Song Study

by Ben

I am beginning to read The Song of Songs (from the Interpreter's Bible).

I realized that trying to bring light to such a complex work as The Song of Songs would require some heavy exegesis, so I pulled out my set of the Interpreter's Bible. I've spent the last 25 minutes just reading the beginnings of the introduction to the book, which discusses the complexity of the text, as it comes in poetic form, and can be interpreted as an allegory, a two-person drama, a three-character drama, a wedding cycle, a secular love song, and as a part of liturgy.

If we attempt to look at the book through only one of these lenses, we miss so much of what this song of all songs has to offer. It is by viewing the text as a whole, in all its varied parts, that gives us a picture of God in his relation to us, of a God ordained marriage relationship, of man's connection to the natural world around him, of man's morality and interaction with the world around him (and pretty much any other "man vs. x" combination you can think of).

I look forward to diving into this book and the exegetical reading that goes with.