What does songs of solomon mean

Charles Spurgeon preached 59 sermons on this book in Victorian England and Bernard of Clairvaux preached 86 sermons on chapters one and two alone. The song of songs : Many different interpretive approaches have been used in understanding this great song. Some avoid this book altogether. Origen c. Others embrace this book with great devotion but see it primarily as an allegory describing the love relationship between God and His people, not between a husband and wife.

Early Christian writers took the same approach, but they replaced Israel with the Church. Others see this book primarily as a drama dealing with three characters; Solomon, a simple country shepherd, and the young maiden. The idea is that Solomon one day traveled through his kingdom and saw the young maiden and was captivated by her beauty. Though she was betrothed to the simple shepherd, Solomon brought her back to his palace and tried to win her affection with all lavish gifts and loving words.

The best way to see this book is as a literal, powerful description of the romantic and sensual love between a man and a woman, observing both their courtship and their marriage. It does not give us a smooth chronological story, beginning with the introduction of the couple to one another and ending with their married life together. Yet, because God deliberately uses the marriage relationship as an illustration of the relationship that He has with His people, we find that this great song of songs illustrates the love, the intensity, and the beauty of relationship that should exist between God and the believer.

This is clearly a secondary meaning, sublimated to the plain literal meaning, yet nevertheless valid and important. There are those who consider its only value is that of its mystical suggestiveness.

Personally, I believe that both values are here. We might expect that the songs of songs be a song that only praises God instead of one that celebrates love and sensuality within marriage. This idea is decidedly contrary to the negative view towards marriage that came early in the history of the church.

In at the Council of Nicea, a proposal was made to prohibit all clergy from living as married; but the Council did not approve the proposal. In Pope Siricius commanded that all priests live as celibates, and later this order was extended to include deacons in the church. In this period, many people who were ordained as priests were already married. Leo the Great , out of concern for these wives, did not allow priests to put their wives away but commanded that the priest and his wife live together as brother and sister — that is, without any sexual relationship.

This command led to the rule that a married man could not be ordained as a priest unless he and his wife took a vow that they would live as celibate, and then led further to the refusal to ordain anyone who was or had been married. This idea that the truly spiritual cannot or should not be married and enjoy sexual love is not based in the Old Testament. The Old Testament has no word for a bachelor; in Old Testament thinking, there were to be none.

Every patriarch was married, all priests were married, and as far as we know every prophet was married except for Jeremiah, who was uniquely commanded by God not to marry Jeremiah Since the office of high priest was hereditary, the high priest had to marry, showing that only a married man could experience this most intimate closeness and communion with God as the high priest did by entering the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement.

As well, the idea that the truly spiritual cannot or should not be married and enjoy sexual love is not based in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the value of marriage in Matthew when the religious leaders came to Him with a question about divorce. Hebrews tells us that the marriage bed — understood as the place of sexual relations in marriage — is undefiled and should be honored by all.

Paul told us that it was desirable for elders and church leaders to be married 1 Timothy and Titus The difference between the Old and New Testaments is that the New will allow that the unmarried state can also be good and even sometimes, in rare cases, preferable. We have the example of Jesus Himself and later Paul, as in 1 Corinthians Jesus also said that the state of a eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven could be good Matthew , and Paul recognized that singleness could be an advantage in a time of distress 1 Corinthians , but never commanded.

Nor does it see the normal physical love within that relationship as necessarily impure. Marriage was instituted before the Fall by God with the command that the first couple become one flesh. Significantly, the Song of Songs makes no reference to procreation. Nevertheless, over hundreds and hundreds of years in Christianity, the dominant view was that sexual passion and true spirituality were contradictory and opposed to each other.

This idea that for the truly spiritual sexuality was repressed led to a greater emphasis on the idea that we are to be passionately devoted to Jesus Christ as a superior replacement of our sexual desires. An eroticism precluded at the human level was permitted at the divine. No book of Scripture received such attention between Augustine and Luther. What Galatians was to the Reformers, the Song of Songs was to the church for a thousand years.

Other genuine allegories in the Bible e. Song of Solomon presents itself, instead, as a literal account of the love of a man and a woman. None of these is present in the Song of Songs. Additionally, there is significant danger in emphasizing an allegorical approach for interpretation , more than just application. Too frequently it depends upon human guesswork and opinion; and if one leans on it, one will lean on a staff made of Egyptian reed [Ezekiel ].

The purely allegorical approach to the Song of Solomon is wrong; yet it cannot be denied that since it presents the height and glory and passion of love in marriage, it powerfully illustrates the love-relationship that exists between God and His people, between Jesus Christ and His Church.

When they are thus understood, reverently the thought may be lifted into the higher value of setting forth the joys of communion between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God, and ultimately between the Church and Christ. Solomon composed some 1, songs 1 Kings , and this was the greatest the song of songs among them.

Solomon is presumed to be the author because he is mentioned six times Song of Solomon , , , , , and and there are three references to an unnamed king Song of Solomon , , and The mention of Solomon brings up another problem with understanding the Song of Solomon; mainly, who are the characters speaking in this collection of poems, and how do we assign specific speaking lines to the specific characters? It must be admitted that the assignment of certain lines to certain individuals is somewhat subjective and will differ from translator to translator.

As mentioned before, some people see this as a drama proving that true love wins out between the young maiden and simple country shepherd, even though Solomon tried to take the maiden for Himself. It is the opinion of this commentator that there are actually only three main characters or speakers: the young maiden the Shulamite , the young man Solomon, the Beloved , and the chorus the Daughters of Jerusalem.

The young maiden is often called the Shulamite. The young man is often called the Beloved and is generally identified with Solomon. Believing that the Song of Solomon really is by Solomon, we are left with difficult and perhaps unanswerable questions, such as: What is the occasion upon which it was written?

Who is the woman so passionately loved by this man who ended with wives and concubines 1 Kings ? Why was this exceedingly wise man not wise enough to keep his affections for this special maiden alone? Our appreciation for the gospel grows even deeper as we see new ways that we need the grace of God in Christ. When the Song presents an ideal picture of love in marriage, we have a unique glimpse into the relationship between Christ and the church that leads us to love our Savior and his gospel all the more deeply.

Part of the Knowing the Bible series. The Song of Solomon is unique because the voice of the shepherdess is most prominent in this book. Christianity is, in certain quarters, stylized as marginalizing women, especially when it comes to sexuality. Sexual imagery is powerful. Our culture abounds with images and paradigms that corrupt more than they instruct and wound more than they heal.

A study of the Song of Solomon can revise our understanding and help us reclaim in holiness the sexual expression that God has created and declared good. This inspired poem encourages husbands and wives are to share their adoration for each other with joy.

The Song of Solomon contains sexual imagery in parts and is full of declarations of love and adoration. But the language is tasteful, poetic, and beautiful. It is ancient, divinely inspired language from another time. We need the fresh perspective on love and sexuality that the Song of Solomon offers. The Song of Solomon is not one sensuous scene after another.

It is a series of love poems that capture the joys, insecurities, sorrows, and frustrations that accompany the journey of love.

Through patient Bible study, the reader will follow the bride and her beloved on a journey from courtship to consummation and beyond. The voices of friends are there. The fears and insecurities are there. So we come full circle, reaching similar conclusions to the early allegorical approaches to the Song. The difference, though, is obvious.

We do not deny the primary and natural reading of the book, which highlights human love, and we do not arbitrarily posit the analogy between the Song's lovers and God and Israel. Rather, we read it in the light of the pervasive marriage metaphor of the Old Testament.

From a New Testament Perspective. The New Testament also uses human relationships as metaphors of the divine-human relationship, and none clearer than marriage. According to Ephesians , the church is the bride of Christ see also Rev ; Revelation Revelation ; So Christians should read the Song in the light of Ephesians and rejoice in the intimate relationship that they enjoy with Jesus Christ.

Carr, Song of Solomon ; F. Falk, Love Lyrics from the Bible ; W. Lambert, JSS 4 : ; M. Popoe, Song of Songs ; P. Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality ; J. Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. Song of Solomon reminds us that both marriage and the physical union that follows originate in God; we should therefore consider each of them as evidence of His grace working itself out in the world.

View Chuck Swindoll's chart of Song of Solomon , which divides the book into major sections and highlights themes and key verses. Song of Solomon. Who wrote the book? Where are we? Why is Song of Solomon so important?