> > The song of songs is the Tanakh’s only extensive discourse on human, erotic love. The book consists of a series of poems in which the speech of two lovers is interspersed with occasional comments by other voices. Throughout the poems, the lovers describe themselves and each other, and their feelings of love, desire, and longing. While the book has no narrative plot, the relationship between the lovers is marked by cycles of absence and presence, with poems that celebrate the presence of a lover alternating with poems of longing and poems of invitation. While both lovers speak, the woman is the more active and articulate character. Her experiences, feelings, and perceptions are the central focus. > > The Song is characterized by a wide range of literary techniques including wordplay, pun and soundplay, repetition, simile, metaphor, and double entendre. These literary features are powerful tools for communicating the experience of the lovers and the nature of their relationship. The frequent shifts in the poem—from praise to adjuration, from playfulness to violence, and from third-person to second-person address—draw the audience in to the dynamic energy and immediacy of the lovers’ relationship. > > The dense web of echoes and repetitions in the poem gives the audience a non-linear, cyclical experience that echoes the cycles of seeking and finding and desire and fulfillment that characterize the relationship. While the Song of Songs is not a linear narrative, these repetitions and echoes encourage it to be read as an unfolding story about two characters whom the audience comes to know better as the poem progresses. The frequent use of double entendre creates the impression of veiled, but undeniable sexuality that mimics the references to the lovers hiding and seeking and their coy flirtation. > > The lush imagery of the poem, which draws on the beauty of the natural world, the royal court and other luxurious settings, mirrors the exuberance and sensual lushness of the lovers’ relationship. The imagery is indeed sensual in that it appeals to all the senses: hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching. The poem’s varied imagery and motifs reflects the variety and scope of the lovers’ feelings for one another. Because the imagery and tone of the poem is so varied, it has generated many different interpretations of the lovers’ relationship. While most readers see the relationship as an idyllic and romantic one, other readers have understood it to be more complex—marked not only by intimacy and desire but also by objectification and the constraints of conventional Israelite gender relationships. > > The compositional history and origin of the Song of Songs remain matters of debate. Most commentators agree that the book is a collection of poetic units which are linked by theme, language, and style. There are disagreements, however, over the extent of each unit and the degree of coherence of the collection. Some scholars assert that the canonical text is the product of a redactor who edited together preexistent poems and poetic fragments. However, an increasing number of scholars argue that the poem is the work of a single author who drew on earlier sources, traditions, and poetic conventions. > > The date of composition of the Song is also unclear. With the exception of the few references to King Solomon, there is no mention of known historical figures or events. Nor do the references to human behavior correlate to the attitudes or situations of a particular historical period. In addition, the book contains both archaic language and relatively late words, which makes it difficult to establish a date on linguistic grounds. Contemporary scholarly consensus hypothesizes that the poem probably has its roots in early folk and literary traditions but was composed or redacted in the 4th or 3rd c. bce. > > The original genre and function of the text have also been the subject of much research and debate. Over the past century, three major theories have been adduced. The first is that the Song is the script of a drama which told the story of a love affair. This theory was quite popular in the 19th c., but has since been abandoned. The second theory holds that the Song evolved from a Mesopotamian liturgical context which described the sacred marriage of a god and goddess. This theory is based on perceived similarities between the Song and ancient Mesopotamian sacred marriage texts. Like the dramatic theory, this theory has become less popular in recent years, but it remains possible that some of the images of the poem originate in liturgical or mythological traditions. The third, most satisfactory theory maintains that the text is a collection of poems about human love, some of which may have originally been used in wedding celebrations. While it is difficult to determine the poem’s original setting, the poem was certainly composed to be performed orally. Consequently the sounds of the words, and other elements of the poem that would have been perceptible to listening audiences would have been particularly important in communicating the meanings of the poem. > > The Song’s positive focus on human, erotic love and its silence regarding the central theological and historical themes of the rest of the biblical text make it unique within the biblical canon. Some scholars have argued that already by the time of its inclusion in the canon, the Song was understood not only as human love poetry but also, and perhaps primarily, as a description of the love relationship between God and Israel. This theory rests partly on the use of the human love relationship as a metaphor for the God-Israel relationship in the prophetic literature (e.g., Isa. 54.4–8; Jer. 2.1–2; Ezek. chs 16, 23; Hos. chs 1–). While it is possible that the allegorical understanding of the poem was already current at the time of the book’s canonization, it is also possible that the poems were introduced into the canon because, as secular love songs, they occupied an important place in the culture of ancient Israel in Second Temple times. Once the book became part of the canon, the tendency to interpret it allegorically increased (see below). Within contemporary scholarship, the poem’s distinctive focus on human love relations, the centrality of the woman character, and its intense sensuality have become predominant concerns. Scholars have explored the poem both within the context of ancient Israelite attitudes regarding gender and sexuality and as an expression of timeless human experiences of love and desire. For feminist scholars and scholars of gender and queer theory, the poem provides a powerful alternative to the patriarchal view of women’s sexuality that is far more common in the Bible. > > 2:1-3 **The lovers praise one another for their uniqueness**. **1:** *Sharon*, a fertile plain in northern Israel. **3:** *Apple tree*: The precise type of fruit is unknown; perhaps quince or apricot. Perhaps Heb “tapuaḥ” is a generic term for fragrant fruit; compare “pomme” in French. Just as the woman is “a lily among thorns” (v. 2), so is the man a tree with blossoms and fruit compared with the non-fruit-bearing trees of the forest. (*Elsie Stern, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd Ed.)*