Solid, opaque things cast shadows. Our presence is not confined to the solid and defined outline of our body. Our presence spreads out, casting a shadow and providing shade. That’s the phenomenological basis behind the Bible’s use of shade/shadow imagery. Shadows . . . . Continue Reading »
The bride of the Song addresses Solomon as “my beloved” ( dodi ) some 25 times. The phrasing is unusual; elsewhere, dod means not “beloved” but “uncle.” In the LXX, the word is translated as adelphidos , used only in the Son. While the terminology is . . . . Continue Reading »
“I am black but lovely,” the bride of the Song insists to the daughters of Jerusalem. That judgment runs against the aesthetics of the time, according to which white, untarnished skin was a sign of beauty, as well as a sign of class distinction. She is black because she was burned . . . . Continue Reading »
Following the interpretation of Rashi, Nicholas of Lyra understood the Song of Songs as an allegory of Yahweh and Israel, leading up to the New Covenant when the Lord took a bride from every nations. As Nicholas sees it, this is the reason for the complexity and difficulty of the Song: “the . . . . Continue Reading »
Eve was created from Adam’s rib. She had a body, and a female body. But the Pentateuch gives little attention to the female body as such. Women are described as beautiful, or not (Leah). But only Deuteronomy 49:25 uses, for instance, the word “breast” ( . . . . Continue Reading »
Why didn’t the Son come in the flesh just outside Eden? The erotic theology of the Song of Songs provides a possible hint. Throughout the Song, the lovers admire each other’s bodies and express their longing desires to be together. Union comes at the end of reciprocal . . . . Continue Reading »
When I taught literature, I told students that poetry is a “concentrated excess of language.” Song of Songs 2:16a is poetry of poetry. Woodenly translated, it says, “My beloved to me, and I to him.” The overlapping structures in that deceptively simple statement . . . . Continue Reading »
David Dorsey points out that Song of Songs 2:11-13 contains seven descriptions of spring and seven imperatives. Sevens make me think of the creation week: Spring is new creation. But can we fill that out in more detail? Verse 11a says that winter is past. Winter is darkness. . . . . Continue Reading »
Protestants agreed with Catholics that the Song elaborates a nuptial analogy to the church’s relation to Christ, but Scheper finds a significant difference between Protestants and Catholics when they explain why that analogy is apt in the first place. Protestants, consistent with the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Puritans were not prudes, but the caricature has some basis in fact. Again the Song of Songs provides a neat barometer. Scheper juxtaposes a medieval monk’s interpretation of the “breasts” of the Song with that of two Protestant interpreters. The results are . . . . Continue Reading »
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