Homilies on the Song of Songs 1 part 1/20

AN EXPOSITION OF THE SONG OF SONGS BY GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA. Prologue. To the most reverend Olympias, Gregory bishop of Nyssa sends greeting in the Lord.

I welcomed, as befitting your venerable manner of life and your pure soul, the zeal concerning the Song of Songs which you laid upon us both in person and by letter, that through fitting contemplation the philosophy hidden within the sayings might be made manifest, purified in undefiled conceptions from the meaning that lies ready to hand in the mere letter.

For this reason I readily undertook the care of this matter, not as though I should furnish you with anything useful for your own character (for I am persuaded that the eye of your soul is clean from every passionate and defiling thought, and that through these divine sayings you gaze unhindered upon the undefiled grace), but in order that some guidance might be given to those who are more carnally minded, leading them toward the spiritual and immaterial condition of the soul, to which this book conducts us through the wisdom hidden within it.

But since it seems to some of the churchmen that one must in all things cling to the letter of Holy Scripture, and they do not agree that anything has been said by it through enigmas and hidden meanings for our benefit, I think it necessary first to make a defence concerning these matters to those who bring such charges against us, namely, that we do nothing out of place when we are zealous to hunt out by every means the profit that is in the God-inspired Scripture;

so that if the letter, understood as it stands, is of any profit, we may have what we seek ready at hand; but if anything spoken with concealment in certain hidden meanings and enigmas should be idle for profit according to the obvious sense, we should turn such words over, as the word that instructs us through the Proverbs directs, so as to understand what is said either as a parable, or as a dark saying, or as a word of the wise, or as one of the enigmas.

Whether one wishes to name the contemplation of these matters, arrived at through anagogy, tropology, or allegory, or by some other title, we shall not quarrel about the name, provided only that it holds fast to profitable thoughts;

for the great Apostle too, calling the Law spiritual, and including under the name of the Law the historical narratives as well—so that all the God-inspired Scripture is a law to those who read it, instructing them not only through open precepts but also through the historical narratives, both toward the knowledge of the mysteries and toward a pure way of life, for those who attend to it carefully—makes use of interpretation as it pleases him, looking to what is profitable, and does not concern himself about the name by which the manner of interpretation ought to be designated;

but now he says that he changes his voice, when he is about to transfer the history to a demonstration of the dispensation concerning the covenants; then, having made mention of the two children of Abraham, born to him from the slave-girl and from the free woman, he names the contemplation concerning them an allegory; and again, after narrating certain matters of the history, he says that «These things happened to them as types, but were written for our admonition.»

There is a place where he names the dimmer perception and the partial knowledge a «mirror» and an «enigma»;

and again he calls the passing over from bodily things to intelligible things a «turning to the Lord» and a «removal of the veil.»

By various manners and names of contemplation according to the mind, he sets before us one form of teaching: that we must by no means remain fixed upon the letter, since in many cases the obvious appearance of what is said harms us with respect to the life of virtue, but that we must pass over to the immaterial and intelligible contemplation, so that the more bodily conceptions may be transformed into mind and understanding, the more carnal appearance of what is said being shaken off like dust.

And for this reason he says that «The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,» since in many places the history, if we should stand upon the bare facts, does not furnish us with examples of a good life;

for he transfers the seemingly incongruous and objectionable meaning into more divine significances.

We know too that the Word himself, who is worshipped by all creation—when in the likeness and form of a man, through the flesh, he delivered the divine mysteries—thus uncovered for us the meanings of the Law, so as to say that the two men whose testimony is true are himself and the Father;

and that the bronze serpent set up on high, which was a protection to the people against the deadly bites, he transfers to the dispensation accomplished for us through the cross;

and that he trained the acuteness of his own holy disciples through veiled and hidden words, in parables, in similitudes, in dark sayings, in apophthegms uttered by way of enigmas, concerning which he made his interpretations privately, resolving for them the obscurity; and there is a place where, if the meaning of what was said was not grasped by them, he reproached their slowness and their feebleness in understanding;

for when he commanded them to abstain from the leaven of the Pharisees, but they, being small-minded, looked to their bags, in which they had not brought along their provision of loaves, then he rebukes those who did not understand that what was signified through the leaven was teaching.

And again, when the disciples set food before him, answering that «I have food to eat which you do not know,» and they supposing that he spoke of bodily nourishment as though it had been brought to him from elsewhere, he interprets his own word, that the food fitting and suitable to him is the fulfilling of the saving will.

And countless such things may be gathered from the words of the Gospels, in which what is understood from the obvious sense is one thing, but that toward which the meaning of what is said looks is another;

such as the water which he promised to those who thirst, through which those who believe become fountains of rivers; the bread that comes down from heaven; the temple that is destroyed and raised up in three days; the way, the door, the stone rejected by the builders and fitted to the corner as head; the two upon one bed, the mill, the women grinding, the one taken, the one left, the corpse, the eagles, the fig-tree growing tender and putting forth branches.

All these things, and as many as are of this kind, would serve as an exhortation to us that we ought to search out the divine words, and give heed to the reading, and in every way track down whether anywhere some meaning might be found higher than the obvious apprehension, leading the understanding by the hand toward the more divine and incorporeal things.

For this reason we are not persuaded that the tree forbidden as food was a fig-tree, as some have declared, nor any other of the fruit-trees;

if the fig-tree were deadly, it would surely not now be edible either;

and at the same time we have also learned from the voice of the Master, laying this down as a doctrine by his declaration, that «Nothing that enters through the mouth is able to defile a man»;

but we seek some other meaning in this law, worthy of the majesty of the Lawgiver;

and even if we hear that Paradise is a work of God's planting, and that a tree of life was planted in the midst of Paradise, we seek to learn from him who reveals the hidden mysteries what manner of plants the Father is the husbandman and cultivator of, and how it is possible that in the very midst of Paradise there should be two trees, the one of salvation and the one of destruction;

for the exact middle, as in the drawing of a circle, is altogether in the one centre.

But if there should be set beside the centre, at some part, another centre, it is altogether necessary that the circle be shifted together with the new centre, so that the former point is no longer the middle.

There, then, since Paradise is one, how does the word say that each of the trees is contemplated separately, yet that both this one and that one are in the middle—of which the word that declared that all the works of God are «very good» teaches that the deadly one is alien to God's planting? If one does not, through philosophy, behold the truth in these things, what is said will seem to the unreflecting either inconsistent or fabulous.

And it would be a long task to gather up the several instances from the prophets;

how Micah says that in the last days a manifest mountain shall come to be upon the summits of the mountains, thus naming the mystery of godliness which is displayed for the overthrow of the opposing powers;

and how the sublime Isaiah says that a rod shall spring up and a flower from the root, thus signifying the manifestation of the Lord through the flesh;

or the assembly of bulls let loose among the heifers of the peoples;

or the foot dipped in blood, or the tongues of the dogs;

or Lebanon, made thin like the calf together with the cedars;

and countless things besides these one may gather from the rest of prophecy to show the necessity of the contemplation of the sayings according to their meaning; and if this be cast aside, as it pleases some, what results seems to me like this: as if one were to set before human eating, upon a table, the standing crops unworked—not having threshed the stalk, not having by winnowing separated the seed from the chaff, not having ground the wheat into flour, nor prepared bread in the proper manner of bread-making.

Just as, then, the unworked produce is fodder for beasts and not food for men, so one might say that the God-inspired words—not only of the Old Testament, but also many things of the Gospel teaching—are the food of the irrational rather than of the rational, when they have not been worked up through the finer contemplation;

the winnowing-fork that cleanses the threshing-floor, the chaff blown away, the wheat that remains at the feet of the winnower, the unquenchable fire, the good storehouse, the tree fruitful in evils, the threat of the axe fearfully showing its edge to the tree, the stones changed into human nature.

Let these things, written through this letter to your understanding, stand as a kind of defence against those who lay it down as law that nothing more should be sought from the divine words than the obvious appearance of the letter.

And if, seeing that Origen laboured diligently over this book, we too have been eager to hand over our own labour in writing, let no one bring a charge, but look to the divine oracle of the Apostle, who says that «Each shall receive his own reward according to his own toil.»

For me the discourse has not been composed with a view to display;

having advanced the contemplation of the sayings alongside the text, insofar as the season and circumstances allowed me leisure for this during the days of the fasts;

for during these days the discourse concerning this was earnestly delivered by us for the public hearing.

And if God, the steward of our life, should grant both a span of life and a peaceful opportunity, we shall perhaps run through what remains as well;

for now the discourse and the contemplation have advanced with us only as far as the half.

Homily 1. «Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices; your name is ointment poured out.»

«The king has brought me into his chamber.»

«Let us rejoice and be glad in you; we will love your breasts above wine.»

As many of you as, according to the counsel of Paul, have put off the old man like some filthy garment together with his deeds and desires, and have clothed yourselves through the purity of your life with the luminous garments of the Lord, such as he showed at the transfiguration on the mountain—or rather, as many as have put on our Lord Jesus Christ himself with his holy robe, and have been transfigured together with him toward the passionless and more divine state—you, hear the mysteries of the Song of Songs;

you, come within the undefiled bridal chamber, clothed in white with pure and unstained thoughts.

Let no one, bringing in a passionate and carnal reasoning, and not having the garment of conscience befitting the divine marriage, be bound up in his own conceptions, dragging the undefiled voices of the bridegroom and the bride down into brutish and irrational passions, and, entangled through them in shameful fancies, be cast out from those who make merry at the marriage, having exchanged for the joy in the bridal chamber the gnashing and the weeping.

These things I solemnly testify, as I am about to lay hold of the mystical contemplation in the Song of Songs;

for through the things written here the soul is in a manner led as a bride toward the incorporeal, spiritual, and undefiled union with God;

for he who wills that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth here points out the most perfect and blessed manner of salvation, I mean the one through love.

For there is indeed a salvation that comes about for some through fear, when, looking to the threats of the punishment in Gehenna, we separate ourselves from evil;

and there are some who set virtue aright on account of the hope of the rewards laid up for those who have lived well, achieving it not out of love for the good, but by their expectation of the recompense;

but he who has run up to perfection in his soul thrusts away fear (for such a disposition is slavish—not to remain with one's master out of love, but not to run away for fear of the lash), and he despises even the rewards themselves, lest he should seem to make the reward more prized than the giver of the gift;

but he loves with his whole heart and soul and strength none of the things that come from him, but that One himself who is the fountain of good things.

This disposition, then, does he who calls us to fellowship with himself prescribe as a law for the souls of those who hear.

And he who confirms this legislation is Solomon, whose wisdom, according to the divine testimony, has no measure, being incomparable and unequalled alike by all who have gone before and by those who shall come after, and from whom nothing of the things that are was hidden.

Do you suppose that I mean this Solomon, the one born of Bathsheba, who offered up the hecatomb of a thousand on the mountain, who used the Sidonian woman as an occasion toward sin? No; through this name another Solomon is signified;

the true King of Israel, the builder of the temple of God, who has comprehended the knowledge of all things, whose wisdom is boundless—or rather, whose very being is wisdom and truth, and every name and thought that is befitting God and sublime.

This One, using that Solomon as an instrument, converses with us through his voice: first in the Proverbs, then in Ecclesiastes, and after these in the present philosophy of the Song of Songs, pointing out to us by word the ascent toward perfection by way and in order.

For just as in the life according to the flesh not every age admits all natural activities, nor does life proceed through the same things for us in the differences of the ages (for neither does the infant undertake the works of the mature, nor is the mature man taken up in the arms of the nurse, but to each season of age something else is suitable and appropriate), so it is possible to see also in the soul a certain analogy to the bodily ages, through which is found a certain order and sequence leading man by the hand toward the life of virtue.

For this reason the Proverbs instructs in one way, and Ecclesiastes converses in another;

and the philosophy through the Song of Songs, by its more sublime doctrines, transcends them both.

For the teaching through the Proverbs makes its words to the one who is still an infant, fitting the admonition suitably to his age;

«Hear, my son, the laws of your father, and do not reject the ordinances of your mother.»

You see from what is said the still tender and easily-moulded state of the soul's age;

he still sees him in need of a mother's ordinances and a father's admonition, and, so that the infant may attend to his parents more eagerly, he promises that childish adornments will come to him from his diligence about learning.

For a child's adornment is a golden necklace gleaming about the neck, and a crown woven from certain graceful flowers.

But these things must by all means be understood in such a way that the meaning of the riddle may guide us toward what is better.

And thus he begins to sketch out Wisdom for him, interpreting in varied and manifold ways the loveliness of that ineffable beauty, so that not by any fear or necessity, but by desire and longing, he may be roused to a share in the good things;

for the sketching of beauty somehow draws the desire of the young toward what is displayed, kindling their longing for communion in its loveliness.

So then, that the faculty of desire in him might grow the more, being transferred from material attachment to an immaterial relation, he beautifies that beauty through his praises of Wisdom.

And not only does he display beforehand through his words the beauty of her loveliness, but he also enumerates her wealth, of which the one who dwells with her shall surely become lord.

And her wealth is for the present beheld in her outward ornaments;

for her adornment on both hands is whole ages, as the word says, that 'Length of life and years of living are in her right hand,' while in the other hand she wears the precious wealth of the virtues, shining together with the radiance of glory;

for it says that 'In her left hand is wealth and glory.'

Then he speaks also of her mouth's sweet fragrance, breathing out the good aroma of righteousness, saying, 'Out of her mouth proceeds righteousness.'

And on her lips, he says, instead of a natural blush, the law and mercy blossom.

And that beauty might be found gathered from every side in such a bride, her very gait too is praised;

for it says that 'She walks in the ways of righteousness.'

Nor is her stature omitted from the praises of her loveliness, her growth having shot up like some well-grown, flourishing plant.

And this plant to which her height is likened is, he says, the very Tree of Life itself, which becomes nourishment to those who hold fast to it, and a pillar both secure and unshaken to those who lean upon it.

And by both of these I understand the Lord;

for He Himself is both the life and the support.

'It is a tree of life to all who hold fast to her,' and secure to those who lean upon her as upon the Lord;

hers too is the power, so that through all good things the praise of the beauty of Wisdom might be made complete.

'For God,' he says, 'by wisdom founded the earth, and prepared the heavens in understanding'; and each of the things beheld in creation he traces back to the power of Wisdom, adorning her with varied names.

For he calls the same one both wisdom and understanding, and perception and knowledge and comprehension, and such things.

And after these things he begins, as it were to escort a bridegroom, to lead the young man toward such a union, urging him now to look toward the divine bridal chamber;

for it says, 'Do not forsake her, and she will cling to you;

love her, and she will keep you; encompass her, and she will exalt you;

honor her, that she may embrace you, that she may give to your head a crown of graces, and shield you with a crown of delight.'

And having now adorned him, as a bridegroom, with these nuptial crowns, he commands him to be inseparable from her, saying, 'Whenever you walk, take her with you, and let her be with you;

and when you sleep, let her guard you, that when you awake she may converse with you.'

Through these and such things, having inflamed the desiring faculty of the one still young in the inner man, and having shown through the word her too recounting the things concerning herself — by which she above all draws the loving disposition of her hearers — she says this among the rest, that 'Those who love me I love' (for the hope of being loved in return disposes the lover the more vehemently to desire); and having added the remaining counsels along with these, in certain declarative and well-defined maxims, and having led him to a more perfect state, then, at the close of Proverbs, having pronounced this good union blessed — wherein he set forth the praises of that valiant woman — he then adds the philosophy of Ecclesiastes for the one who has been sufficiently introduced, through the proverbial training, into the desire for the virtues.

And having in this book cast reproach upon men's disposition toward the things that appear, and having declared vain all that is unstable and passes away — in the words where he says that 'All that comes is vanity' — he sets the desiring movement of our soul above everything grasped by the senses, upon the invisible beauty; and having thus purified the heart of its attachment to the things that appear, he then, through the Song of Songs, initiates the mind into the divine sanctuaries.

In these things, what is outwardly sketched is a certain nuptial arrangement, but what is meant is the blending of the human soul with the divine.

For this reason here the one who in Proverbs is named 'son' is called 'bride,' and Wisdom is transposed into the rank of a bridegroom, so that a man may be betrothed to God, becoming a chaste virgin out of a bridegroom, and being joined to the Lord may become one spirit — becoming, through the blending with the pure and passionless, a pure thought instead of heavy flesh.

Since, therefore, it is Wisdom who speaks, love as much as you can with your whole heart and strength; desire as much as you can hold.

And I add boldly to these words also, 'Be enamored';

for in the case of things incorporeal this passion is blameless and free from passion, even as Wisdom says in Proverbs, laying down love for the divine beauty as a law.

But the discourse now before us also enjoins the very same, offering you its counsel concerning this not nakedly, but philosophizing in its meanings through hidden things, having set forth a certain image of the pleasant things of life for the establishment of these doctrines.

And the image is a certain nuptial arrangement, in which desire for beauty mediates the longing — not, according to human custom, with the bridegroom having begun the desire, but the virgin anticipates the bridegroom, publishing her longing without shame and making a prayer that she may one day delight in the bridal kiss.

...of nature — the transformation of the corruptible into the incorruptible, the delight of paradise, the dignity of the kingdom, joy that has no end — these divine gifts, then, the virgin, having received them from the noble bearers of the bridal presents who through the prophetic teaching brought her the gifts, both confesses her desire and hastens the grace, eager now to delight in the loveliness of the one she longs for.

And certain of her companions and those of her own age listen to her, provoking the bride to a greater desire.

And the bridegroom too arrives, bringing with him a chorus of certain friends dear to his heart.

And these would be either the ministering spirits, through whom men are saved, or the holy prophets, who, hearing the voice of the bridegroom, rejoice and exult as the incorruptible union is being joined, through which the soul that cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit, as the Apostle says.

Again, then, I will take up the word spoken in the prologue:

let no one who is still subject to passion and fleshly, still reeking of the dead stench of the old man, drag down toward brutish irrationalities the significations of these God-inspired thoughts and words; but let each one, having gone out of himself and come to be outside the material world, and having returned in some manner through passionlessness into paradise, and through purity having become like God, thus proceed to the inner sanctuary of the mysteries shown forth to us through this book.

But if the soul of some is unprepared for such a hearing, let them hear Moses laying down the law that one must not presume upon the ascent onto the spiritual mountain before washing the garments of our hearts and purifying our souls with the sprinklings befitting our reasonings.

So that now, during the time in which we are attending upon this contemplation, we may forget nuptial thoughts, according to the command of Moses, who laid it down that those being initiated should be pure from marriage; and in all things, I think, we must take up the injunctions of the lawgiver, since we are about to draw near to the spiritual mountain of the knowledge of God, upon which the female kind of reasonings, together with its material baggage, is left behind to the life below.

And every irrational thought, if it be seen about such a mountain, is put to death by the sturdier reasonings, as by so many stones.

For only thus could we scarcely contain the sound of this trumpet, sounding forth something great and extraordinary and beyond the power of those who receive it — a sound which the very gloom of obscurity sends forth, in which is God, who consumes with fire all that is material upon such a mountain.

Now, therefore, let us come to be within the Holy of Holies, which is the Song of Songs.

For just as in 'the Holy of Holies' we are taught, through this superlative expression, a certain abundance and heightening of holiness, so also through 'the Song of Songs' the lofty word promises to teach us mysteries of mysteries.

And for this reason it set forth, as an enigmatic guide to its exposition of the doctrines, the most vehement of the things wrought in the way of pleasure (I mean the passion of love), so that through this we might learn that the soul, gazing upon the unapproachable beauty of the divine nature, must love it as much as the body has attachment to what is akin and of the same kind — transferring the passion into passionlessness, so that, every bodily disposition being quenched, the mind within us may seethe with love by the spirit alone, warmed by that fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth.

But these things — as to how the soul must be disposed when hearing the mystical words — I declare to be sufficient.

And it would now be time to add the very divine utterances of the Song of Songs themselves to the contemplation of the discourse.

And first let us consider the force of the title;

for it does not seem to me idly that the book was dedicated by Solomon from its title, but so that there might arise in those who read it a mind to expect something great and divine in the things said.

For since, in the judgment of each person, the wonder at his wisdom is unsurpassable on account of the testimony borne to him, for this reason the mention of his name is taken up straightway from the prologue, so that something great and worthy of the reputation concerning him might be hoped for through this book by those who read it.

And just as, in the art of painting, there is certainly some material in the various dyes that fills out the imitation of the living creature, but the one who looks at the image completed by the art through the colors does not dwell in his gaze upon the dyes applied to the panel, but looks only to the form which the artist displayed through the colors — so it is fitting also, in the present writing, not to look at the material of the colors in the words, but to behold in them, as it were a kingly form, that which is figured forth through the pure thoughts.