Song of Solomon, Revision
Dear RTB’ers,
The “Song of Solomon: Revison” in Search the Scriptures asks us to move from a human love perspective to Christ’s eternal love for us and our love for Him – and our personal devotion to Him in that context. A couple of my prior posts have already looked at that relationship, and I have found myself falling far short both in my devotion to Him and in my understanding / embracing His love for me. So, really, no more to say on that.
As to the shepherd-king-woman “love triangle”… All of us in reading Scripture are at the mercy of archaeologists and language translators from thousands of years past. It’s my guess that the earliest manuscripts did not have text guidance (inserts) for “She” and “He” and “Others”. One item that I read suggested that verb tenses guided translators as to who was speaking. And that’s helpful, but even my ESV and NASB translations do not agree on the “He”, “She”, and “Others” inserts.
So how can we possibly know whether a “He” speaker was the king or a shepherd? How can we know whether the woman was referring to her love for the king or her secret love for that distant shepherd? Some scholars are adamant that the “He” is always King Solomon – but then, why mention the shepherd? We see the shepherd or the flock mentioned at least three times – verses 1:7, 2:16, 6:2 – with further illusion to gardens and fields. We’ll never know.
So, my summary… Song of Solomon is about love. Human love. God’s eternal love. My post from yesterday is worth repeating: …for love is as strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. (vv. 6b-7) Two truths – the depth of true love and the ultimate source of that love, the Lord. The whole of this Book in just four sentences!
Blessings!
Fred