Peter J. Leithart

Augustine famously declared that the sacraments are bodily things and actions that function as “certain visible words.” Sacraments are word-like, but operate in the visual rather than the audible sphere.  And the analogy between the two is often taken to be communication: Words teach us . . . . Continue Reading »

Why do men (almost always men) expose themselves to strangers? The redoubtable Diane Ackerman ( A Natural History Of Love ) suggests that what happens after the victim shrieks and runs reveals the motivations: “The flasher rarely runs away.  Flashing the woman fills only the smallest . . . . Continue Reading »

Song of Songs 5:2 (as Albert Cook points out in The Root of the Thing ) says, “the voice of dodi knocking,” implying that the voice itself has become personified and seeks entry to the bride’s chamber. Then we allegorize, in light of Revelation 3:20, where it is Jesus who knocks . . . . Continue Reading »

Larry Lyke ( I Will Espouse You Forever: The Song of Songs and the Theology of Love in the Hebrew Bible ) notes the use of the word “skirts” (Heb. shwl ) in Lamentations 1:9, and comments that outside Jeremiah, Nahum, and Lamentations the term “is always used in reference to . . . . Continue Reading »

In response to the overview of the Song of Songs that I proposed a few days ago, James Jordan suggests the following, more compressed, scheme: 1. Israel in bondage, longing for her sleeping Lord to awake, 1:2-2:7. 2. Yahweh comes and calls Israel to the springtime, 2:8-17. 3. Yahweh’s absence . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, I suggested that the sequence of sacrifice in the Bible, reflected in Leviticus and the Song, is this: Like the original Adam, adams are divided and pass through the fire into order to be transformed into fiery bridal food, fragrance satisfying to God. That is only an extension of . . . . Continue Reading »

Raymond Jacques Tournay argues convincingly that the cautions about “awakening love” in the Song refer to the sleeping bridegroom, rather than the sleeping bride.  The motif comes to a conclusion in 8:5, where the bride says that she awakened the lover under the apple tree. Which . . . . Continue Reading »

How does the theme verse of the Song (8:6) summarize the message of the Song?  Death is never mentioned earlier in the Song, and the threats to the bride do not seem mortal threats.  She is wounded in the streets, but survives the attack and finds her lover again.  Otherwise, the . . . . Continue Reading »

James Jordan has pointed out that Adam is first called “man” (Heb. ‘ish ) when Eve is presented to him (Genesis 2:22).  He further suggests that ‘ish is punningly connected with the Hebrew word for fire, ‘esh .  Adam, the man of earth, becomes enflamed, burns . . . . Continue Reading »

The Song of Songs is about Yahweh and Israel, but the history it allegorizes is not a history of grueling slavery, battle, conquest, exile.  All that history is portrayed as light romantic comedy.  Which it is: Light romantic comedy is the story of the world. The crises that the bride . . . . Continue Reading »