Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.87–1.100

These things we have said, as in a preface, about the title or inscription of the book itself. Now, with our Lord helping us, let us attack the beginning of the work itself; and yet let us not leave out even this point, which some have thought should still be inquired into concerning the title and inscription of the book, which reads thus: "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's." For they take it as if he had said that this is the song of Solomon's songs, so as to indicate that this is one out of his many songs. But how shall we accept such an understanding, when neither has the church of God received any songs of Solomon from outside to be read, nor among the Hebrews, from whom the oracles of God seem to have been handed over to us, is anything more contained in the canon besides these three books of Solomon, which we too have? Those who assert this, however, want to confirm their opinion from what is written in the third book of Kingdoms, that Solomon had many songs, so as to establish that this is one of many. This is what is related there: "And God gave Solomon understanding and very great wisdom and breadth of heart like the sand on the seashore; and Solomon became very wise, above the wisdom of all the ancients and above all the wise men of Egypt, and above Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, and Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was renowned among all the nations round about. And Solomon spoke three thousand parables, and his songs were five thousand." They want it to seem that out of these five thousand songs this is the one song we have; but how far or where they were sung has come not only not into the use but not even into the knowledge of the churches of God. It would be laborious and far from the task in hand if we now wished to inquire how many books are mentioned in the divine scriptures of which no reading at all has been handed down to us. But we find that not even among the Jews is there any use of such readings: whether because they contained some things beyond human understanding and it pleased the Holy Spirit that they be removed from the midst, or because they were among those scriptures called apocryphal, since many things in them are found corrupted and contrary to the true faith, the elders did not see fit to give them a place or admit them to authority.

It is beyond us to pronounce on such matters. Yet this much is plain: many examples have been brought forward by the apostles or the evangelists and inserted in the New Testament which we never read in the scriptures we hold as canonical, but which are found in the apocrypha and are evidently shown to have been taken from them. But not even so is a place to be given to the apocrypha; for the boundaries which our fathers set are not to be crossed. For it may be that the apostles or evangelists, filled with the Holy Spirit, knew what was to be taken from those scriptures and what rejected; but for us, who have no such abundance of the Spirit, it is not without danger to presume anything of the kind. And therefore on the present verse we hold to the version we set out above, especially since there is an evident distinction in it, where it says: "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's." For if he had wished it to be understood that this is the song of Solomon's songs, he would surely have said: "The Song of the songs which are Solomon's," or "The Song from the songs of Solomon." But since he said "which is Solomon's," it is shown that this Song which is in our hands, and which he had to sing, is Solomon's. And let this suffice about the title which he set forth. Let us now see what follows.

"Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." We must remember what we pointed out in the preface: that this book, which has the form of a wedding song, is written in the manner of a drama. And we said that a drama is where certain characters are brought on who speak, and others now and then come in, others go off or come near, and so the whole is carried on by changes of characters. This, then, will be the form of the whole book, and according to it we shall fit the historical exposition as well as we can. The spiritual understanding, however, as we indicated in the preface, is directed either to the church in relation to Christ under the title of bride and bridegroom, or to the union of the soul with the Word of God. So now, in the form of a story, a certain bride is brought on who has received from a most noble bridegroom most worthy gifts by way of betrothal and dowry. But since the bridegroom delays for a very long time, she is troubled by longing for her love and wastes away grieving at home, doing everything she can to see her bridegroom at last and enjoy his kisses. Since she sees that she can neither put off her love nor obtain what she longs for, she turns to prayer and pleads with God, knowing that he is the Father of her bridegroom. Let us picture her, then, lifting up holy hands without anger or dispute, in modest dress with reverence and sobriety, adorned with the worthiest ornaments, such as befit a noble bride; but burning with longing for the bridegroom and stirred by the inner wound of love, pouring out prayer to God, as we said, and saying of her bridegroom: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." This is what the historical explanation, composed in the manner of a drama, contains.

Now let us see whether the inner meaning can be fittingly applied in this way. Let it be the church longing to be joined to Christ; and by the church understand the assembly of all the saints. Let this church, then, be as it were one person made of all, who speaks and says: "I have everything; I am filled with gifts which I received before the wedding by way of betrothal or dowry. For long ago, when I was being prepared for marriage to the King's Son and the firstborn of all creation, his holy angels waited on me and served me, bringing me the law as a betrothal gift; for the law is said to have been ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. The prophets too served me. For they too spoke all things, by which they not only showed and declared to me about the Son of God, to whom they wished to betroth me with these gifts that are called pledges and dowry presents, but also, to kindle me with love and longing for him, they proclaimed to me with prophetic voices his coming, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached his countless powers and his immeasurable works. They also described his beauty and comeliness and gentleness, so that by all these things I was inflamed beyond bearing with love for him. But since the age is now almost ended, and his own presence is not granted me, but I see only his ministers ascending and descending to me, for this reason I pour out my prayer to you, the Father of my bridegroom, and beg that, taking pity at last on my love, you send him, so that he may no longer speak to me only through his ministers, the angels and the prophets, but may come himself in person and kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, that is, pour the words of his own mouth into my mouth; that I may hear him speaking himself and see him teaching himself." For these are the kisses of Christ which he offered to the church when at his coming, being himself present in the flesh, he preached to her the words of faith and charity and peace, as Isaiah had promised, who was sent ahead to the bride and had said: "Not an ambassador nor an angel, but the Lord himself will save us."

In the third place of the exposition let us bring on the soul, whose whole effort is to be joined and united to the Word of God and to enter into the mysteries of his wisdom and knowledge as into the chamber of the heavenly bridegroom. To this soul too gifts have been given, namely by way of dowry. For just as the church's dowry was the volumes of the law and the prophets, so for this soul let the natural law, rational sense and freedom of choice be counted as dowry gifts. Having these gifts of her dowry, let her have the teaching of her first instruction coming down from guardians and teachers. But since in these she finds no full and perfect fulfilment of her desire and love, let her pray that her pure and virginal mind may be enlightened by the illuminations and visitations of the Word of God himself. For when the mind is filled with divine perceptions and understandings without the ministry of any man or angel, then let it believe that it is receiving the kisses of the Word of God himself. For these and such kisses, then, let the soul say in prayer to God: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." For as long as she was incapable of receiving the pure and solid teaching of the Word of God himself, she received kisses of necessity, that is, meanings from the mouth of teachers. But when she has begun of her own accord to discern what is obscure, to untie what is tangled, to unravel what is involved, to explain parables and riddles and the sayings of the wise along the fitting lines of understanding, then let her believe that she has received the kisses of her bridegroom himself, that is, of the Word of God. And he put "kisses" in the plural so that we may understand that the illumination of each obscure meaning is a kiss of the Word of God brought to the perfect soul. In this sense perhaps the prophetic and perfect mind said: "I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit." By the mouth of the bridegroom we understand the power of God by which he enlightens the mind and, as by a word of love addressed to it, if only it deserves to receive the presence of such great power, makes plain to it whatever was unknown and obscure. And this is the truer, nearer and holier kiss, which is said to be offered by the bridegroom, the Word of God, to the bride, that is, the pure and perfect soul.

An image of this is the kiss which we give one another in church at the time of the mysteries. So whenever we find in our heart, without guides, something sought concerning divine doctrines and meanings, let us believe that kisses have been given us by the bridegroom, the Word of God. But when, seeking something about the divine meanings, we cannot find it, then, taking up the disposition of this prayer, let us ask God for the visitation of his Word and say: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." For the Father knows the capacity of each soul and knows at what time, to which soul, and what kisses of his Word he ought to offer, at least in understandings and perceptions. "For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments above all spices." I understand first, as in the drama of the story, that the bride has poured out prayer to the Father with hands lifted up to God and has prayed that the bridegroom might now come to her and himself give her a kiss of his own mouth. And while she was praying this to the Father, in the very prayer in which she said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she prepares to add other words of prayer, and to say that at this beginning of her speech the bridegroom had come, had stood by her as she prayed, and had revealed his words to her, and that the bridegroom himself stood there anointed with wonderful ointments, such as it befitted a bridegroom to be fragrant with. And when the bride saw that he was present for whose presence she was praying, and that what she was asking for had been granted to her while she was still speaking, and that the kisses she had asked for had been given her by him, rejoicing at this and moved by the beauty of his breasts and the scent of his fragrance, she turned the speech of the prayer she had begun to the presence of the bridegroom, who was there; and having said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she then adds, speaking to the bridegroom now present: "Your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments above all spices."

So much, for the present, for the historical understanding, which we said was woven in the manner of a drama. Now let us inquire what the inner meaning holds. We find that the ruling part of the heart is called by different words in the divine scriptures, and these words are usually fitted to the causes and matters under discussion. Sometimes it is called the heart, as in "Blessed are the pure in heart," and "With the heart one believes unto righteousness." But if it is the time of a banquet, then, according to the posture and order of those reclining, it is called the bosom or the breast; as John relates in the Gospel about a certain disciple whom Jesus loved, that he reclined in his bosom or on his breast: the one, namely, to whom Simon Peter beckoned and said, "Ask who it is of whom he speaks." And after this, leaning on Jesus' breast, he says to him: "Lord, who is it?" In these words it is certain that John is said to have rested in the ruling part of Jesus' heart and in the inner meanings of his teaching, seeking and searching out there the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that were hidden in Christ Jesus. And I think it does not seem unfitting that the bosom of Christ be taken to stand for holy doctrines. So, as we had begun to say, the ruling part of the heart is designated in different ways in the holy scriptures, as also in Leviticus, where in the sacrifices the breast of separation and the shoulder are set apart for the priests; and by this breast and shoulder set apart and separated it means that the ruling part of the heart and the honour of works, excelling other men, should be in the priests. We have explained this more fully on the book of Leviticus, as the Lord deigned to grant. In keeping with these things, then, in the present passage too, since the drama being acted seems to be one of love, let us understand the ruling part of the heart by the breasts, so that what is said seems to be this: "Your heart, my bridegroom, that is, the doctrines that are within you, or the teachings of grace, surpasses all wine, which is wont to gladden the heart of man." For just as in the case of those of whom he says, "For they shall see God," "heart" seems to have been fittingly said, and among those reclining the bosom and breast are mentioned, no doubt because of the posture of those reclining and the form of the banquet; and again, as among the priests the breast and shoulder are designated in mystical speech; so too, I think, in the present passage, where the posture and conversation of lovers are described, this same ruling part of the heart is most gracefully called the breasts.

The bridegroom's breasts, then, are good, since the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in them. The bride compares these breasts with wine, but compares them so as to prefer them. By wine we must understand the doctrines and teachings which the bride had been accustomed to take through the law and the prophets before the bridegroom's coming. But now, considering this teaching that flows from the bridegroom's breasts, she marvels and is amazed, seeing that it is far more excellent than that by which she had been gladdened before the bridegroom's coming, as by the spiritual wine which the holy fathers and prophets served; they too planted vineyards of this kind, as Noah first, and Isaiah on a horn in a fruitful place, and they cultivated them. So, seeing now the great eminence of doctrines and knowledge in the bridegroom, and that a far more perfect teaching flows from him than there was among the ancients, she says: "Your breasts are better than wine," that is, than that teaching by which I was gladdened by the ancients. For it is of this wine of the ancients that Ecclesiastes is to be understood to speak where he says: "I said in my heart: Come, I will test you with gladness; I will laugh in good things." And again, speaking of the same vineyards, Ecclesiastes says: "I made my work great; I built myself houses, I planted myself vineyards, I made myself gardens and orchards," and so on. This vineyard also has certain mystical ministers, who are called cupbearers. For he says: "And I made myself singing men and singing women, for the delight of the sons of men, cupbearers, men and women." See, then, whether we can understand, both in other places and in this one, the Saviour mixing the new streams of his breasts with the old wine, when Mary and Joseph sought and found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and questioning them, when all were amazed at his answers. And perhaps the form of this figure is also fulfilled there where, going up the mountain, he taught the people and said: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not kill;

but I say to you: Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment"; and: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you: Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." As far, then, as this teaching of his surpasses that ancient one, so far does the bride understand and declare that his breasts are better than wine. And the fact that the Son of Man is called a glutton and a drinker, and they say, "Look, a gluttonous man and a drinker of wine," also has this in view. Such too was that wine of Cana in Galilee which was drunk at the wedding; when it ran out he made other wine, to which the master of the feast bore witness that it was very good and far more excellent than the wine that had been used up, when he says: "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when they have drunk freely, what is worse; but you have kept the good wine until now." Consider also Solomon, who for the wisdom he received from God was the object of admiration to the queen of Sheba, who had come to test him with questions. What the things were for which the same queen admired him, hear scripture telling: "And the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, the arrangement of his banquet, the seating of his servants, the order of his ministers, and their clothing, and his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he offered in the house of God, and she was amazed," and so on. Notice in these words how she who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon marvels, among other things, at the food of his banquet or at his cupbearers, and is said to have been amazed at these. But I do not know whether we should think the queen so foolish that, having come from the ends of the earth for this purpose, to hear the wisdom of Solomon, she should marvel at bodily food and this common wine and the cupbearers of wine in the king's service. For what in these things would seem worthy of a queen's admiration, which are common to almost all men?

But it seems to me that she marvelled at the food of his teaching and the wine of the doctrines that were proclaimed by him through divine wisdom. This was the wine too of which Jeremiah tells concerning the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab: at the time when the sins of the people had grown strong and captivity threatened for the iniquities of the people, they were called together to drink wine, and they said that their father Jonadab had commanded them not to drink wine, they or their sons for ever, nor to build houses, nor to sow seed, nor to plant vineyards, but to live in tents all the days of their life. And God embraces them because they kept their father's command and would not drink wine. For because of the sins of the people at that time and their iniquities, their vine was from the vine of Sodom and their branches from Gomorrah; their grapes were grapes of gall and their clusters bitterness; the venom of asps and the fury of dragons was their wine. For this reason, then, the sons of Jonadab are held praiseworthy, for they refused to drink and take in such wine, that is, poisoned doctrines foreign to the faith of God. For this reason too perhaps God struck the vines of the Egyptians, as is written in the psalm, so that they might not make such wine. So if we have understood the differences of wine, and have perceived that they consist in the diversity of doctrines, when the bride says here, "For your breasts are better than wine," let us understand good wine, not bad. For the bridegroom's doctrines are preferred when compared with good doctrines, not bad. She had tasted good wine before in the law and the prophets; having been prepared by it, as it were, to receive gladness of heart and to make herself ready to receive also that teaching which was to come through the breasts of the bridegroom himself, more excellent and more eminent than all, she says: "Your breasts are better than wine."

And see whether we can still fit to this figure that parable of the Gospel which says: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field; whoever finds it hides it, and in his joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This treasure, then, is hidden not in some desert place nor in the woods, but in a field. And it is surely possible that that field also has vineyards which yield wine, and also has the treasure for which the man who had found the treasure there sold everything and bought that field. So the one who bought the field can say that the treasure in the field is better than the wine in it. So too the bridegroom and the bridegroom's breasts, which are like a treasure hidden in the law and the prophets, are better than the wine that is in them, namely the teaching that is open and gladdens its hearers. The bridegroom's breasts, then, are good. For the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him; and when they have been opened and revealed to the bride's eyes, they will seem to her far more excellent than that former wine of the law and the teaching of the prophets. And if we are to take the third exposition, of the perfect soul and the Word of God, we can say that while someone is a little one and has not yet offered himself wholly to God, he drinks the wine that the field produces, which also holds within it the hidden treasure, and in drinking he is gladdened by the wine. But when he has offered and vowed himself to God and has become a Nazirite, and has found the hidden treasure and come to the very breasts and fountains of the Word of God, he will no longer drink wine and strong drink, but will say to the Word of God himself concerning these treasures of knowledge and wisdom hidden in him: "For your breasts are better than wine." Now the bridegroom has certain ointments, whose fragrance delights the bride, and she says: "The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." Spices are kinds of perfumes.

The bride had a certain use and knowledge of spices, that is, of the words of the law and the prophets, by which, before the bridegroom's coming, she seemed to be instructed, though modestly, and trained for the worship of God, being still a little girl and living under guardians, stewards and tutors; for the law was our tutor unto Christ. All these were spices, in which she seemed to be nourished and prepared for her bridegroom. But when the fullness of time came and she had grown up, and the Father sent his only-begotten, anointed with the Holy Spirit, into this world, the bride, catching the fragrance of the divine ointment and perceiving that all those spices she had used before were far inferior in comparison with the sweetness of this new and heavenly ointment, says: "The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." And since Christ is called both bridegroom and high priest, high priest in that he is the mediator between God and men and all creation, for which he also became the propitiation, offering himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world; and bridegroom in that he is joined to the church that has no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind; consider whether perhaps that high-priestly ointment which in Exodus is ordered to be compounded by the perfumer's art holds the meaning of this ointment whose fragrance the bride now marvels at. And seeing that the spices of which the ointment with which Aaron was anointed was compounded were earthly and of bodily matter, while this ointment with which she now sees the bridegroom anointed is spiritual and heavenly, she therefore says: "For the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." Let us see, then, how that ointment was compounded. "And the Lord spoke to Moses," it says, "saying: Take for yourself the flower of choice myrrh, five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred shekels by the holy shekel, and of olive oil a hin; and you shall make of it the oil of holy chrism, an ointment by the perfumer's art."

The bride had heard these things related in the law, but now she perceives their meaning and truth. See, then, that these four kinds of this ointment held the figure of the incarnation of the Word of God, who took a body compounded of four elements; in that body the myrrh preserves the signs of his death, which he underwent whether as high priest for the people or as bridegroom for the bride. And that it is written not simply "myrrh" but "the flower of myrrh" and "of choice myrrh" indicated not only his death but also that he would be the firstborn from the dead, and that those who had been planted together in the likeness of his death would be not only called but chosen. The cinnamon is called spotless, no doubt because of the church, which he purified by the washing of water and made spotless, having no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind. The calamus too is taken, because his tongue is also the reed of a scribe writing swiftly, signifying the grace of teaching by the sweetness of the perfume. The iris too is added, a kind said to be very hot and burning; in it is shown the figure either of the fervour of the Holy Spirit or of the future judgment by fire. The number five hundred or two hundred and fifty shekels holds the mystery either of the five senses perfected a hundredfold in him, or else the fifty, the number of remission, placed five times, signifies the forgiveness of sins given through him. All these are gathered together with pure oil, by which it is shown either that it was by mercy alone that he who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, or that what had been taken from material substance in Christ was brought into one by the Holy Spirit and made into one form, which is the person of the mediator. That material oil, then, could in no way be called the oil of gladness.

But this oil, that is, the ointment of the Holy Spirit with which Christ was anointed, and whose fragrance the bride now perceives and admires, is rightly called the oil of gladness, because the fruit of the Spirit is joy; with it God anointed him who loved righteousness and hated iniquity. For this reason it is said: "The Lord his God anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows." And therefore the fragrance of his ointments is above all spices. We use a similar exposition if this saying is transferred to each soul set in the love and desire of the Word of God, which has run through in order all the teachings in which it seems to have been trained and instructed before it knew the Word of God, whether they come from the moral or from the natural schools. For all these were spices of a kind for it, since in them a commendable training and the amendment of conduct are sought, since in them the vanity of the world is detected and the false wonders of perishable things are rejected. So all these were for it like spices and fragrances, perfumes of the soul. But when it has come to the knowledge of the mysteries and the understanding of divine doctrines, when it has approached the gates of wisdom itself, and not the wisdom of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing, but the wisdom of God itself which is spoken among the perfect, and where the mystery which was not known to former generations has been revealed to the sons of men; when, I say, the soul has ascended to the knowledge of so great a secret, it rightly says: "The fragrance of your ointments," that is, the spiritual and mystical understanding, is "above all spices," the moral and natural philosophy. Let it not escape us that in some copies, instead of what we read, "For your breasts are better than wine," we find written, "For your words are better than wine." Although this seems to express more plainly the very things we have set out by the spiritual interpretation, we keep to what the Seventy Translators wrote in everything, being certain that the Holy Spirit willed that the figures of the mysteries should be hidden in the divine scriptures and not be had openly and in plain view.