THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY IN THE SONG OF SONGS:
RETURN TO
RICHARD M. DAVIDSON
“For in all the
world there is nothing to equal the day on
which the Song of
Songs was given to
are Holy, but the Song of Songs is
the Holy of Holies.”1 Such was
the vision of the exalted importance
of the Song of Songs as
purportedly expressed by
Rabbi Aqiba at the Council of Jamnia
(ca. 90 A.D.). According to
tradition, Aqiba's speech helped confirm
the Song's place in the canon of
Scripture.
1. Allegorization of the Song of Songs
Unfortunately, the speech did not
equally serve to confirm a
lofty conception of
sexuality. Even the Jewish rabbis, with their
basically healthy and
robust view of sexuality, apparently had great
difficulty seeing how what
seemed to be a purely secular love song
could be included in
the sacred canon. Therefore they adopted and
developed an elaborate
allegorical interpretation of the Song which
downplayed the literal
sense in favor of a hidden, spiritual mean-
ing. When Aqiba said the Song of Songs was the Holy of Holies,
what he probably had
in mind was that the Song was a detailed
allegory of the
historical relationship between the Divine Presence
(the Shekinah in the Holy of Holies)
and the people of
the Exodus to the coming of the
Messiah.2 Thus, Aqiba warned
against taking the Song
of Songs only as a human love song: "He
1 Mishnah,
Yadaim III,
5.
2 See Marvin Pope, Song of Songs, AB (Garden City, NY, 1977),
pp. 89-112, for a
detailed description of
the development and content of the normative Jewish in-
terpretation of the Song of
Songs as pioneered by Aqiba and found full-flowered
in
the targum
to the Song of Songs. In the latter the following historical periods
appear to be the
allegorical referents of the major divisions:
1. Exodus and Entry into Canaan-Cant
1:2-3:6.
2. Solomon's Temple-Cant 3:7-5:1.
3. Sin and Exile-Cant 5:2-6:1.
1
2 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
who trills his voice in the chanting
of the Song of Songs and treats
it as a secular song has no share
in the world to come."3
Christian allegorists went even further
than the rabbis: They
not only downplayed, but rejected
the Song's literal sense alto-
gether. Influenced by
the pagan Greek philosophies (i.e., Platonic
dualism, stoicism, and
the Hellenistic-Roman cults), they posited a
dichotomy between things
of the flesh and things of the spirit.
Purity
was associated with sexual renunciation, and all expressions
of bodily pleasure--including
sexual expression--were considered
evil. In the Song of
Songs all erotic imagery was allegorized as the
yearning of the soul for
union with God, or an expression of
Christ's
love for his church. As by allegory the Greek philosophers
had succeeded in transforming the
sensuous gods of Homer and
Hesiod
into ethereal, spiritual ideals, so the celibate church theo-
logians were "able
by allegory to unsex the Sublime Song and
make it a hymn of
spiritual love without carnal taint."4
Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185-254), one
of the foremost Chris-
tian proponents of
the allegorical method of Biblical interpretation,
wrote a 10-volume
commentary of nearly 20,000 lines on the Song
of Songs. In the prologue he warned
that the Song of Songs is safe
reading only for mature
persons no longer troubled by sexual
desires: "I advise
and counsel everyone who is not yet rid of the
vexations of flesh and
blood and has not ceased to feel the passion
of his bodily nature, to refrain
completely from reading this little
book and the things
that will be said about it."5 Origen further
pleads: "We
earnestly beg the hearers of these things to mortify
their carnal senses.
They must not take anything of what has been
4.
Rebuilding of Temple-Cant 6:2-7:11.
5. Roman Diaspora and Coming of
Messiah-Cant 7:12-8:14.
(See Pope, pp. 95-101, for a detailed
analysis.)
3 Tosephta Sanhed XII, 10, quoted in Roland K.
Harrison, Introduction to the
Old Testament (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1969), pp. 1054-1055. William E. Phipps,
Recovering
Biblical Sensuousness (
that Aqiba is opposed to the use of Canticles as a
"vulgar" or "bawdy" song outside
of the context of marital love.
4 Pope, p. 114. For a
discussion of medieval allegorizing of the Song of Songs
and samples of the specific
exegesis, see pp. 112-124, and passim.
5 R. P. Lawson, trans., Origen: The Song of Songs, Commentary and
Homilies,
Ancient
Christian Writers, vol. 26 (Westminster, MD, 1957), pp. 22-23, quoted in
Pope,
p. 117.
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 3
said with reference
to bodily functions but rather employ them for
grasping those divine
senses of the inner man."6
For fifteen centuries the allegorical
method held sway in the
Christian
church, and the Song of Songs became "the
favorite book
of ascetics and monastics
who found in it, and in expansive com-
mentaries on it, the
means to rise above earthly and fleshly desire to
the pure platonic love of the virgin
soul for God."7
During these 1,500 years only one church
leader of stature
dared to protest
against the allegorical interpretations. Theodore of
Mopsuestia (ca. 350-428)
asserted in his commentary that the Song
should be understood
according to its plain and literal sense--as a
love song in which
Solomon celebrates his marriage. This view
was considered so radical that even
his student, Bishop Theodoret,
considered Theodore's
literal interpretation "not even fitting in the
mouth of a crazy
woman."8 The Second Council of
(553)
anathematized Theodore and condemned his views as unfit
for human ears.
The allegorical interpretation of
Canticles continued its dom-
inance in Roman
Catholicism until very recently and was also
generally accepted among
Protestant scholars until the nineteenth
century. Luther, though
breaking formally with the allegorical
method, still
criticized those who attempted to interpret the song
literally.9 The Westminster
Assembly in the seventeenth century
censured blasphemous
Presbyterians who "received it as a hot
carnal pamphlet formed
by some loose Apollo or Cupid."10 John
Wesley
wrote to his Methodist followers that
6 Origen, Commentary on the Song of Songs, 1.4, quoted in Phipps, p. 51. So,
e.g.,
the kiss of Christ
= the Incarnation
the cheeks of the
bride = outward Christianity, good works
the golden chain =
faith
spikenard = redeemed
humanity
hair like flocks of
goats = nations converted to Christianity
navel of the Shulamite = cup from which God gives salvation
the two breasts =
the OT and NT
7 Pope, p. 114.
8 Johannes Quasten,
Patriology
(
9 Jaroslav
Pelikan, ed. Luther's
Works (St. Louis, MO, 1972), 15: 192-195; cf.
Phipps,
pp. 57-58.
10
Testaments (
4 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
the description of
this bridegroom and bride is such as could not
with decency be used
or meant concerning Solomon and Pharaoh's
daughter; that many
expressions and descriptions, if applied to
them, would be
absurd and monstrous; and that it therefore
follows that this book
is to be understood allegorically concerning
that spiritual love
and marriage which is between Christ and his
church.11
2. The Literal Interpretation of the Song of
Songs
The allegorical interpretation still has
its representatives,12 but
fortunately it is no longer
anathema (at least in most circles) to
interpret the Song
according to its plain and literal sense. The
break with the
traditional allegorical view was foreshadowed in
John
Calvin. The Reformer maintained that Canticles is both
inspired by God and a
song of human love. The English Puritan
Edmund
Spencer seems to have been among the first to concur with
Calvin,
and two centuries later the German Romanticist J. G. von
Herder
also interpreted the Song as a natural expression of human
love.13 Since the time
of Herder a number of novel interpretations
of the Song have arisen, attracting
some adherents;14 but in recent
decades "there has
been a notable trend toward the interpretation
of the Song of Songs as human love
poetry."15 Although diverging
in a number of significant details,
contemporary interpreters gen-
erally do not feel
constrained to "unsex the Sublime Song." H. H.
Rowley,
after a thorough review of the Song's hermeneutical
his-
tory, gives a
judgment consonant with the literal interpretations of
Theodore,
Spencer, Herder, and in harmony with today's prevail-
ing scholarly assessment:
"The view I adopt finds in it nothing but
what it appears to
be, lovers' songs, expressing their delight in one
11 John
Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old
Testament (
1765),
3: 1926, quoted in Phipps, p. 58.
12 See, e.g., A. B. Simpson, The Love-Life of the Lord (
and the notes in the Jerusalem
Bible.
13 See Phipps, pp. 59-61; Pope,
pp. 126-127; 131-132.
14 For details on the various
dramatic and dream theories, cultic/liturgical
interpretations, wedding-week
theory, etc., see Pope, pp. 133-192, and Harrison,
Introduction to
the OT,
pp. 1052-1058.
15 Pope, p. 192.
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 5
another and the warm
emotions of their hearts. All of the other
views find in the
Song what they bring to it."16
If one interprets the Song according to
its plain and literal
sense, then it must
be concluded that one whole book of the OT is
devoted to celebrating
"'the dignity and purity of human love."17 A
whole book extolling
the beauty of human sexual love! How could
Scripture
more forcefully proclaim that human sexuality is not
cheap, ugly, and
evil, but beautiful, wholesome, and praiseworthy!
3. The Song o f Songs, the Garden o f
and
the Nature of Sexuality
In the Song of Songs we have come full
circle, in the OT, back
to the Garden of Eden. Several
recent studies have penetratingly
analyzed and
conclusively demonstrated the intimate relationship
between the early
chapters of Genesis and the Song of Songs.18 In the
"symphony of love," begun in
Canticles
constitutes "love's lyrics redeemed."19 Phyllis Trible sum-
marizes how the Song of
Songs "by variations and reversals creatively
actualizes major motifs
and themes" of the
Female and male are born to mutuality
and love. They are naked
without shame; they are
equal without duplication. They live in
gardens where nature
joins in celebrating their oneness. Animals
remind these couples
of their shared superiority in creation as
well as their
affinity and responsibility for lesser creatures. Fruits
pleasing to the eye and
tongue are theirs to enjoy. Living waters
replenish their gardens.
Both couples are involved in naming;
both couples
work.... Whatever else it may be, Canticles is a
commentary on Gen. 2-3.
Paradise Lost is Paradise Regained.20
16 H. H. Rowley, The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays on the
Old Testa-
ment (
17 E. J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI, 1949),
p. 336.
18 See especially Phyllis Trible, "Depatriarchalizing
in Biblical Interpretation,"
JAAR 41 (1973):
42-47; idem, God and the Rhetoric of
Sexuality (
1978),
pp. 145-165; Francis Landy, "The Song of Songs
and the Garden of Eden,"
JBL 98 (1979):
513-528; and idem., Paradoxes of
the Song of Songs (Sheffield, Eng., 1983), pp.
183-265.
19 Trible,
God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, p.
144.
20 Idem, "Depatriarchalizing," p. 47.
6 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
The Song of Songs is a return to Eden,
yet the lovers in the
Song
are not to be equated with the pre-Fall couple in the
Garden.
The
poetry of Canticles reveals the existence of a world of sin and
its baleful results:: There are the
angry brothers (1:6), the wet winter
(2:11),
the "little foxes that spoil the vineyards" (2:15), the anxiety
of absence from one's beloved
(3:1-4; 5:6-8; 6:1), the cruelty and
brutality of the watchman
(5:7), and the powerful presence of death
(8:6).
Yet the lovers in the Song are able to triumph over
the threats
to their love.
In parallel with Gen 2:24, the Song
depicts the ideal of "wo-
man and man in mutual harmony after
the fall."21 The theology of
this inspired
reflection and elucidation of the divine ideal for post-
Fall
sexuality may be discussed under the major subheadings that
emerged in my treatment
of sexuality in Gen 1-2 in a previous
article.22
Sexuality Is
Good
First, underlying the entire Song is the
same high doctrine of
creation that forms the
backdrop for biblical wisdom literature in
general.23 Without explicitly mentioning that God
"has made every-
thing beautiful in
its time" (Eccl 3:11), the author describes the
beauty of God's
handiwork made during the six days of creation
week in the lovers'
natural surroundings: brilliant light, fountains
and springs, many waters, mountains
and hills, pastures and vine-
yards, trees and
flowers, sun and moon, birds and animals.24 Like-
21 Ibid.,
p. 48.
22 See Richard M. Davidson,
"The Theology of Sexuality in the Beginning:
Genesis
1-2," AUSS 26 (1988): 5-24.
23 The majority of scholars
represented, e.g., by James Crenshaw, ed., Studies
in
Ancient
Israelite Wisdom
(New York, 1976), p. 5, would exclude Canticles from
discussion of wisdom
literature; but Roland E. Murphy, The
Forms of the Old
Testament
Literature, vol. VIII: Wisdom Literature: Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles,
Ecclesiastes,
Esther
(Grand Rapids, MI, 1981), p. xiii, argues that although not
technically wisdom
literature, the Song "emphasizes values which are primary in
wisdom thought (cf.
Prov. 1-9)." Murphy, ibid., cites a number of
scholars who are
becoming "open to
ascribing the preservation and transmission of these poems
[Canticles] to the sages of
wisdom literature,
see, e.g., Crenshaw, Studies, pp.
22-35.
24 The six days of Creation are
profusely represented:
1.
Light: "flashes of fire" (8:6) of YAHWEH--cf. below,
p. 18.
THEOLOGY OF SEXUALITY 7
wise, sexuality is
assumed to be a creation ordinance, given by God
for man to enjoy.25 In
lofty love lyrics "the voices of the Song of
Songs
extol and enhance the creation of sexuality in Gen. 2."26
Sexuality Is for
Couples
Secondly, the man and woman are a
duality, as in the be-
ginning--a lover and
his beloved. Hypotheses which suggest a
lovers'
"triangle" in the Song, with a rustic shepherd and King
Solomon
vying for the same Shulamite, are not convincing.27
Furthermore,
recent studies provide strong evidence for the unity of
the Song, rather than its being a
collection of unrelated love poems.
Roland
Murphy points to recurring refrains, themes, words, and
phrases;28 J. Cheryl Exum analyzes numerous structural indications
of "a unity of authorship with
an intentional design";29 Michael
Fox
elaborates on four factors that point to a literary unity: (1) a
network of repetends (repetitions), (2) associative sequences, (3)
con-
sistency of character
portrayal, and (4) narrative framework;30 and
William
Shea seems to clinch the case for unity by his persuasive
2. Water and air: springs of fresh water,
fountains or wells, many waters,
wind (North
and South)
3. Land and vegetation: mountains and hills
(
Gilead, Hermon,
cedar, pine,
apple, fig, pomegranate, nuts); fragrances (nard, saffron, cala-
mus,
cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, aloes); etc.
4. Luminaries: sun, moon
5.
Birds (and fish): turtledoves, ravens
6. Animals (and man): gazelles, young stags,
hinds of the field, flocks of
goats, sheep,
lions, leopards, etc.
25 See below, pp. 18-19, for a
discussion of the divine origin of love in the Song.
26
Trible, God and
the Rhetoric of Sexuality, p. 145.
27 The "Shepherd"
hypothesis argues for three characters: the Shulamite,
her
shepherd-lover, and King
Solomon, who carries the Shulamite by force to his
harem
and, after unsuccessfully attempting
to seduce her, allows her to return home to her
rustic lover. This
view (popularized by H. Ewald and accepted by S. R.
Driver, C. G.
Ginsburg,
and many others) is discussed (with major proponents) and critiqued in,
e.g.,
Harrison, Introduction to the OT, p.
1054; cf. Pope, pp. 136-141.
28 Roland E. Murphy, "The
Unity of the Song of Songs," VT
29 (1979): 436-443.
29 J. Cheryl Exum, "A Literary and Structural Analysis of the Song
of Songs,"
ZAW 85 (1973):
47-79.
31 Michael V. Fox, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love
Songs
(Madison,
WI, 1985), pp. 209-222.
8 RICHARD M. DAVIDSON
demonstrations of an
overarching chiastic structure for the entire
Song.31 It is in a unified song, therefore, that the love relationship
between a couple--man and woman--is extolled and
celebrated.
Sexuality Is
Egalitarian
Third, the lovers in the Song are
presented as equals in every
way. Canticles "reflects an
image of woman and female-male rela-
tions that is
extremely positive and egalitarian."32 The keynote "of
the egalitarianism of mutual
love"33 is struck in Cant 2:16: "My
beloved is mine and I
am his." The Song of Songs begins and
closes with the woman
speaking. The woman carries the majority
of the dialogue (81 verses to 49
for the man)." She initiates most of
the meetings and is just as active
in the lovemaking as the man.
Likewise,
she is just as eloquent about the beauty of her lover as he
is about her. The woman also is
gainfully employed as a shep-
herdess and vineyard
keeper. In short, throughout the Song she is
"fully the equal of the man."35 As in Gen 2,
she is man's "part-
ner . . . , ‘the
one opposite him.’"36
Feminist
readings of the Song of Songs have tended to argue
for a reversal of the divine
judgment given in Gen 3:16, so that the
"Return
to
male-female relationship.37
However, attempts to contrast the "re-
covery of
mutuality" in the Song with the "male power" of Gen
3:1638
misconstrue both the nature of the divine judgment and the
meaning of mutuality.
In my discussion of Gen 3:16 in a previous
article,39 I set forth
evidence that God's judgment was prescriptive,
31 William H. Shea, "The
Chiastic Structure of the Song of Songs," ZAW 92
(1980):378-396.
32 Leonard Swidler,
Biblical Affirmations of Women (
33 Ibid.
34 The count may vary,
depending upon the interpretation of the sometimes
ambiguous first-person
statements.
35 Trible,
God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, p.
161.
36 Foster R. McCurley, Ancient
Myths and Biblical Faith: Scriptural Transforma-
tions (
37 See especially Trible, "Depatriarchalizing,"
p. 46; idem, God and the Rhetoric
of Sexuality, pp. 159-160.
38 Ibid.
39 Richard M. Davidson,
"The Theology of Sexuality in the Beginning: Genesis
3,"
AUSS 26 (1988): 121-131.
THEOLOGY OF SEXUALITY 9
not simply descriptive. It did not
portray the perverted use of male
power that would
result from sin, but rather it gave the divine
normative pattern for the
achievement of true mutuality after the
Fall.
This pattern did not nullify the full equality ("one-fleshness")
between husband and
wife set forth in Gen 2:24, since the latter
verse, as we noted,
is specifically addressed to post-Fall conditions.
Yet
in the context of sin, God appointed the husband to "rule"
(masal)--in
the sense of "protect, love, care for," rather than "subju-
gate, coerce,
tyrannize"--as a blessing for the maintenance of union
and preservation of harmony within
the marriage setting.
In the Song of Songs, as we have already
noted, the voices
repeatedly speak of
post-Fall conditions which impinge upon the
couple's relationship.
The way of "woman and man in mutual
harmony after the
fall"40 is likewise portrayed in imagery conso-
nant with the divine
norm given in Gen 3:16. Note in particular
Cant 2:3:
As an apple tree among the trees of the
wood,
so is my
beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit
was sweet to my taste.
Francis
Landy has not failed to catch the intent of the
imagery:
The apple-tree symbolizes the Lover, the
male sexual function in
the poem; erect and
delectable, it is a powerful erotic metaphor. It
provides the nourishment
and shelter, traditional male roles--the
protective Lover, man the
provider....41
Cant
8:5 seems to continue the apple tree/protector motif:
Who is that coming up from the wilderness
leaning upon
her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you....
Thus the Song of Songs has recovered the
true "lyrics" of the
"symphony of love" for post-Fall sexual partners. In the
garden of
Canticles
the divine plan for man's post-Fall role in the sexual
relationship--masal, "to protect, love, care for"--is restored
from
its accumulated perversions and
abuses outside the Garden of Eden.
40 Trible, "Depatriarchalizing,"
p. 48.
41 Landy, "The Song of Songs," p. 526.
10 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
That
this masal
is the "rule" of love and not tyrannical power is
made explicit in the
Song by attributing to the man the "strong
desire" (tesugah) which is
connected with the woman in Gen 3:16.
As
in the divine judgment God promises to the woman that still
"Your
desire (tesugah)
shall be for your husband," now in the
Song
the woman says, "I am my lover's and for me is his desire
(tesugah)"
(7:10). She thus joyfully acknowledges the mutuality of
love that inheres in
the ideal post-Fall relationship even as she is
leaning upon, and
resting under the protecting shadow of, her
lover.
Sexuality Is
Related to Wholeness
Closely related to the motifs of
equality/mutuality, we note,
fourthly, the concept of
wholeness in sexuality. That concept is
highlighted by "one of
the key themes in the Song"--"the presence
and/or absence of the
lovers to each other."42 Throughout the
Song
the fact of physical closeness is obviously important as the
lovers speak and cling
to each other: "His left hand is under my
head, and his right
arm embraces me" (2:6; 8:3). Even more sig-
nificant is the feeling
of loss and anxiety in the partner's absence.
Already
in Cant 1:7 the desire of the beloved for, a
rendezvous with
her lover is clear ("Tell me,
you whom my soul loves, where you
pasture your flock ...
?" ), but the motif reaches its zenith at the
matched sections of the
chiasm43 in which the dreaming woman
searches anxiously for
her lover:
Upon my bed at night
I sought him
whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not....
"Have you
seen him whom my soul loves?"44
I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had
turned and gone....
42 Roland E. Murphy, "A
Biblical Model of Human Intimacy: The Song of
Songs,"
in Concilium: Religion in the Seventies, vol. 121: The Family in Crisis or
in Transition, ed. Andrew Greeley (New York,
1979), p. 63.
43 See Shea, pp. 388-389, 396,
for structural analyses of the dream sections (3:1-5;
5:2-8).
44 Cant 3:1-3 (cf. vss. 1-5).
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 11
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him,
but he gave no answer.45
The
absence motif serves to heighten the meaning of presence.
Lovers
need each other to be whole. In the Song man and woman
each appears as an
individual--capable, independent, self-reliant--
and at the same time they have
become "bone of one's bone, flesh
of one's flesh."
Sexuality Is a
Multidimensional Relationship
From the aspect of wholeness and
solidarity we are led to a
fifth insight into
the nature of sexuality: Paradisiacal sexual love
means a
multidimensional relationship. The relational symphony
of the sexes in the Song of Songs
is a "live performance" of the
"score" set for them in Gen 2:24. As in Gen 2 man
"leaves" (i.e., he
is free from all outside
interferences in the sexual relationship), so
in Canticles the lovers are
unfettered by parental prearrangements46
or political promises." They
are in love for love's sake alone. They
are free for the spontaneous
development of an intimate friend-
ship.48 In the freedom
from outside interferences the couple may
find mutual
attraction in the physical beauty49 and inward character
qualities50 of each other.
45 Cant
5:6 (cf. vss. 2-8).
46 Numerous references in
Canticles are made to the mothers of the lovers (1:6;
3:4,
11; 6:9; 8:1, 2, 5), indicating the closeness of ties that continue between
parent
and son (3:11)/daughter (3:4; 8:2).
But in all of this there is nothing of the parents'
interfering with the
lovers' freedom of choice and action. Thus both the fifth
commandment and the
"leaving" of Gen 2:24 are upheld.
47 I concur with F. Delitzsch, Commentary
on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes
(
text, the Shulamite is not the daughter of Pharaoh (as maintained by
many), but "a
country maiden of humble
rank, who by her beauty and by the purity of her soul,
filled Solomon with a
love for her which drew him away from the wantonness of
polygamy, and made for
him the primitive idea of marriage, as it is described in
Gen.
3:23ff., a self-experienced reality."
48 The Shulamite
is considered as close as a sister by her lover (4:9; 5:1; etc.), and
she in turn can say of him,
"This is my beloved and he is my friend" (5:16).
49 For a discussion of the
mutual, frank, and erotic expression of praise for each
other, see below, p.
17.
50 See Thorleif
Boman, Hebrew
Thought Compared to Greek (New York, 1960),
pp.
77-89, for a discussion of how the imagery used in praise of bride and groom in
12 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
As in the Genesis model, in which man
and woman are to
"cleave" to each other in a marriage covenant, so the
Song of
Songs
climaxes in the wedding ceremony. The chiastic structure of
the unified Song reveals a
symmetrical design focused upon a
central section which
describes the wedding of Solomon and his
bride.51 Cant 3:6-11 clearly portrays the
wedding procession of
Solomon "on the day of his
wedding" (3:11). What follows in Cant
4:1-5:1
appears to encompass the wedding ceremony proper.52 Only
here in the Song
does Solomon address the Shulamite as his
"bride"
(kallah, 4:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 5:1).53
The groom praises the bride,
paralleling the Arab wasf of modern village weddings in Syria.54
Following
this come the central two verses of the entire chiastic
structure of the Song (4:16,
5:1), which seem to be the equivalent to
our modern-day exchange of marriage
vows.55 The groom has
compared his bride to a
garden (4:12, 15); now the bride invites her
groom to come and
partake of the fruits of her (and now his)
garden (4:16), and the
groom accepts her invitation (5:la-d). The
marriage covenant
solemnized, the invitation is then extended to
Canticles
penetrates beyond the surface to describe dominant and admirable qualities
of the partners.
Cf. Delitzsch,
p. 5: "That which attached her [the Shulamite]
to him [Solomon]
is not her personal beauty alone,
but her beauty animated and heightened by
nobility of soul. She is
a pattern of simple devotedness, naive simplicity, unaffected
modesty, moral purity,
and frank prudence,--a lily of the field, more beautifully
adorned than he could
claim to be in all his glory. We cannot understand the Song
of Songs unless we perceive that it
presents before us not only Shulamith's external
attractions, but also all
the virtues which made her the ideal of all that is gentlest
and noblest in woman."
51 See Shea, pp. 387-395.
52 See ibid.,
p. 394, for discussion of supporting evidence for this conclusion;
Pope,
p. 508, lists other commentators who have come to similar conclusions.
53 See Delitzsch,
pp. 81, 90-91, for the significance of the term kallah here.
"For
illustration and analysis of the wasf (the "description" of the physical
perfection and beauty of
the bride and groom sung in the modern village wedding
festivals in
bibliography); Marcia Falk, Love Lyrics from the Bible: A Translation
and Literary
Study of the
Song of Songs
(Sheffield, Eng., 1982), pp. 80-87.
55 Delitzsch,
p. 89, argues that "between iv. 16 and v. la the bridal night
intervenes," but the
evidence from the text set forth by Shea, p. 394, appears to argue
for linking 5:1 with what comes
before. Thus all is part of "the wedding service
proper."
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 13
the friends of the bride and groom
to join in the wedding banquet
(5:1e).
In Gen 2:24 the "cleaving"
refers not only to the formal mar-
riage covenant, but
to the inward attitudinal dimensions of the
covenant bond. Likewise,
the Song reveals the fidelity, loyalty, and
devotion of the
partners,56 the steadfastness of their love,57 and the
exclusiveness of their
relationship.58 The description of the "cov-
enant
partnership" between Solomon and the Shulamite,
like the
word dabaq,
"connotes a permanent attraction which transcends
genital union, to
which, nonetheless, it gives meaning."59
As in Gen 2:24, where the
"one-flesh" union follows the "cleav-
ing," so in
the Song of Songs sexual intercourse occurs only within
the context of the marriage
covenant. Those scholars who argue to
the contrary60 have
failed to take seriously the unity of the Song
and the testimony of the groom
regarding his bride. Solomon
likens his bride to a
garden during the wedding ceremony proper.
More
precisely, she is a locked garden
(4:12):
56 See, e.g., Cant 3:1-5; cf.
2:16; 6:3; and the general use of the possessive
pronouns and language of
ardent devotion throughout.
57 See especially
Cant 8:6, 7; cf. discussion and references in Pope, p. 195.
58 This seems to be implied in,
e.g., Cant 2:16; 6:3; R. G. Laurin, "The Life of
True
Love: The Song of Songs and Its Modern Message," Christianity Today 6
(1962):
1062-1063, argues for this motif also in Cant 7:13. Of course, the reference to
the 60 queens and 80 concubines (of
Solomon?) in Cant 6:8 must also be taken into
account. Delitzsch, p. 111, takes the low number (compared to the
record in 1 Kings
11:3)
as an indication of the occurrence of the marriage early in Solomon's reign,
yet
indicative of the fact
that Solomon himself did not live up to the ideal of exclusive-
ness. Joseph C. Dillow, Solomon on
Sex: The Biblical Guide to Marital Love
(
his father David, and "Solomon
may not have been sexually involved with those
many concubines
until later in his reign, when we know he began to degenerate
into lustful
polygamy." G. Lloyd Carr, The Song of Solomon, TOTC (Downers
Grove,
IL, 1984), p. 148, notes that it is not necessary to equate this harem with
Solomon's:
"More probably, no particular harem is being considered. Note the text
does not say ‘Solomon
has’ or ‘I have,’ but it is a simple declaration: ‘There are . . .
and
my beloved is unique’ (vs. 9, NIV)."
59 Raymond Collins, "The Bible
and Sexuality," BTB 7 (1977):
153; see the
discussion of dabaq in
Davidson, "Gen 1-2," p. 21.
60 See, e.g., Trible, God and the
Rhetoric of Sexuality, p. 162: "to the issues of
marriage and procreation
the Song does not speak." Cf. McCurley, p. 101:
"It is not
even clear in the
Song that the man and woman are married to each other."
14 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a garden locked,
a fountain sealed.
Modern
commentators generally concur that here "the locked gar-
den denotes virginity."61
If this interpretation is correct and the
Song
is a unity, then the groom is clearly announcing at the
wedding ceremony that
his bride is still a virgin. In fact, the high
point of the ceremony
and of the entire Song is focalized in the
invitation and acceptance
on the part of bride and groom to "be-
come one flesh"
with each other through sexual intercourse. Sexual
union is thereby
reserved and preserved for husband and wife after
marriage.
The pivotal, central section of the
Song, with its description of
the wedding ceremony of Solomon and
his virgin bride, must be
given due weight in
the interpretation of what precedes and fol-
lows. In light of
the information from this midsection, the love
lyrics of Cant 1:3-5
cannot describe premarital sexual intercourse.
The
earlier sections of the Song may consist of later reflections
upon the love
relationship as it developed up to the time of the
wedding, including
poetic descriptions of sexual relations in the
bridal chamber on the
wedding night. Franz Delitzsch, followed
recently by Joseph Dillow and others,62 has argued rather convinc-
ingly that the Song
of Songs contains a series of reflections encom-
passing the historical
scope of the relationship between Solomon
and the Shulamite
from the first flush of friendship and love through
the courtship period, reaching its
climax on the wedding day and
extending beyond with a
depiction of married life together. Al-
though Delitzsch should probably be faulted for his emphasis upon
the melodramatic character of the
Song (six acts, each with two
scenes) and for his
interpretation of certain details, yet his overall
analysis has much to
commend it.
Dillow has shown how
this approach may actually provide in
the Song a "Biblical Guide to
Married Love"--principles pertain-
ing to each stage
of the love relationship. We note a few of Dillow's
61 Pope, p. 458. Carr, p. 123,
sees the garden here as a euphemism for the female
sexual organs and
concludes that "a fountain sealed and a garden locked speak of
virginity." Cf. Delitzsch, p. 84: "To a locked garden and spring no
one has access
but the rightful owner, and a sealed
fountain is shut against all impurity."
62 Delitzsch,
pp. 10-11 and passim; Dillow, passim; cf. S. Craig
Glickman, A
Song for Lovers (Downers Grove,
IL, 1976), passim.
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 15
points. In the bride's
wedding-day reflection of Cant 1:1-8, for
example, Dillow draws attention to her healthy attitude toward
sexuality in anticipation
of the wedding night (1:2-4), recognition
of the principle of natural versus
contrived beauty and acceptance
of the special value of physical
imperfections (1:5-6), the need for
counting the cost of
commitment to the relationship (1:7-8), and
the virtue of modesty (1:7b). Again,
according to Dillow, in the
reflection over the
lovers' courtship (2:8-3:5), the Song emphasizes
how the relationship of Solomon and
the Shulamite developed as
they spent time
together getting to know each other (the springtime
visit, 2:8-17) and
worked through problems (the "little foxes," 2:15-
17)
gnawing at the love relationship. Dillow
also explores the
portrayal of the sexual
relations of the bride and groom in their
bridal chamber
(1:17-2:7) for insights into the nature of sexual
intimacy and how to
enhance it.63 As a final sample, we note
Dillow's analysis of
later sections of the Song, interpreted as refer-
ring to the couple's
married life subsequent to the wedding: The
dream of 5:2-8 is
seen to reveal sexual problems arising in their
marriage (Solomon's
late-night approaching and her lack of in-
terest), while Cant
5:9-6:13 presents a working out of those sexual
problems through a
change of attitude and action.64
Whether or not one accepts the
historical-biographical inter-
pretations of Delitzsch/Dillow, it may be
affirmed that the Song of
Songs
parallels and expands upon Gen 1-3 in its portrayal of a
multidimensional sexual
relationship between Solomon and the
Shulamite.
Sexuality Is
Pleasurable
As a sixth insight into the nature of
sexuality from the Song of
Songs,
we note one aspect that is not mentioned. The Song contains
63 Dillow,
pp. 26-41.
64 Ibid.,
pp. 98-147. According to Dillow, pp. 129-130, the
"three basic attitudes
adopted by Shulamith and Solomon in the interim between the beginning
of the
sexual problems and
their solution" include: (1) "the assuming of responsibility for
one's own behavior
instead of blaming the mate"; (2) "to render a blessing when
hurt or offended by
one's mate," and (3) "a complete and transparent communica-
tion of one's
feelings." The change of action involves the Shulamite's
aggressively
taking the initiative
in the loveplay (ibid., pp. 130-147). Note also Dillow's analysis
of the wedding night (4:1-5:1) as
providing insights into the sexual intimacy
between bride and groom
(pp. 72-97) and of the final section of the Song, sum-
marizing how love is
awakened, defined, developed, and enjoyed (pp. 148-157).
16 RICHARD M. DAVIDSON
no reference to the procreative
function of sexuality. As is true with
the Creation account of Gen 2, the
sexual experience within mar-
riage in the Song is
not linked with utilitarian propagation. Mc-
Curley
expresses it nicely: "The love affair is by no means designed
for the production of progeny. The
pleasure of the bedroom rather
than the results for
the nursery occupies the poet's concern here."65
Lovemaking
for the sake of love, not procreation, is the message of
the Song. This is not to imply that
Canticles is hostile to the
procreative aspect of
sexuality: The lovers allude to the beauty of
their own conception
(3:4; 8:2) and birth (6:9; 8:5). But in the Song
sexual union is given
independent meaning and value; it does not
need to be justified
as a means to a superior (i.e., procreative) end.
Sexuality Is
Beautiful
This leads us to the final insight and
the major statement of
the Song of Songs regarding the
nature of sexuality. In living
pictures sexuality is
presented as wholesome, beautiful, and good;
something to be
celebrated and enjoyed without fear or embarrass-
ment. In the
Canticles, as in Gen 1, sexuality, along with the rest of
God's
creation, is tob me'od--"very good." As in Gen 2, lovers in
the Song stand "naked and ...
not ashamed" before each other.
We have returned to
ten as if in
art mine own! echoes
in it in speech and interchanging song from
end to end."66
Though in a sinful world, lovers after the Fall may
still bask in the
beauty of
Trible,
first became one
flesh in the garden of Eden. There a narrator
reported briefly their
sexual union (Gen. 2:24). Now in another
garden, the lovers
themselves praise at length the joys of inter-
course. Possessive
adjectives do not separate their lives. "My
garden" and
"his garden" blend in mutual habitation and har-
mony. Even person
and place unite: the garden of eroticism is the
woman. In this garden
the sensuality of
deepens. Emerging
gradually in Genesis 2-3, all five senses capitu-
lated to disobedience
through the tasting of the forbidden fruit.
Fully present in the Song of Songs from
the beginning, these
65 McCurley,
p. 101.
66 Quoted in Delitzsch, p. 5.
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 17
senses saturate the
poetry to serve only love. Such love is sweet to
the taste, like the
fruit of the apple tree (2:3; cf. 4:16; 5:1, 13).
Fragrant are the smells of the vineyards
(2:13), the perfumes of
myrrh and
frankincense (3:6), the scent of
beds of spices
(5:13; 6:2). The embraces of lovers confirm the
delights of touch (1:2;
2:3-6; 4:10, 11; cf. 5:1; 7:6-9; 8:1, 3). A
glance of the eyes
ravishes the heart (4:9; 6:13), as the sound of the
lover thrills it
(5:2). Taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing per-
meate the garden of
the song.67
Set against a backdrop where all is
sensuously beautiful,68 the
lovers in the Song
celebrate the beauty of married sexual love. In
language that is erotic
and sensual and yet in delicate taste, the
lovers extol each
other's beauty. By means of poetic metaphors,
double entendres that both reveal and conceal, the
ecstatic pleasure
of sexual intimacy is described.69
As we have already noted, the very
apex of the book--the
chiastic center (4:16-5:1)--consists of an
invitation to consummate
marriage through sexual union.
4. Conclusion
A whole book taken up with celebrating
the wholesome beauty
and enjoyment of human sexual love!
How can the inclusion of
such a book be
justified in the sacred canon? No further justification
is needed. Those who have resorted
to an allegorical interpretation
to legitimize the existence of
Canticles in Scripture have missed the
crucial point-the Song
of Songs in its plain and literal sense is
not just a "secular" love
song, but is fraught with deep spiritual,
theological significance.
From the OT Hebrew perspective God is
not absent from the Song, nor are
his love and concern for his
creatures lacking in it.
Rather, they are clearly shown in the enjoy-
ment and pleasure
(given by God to man in the creation) which the
lovers find in each other
and in their surroundings.70
In harmony with the presentation of
creation in Genesis, sexu-
ality in the Song is
part of God's good creation; and since it is
67 Trible,
God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality,
pp. 154-155.
68 See above, p. 6, note 24;
ibid., pp. 155-157; Falk, pp. 88-106; and Murphy,
"Human
Intimacy," p. 64.
69 For an analysis of the
imagery of intercourse in the Song, see, e.g., Trible,
God and the
Rhetoric of Sexuality,
pp. 152-153, 157; Dillow, pp. 28-32, 72-86;
Exum,
pp. 57-58, 71.
70 Stephen Sapp, Sexuality, the Bible, and Science (
18 RICHARD
M. DAVIDSON
created by God, it
speaks eloquently--perhaps most eloquently of
all--of his love for his creation as
it is enjoyed in harmony with
the divine intention. The
affirmation of human sexual love in the
Song
is therefore an implicit affirmation of the Creator of love.
The Song of Songs also may contain an
explicit indication of
the divine source of human love. The
climax of the Song is gener-
ally recognized to
come in the great paean to love in Cant 8:6-7. A
number of scholars
have suggested that the best translation of
salhebetyah in v. 6 should
be "a flame of Yah(weh)." The whole
verse would then
read:
For love is as strong as death,
ardent love as
relentless as Sheol;
the flash of it is
a flash of fire,
a flame
of Yah(weh) himself.71
If this interpretation is correct, then
true human love is expli-
citly described as
originating in God as "a spark off the original
flame." To put
it another way, human love at its best, as described
in the Song, points beyond itself
to the Lord of love.
In the final analysis, therefore, the
allegorical interpretation of
the Song may be correct in its conclusion that the Song shows God's
love for man, but
incorrect in the way in which the
conclusion is
reached. The love
relationship between Solomon and the Shulamite
is not a worthless
"husk," to be stripped away allegorically
to find
the Song's kernel or the
"true" meaning--the love between God and
his people. Rather, the love
relationship between husband and wife,
described in the Song,
has independent meaning and value of its
own that is affirmed and extolled.
At the same time this human love
is given even greater significance
as it typologically points beyond
itself to the divine
Lover in the Song's climax (8:6). Rather than
an allegorical understanding (with
its fanciful, externally-and-
arbitrarily-imposed meaning that is
alien to the plain and literal
sense), the Song
itself calls for a typological
approach,72 which
71 See the Jerusalem Bible
translation; Delitzsch, p. 147; Robert Gordis, The
Song of Songs: A
Study, Modern Translation and Commentary (New York, 1954),
p.
74; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Toward Old Testament Ethics (
1983),
p. 195; Murphy, "Human Intimacy," p. 65; cf. BDB, p. 529. Delitzsch, p. 147,
argues forcefully for interpreting
salhebetyah as a true subjective genitive
("flame of
Yahweh") and not as a mere
superlative strengthening of the idea ("mighty flame").
72 For the distinction between
allegory and typology, see Richard M. Davidson,
Typology in
Scripture: A Study of Hermeneutical Tu<poj Structures (Berrien
Springs,
MI,
1981), pp. 20, 81, 100-101.
THEOLOGY OF
SEXUALITY 19
remains faithful to,
and even enhances, the literal sense of the Song
by recognizing what the text
indicates--that human love typifies
the divine. Thus human sexual love,
already highly esteemed in
Scripture, is given its
highest acclamation. The Song of Songs,
therefore, becomes the
fitting climax and the supreme statement on
the nature of sexuality in the OT.
We have indeed reached the
"Holy of Holies."
:
SDA Theological
Berrien Springs
http://www.andrews.edu/SEM/
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