Bernard, is impossible in this work, many important insights can be discussed. While a thorough investigation into the insights into the Song, given by St. He founded the Abbey of Clairvaux, was a noted preacher, defender of Church teachings against heresies, and author of 86 sermons on the Song of Songs. Bernard of Clairvaux, whom Thomas Merton calls the “last of the Fathers,” 8 was a great Cistercian spiritual writer of the Middle Ages. This does not mean that this aspect is not important, but it does mean that a mere love poem would not be included in Sacred Scripture. But unlike the second interpretation given to this book and mentioned earlier, there is more to it than this. 7 Surely, the literal sense is that the Songs of Songs is a love poem, and it does show that true human love is a part of human nature, and is pleasing to God in the right context. This includes actual historical events, but also the whole plan of salvation, and the analogy of Faith. 6 The literal sense must be understood in terms of what the author and the Holy Spirit intended to say. The Catechism of the Catholic Church points out that in the interpretation of Sacred Scripture there is, first, a literal interpretation, and then there is a second, spiritual interpretation, which is subdivided into three categories: the allegorical sense the moral sense, and the anagogical sense. 5 Based on modern biblical scholarship, yet according to the whole tradition of the Church, it appears that the third interpretation is the most valid. Hence, the note contends, this book is about their love and marriage, though nowhere does it tell us where this story comes from.Ĭatholics tend to hold to the first or third interpretation mentioned above.

Embarrassed, the woman ran away, but Solomon could not get her out of his mind. 4 In this Bible, the explanation goes on to tell a story that Solomon used to visit his vineyards, and there came upon a beautiful peasant woman tending the vines. It holds that this book is a wedding song honoring marriage, showing that human love and sex are a good in God’s eyes. 3 The second of these interpretations is the one taken by, for one example, the explanation in the Life Application Study Bible, (NIV). Lastly, some, taking the literal sense of the second interpretation-that of married love-say that it is a type of the union between Christ and his Church. Secondly, it is seen as an allegory of the love between an unnamed bride and groom, intended to extol married love in the sight of God. The note in the Catholic RSV version of the Bible tells us that there are three main interpretations of this book: first, a purely allegorical interpretation, where, for the Jews, it stood for God’s love of the Chosen People for the Church Fathers, it was an allegory showing the loving relationship between Christ and his Church.

2 It is written in a very poetic manner, and on the face of it, it is a love poem clearly showing the love, anticipation of, and of the great admiration for, the woman through whose eyes the male object of her affection is perceived. The Songs of Songs which is Solomon’s 1 was written in the 5th century, B.C., and is attributed to King Solomon.

Song of solomon bible study guide