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CANTICLES
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CANTICLES . The Old Testament See also:book of Canticles, or the See also:Song of See also:Solomon, is called in See also:Hebrew The Song of Songs (that is, the choicest of songs), or, according to the full See also:title which stands as the first See also:verse of the book, The choicest of the songs of Solomon. In the Western versions the book holds the third See also:place amongthe so-called Solomonic writings, following See also:Proverbs and See also:Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew Bibles it stands among the Megilloth, the five books of the Hagiographa which have a prominent place in the See also:Synagogue service. In printed Bibles and in See also:German See also:MSS. it is the first of these because it is read at the See also:Passover, which is the first See also:great feast of the sacred See also:year of the See also:Jews.
No See also:part of the See also:Bible has called forth a greater diversity of opinions than the Song of Solomon, and this for two reasons. In the first place, the book holds so unique a position in the Old Testament, that the See also:general See also:analogy of Hebrew literature is a very inadequate See also: Here, again, as in the lexical difficulties already referred to, we are tempted or compelled to argue from the distant and insecure analogy of other Eastern literatures, or are thrown back upon traditions of uncertain origin and ambiguous authority. The See also:power of tradition has been the second great source of confusion of See also:opinion about the Song of Solomon. To tradition we owe the title, which apparently indicates Solomon as the author and not merely as the subject of the book. The authority of titles in the Old Testament is often questionable, and in the See also:present See also:case it is certain on linguistic grounds that the title is not from the See also:hand that wrote the poem; while to admit that it gives a correct See also:account of the authorship is to cut away at one stroke all the most certain threads of connexion between the book and our See also:historical knowledge of the Old Testament See also:people and literature. To tradition, again, we owe the See also:prejudice in favour of an allegorical See also:interpretation, that is, of the view that from verse to 'verse the Song sets forth the See also:history of a spiritual and not merely of an earthly love. To apply such an exegesis to Canticles is to violate one of the first principles of reasonable interpretation. True allegories are never without See also:internal marks of their allegorical See also:design. The language of See also:symbol is not so perfect that a See also:long See also:chain of spiritual ideas can be See also:developed without the use of a single spiritual word or phrase; and even were this possible it would be false See also:art in the allegorist to hide away his sacred thoughts behind a See also:screen of sensuous and erotic imagery, so See also:complete and beautiful in itself as to give no See also:suggestion that it is only the vehicle of a deeper sense. Apart from tradition, no one, in the present See also:state of exegesis, would See also:dream of allegorizing See also:poetry which in its natural sense is so full of purpose and meaning, so See also:apt in sentiment, and so perfect in imagery as the lyrics of Canticles. We are not at See also:liberty to seek for See also:allegory except where the natural sense is incomplete. This is not the case in the Song of Solomon. On the contrary, every form of the allegorical interpretation which has been devised carries its own condemnation in the fact that it takes away from the artistic unity of the poem and breaks natural sequences of thought.' The allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon had its rise in the very same conditions which forced a deeper An See also:argument for the allegorical interpretation has been often See also:drawn from See also:Mahommedan mysticism—from the poems of See also:Hafiz, and the songs still sung by dervishes. See See also: The spouse is Israel, her royal See also:lover the divine See also: The history of the literal interpretation begins with the great " commentator "of the Syrian Church, See also:Theodorus of Mopsuestia (died 429), who condemned equally the See also:attempt to find in the book a prophecy of the blessings given to the church, and the See also:idea even at that time expressed in some quarters that the book is immoral. Theodorus regarded the Canticles as a poem written by Solomon in See also:answer to the complaints of his people about his See also:Egyptian See also:marriage; and this was one of the heresies charged upon him after his See also:death, which led to his condemnation 1 Repeated recently by Scholz, Kommentar, pp. iii. and iv. 2 The See also:chief passages of Jewish writings referring to this dispute are Mishna Jadaim, iii. 5 and Tosifta Sanhedrin, xii. For other passages see Gratz's Commentary, p. 115, and in See also:control of his See also:criticism the introduction to the commentary of See also:Delitzsch. ' The See also:text of the Targum in the Polyglots and in See also:Buxtorf's Rabbinic Bible is not complete. The complete text is given in the See also:Venice See also:editions, and in See also:Lagarde's Hagiographa Chaldaice (Lipsiae, 1873). The Polyglots add a Latin version. A German version is given by Riedel in his very useful book, See also:Die Auslegung See also:des Hohenliedes (1898), which also reviews the interpretation of Canticles by See also:Hippolytus, Origen and later See also:Greek writers.at the second See also:council of See also:Constantinople (S53 A.D.). A literal interpretation was not again attempted till in 1544 Chateillon (Castellio or Castalion) lost his regency at See also:Geneva for proposing to expel the book from the See also:canon as impure. See also:Grotius (Annot. in V.T., 1644) took up a more moderate position. Without denying the possibility of a secondary reference designed by Solomon to give his poem a more permanent value, he regards the Canticles as primarily an oapio•rvr (conjugal prattle) between Solomon and See also:Pharaoh's daughter. The distinction of a See also:primary and secondary sense gradually became current not only among the See also:Remonstrants, but in See also:England (See also:Lightfoot, Lowth) and even in See also:Catholic circles (See also:Bossuet, 1693). In the actual understanding of the book in its literal sense no great progress was made. Solomon was still viewed as the author, and for the most part the idea that the poem is a dramatic See also:epithalamium was borrowed from Origen and the allegorists, and applied to the marriage of Pharaoh's daughter. From Grotius to Lowth the idea of a typical reference designed by Solomon himself appears as a See also:mere excrescence on the natural interpretation, but as an excrescence which could not be removed without perilling the place of Canticles in the canon, which, indeed, was again assailed by See also:Whiston in 1723. But in his notes on Lowth's lectures, J. D. See also:Michaelis, who regarded the poem as a description of the enduring happiness of true wedded love long after marriage, proposed to drop the allegory altogether, and to See also:rest the canonicity of the book, as of those parts of Proverbs which treat of conjugal See also:affection, on the moral picture it presents (1758). Then came See also:Herder's exquisite little See also:treatise on Solomon's Songs of Love, the See also:Oldest and Sweetest of the See also:East (1778). Herder, possessing delicacy of See also:taste and sympathetic poetical See also:genius, delighted in the Canticles as the transparently natural expression of See also:innocent and See also:tender love. He expressed the idea that the poem is simply a sequence of See also:independent songs without inner unity, grouped so as to display various phases and stages of love in a natural See also:order, culminating in the placid joys of wedded See also:life. The theory of Herder, which refuses to acknowledge any continuity in the book, was accepted by See also:Eichhorn on the part of scholars, and with some hesitation by See also:Goethe on the part of the poets. Commentaries based on this view are those of Dopke (1829), See also:Magnus (1842), Noyes (1846).
The prevalent view of the 19th century, however, recognizes in the poem a more or less pronounced dramatic character, and following See also:Jacobi (1771) distinguishes the shepherd, the true love of the Shulamite, from King Solomon, who is made to See also:play an ignominious part. Propounded by Staudlin (1792) and See also:Ammon (1795), this view was energetically carried out by Umbreit (1820), and above all by See also:Ewald, whose acuteness gave the theory a new development, while his commanding See also:influence among Hebrew scholars acquired for it general recognition. Ewald assumed a very See also:simple dramatic structure, and did not in his first publication (1826) venture to suppose that the poem had ever been acted on a See also:stage. His less cautious followers have been generally tempted to dispose of difficulties by introducing more complicated See also:action and additional interlocutors (so, for example, See also:Hitzig, 1855; See also:Ginsburg, 1857; See also:Renan, 1860); while Bottcher (185o) did his best to reduce the dramatic exposition to absurdity by introducing the complexities and stage effects of a modern operetta. Another view is that of Delitzsch (1851 and 1875) and his followers, who also plead for a dramatic form—though without supposing that the piece was ever acted—but adhere to the traditional notion that Solomon is the author, who celebrates his love to a See also:peasant See also:maiden, whom he made his wife, and in whose See also:company the proud monarch learned to appreciate the sweetness of a true affection and a simple rustic life.
In view of the prevalence of the " dramatic " theory of Canticles during the 19th century, and its retention by some comparatively See also:recent writers (Oettli, See also:Driver, Adeney, Harper), it seems desirable that this theory should be presented in some detail. A convenient See also:summary of the form it assumed in the hands of Ewald (the shepherd-See also:hypothesis) and of Delitzsch (the king-hypothesis) is given by Driver (Literature of the Old
Testament, ch. x. § I). The following presentation of the theory, on the general lines of Ewald, gives that form of it which See also:Robertson See also: 1-ii. 7, the heroine appears in a royal See also:palace (i. 4) among the daughters of See also:Jerusalem, who are thus presumably ladies of the See also:court of See also:Zion. At i. 9, an additional interlocutor is introduced, who is plainly a king, and apparently Solomon (i. 9, 12). He has just risen from table, and praises the charms of the heroine with the See also:air of a See also:judge of beauty, but without warmth. He addresses her simply as "my friend" (not as See also:English version, " my love "). The heroine, on the contrary, is passionately in love, but nothing can be plainer than that the See also:object of her affection is not the king. She is not at See also:home in the palace, for she explains (i. 6) that she has spent her life as a peasant girl in the care of vineyards. Her beloved, whom she knows not where to find (i. 7), but who lies constantly on her See also:heart and is cherished in her bosom like a spray of the sweet See also:henna See also:flowers which See also:Oriental ladies delight to See also:wear (i. 13, 14), is like herself a peasant—a shepherd lad (i. 7)—with whom she was wont to sit in the fresh See also:greenwood under the mighty boughs of the cedars (i. 16, 17). Even before the king's entrance the ladies of the court are impatient at so See also:silly an affection, and advise her, " if she is really so witless," to begone and rejoin her plebeian lover (i. 8). To them she appeals in ii. 5, 6, where her self-control, strung to the highest See also:pitch as she meets the compliments of the king with reminiscences of her absent lover, breaks down in a See also:fit of See also:half-delirious sickness. The only words directed to the king are those of i. 12, which, if past tenses are substituted for the presents of the English version, contain a pointed rebuff. Finally, ii. 7 is, on the plainest translation, a See also:charge not to arouse love till it please. The moral of the See also:scene is the spontaneity of true affection. Now, at viii. 5, a female figure advances leaning upon her beloved, with whom she claims inseparable union;—"for love is strong as death, its See also:passion inflexible as the See also:grave, its See also:fire a divine See also:flame which no See also:waters can quench or floods drown. Yea, if a See also:man would give all his See also:wealth for love he would only be contemned." This is obviously the sentiment of ii. 7, and the suitor, whose wealth is despised, must almost of See also:necessity be identified with the king of See also:chapter i., if, as seems reasonable, we place viii. 12 in the mouth of the same speaker—"King Solomon has vineyards which bring him a princely See also:revenue, and enrich even the farmers. Let him and them keep their wealth; my vineyard is before me" (i.e. I possess it in present fruition). The last expression is plainly to be connected with i. 6. But this happiness has not been reached without a struggle. The See also:speaker has proved herself an impregnable fortress (ver. to), and, armed only with her own beauty and innocence, has been in his eyes as one that found See also:peace. The sense is that, like a virgin fortress, she has compelled her assailant to leave her in peace. To these marks of identity with the heroine of ch. i. are to be added that she appears here as dwelling in gardens, there as a keeper of vineyards (i. 6, and viii. 13), and that as there it was her brethren that prescribed her duties, so here she apparently quotes words in which her See also:brothers, while she was still a See also:child, speculated as to her future conduct and its See also:reward (viii. 8, 9). If this See also:analysis of the commencement and close of the book is correct, it is certain that the poem is in a sense dramatic, that is, that it uses See also:dialogue and See also:monologue to develop a See also:story. The heroine appears in the opening 'scene in a difficult and painful situation, from which in the last chapter she is happily extricated. But the dramatic progress which the poem exhibits scarcely involves a See also:plot in the usual sense of that word. The words of viii. 9, Io clearly indicate that the deliverance of the heroine is due to no See also:combination of favouring circumstances, but to her own inflexible fidelity and virtue. The See also:constant direction of the maiden's mind to her true love is partly expressed in dialogue with the ladies of the court (the daughters of Jerusalem), who have no dramatic individuality, and whose only See also:function in the See also:economy of the piece is to givethe heroine opportunity for a more varied expression of her feelings. In i. 8 we found them contemptuous. In chapter iii. they appear to be still indifferent; for when the heroine relates a dream in which the dull See also:pain of separation and the uneasy consciousness of confinement and danger in the unsympathetic See also:city disappear for a moment in imagined See also:reunion with her lover, they are either altogether silent or reply only by taking up a festal part song describing the marriage procession of King Solomon (iii. 6-II), which stands in jarring contrast to the feelings of the maiden.' A second dream (v. 2-8), more weird and See also:melancholy, and constructed with that singular psycho-logical felicity which characterizes the dreams of the Old Testament, gains more sympathy, and the heroine is encouraged to describe her beloved at large (v. Io-vi. 3). The structure of these dialogues is so simple, and their purpose is so strictly limited to the See also:exhibition of the character and affection of the maiden, that it is only natural to find them supplemented by a See also:free use of pure monologue, in which the heroine recalls the happiness of past days, or expresses her rising See also:hope of reunion with her shepherd, and restoration to the simple joys of her rustic life. The vivid See also:reminiscence of ii. 8-17 takes the form of a dialogue within the main dialogue of the poem, a picture within a picture—the picture of her beloved as he stood at her window in the See also:early See also:spring time, and of her own merry heart as she laughingly answered him in the song with which watchers of the vineyards frighten away the foxes. It is, of course, a See also:fault of See also:perspective that this reminiscence is as See also:sharp in outline and as strong in See also:colour as the main action. But no one can expect perspective in such early art, and recollection of the past is clearly enough separated from present reality by ii. 16, 17. The last monologue (vii. 3), in which the hope of immediate return with her lover is tempered by maidenly shame, and a maiden's See also:desire for her See also:mother's counsel, is of See also:special value for a right appreciation of the See also:psychology of the love which the poem celebrates, and completes a picture of this See also:flower of the See also:northern valleys which is not only See also:firm in outline, but delicate in See also:touch. The subordinate action which supports the See also:portraiture of the maiden of See also:Galilee is by no means easy to understand. We come next to chapter vi., which again sings the praises of the heroine, and takes occasion in this connexion to introduce, with the same want of perspective as we observed in ch. ii., a dialogue descriptive of Solomon's first See also:meeting with the maiden. We learn that she was an inhabitant of Shulem or Shunem in See also:Issachar, whom the king and his See also:train surprised in a See also:garden on the occasion of a royal progress through the See also:north. Her beauty See also:drew from the ladies of the court a cry of admiration. The maiden shrinks back with the reply—" I was gone down into my garden to see its growth. . . . I know not how my soul hath brought me among the chariots of princes"; but she is commanded to turn and let herself be seen in spite of her bashful protest—" Why do ye gaze on the Shulamite as at a See also:dance of Mahanaim (a spectacle)?" Now the See also:person in whose mouth this relation is placed must be an See also:eye-See also:witness of the scene, and so none other than the king. But in spite of the verbal repetition of several of the figures of ch. iv. . . . the See also:tone in which the king now addresses the Shulamite is quite changed. She is not only beautiful but terrible, her eyes trouble him, and he cannot endure their gaze. She is unique among See also:women, the choice and only one of her mother. The unity of action can only be maintained by ignoring vii. 1-9, and taking the words of Solomon in chapter vi. in their obvious sense as implying that the king at length recognizes in the maiden qualities of soul unknown in the See also:harem, a character which compels respect, as well as a beauty that inflames desire. The See also:change of feeling which was wrought in the daughters of Jerusalem in the previous scene now extends to Solomon himself, and thus the glad utterances of vii. to, seq., 1 Ewald and others make this song a distinct scene in the action of the poem, supposing that the author here exhibits the See also:honourable form of espousal by which Solomon thought to vanquish the scruples of the damsel. This view, however, seems to introduce a complication See also:foreign to the See also:plan of the book. have a sufficient See also:motive, and the denouement is no longer violent and unprepared. The nodus of the action is fully given in chapter i., the final issue in chapter viii. The solution lies entirely in the character and constancy of the heroine, which prevail, in the simplest possible way, first over the ladies of the court and then over the king. The attractiveness of the above theory cannot be denied; but it may be asked whether the attraction does not lie in the See also:appeal to modern taste of a story which is largely the product of modern See also:imagination. It supposes a freedom of intercourse between lovers inconceivable for the East. The initial situation of the maiden in the harem of Solomon is See also:left as a problem for the reader to discover, until he comes to its supposed origin in vi. 11; the expedient might be granted in the case of one of See also:Browning's Men and Women, but seems very improbable in the present case. The more elaborate dramatic theories can find no parallel in Semitic literature to the " See also:drama " of Canticles, the book of See also:Job being no exception to this statement; whilst even the simpler theories ask us to believe that the essential parts of the story—the See also:rape of the Shulamite, the change in Solomon's disposition, her See also:release from the harem—are to be supplied by the reader from obscure and disputable references. More serious still is the fact that any progress of action from first to last is so difficult to prove. In the first chapter we listen to a woman speaker desiring to be kissed by the man who has brought her into his See also:chambers, and speaking of " our See also:bed "; in the last we leave her " leaning upon her beloved." The difficulties of detail are equally great. To suppose that all the male love-making, by hypothesis unsuccessful, belongs to Solomon, whilst the heroine addresses her passionate words to the continuously absent shepherd, is obviously unconvincing; yet, if this shepherd speaks in iv. 8-v. 1, how are we to explain his See also:appearance in the royal harem? This and other difficulties were acknowledged by Robertson Smith, notably the presence of vii. 1-9, which he proposed to set aside as an See also:interpolation, because of its sensuality and of the difficulty of working it into the dramatic See also:scheme. The fact that this passage has subsequently become the central See also:element in the new interpretation of the book is, perhaps, a warning against violent See also:measures with difficulties. See also:Attention has already been drawn to Herder's proposal, accepted by some later writers, including Diestel and See also:Reuss, to regard the book as a collection of detached songs. This received new and striking See also:confirmation from the anthropological data supplied by J. G. See also:Wetstein (1873), Prussian See also:consul at See also:Damascus. His observations of the See also:wedding customs of Syrian peasants led him to believe that Canticles is substantially a collection of songs originally sung at such festivities. Wetstein's contribution was republished shortly afterwards by Delitzsch, in an appendix to his Commentary; but it received little attention. The first amongst Old Testament scholars to perceive its importance seems to have been See also:Stade, who accepted Wetstein's view in a footnote to his History of the Jewish People (ii. p. 197), published in 1888; to Budde, however, belongs the distinction of the systematic and detailed use of Wetstein's suggestions, especially in his Commentary (1898). This interpretation of the book is accepted by Kautzsch (1896), Siegfried (1898), See also:Cheyne (1899), and other eminent scholars. The last-named states the theory tersely as follows: " The book is an See also:anthology of songs used at marriage festivals in or near Jerusalem, revised and loosely connected by an editor without regard to temporal sequence " (Ency. Bibl. 691). The character of the evidence which has contributed to the See also:acceptance of this view may be indicated in Wetstein's own statements:
" The finest time in the life of the Syrian peasant consists of the first seven days after his wedding, in which he and his See also:young wife play the part of king (melik) and See also:queen (melika), both being so treated and served by their See also:village and the invited communities of the neighbourhood. The See also:majority of the greater village weddings fall in the See also:month of See also: The See also:winter rains being over, and the See also:sun still refreshing, not oppressive as in the following months, the weddings are celebrated in the openair on the village threshing-See also:floor, which at this time of the year is with few exceptions a flowery See also:mead. We pass over the wedding-day itself with its displays, the See also:sword-dance of the bride, and the great feast. On the morrow, bridegroom and bride awake as king and queen. Already before sunrise they receive the See also:leader of the bridesmen, as their See also:vizier, and the bridesmen themselves; the latter thereupon fetch the threshing-See also:board and bring it to the threshing-floor, singing a rousing song of See also:battle or love, generally both. There it is erected as a See also:throne, and after the royal couple have taken their seats and the necessary formalities are gone through, a great dance in See also:honour of the young couple begins; the accompanying song is concerned only with themselves, its See also:principal element being the inevitable wasf, i.e. a description of the See also:physical perfections of both and their ornaments. The eulogy of the queen is more moderate, and praises her visible, rather than veiled, charms; this is due to the fact that she is to-day a married woman, and that the wasf sung on the previous day during her sword-dance has left nothing to desire. This wasf is the weak element in Syrian wedding-songs according to our taste; its comparisons are to us frequently too clumsy and reveal the stereotyped See also:pattern. It is the same with the little collection of charming wedding-songs and fragments of them which has been received into the canon of the Old Testament under the name of Canticles; the wasf (iv.–vii.) is considerably below the rest in poetical value. With this dance begin the See also:sports, lasting seven days, begun in the See also:morning on the first, shortly before midday on the other days, and continuing far into the See also:night by the See also:light of the fires that are kindled; on the last day alone all is over by sunset. During the whole See also:week both royalties are in marriage attire, must do no See also:work and have no cares; they have only to look down from the merteba (throne) on the sports carried on before them, in which they themselves take but a moderate part; the queen, however, occasionally gives a See also:short dance to attract attention to her bridal attire."' For the general application of these and the related customs to the interpretation of the book, reference should be made to Budde's Commentary, which recognizes four wasfs, viz. iv. 1-7 (describing the bride from See also:head to breasts), v. 10-16 (the bride-See also:groom), vi. 4-7 (similar to and partly repeating iv. 1-7), and vii. 1-9, belonging to the sword-dance of the bride, her physical charms being sung from feet to head (cf. vii. 1; " Why look ye on the Shulamite as (on) a dance of camps?" i.e. a See also:war-dance). This dance receives its name from the fact that she dances it with a sword in her hand in the firelight on the evening of her wedding-day, and amid a circle of men and women, whilst such a wasf as this is sung by the leader of the See also:choir. The passage See also:relating to the See also:litter of Solomon (iii. 6-ri)—an old difficulty with the dramatizers—relates to the erection of the throne on the threshing-floor.2 The terms " Solomon " and " the Shulamite " are explained as figurative references to the famous king, and to Abishag the Shulamite, " fairest among women," on the lines of the use of " king " and " queen " noted above. Other songs of Canticles are referred by Budde to the seven days of festivities. It need hardly be said that difficulties still remain in the analysis of this book of wedding-songs; whilst Budde detects 23 songs, besides fragments, Siegfried divides the book into 10.3 Such See also:differences are to be expected in the case of a collection of songs, some admittedly in dialogue form, all concerned with the See also:common theme of the love of man and woman, and without any See also:external indication of the transition from one song to the next. Further, we must ask whether the task has been complicated by any editorial rearrangement or interpolation; the See also:collector of these songs has certainly not reproduced them in the order of their use at Syrian weddings. Can we trace any principle, or even any dominant thought in this arrangement? In this connexion we touch the reason for the reluctance of some scholars to accept the above interpretation, viz, the alleged marks of 1 Wetstein, Zeitschrift f. Ethn., 1873, pp. 270-302; quoted and condensed by Budde as above in See also:Comm. p. xvii.; for a See also:fuller See also:reproduction of Wetstein in English see Harper, The Song of Songs, pp. 74-76. 2 For the connexion of the threshing-floor with marriage through the idea of sexual fertility, we may compare many See also:primitive ideas and customs, such as those described by Frazer (The See also:Golden Bough, ii. p. 181 f., 186). See also:Castelli (Il Cantico dei Cantici, 1892) has written a very attractive little book on Canticles (quite apart from the Wetstein development) regarded as " a poem formed by a number of dialogues mutually related by a certain See also:succession "; they require for their under-See also:standing nothing but some indication of the speaker at each transition (such as we find in codex A of the Septuagint). literary unity which the book contains (e.g. Driver, loc. cit.). These are (I) general similarity of treatment, seen in the use of imagery (the bride as a garden, iv. 12; vi. 2, 3), the frequent references to nature and to particular places, and the recurrence of descriptions of male and female beauty; (2) references to " Solomon " or " the king," to " the Shulamite " and to " the daughters of Jerusalem " (from which, indeed, the dramatic theory has found its chief See also:inspiration); (3) indications that the same person is speaking in different places (cf. the two dreams of a woman, and the vineyard references, i. 6; viii. 12) ; (4) repetitions of words and phrases especially of the refrains, " disturb not love " (ii. 7; iii. 5; viii. 4), and " until the day break " (ii. 17; iv. 6). But of these (I) is no more than should be expected, since the songs all relate to the same subject, and spring from a common world of life and thought of the same See also:group of people; (2) finds at least a partial parallel and explanation in the use of " king " and " queen " noted above; whilst (3) and (4) alone seem to require something more than the work of a mere collector of the songs. It is, of course, true that, in recurrent ceremonies, the same thought inevitably tends to find expression in the same words. But this hardly meets the case of the refrains, whilst the reference to the vineyard at be-ginning and end does suggest some literary connexion. It is to be noted that the three refrains " disturb not love " severally follow passages relating to the consummation of the sexual relation, whilst the two refrains " until the day break " appear to form an invitation and an answer in the same connexion, whilst the " Omnia vincit Amor " passage in the last chapter forms a natural See also:climax (cf. See also:Haupt's translation). So far, then, as this somewhat scanty evidence goes, it may point to some one hand which has given its semblance of unity to the book by underlining the joy of consummated love—to which the vineyard and garden figures throughout allude—and by so arranging the collection that the descriptions of this joy find their climax in viii. 6-7.1 Whatever conclusion, however, may be reached as to the present arrangement of Canticles, the recognition of wedding-songs as forming its See also:nucleus marks an important stage in the interpretation of the book; even Rothstein (1902), whilst attempting to resuscitate a dramatic theory, " recognizes . . . the possibility that older wedding-songs (as, for instance, the wasfs) are worked up in the Song of Songs " (See also:Hastings' D.B. p. 594b). The drama he endeavours to construct might, indeed, be called " The Tokens of Virginity," since he makes it culminate in the See also:procedure of Deut. xxii. 13 f., which still forms part of the Syrian ceremonies. But his reconstruction is open to the same objection as all similar attempts, in that the vital moments of the dramatic action have to be supplied See also:horn without. Thus between v. 1 and v. 2, the baffled king is supposed to have disappeared, and to have been replaced by the happy lover; between viii. 7 and viii. 8, we are required to imagine " the bridal night and its mysteries "; whilst between viii. 9 and viii. to, we must suppose the evidence that the bride has been found a virgin is exhibited. He also attempts, with considerable ingenuity, to trace the See also:legend involved in the supposed drama to the fact that Abishag remained a virgin in regard to See also:David (1 See also:Kings i. 4) whilst nothing is said of her marriage to Solomon.' On the view accepted above, Canticles describes in a number 1 On the erotic meaning of many of the figures employed see the notes of Haupt in The See also:American See also:Journal of Semitic See also:Languages (See also:July 1902); also G. See also:Jacob, Das Hohelied (1902), who rightly protests against the See also:limitation in the Comm. of Budde and Siegfried (p. io) of all the songs to the marriage relation. Haupt thinks that the songs were not originally composed for weddings, though used there (p. 209, op. cit.). Diestel had pointed out, in another connexion (B.L. 125), that nothing is said in the book of the blessing of See also:children, the chief end of marriage from a Hebrew standpoint. z Rothstein's criticism of Budde turns chiefly on the latter's See also:admission of redactional elements, introducing " See also:movement and action," and may be summed up in the statement that "Budde himself by the characteristics he assigns to the redactor points the way again past his own hypothesis to the dramatical view of the Song " (loc. cit. 594h). A. Harper, " The Song of Songs " (See also:Cambridge Bible), also criticizes Budde at length in favour of the conventional dramatical theory (Appendix).of See also:separate poems the central passion of human life, and is wholly without didactic tendencies. Of its earliest history as a book we have no See also:information. It is already included in the. Hebrew canon (though its right to be there is disputed) when the first explicit mention of the book occurs. We have no evidence, therefore, of the theory of interpretation prevalent at the time of its See also:incorporation with the other books of the canon. It seems, however, See also:fair to .infer that it would hardly have found acceptance but for a Solomonic theory of authorship and a " religious " theory of meaning. The problem raised by its present place in the canon occurs in relation to mistaken Jewish theories about other books also; it suggests, at least, that divine inspiration may belong to the life of a people rather than to the See also:letter of their literature. Of that life Canticles portrays a central element—the passion of love—in striking imagery and graceful language, however far its oriental standard of taste differs from that of the modern See also:West. From the nature of the book, it is impossible to assign a precise date for its origin; the wedding-songs of which it chiefly consists must belong to the See also:folklore of more than one century. The only evidence we possess as to date is drawn from the character of the Hebrew in which the book is written, which shows frequent points of contact with new Hebrew.' On this ground, we may suppose the present form of the work to date from the Greek period, i.e. after 332 B.C. This is the date accepted by most recent writers, e.g. Kautzsch, Cheyne, Budde, Rothstein, Jacob, Haupt. This See also:late date finds some confirmation in the fact that Canticles belongs to the third and latest part of the Old Testament canon, and that its canonicity was still in dispute at the end of the 1st century A.D. The evidence offered for a north Israelite origin, on the ground of linguistic parallels and topographical familiarity (Driver, loc. cit.), does not seem very convincing; Haupt, however, places the compilation of the book in the neighbourhood of Damascus. (W. R. S. ; H. W. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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