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{"id":8471,"date":"2015-08-05T01:46:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T05:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=8471"},"modified":"2015-07-29T18:51:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T22:51:02","slug":"book-notice-song-of-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2015\/08\/book-notice-song-of-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Notice: Song of Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

James<\/span><\/strong> $\"\"$ <\/a>M. Hamilton<\/strong><\/span>
\nSong of Songs: A Biblical-Theological, Allegorical, Christological Interpretation<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nFocus on the Bible
\nFearn, Ross Shire: Christian Focus, 2015.
\nAvailable at Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

By Jill Firth<\/a><\/p>\n

James M. Hamilton Jr.<\/strong> is<\/strong> professor of biblical theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and preaching pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church. He is the author of God\u2019s Glory in Salvation through Judgment; <\/em>What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible\u2019s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns; <\/em>and the Revelation<\/em> volume in the Preaching the Word commentary series.<\/p>\n

This brief commentary on Song of Songs <\/em>arose from a series of nine sermons at Kenwood Baptist Church in 2012. It is published by Christian Focus, which offers popular works on Scripture, theology and Christian living. An academic discussion of the Song is found in Hamilton\u2019s earlier article, \u2018The Messianic Music of the Song of Songs: A Non-Allegorical Interpretation\u2019, WTJ<\/em> 68 (2006): 331-45.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is upfront in describing the hermeneutics of his approach, as a Biblical-Theological, Allegorical, Christological Interpretation. <\/em>He originally considered the Song to be only about human love. However, continued reflection on the use of allegory in the OT led him to be more open to the idea that the Song may also have an allegorical reading. Marriage is used as a metaphor for God\u2019s relation with Israel in other sections of the Old Testament, including the prophets Hosea, Jeremiah and Ezekiel (31). In fact, Hosea presents his own marriage with Gomer as a kind of allegory of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel. In the New Testament, Paul refers to Christ and the church as imaged in human marriages, and the Book of Revelation refers to the church as the Bride. Hamilton suggests that Solomon wrote an idealised account of the king\u2019s romance and marriage, and expected his original readers to see a correspondence with the relationship between God and Israel.<\/p>\n

The lush garden imagery deliberately evokes Eden, and recreates an ideal world \u2018where all the women really would have been strong, all the men good-looking, and all the children above average\u2019 (20). Hamilton argues that \u2018the closest we get to being back in the Garden of Eden in the rest of the Bible is in the poetry of the Song of Songs<\/em>\u2019 (22, italics original). The Song is set in Jerusalem, and so also evokes the end point of the big story of the Bible, the king\u2019s reign from Zion in the new heaven and the new earth.<\/p>\n

The commentary looks at the Song at three levels of interpretation. The song offers us \u2018a married couple gazing on one another as Adam and Eve must have in Eden\u2019 (25). It is teaching us about married love. The man in the Song, a kingly descendant of David, typifies \u2018the coming Messiah\u2019, and the story also gives us an allegory of the love between God and his people (28). These levels are held together as couples are invited to trust in Jesus the Messiah, in order to build a true basis for their intimate relationship (30).<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s hermeneutic and the proposed connections to other parts of the Canon may not all receive wide acceptance (for example on page 84, the link between Noah\u2019s doves and the description of the eyes of the beloved as \u2018like doves\u2019 Song 4.1). Also controversial are the reading of the Song as one song, not as a collection of separate songs, and as a consecutive narrative depicting the development of a relationship between the idealised Solomon and his bride. Hamilton\u2019s sincere desire to assist troubled marriages and to deepen the joy of good marriages is convincingly expressed, and the book will be a valuable guide for those who wish to apply this section of Scripture to their relationships as Christians.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s goals for the commentary are found on his blog,<\/p>\n

\u2018I pray the Lord will use this little book<\/a> to help people feel his love, stronger than death, a flame no waters can quench, and I pray it will heal and strengthen marriages, guide and bless Bible studies, and bring glory to the Bridegroom whose voice made the Baptist rejoice.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jill Firth teaches Hebrew and Old Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"