It\u2019s probably the most popular love story ever written, but its portrayal of marital intimacy has generated no small amount of controversy.<\/p>\n
Some Jews forbade men from reading it before age 30. John Calvin once had a man expelled from Geneva in part because of the way he interpreted it. And former Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll drew sharp criticism for using it to describe specific sexual acts.<\/p>\n
Should Christians remain above the fray and avoid reading such a provocative love story? No, because it\u2019s in the Bible, it\u2019s inspired by God, and it gives insight into one of Israel\u2019s most significant kings, Baptist seminary professors say.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Song of Solomon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that by teaching our churches the principles of this book, we\u2019ll have stronger marriages, we\u2019ll have parents being more accountable for their children in the teenage years and we\u2019ll have more people waiting to engage in sexual relationships in marriage,\u201d Archie England, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, told Baptist Press.<\/p>\n
Solomon\u2019s song?<\/p>\n
The first of many mysteries associated with Song of Solomon, also known as Song of Songs, relates to its opening verse: \u201cThe Song of Songs, which is Solomon\u2019s.\u201d Bible scholars have long asked whether this means it is by, for or about Solomon, with theological conservatives divided in their answers.<\/p>\n
One common view is that King Solomon wrote the book as a young man about an early romance before polygamy with pagan women turned his heart away from God. But some scholars note grammar and vocabulary in the book that seem to reflect a date following Israel\u2019s return from exile in 537 B.C. Still others believe the book was written in Solomon\u2019s time but by someone other than Solomon.<\/p>\n
Scholars also are divided on whether to interpret Song of Solomon as a continuous story about one couple or as an assortment of loosely related love songs. During the past century, some have even proposed that the book is a narrative with three main characters rather than two, but England believes that is unlikely.<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether the book is one story or several vignettes, it obviously extols the virtue of married love, England said.<\/p>\n
Song of Solomon \u201cis probably best described as having been written by somebody who is married now and is so thrilled at the joys of marital bliss,\u201d England said. \u201cWithout caution, he\u2019s writing about pursuing the lover, chasing the lover, protecting the lover, discovering the lover, and then all this comes to consummation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the greatest disagreement associated with Song of Solomon is whether to interpret it as a literal love story or as symbolic of God\u2019s love for His people — or both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mainstream of the Christian tradition — be it patristic, medieval, Reformation or the broadly orthodox Protestant tradition down to Spurgeon — would have allegorized the book in terms of Christ and His church,\u201d Michael Haykin, professor of church history and biblical spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told BP. \u201cIt\u2019s in the 20th century particularly that you start to find the interpretation of the book leaning toward it being a love song.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modern interpreters distinguish between interpreting the book as an allegory, in which even minute details are said to represent aspects of Christian doctrine, and typology, a theological term that describes the practice of interpreting Old Testament persons, objects and practices as generally prefiguring New Testament realities. In typology, not all details of the story are viewed as symbolic.<\/p>\n
The \u201cbook of romance\u201d?<\/p>\n
Beginning sometime after Israel\u2019s return from exile in Babylon, Jews started reading Song of Solomon annually at Passover, viewing it as an illustration of God\u2019s love for Israel. Many contemporary Jews continue this tradition.<\/p>\n
By the second or third century A.D., Christians saw Song of Solomon as an allegory. For example, medieval theologian Bernard of Clairvaux saw Chapter 1\u2019s reference to kisses as an allusion to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Eighteenth-century Baptist John Gill regarded a mention of the shulamite\u2019s breasts as symbolic of the Old and New Testaments.<\/p>\n
Furthering the symbolic interpretation, section headings in the 1611 King James Bible assumed Song of Solomon pointed to Christ and the church. Headings such as \u201cthe church\u2019s love unto Christ\u201d for Chapter 1 and \u201cChrist awaketh the church with His calling\u201d for Chapter 5 persisted in King James Bibles until at least the 1960s.<\/p>\n
When Calvin helped expel a foe named Castellio from Geneva in the 1500s, one of the reformer\u2019s complaints was that Castellio interpreted Song of Solomon as a literal love poem.<\/p>\n
The pendulum swung by the mid-20th century though, when Tim and Beverly LaHaye began to present the book as \u201ca love manual for married couples,\u201d Haykin said. Seeing Song of Solomon as providing practical instruction in marriage continued with the publication of Tommy Nelson\u2019s popular \u201cThe Book of Romance\u201d in 1998 and Daniel Akin\u2019s \u201cGod on Sex\u201d in 2003.<\/p>\n
Two levels of meaning?<\/p>\n
While Haykin believes it is an error to read Song of Solomon as an allegory, he argued that discounting the church\u2019s historic interpretation of the book is a form of \u201cchronological snobbery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should never lightly discount a received exegetical tradition that has such longstanding consensus,\u201d Haykin said. \u201cIt may be wrong. But I\u2019m hesitant to say that as widely diverse figures as Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Calvin, Andrew Fuller and C.H. Spurgeon are all wrong on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haykin views Song of Solomon as both describing the relationship between a husband and wife — although he is \u201cdeeply opposed\u201d to seeing it \u201cas a sex manual\u201d — and picturing the relationship between Christ and His church. Haykin labels his approach to the book typology.<\/p>\n
Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, takes a similar approach. But he hasn\u2019t always.<\/p>\n
In his book God on Sex , Akin interpreted Song of Solomon almost exclusively as a book about married love. Yet as he prepared to write \u201cExalting Jesus in Song of Songs,\u201d Akin concluded that the book should be interpreted on two levels.<\/p>\n
Solomon, whom Akin believes wrote the book, \u201cis giving us a picture of what marriage was intended by God to be,\u201d Akin told BP. \u201c … But I also think the book is anticipating the ultimate relationship between a bride and a bridegroom that is fulfilled in Christ and His church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Haykin, Akin objects to interpreting the book as an allegory, preferring to label it typology. In \u201cExalting Jesus in Song of Songs,\u201d Akin includes a section in each chapter about how the passage under consideration points to Christ.<\/p>\n
Of particular note, the description of Solomon in chapter 5 bears striking resemblance to the description of Jesus in Revelation 1, Akin said. He added that both Revelation and Song of Solomon end with a call by the bride for her groom to come.<\/p>\n
Song of Solomon\u2019s depiction of Solomon as a \u201cshepherd king\u201d would have caused its original Hebrew readers to ask, \u201cWill we ever actually see such a shepherd king on the pages of history love a bride in this kind of a way?\u201d Akin said. \u201cOf course the answer is, yes we do — in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enriching marriages<\/p>\n
Song of Solomon also has practical application to marriage, Akin said. Two important lessons from the book are that Christians should communicate well with their spouses and that they should praise their spouses with specific compliments.<\/p>\n
The couple in Song of Solomon is \u201cvery quick to extol the good things that they see in their mate,\u201d Akin said. \u201cIn other words, they major on the good things, not the bad things. The glass really is half full.\u201d<\/p>\n
Song of Solomon \u201cis a book about sex,\u201d Akin said. But \u201cwhat takes place outside the bedroom is very, very important to what takes place inside the bedroom. If you\u2019ve got a happy couple outside the bedroom, you\u2019re going to have a very happy couple inside the bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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