Alright, so lesson one is entitled Introducing the Song of Songs. Like we do in every single Bible study, we dedicate an hour or so, at least we'll know one good lesson, just link the foundation of what this book is all about. Especially this book in the context of the wisdom literature, as I've done in previous Bible studies on wisdom literature. We want to look at the title and authorship and dating and the themes, placement structure.
And this book especially when it's been a lot of time talking about interpretive traditions. Because this book is difficult to interpret and there are a lot of different perspectives. I think there's predominant Christian perspectives which I'm going to zero in on, and it's going to be very helpful for us as we approach this super poetic, super allegorical and incredibly beautiful powerful book. Alright, so that being said, I will say really really quickly as well.
You can also consult your syllabus and suggest that reading is very similar to other Bible studies, where I'll give you the lesson titles that we have for this three part series, because that's what's going to be three parts. This first lesson is linked to foundation, the second part is chapters one through four, and then the third part, the final lesson is the second half of the book five through eight. And so we'll go through that in good time. And you're also going to see a bunch of recommended reading, right?
So I'm trying to hit the sweet spot here where we're not going to be superficial or shallow. We're actually going to be, you know, diving in and chewing on this great work. But we're not going to go so deep into the weeds that it becomes just unapproachable or irrelevant. So I'm going to try to hit that sweet spot.
And all the books that I put there that you could recommend are the ones that I rely on. They're wonderful resources, good Catholic commentaries, and a couple of non-Catholic commentaries in there as well that have been very helpful too. So consult that at your own time and enjoy. So let's look at the notes here.
Roman numeral one, what I want to do is spend just a brief amount of time situating the song of songs within the Old Testament, which is the literature, corpus and tradition. I have used a couple of quotes here and some of these same insights and perspectives on other wisdom books, Bible studies here. So it's a brief review if you've been with me before. But first let's begin with the whole concept of what is wisdom, right?
Because it's kind of the philosophical term. What is wisdom? What's the wise man? You expect the wise man as a super long gray beard and spectacles?
It's really small spectacles as well. And he's very old and he's kind of like this. Just sit like wise sage. And every word he speaks is just dripping with meaning and purpose, right?
All right. Well, wisdom in the Hebrew is hokma and Greek. It's Sophia. Hokma, try to repeat that 10 times and it'll burn into your brain.
Sophia is easy to remember because we probably know many women who are named. Sophia is a beautiful name. So wisdom, generally, I'll just start off with, I said this before, but I'll just start off saying wisdom is, there's many philosophers who spend so much time talking about wisdom. It is, you know, it is the great end and purpose for humanity, right?
To live a wise life, a righteous virtuous life as we find the purpose in God. I've always just like this is my own personal interpretation or I should say my own personal definition. So take it with a grain of salt. But I've always saw wisdom as seeing things according to their proper end in God's design, right?
Because God has designed everything with a proper end, a proper purpose. And when we understand what that end is, whether it is a chair that you sit on or a saw that you cut with or a pencil that you write with or a sexuality has its own proper end, right? And purpose or the human being, the whole soul itself, the end of the soul is God, right? It's intimacy with God.
So when you understand that everything has its own proper end, if you get that and you approach an object, the thing of person according to its design, well, then there's wisdom there. And this is going to be the whole spectrum from, I'm going to read this definition, you're not definition, but this quote from a great commentary, the Catholic Bible Dictionary. You're going to see that it can be a plot, broad definition can be applied to pretty much almost anything. So let me read this quote here.
It says, in the Old Testament, wisdom was most often a matter of practical knowledge and other senses of wisdom derived from this primary sense. The Hebrew word translated wisdom, which again is hokma or sofi-angreek, often referred to the skill of the tradesmen, likewise to the wisdom of the artisan and the sailor and the weaver with wisdom in the specific sense expressing notions of skill or ability. So I'll just pause the quote here for a second. And that's what I mean, right?
So if you are an artisan, a sailor, a weaver, a sculptor, whatever, you see the thing according to its proper end. A great example of hokma given to an artisan is in the story of the Exodus where Bizalel and the Holy Abir, these are two dudes who God gave great hokma wisdom to build the various artifacts of the tabernacle, the mosaic tabernacle itself, plus all the furniture, the instruments, all that kind of stuff. God gave them wisdom and ability to see the thing according to its proper end is how I look at it. And it's an notion of skill, ability, right?
So then the quote goes on by saying, by simple extension, the administrative skill of the able government leader or judge was also called wisdom. And again, I think that's important because if you are a government leader or you are a judge, you need to understand the thing according to its purpose and you need to be able to judge or lead rightly. Okay, for the common good of the people or to give justice to a person who's been wronged in any kind of way. Then it goes on and here it gets too biblical wisdom, I think, specifically, although each different book emphasizes different things.
It says, finally, wisdom could refer to the skillful discernment of the righteous and making godly moral choices. And that's really important because we can't get into a whole course on moral theology here, but every single act has its own purpose and end as well. Right? So when you begin to understand like through wisdom, hokma, sofia, this particular act, generosity, chastity, courage, you can go through the four cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, everything has its own proper end, right?
To govern the soul properly for our ultimate end, which is God. All right, so I'm going to read that again. Wisdom could refer to the skillful discernment of the righteous and making godly moral choices. And then it concludes saying those who are most knowledgeable and were accounted among the wise, the wisest of all was, of course, Solomon.
His wisdom was legendary and earned him the admiration of all who met him. All right, so this is the broad-scroaks definition, understanding of what hokma is. And the wisdom literature is, I'll just recap this briefly, it's Psalms. I put Psalms in the wisdom literature.
Not everyone does, but Psalms, this was probably an argument and a debate for another time, but Psalms certainly should be put into the wisdom literature for a variety of reasons, all right? But in any case, Psalms, then Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalm of Solomon, which, or Psalms, that's the trilogy of Solomon, which we're talking about. And then the wisdom of Solomon, which is not written by him, that's going to be another Bible study, then finally, Sir Acts. So there are seven books in the wisdom literature, a corpus, the collection.
I don't think that's an accident, by the way, because seven is the number of the covenant. And so wisdom is meant to draw us into a deeper union intimacy with God through the covenant, and that's very, very important. And in fact, that very point right there leads me to this next section here, which was that, okay, so wisdom literature is supposed to guide us for a life of righteous, moral living, and union with God, according to our proper end, and that's not just reserved for Israel. What's really crucial to understand is that the wisdom literature of the Bible is given through the David King, Solomon especially, right?
And it's universal in nature. It's meant for all the nations to receive wisdom and turn to God. And so the wisdom literature is meant really to evangelize all the nations as well. There's a lot we could say about this in context with the Davidic Covenant back in 2nd, same with chapter 7.
We just don't have the time to do it. I've done that in other contexts and other Bible studies. But the wisdom of Israel is given to all nations through the Davidic Covenant, right? So it's very, very inclusive.
It's very far reaching. All nations, all Gentiles, anybody who is not in Israelite is meant to receive the wisdom of God through the Davidic King. Now this Solomon is number one, but ultimately the Davidic King is going to be Jesus, right? Jesus is the new Solomon.
He is wisdom incarnate. And all nations are going to receive the wisdom of the Davidic King, Jesus Christ, in order to be drawn into covenant with him, you see? So that's kind of the broad strokes of view of this. Now one brief quote on this point here.
It says the wisdom books are suited to the instruction of non-Israelites and the rudiments of responsible living, beginning with the fear of the Lord. And that's like the telltale sign that it's a wisdom book. And so Psalms talks about the fear of the Lord a lot. The song of Solomon, interestingly, does not.
You're not going to find the fear of the Lord in this book. However, the purpose of this book is 100% the fear of the Lord, worship, adoration, devotion, intimacy with God, as I'm going to argue as we go through this. All right, the quote goes on to say Gentiles through contact with the inspired teaching of Solomon and the sages who carried on his legacy could thus be drawn closer to Yahweh and made ready to accept the truth of his revelation. And so that's end of the quote.
The song of songs does that in the best way, right? It is an incredible book. I can't wait to unpack this here for you and learn about myself as well. But the song of songs is doing the same thing, teaching people to be righteous and to really understand what their soul's deepest desire is, which is of course the heavenly bridegroom and I'll unpack that and defend that a lot.
So drawing closer to Yahweh through the fear of God is really the golden thread through all of these wisdom literature books, righteous living, seeking God being fulfilled in him and living a happy, joyful life, according to the moral code that God has given to us. All right, so that's enough about this general introduction. So the song of songs fits really, really nicely into the wisdom corpus literature. In fact, I would argue even the best way.
All right, now earlier I mentioned when I listed the seven books in the wisdom literature, I mentioned that song songs or song of Solomon. I'll talk about that in the title section down below. It's the third book of what many call the Solomonic trilogy, Solomon's trilogy. So first you have Proverbs, then you have Ecclesiastes, then you have his song.
They're very, very different. All right, they're very different in their structure and their style in their purpose point, you know, they're big broad strokes, but they're very much united. I always really love teaching students to enjoy each book for what it is, but then also to understand that each of those three books are really meant to be understood as part of a greater whole. And to get that, I will explain it at the very end when it gets to themes and the spiritual symbolism, spiritual typology, the more application of these three books, especially this book as well.
The song songs is the third of the trilogy. And as I said before, it's the most poetic of the books of the Old Testament, the most allegorical. So therefore, it's disputed a lot as to what this means and what the symbolism and signs and imagery and language means, you know, because the bride is described in really strange ways. I mean, it's not, we'll get to all those descriptions soon enough, right?
But the bride is described in very interesting, strange ways, maybe even unflattering ways to our ears and eyes, and the bridegroom as well. So, it's very difficult to understand because it's so allegorical, so poetic, but it's incredibly deep and very, very rich for personal application. So, you probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that. This is one of the most commented books of the Old Testament in the history and tradition of the church.
I actually keep forgetting to do this. I just need to buckle down and do this. I keep forgetting. But I always wonder what is the most commented book in the Old Testament?
I probably would bet. I could tell you my bet right now in the Negro be proved later, prove long later. It's probably Psalms. But I think the song of Solomon has got to be in the top three.
I'm wondering if that's the case. It's got to be everybody has had a commentary and written pages upon pages on this. Apolytus, origin, Bead, Gregory of Nissa, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Saint Ambrose, Peter Chrysologius, Francis of sales, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and the list goes on and on and on. It is hugely, hugely important in the spiritual reflections in the tradition of the church.
And you're going to see why as we go through this. Okay, so there is just some brief comments on the song of songs in the Wisdom literature collection. All right, now let's get into some specifics. So, first the title.
I've already already heard me say a couple different times. It's the song of Solomon or the song of songs. Well, they're both right. So, the title in Hebrew is the song of songs, which is Solomon's.
That's straight from chapter one, verse one. If you open up your Bible, it says the song of songs, which is Solomon's. All right, so that's why you often find it called the song of songs or the song of Solomon. In fact, the revised and aversion that I always use here calls it the song of Solomon.
All right, but the Greek just follows the Hebrew and just truncates it a bit, just calls it the song of songs. It then the Latin Vulgate calls it the Canticle of Canticles, which is just the song of songs. So, if you want to call it the song of Solomon, totally fine, awesome. If you want to call it the Canticle of Canticles, totally fine, awesome.
Or the song of songs or the song of songs, they're all fine. Okay, but the reason why I chose in this Bible study to call it the song of songs, well, number one, because that's the very first words of the book, but because it expresses the superlative, and I think that's really important to emphasize. So, if it's the song of songs, a superlative is being expressed. And every commentary will point this out, right?
So, just like you have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the God of gods and the Holy of Holies, those are all superlatives, right? So, this is the song of songs, meaning it is the holiest of books. So, I wanted to keep that meaning that feel in my own title for this very short Bible study here of three lessons, because we have to understand that it is the holiest of songs in the Old Testament. And that's saying a lot.
I mean, you spend some time in the Psalms. All the Psalms are just songs as well. I mean, the Psalter is just songs sung with the aid of an instrument, right? So, they're all songs, and they're all amazing, and many of them quite prophetic and typological, but this is the song of songs.
This is the greatest of all the songs, and that's a pretty powerful statement here, right? So, why? Now, I almost forgot this point. Many commentators will quote this Rabbi Akkaba, your good Catholic commentaries that I was referred to, the Catholic and actual Testament, the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and others.
You're going to find this quote very, very, frequently. But this is what this Rabbi Akkaba had said. He says, no man in Israel ever disputed about the song of songs, that it does not render the hands unclean. That is a very convoluted way of saying that it's not inspired, right?
He basically saying everybody knew that it's inspired. That's technically not true. There was a lot of dispute about the song of songs because it seems to be such a racy book, very sexual book, very erotic book, and it doesn't really mention God at all. So, there was certainly some debate, but whatever he's using some hyperbole here.
So, basically, he says, you know, everyone knows that the song of songs is inspired. Then he goes on to say, for all the ages are not worth the day on which the song of songs was given to Israel. For all the writings are holy, but the song of songs is the holy of holies. That's pretty awesome, right?
And again, it teaches you the sense of the the superlative meaning of the worth of this song. So, there's an analogy that the rabbi is giving. If you think of the temple, or the tabernacle before it, so you've got the outer court, but then you have the holy place, and inside the holy place was the altar of incense, the bread of the presence, and the candelabra, but then there's the holy of holies that only the high priest can go into, and only the ark of the covenant was in that, right? If you remember that, right?
So, the analogy here from this rabbi is that all of scripture is holy, but the holy of holies is this song. Now, obviously, this is just talking about the Old Testament because the New Testament does go above and beyond. I personally think the book revelation is part two to the song of songs, which hopefully will make sense as we go through this. I mean, I spend a lot of time on that.
It's just a personal point of mind because we're talking about, well, I'm ahead of myself. Just hang on tight, and I'll explain what I mean by that. Okay, so, that's a lovely, that's a lovely quote. The song of songs is the holy of holies.
So, there's a lot of theology behind the title. I always tell my students and all my courses here for scripture and tradition, spending some time to reflect on even just the title of the book will teach you some valuable theological religious significant things. All right, very good. Now, let's move on to authorship and dating.
Now, what I'm about to say about authorship and dating is very similar to what I've said about the other books of Solomon's trilogy, Proverbs and Ecclesiastia. So, what do I mean by that? So, Jewish and Christian tradition has consistently and darn near unanimously identified Solomon, King Solomon, the great wise King Solomon, as the principal substantial author who wrote this book. All right, so that's really, really important.
He's the primary substantial author originated with him. Now, of course, King Solomon is the kind of the father figure of all of the wisdom literature because he was the wise great king. Very much like King David is the father figure of the Psalter, right? David did write the slim majority of all the Psalms.
I mean, he's really the father of all the Psalms in the Psalter. The same analogy is true for Solomon. He's the father figure of all the wisdom literature. Now, this, but he did write this book, or at least in substance, not everything word for word, as I'll explain.
But he did, he did have a hand in writing this book, just like he did for Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, although he's not the sole author, he is the principal author. That's not going to be the case when you go through the Bible study on the wisdom of Solomon, which was written, what, 200 years before Christ give or take. All right, so in that case, he is like the principal figure that inspires the book of the wisdom of Solomon. But in this case, he actually did originate it.
Now, let's spend some time on it. We can't spend too much time on it. I mean, believe you me, the debate about authorship is pretty intense. It really, really is.
And you can check on one of your resources, the handbook on the wisdom literature, which goes into a lot of detail on that. But just some things to consider about Solomonic authorship here, if you look at the internal evidence, so first author's tradition, right, and that can't be discounted. I really have to emphasize that. I know in some certain academic scholarly circles, traditions were nothing, but that's not true.
Tradition is worth a lot. And you can't just discount tradition as if it's just hearsay. That's not the case. So externally, yes, you got a lot of evidence involved in Jewish and Christian tradition.
But internally, there's some things to consider here. Now, not all of these things are conclusive, you know, proofing the final meal in the coffin. Solomon definitely was the author. But it's certainly worth thinking about.
Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep setting your battle.