Carey Ellen Walsh ( Exquisite Desire ) points to the difference between classical responses to desire and the account of desire in the Song of Songs.  Using Odysseus and the Sirens as an illustration, she notes how this scene reveals the Greek instinct that desire “harbors danger by rendering its victim under its spell.”  To counter desire, one needed to exercise rational management and control: “The Greek philosophical tradition placed desire under the care of rationality.  Hence, Odysseus did just... Read more

Love is as strong as death.  But no stronger.  It’s a standoff. No, Jenson says: “death does not allow of stalemates.  If love binds lovers even in death’s despite, death is overcome by love.  Nor does the grave allow of partial retrievals; if it yields its prey, then its jealousy is defeated and not merely matched.” Read more

Barthian that he is, Jenson gets the point of the Song’s “seal on my heart” just right: Jesus’ “death has made us the seal of his identity: he dies ‘for’ us, in identification with us.  Now he is not what he is without us; he did not go into death without us, and he will not fulfill his resurrection without us.  Indeed, whatever might have been, our reality as the seal of his identity is such that as the risen... Read more

Robert Jenson ( Song Of Songs (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) ) notes that Song of Songs 8:6-7 contains “pervading reference to the myths of Israel’s religious milieu: ” Mot can indeed be translated simply ‘death,’ but it is also a proper name, for the Canaanite god with whom Baal, the giver of life, must struggle. Sheol can be translated ‘grave,’ but it is also the Old Testament’s standard world for the underworld of shadows, which in... Read more

Jealousy refers to a relentless and exclusive passion and attachment.  For Solomon, it is as hard as the grave.  Once someone goes into the grave, the grave doesn’t let him back up; once it takes hold, it doesn’t let go.  Jealousy is like that.  It is “that aspect of love in which love also does not give up what it claims” (Robert Jenson). Jealousy is an aspect of any genuine, deep love; jealousy reminds us that love always seeks ownership... Read more

Love is “as strong as the grave” and ardor “as hard as Sheol.”  Both descriptions are arresting because they attribute a kind of violence to love. “Strong” describes the driving wind of the exodus (Exodus 14:21), the raging waters of the sea that swallowed up Pharaoh (Nehemiah 9:11).  It describes anger (Genesis 49:7), the harshness of a king (Isaiah 19:4), the fierce faces of Gentiles invading Israel (Deuteronomy 28:50). “Hard” is used to describe Israel’s servitude in Egypt (Exodus 1:14;... Read more

“Put me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm,” says the Bride in the Song of Songs (8:6). Seals mark something with the name of the owner.  A letter is sealed as proof of its author (1 Kings 21:8).  The high priest’s golden plate is engraved with the name of God like a seal, to mark the priest as one “holy to Yahweh.”  Zerubbabel is placed “like a seal” as a mark that the kingdom... Read more