attitude toward the method may legitimately be one of caution, modern biblical hermeneutics should give no place to exegetical snobbery, nor are we in a position to look down upon the absorbing and passionate love for God that has characterized the saints of Israel and the church who have fed upon the allegorical meaning of the book. (227-28)

Consequently, according the allegorical approach, the last two verses of the Song are understood “as the temporary parting of Christ and His church, He to heaven…and she to remain in the earth. She pleads with Him to hasten His return” (254):

·       “O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.” (8:13-14)

Although I sympathize with Bullock and the allegorical interpretation, I remain skeptical and will not teach the Song unless I can be confident about its proper interpretation.