Thursday 30 March 2023

Background

This passage is a response by the woman to a speech from the man (7:1-9) in which he praises her beauty and expresses his longing for her. Like much else in the Song, the identity of the man is a mystery. The identification with Solomon as the author of the Song (although it appears that the book as we have it must have been written or at least edited after the exile to Babylon some 400 years after Solomon’s time) has suggested that he also is the woman’s lover. The man is apparently a shepherd (1:7); that might enforce the identification with Solomon as (particularly with Solomon’s father, David) the idea of a shepherd-king is common in the Bible. Alternatively, it might imply that the Song is the story of a rural herdsman falling in love.

The woman’s response to the man’s speech is to surrender to his seduction. One way of reading this passage is to see it as the consummation of their long (and at times frustrated) courtship. The passage draws on imagery that has been present throughout the book: a garden, with its various fruits and plants, is the backdrop to their love-making.

For centuries, Christian writers have seemed coy around the sexual imagery of the Song. Gregory of Nyssa reminded his hearers in the 4th century AD that the Christian’s calling is to rise above purely carnal desires. Along with many others, he interpreted the Song as being a mystical vision of "an incorporeal and spiritual and undefiled marriage [of the Christian’s soul] with God." While such interpretations are less common now, the idea of marriage as a metaphor for Christ’s union with the Church is used by several New Testament writers and the commitment of the woman to the shepherd can be a helpful image of the devotion that the Christian has for Christ.

To Ponder:

• Love and sex are an important part of most people’s lives and are dominant themes in all aspects of our culture. Why are they so rarely discussed in churches?
• The debate about ‘God in love unites us’ brought the Methodist Church to public attention and has continued in many quarters. Why are love and sex so often discussed in churches?