The Song of Songs (Hebrew, שיר השירים , Shir ha-Shirim ), is a book of the Hebrew Bible—one of the five megillot (scrolls). It is also known as the Song of Solomon , Solomon's Song of Songs , or as Canticles , the latter from the shortened and anglicized Vulgate title Canticum Canticorum (Latin, "Song of Songs"). It is known as Āisma in the Septuagint, which is short for Āisma āismatōn (Greek, ᾌσμα ᾀσμάτων, "Song of Songs").
The protagonists of the Song of Songs are a woman (identified in one verse as "the Shulamite") and a man, and the poem suggests movement from courtship to consummation. For instance, the man proclaims: "As the lily among thorns , so is my love among the daughters." The woman answers: "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood , so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." Additionally, the Song includes a chorus, the "daughters of Jerusalem."
With no explicitly religious content, the Song is often interpreted as an allegorical representation of the relationship of God and Israel, or for Christians, God and the Church or Christ and the human soul, as husband and wife.
It is one of the shortest books in the Bible, consisting of only 117 verses. According to Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, it is read on the Sabbath that falls during the intermediate days of Passover. In the Sephardi community it is recited every Friday night.
Title
The name of the book comes from the first verse, "The Song of songs, which is Solomon's."
"Song of songs" is a Hebrew grammatical construction denoting the superlative; that is, the title attests to the greatness of the song, similar to "the lord of lords", "the king of kings" or "holy of holies" (used of the inner sanctuary of the Jerusalem temple). Rabbi Akiba declared, "Heaven forbid that any man in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs is holy. For the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy and the Song of Songs is holy of holies." (Mishnah Yadayim 3:5). Similarly, Martin Luther called it das Hohelied (the high song). This is still its name in German, Danish, Swedish and in Dutch.
Authorship
Solomon as author
Some people translate the first clause of the title as "which is of Solomon," meaning that the book is authored by Solomon. Rabbi Hiyya the Great said Solomon first wrote Book of Proverbs, then The Song of Songs, and afterward Ecclesiastes. Rabbi Jonathan said Solomon first wrote The Song of Songs, then Proverbs, then Ecclesiastes. The Talmud, however, states the order of the canon, listing Proverbs first, then Ecclesiastes, and then The Song of Songs.
Solomon as audience
Others translate the first clause as "which is for Solomon," meaning that the book is dedicated to Solomon. It was common practice in ancient times for an anonymous writer seeking recognition for his work to write eponymously in the name of someone more famous. Some read the book as contrasting the nobility of monogamous love with the debased nature of promiscuous love, and suggest that the book is actually a veiled criticism of Solomon, who, according to 1 Kings 11:3, had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
God
Another approach to the authorship is that offered by Rashi, consistent with allegorical interpretations, rendering the narrator "he to whom peace belongs", i.e: God. The Hebrew name of Solomon, Shlomo , can also be inflected to mean the constructed form of the noun shalom , peace, which through noun declension can be possessive. This means that the author is in fact Solomon, but he narrates the book from the perspective of God, who is conversing with the Jewish people, his allegorical bride.
Other
Twenty first century linguistic work, including re-examining the dating of early Hebrew poetry, according to evidence of dialectic variation, has been applied to the Song by a number of scholars from different traditions. Noegel and Rendsburg, for example, conclude as follows.
Language
The Song of Songs for the first time gives literary representation to the everyday post-exilic vernacular. It contains loan words from languages with which Hebrew had contact in post-exilic times, such as Persian, Greek, and Aramaic, and contains numerous items of vocabulary that are otherwise unknown in Biblical Hebrew but are known from Rabbinic Hebrew, and these expressions give the impression of being part of a living language and not the result of an archaic or artificial style. There are longer phrases that are typical of Rabbinic Hebrew in word order and are different from Biblical Hebrew.
Interpretation and use
Although it is commonly held that an allegorical interpretation justified its inclusion in the Biblical canon, scholarly discussion hasn't reached any consensus yet on the Song of Songs and leaves other possibilities open.
Jewish tradition
According to Jewish tradition in the Midrash and the Targum, the book is an allegory of God's love for the Children of Israel. In keeping with this understanding, it is read by Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews on Sabbath eve, to symbolize the love between the Jewish People and God that is also represented by Sabbath. Most traditional Jews also read the Song on the Sabbath of Chol HaMoed of Passover, or on the seventh day of the holiday, when the Song of the sea is also read.
Kabbalah
The Song of Songs is perhaps the most important Biblical text for the Kabbalah. Following the writing and dissemination of the Book of the Zohar in the 14th and 15th centuries, Jewish mysticism took on a strongly erotic element, and the Song of Songs came to be regarded as an example of sacred erotica. In Zoharic Kabbalah, God is represented by a system of ten sephirot, or spheres, each symbolizing a different aspect of God, who is perceived as both male and female. The Shechina was identified with the sephira Malchut, which is female in essence, and symbolizes both the Jewish people and the female sexual organs. Malchut was, in turn, identified with the woman in the Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with the sephira Yesod, which represents God's foundation and the phallus or male essence. The text thus became a description of an act of divine eroticism, symbolizing—depending on the interpreter—the creation of the world, the passage of the Sabbath, the covenant with Israel, or the coming of the Messianic age. "Lecha Dodi" a 16th century liturgical song with strong Kabbalistic and messianic symbolism, contains many passages, including its opening words, taken directly from the Song of Songs.
Christian tradition
The Song of Songs is not directly quoted by New Testament writers, but is alluded to on a number of occasions. A few examples are Revelation 3:20, which quotes the Greek LXX of Song 5:2; John 12:2, 3, which is an allusion to Song 1:12; and John 7:38, which is a reference to the Greek LXX of Song 4:15.
The Song was regarded by Christian theologians either as a typological set of songs describing of the relationship of Christ and the Church or as an allegory of the soul's relationship to Christ and God, until late in the 19th century. Since that time Christian scholars have generally become more interested in the literal sense of the Song. The earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Song is found in a very substantial commentary by Hippolytus. This commentary covered only the first three chapters to 3:7. Hippolytus' Commentary on the Song of Songs interprets the Song as referring to a complicated relationship between Israel, Christ and the Gentile Church. The commentary returns often to the topic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and was originally written as a mystagogy, an instruction for new Christians. The commentary survives in two Georgian manuscripts, a Greek epitome, a Paleo-Slavonic florilegium, and fragments in Armenian and Syriac. Origen interpreted the Song largely as an allegory of the soul and Christ. He differed with Hippolytus and felt that the Song should be reserved for the spiritually mature and that studying it might be harmful for the novice. In this he followed third-century Jewish interpretive traditions. His commentary—apart from a few fragments of the original Greek—survives in a Latin translation due to Tyrannius Rufinus. A celebrated medieval series of commentaries was that composed by the Cistercians Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Hoilandia, and John of Ford over the course of several decades, each continuing the work of the previous. Other prominent and accessible traditional commentaries are those of Apponius and Nilus of Ancyra (Sources Chrétiennes) and Gregory of Nyssa and Rupert of Deu
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