Commentators often resort to some embarrassing expedients in trying to explain the bodily imagery of the Song of Songs. The assumption is that the images are mainly visual. Breasts are like fawns grazing among the lilies? Well, the fawns must be bent over, their backs rounded and their little tails sticking erect like nipples. Exum wisely demurs. The point is not to describe either lover visually but “to convey to the reader the emotions the speaker experiences upon beholding the... Read more
In her commentary on the Song of Songs (Old Testament Library) , Cheryl Exum notes the finely rendered sexual differences between the way the man and woman of the Song, evident in the different ways they express their desires for one another. The woman tells stories: “They are the only parts of the Song that display narrative development or what one might call a plot.” But the man doesn’t tell stories; rather, he “look[s] at her and tell[s] what he... Read more
Further thoughts on the structures of Matthew 27, focusing on verses 45-66. Verses 45-54 can be seen either as a panel structure or as two chiasms. In the panel structure, each panel begins with Jesus crying out in a loud voice: A. Jesus’ “cry of dereliction,” v 46 B. Reaction of hearers, v 47-49 A’. Jesus cries “again with a loud voice” and dies, v 50 B’. Reaction of earth and soldiers, vv 51-54 Alternatively, this section can be seen... Read more
Song of Songs 3:11 speaks of the crowning of Solomon on the day of his wedding. Most commentators refer to the Orthodox practice of crowning grooms and brides as new Adams and Eves. I’ve got no problem with that, but I suspect there’s something else. First, as Ernst Wendland says in an article (forthcoming in Lovely, Lively Lyrics: Selected Studies in Biblical Hebrew Verse [Dallas: SIL Academic], generously supplied by the author) there are many verbal links between the appearance of... Read more
Song of Songs 3:11 speaks of the crowning of Solomon on the day of his wedding. Most commentators refer to the Orthodox practice of crowning grooms and brides as new Adams and Eves. I’ve got no problem with that, but I suspect there’s something else. First, as Ernst Wendland says in an article (forthcoming in Lovely, Lively Lyrics: Selected Studies in Biblical Hebrew Verse [Dallas: SIL Academic], generously supplied by the author) there are many verbal links between the appearance of... Read more
The beloved is a dove. Why a dove? We can answer by taking a detour through temple theology. The temple is made according to the pattern of the mountain, reflecting the beauty of Yahweh’s original glory. The temple is glory come to earth., And the glory of Yahweh is like a bird fluttering over Israel (Deuteronomy 32:11), like a bird hovering over the formless emptiness of the original creation (Genesis 1:2). That glory is the Spirit, who comes to Jesus... Read more
Jenson again. He notes that liturgy provides a test of theological truth, in the sense that “no teaching can be true whose consequences would pervert the practice or darken the understanding of irreversibly instituted liturgy.” He illustrates: “the Reformers insisted there must be something wrong with established teaching about the mass because it sanctioned the proliferation of private and votive masses, a situation not coherent with the canonically instituted rite; Catholics charged that Reformation teaching about works must be wrong... Read more
In the first volume of his Systematic Theology , Jenson argues that the Spirit is the guarantor of the church’s continuity over time: “it is God the Spirit who sustains the gospel’s and so the church’s self-identity through time,” but this means that “that identity cannot be mere historical continuity with the church’s very beginning.” Why not? The Spirit, Jenson says in a characteristic phrase, “is precisely God as the power of the future, God as his own and our... Read more
Jesus’ death is earth-shattering, literally and figuratively. In the OT, earthquakes are associated with the revelation of Yahweh’s glory (cf. Psalm 77:18) and His coming as the divine warrior to rescue His people. But in Matthew, the earth quakes at Jesus’ death. It quakes when Jesus cries out and the spirit leaves Him. That can only mean: Here Yahweh’s glory is revealed once and for all; here in the darkness of Golgotha, and in this beaten bloody corpse, Yahweh has... Read more
INTRODUCTION Orthodoxy claims that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son in human flesh, but the test case of orthodox Christology has always been the crucifixion of Jesus. Especially here, we confront the mystery of the incarnation, for God the Son died on the cross just as surely as He was born, lived, hungered, suffered and sorrowed. THE TEXT “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour... Read more
Leithart
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