Commentary on the Song of Songs 1 part 1/9

To the most God-loving bishop John, from Theodoret.

The exposition of the divine oracles requires a soul that has been purified and set free from every defilement;

it requires also a mind that has taken wing, one able to contemplate divine things and to venture boldly into the innermost sanctuaries of the Spirit;

and it needs, besides, a tongue that serves the mind and worthily interprets its contemplation.

But as for me, I have both a soul beset by a great heap of sins, and a mind steeped in cares for the affairs entrusted to me, and on this account lowly and earthbound and unable to gaze accurately upon the divine oracles; and in addition to these things a tongue duller and slower than the mind itself.

But since you have charged me, O head dear to me, to interpret the book of the Song of Songs, and to make clear and manifest the meaning of the things spoken enigmatically and mystically, we have ventured upon things beyond our strength — and that too while hemmed in by countless cares, urban and rural, military and civil, ecclesiastical and common;

we have taken courage before the depth of the open sea, and dared to descend into the depth of the letter, that we might bring up for you the pearl of its meaning.

And we have taken up in our mouth, not oil — that I might use, as a fellow-worker in the search for what is sought, a light made by hands — but prayer and supplication, of which those especially have need who long to attain the meaning of the divine oracles.

'Open my eyes, and I shall perceive the wondrous things out of your law.' Taught these things, let us implore the divine grace to show us the meaning of this book.

But since some who slander the Song of Songs, and do not believe the book to be spiritual, but weave together certain fables not even fit for old wives' babbling, and dare to say that the wise Solomon composed this concerning himself and the daughter of Pharaoh — and certain others belonging to this same faction have fabricated that Abishag the Shunammite, instead of Pharaoh's daughter, is the bride;

while those who have understood these things more reverently have called the discourse royal, and have named the people the bride, and the king the bridegroom;

we have therefore judged it necessary, as we begin the interpretation, first to refute this false and harmful understanding, and then thus to establish the plain aim of the letter.

Now they ought to have recognized that far wiser than they, and far more spiritual, are the blessed Fathers who arranged this book among the divine Scriptures, and who, as being spiritual, both canonized it and declared it fitting for the Church.

For they would never, had they supposed otherwise, have numbered it among the holy Scriptures, if it had contained a theme of intemperance and love of pleasure.

And what need is there to cite the later Fathers, when it is possible to call the testimony of the divine Spirit himself? For since the divine Scriptures — some of them were burned by Manasseh, who by his wickedness and impiety hid away all who were before him and after him;

and others were utterly lost in the time of the captivity;

and after the enemies had burned the divine temple, and laid the city waste, and led the people into slavery, after a great number of years, when the people had again obtained their recall, the blessed Ezra, a man pre-eminent in virtue and filled with the all-holy Spirit — as the facts themselves cry aloud — wrote out for us the Scriptures that are necessary and able to bestow salvation;

and not only the writings of Moses, but also the history of Joshua, and of the Judges, and of the Kings, and the narrative of the noble Job.

How then, O most excellent men, can the book have that meaning which you assert, if Ezra composed these things, and wrote them not from copies but having become full of the divine Spirit, that he might transmit to all men a benefit set down in writing? For writings of licentiousness are not of the divine Spirit, but of the opposing spirit.

For the fruit of the Spirit, according to the blessed Paul, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. But if self-control is the fruit of the divine Spirit, then clearly intemperance is the fruit of the opposing spirit;

and yet, as you say, the writing of the Song of Songs contains a theme of intemperance.

See, therefore, where the words of blasphemy tend! For the reviling directed against the book is a thing dared against the all-holy Spirit.

For the blessed Ezra, filled with this one's grace, renewed the book which had been corrupted, as we have said;

and the blessed Fathers, being aware of this, arranged it among the divine Scriptures.

And many of the ancients have also interpreted it;

while those who did not do so continuously nevertheless adorned their own writings with citations drawn from it.

And not only Eusebius the Palestinian, and Origen the Egyptian, and Cyprian the Carthaginian — who also bound about himself the crown of martyrdom — and those more ancient than these, and nearer to the apostles;

and John, who with the streams of his teaching waters the whole inhabited world even to this day, and all those after them — that I may speak briefly and escape the length of the discourse.

Let us then consider whether it is just, after having spat upon so many and such great men, and having even despised the all-holy Spirit himself, to follow one's own notions, not persuaded by him who has rightly said:

'We must obey God rather than men.' And we shall say to them also:

'If it is right in the sight of your God to hearken to you rather than to God, judge;'

'for we cannot but speak the things which we saw through the Spirit and heard.' But that we may not be concerned only with ourselves and overlook them as they are being harmed, come, let us inquire whence the occasion of the harm came to them, and offer them the possible remedy from the divine Scriptures.

with unveiled face to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord;

but having understood the things spoken in a fleshly manner, they ran aground upon that blasphemy.

But they ought to have recognized that in the Old Testament also the divine Scripture speaks many things figuratively;

and using certain names, it signifies other things by means of them.

For in narrating concerning the Babylonian, it has set down neither the proper name nor the common name of his nature;

for it neither named Nebuchadnezzar, nor called him a man;

'The eagle, great of wing, long in extension, full of talons;'

'which has the will to enter into Lebanon, and took the choicest parts of the cedar, and plucked off the topmost of its tenderness.' And no one ever understood the eagle to be an eagle, nor Lebanon to be Lebanon, nor the cedar to be a cedar;

but the eagle to be the king, since the creature too is royal;

and great of wing, because of the breadth of the kingdom;

and full of talons, because of the multitude of the army.

And it said that he had a will, because, being led by the divine nod, he had done what he did.

And it called Jerusalem Lebanon, because of the density and thickness of the spiritual gifts of grace.

And by the tender parts of the cedar, those who are delicate and given to luxury, and pre-eminent in dignities.

And to understand these things in this way is customary not only for those nurtured in true religion, but also for the Jews, who understand the divine Scriptures more grossly and in a more fleshly way.

And the blessed Zechariah likewise:

'Let the pine tree wail, because the cedar has fallen.' And we understand neither Lebanon to be Lebanon, nor the cedars to be cedars, nor the fire to be fire, nor the pines to be pines;

but the fire again as the Babylonian, whom Ezekiel called an eagle;

and Lebanon as Jerusalem;

and the cedars as those weighed down with riches and resplendent in dignities;

and the pines as those inferior to these.

'Let the pine tree wail, because the cedar has fallen, because the great ones have greatly suffered misery.'

And what need is there to enumerate all the things which the divine Scripture speaks figuratively? Leaving the rest, then, come, let us show the God of all, even in the Old Testament, conversing with the multitude of the Jews as with a woman, and using such terms of the members as Solomon used in writing about this bride.

The God of all, then, says to Ezekiel:

'Son of man, testify to Jerusalem her iniquities;'

'Thus says the Lord Adonai to Jerusalem:'

'Your root and your origin are from the land of Canaan.'

'Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite;'

'and as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel was not cut, and they did not bind your breasts;'

'and you were not washed in water for cleansing, nor were you salted with salt, nor were you swaddled in swaddling-bands;'

'nor did an eye spare you, to do for you one of all these things, out of any compassion upon you;'

'but you were cast out upon the face of the plain, in the crookedness of your soul, on the day you were born.'

'And I passed by you, and saw you, defiled in your blood.'

'Out of your blood is life; multiply;'

'even as the springing-up of the field have I made you.'

'And you multiplied, and grew great, and entered into cities of cities.'

'Your breasts were formed, and your hair sprang up.'

'But you were naked, and unseemly.'

'And I passed through by you, and I saw you;'

'and behold, your time was come, the time of those who take a bride;'

'and I spread my wings over you, and covered your shame.'

'And I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Adonai.'

'And I washed you with water, and rinsed your blood off from you;'

'and I shod you with hyacinth-blue, and girded you with fine linen, and clothed you with woven finery.'

'And I adorned you with adornment, and put bracelets about your hands, and a chain about your neck;'

'a crown of boasting upon your head.' And after a little:

'Fine flour, and honey, and oil you ate;'

'and your name went forth among the nations because of your beauty.' And again after a little:

'And it came to pass, after all your wickedness, says the Lord Adonai, that you built yourself a house of harlotry;'

'and you made yourself a display in every open square, and at the head of every way you built your brothels;'

'and you defiled your beauty, and spread apart your legs to every passer-by, and multiplied your harlotry;'

'and you played the harlot with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, the men of great flesh;'

'and in many ways you played the harlot, to provoke me to anger.' And again after a little:

'And you were not like a harlot who gathers her wages;'

'the wife who commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her own husband, is like you;'

'she who takes wages from her husband, and gives wages to all those who commit fornication with her.'

'To all harlots wages are given;'

'but you gave wages beforehand to all your lovers;'

'and you burdened them so that they should come to you from all around in your harlotry.'

'And in you there was something perverse, contrary to other women in your harlotry;'

'and after you none shall play the harlot.'

'In that you gave wages, and no wages were given to you, there was in you something perverse.' And what follows is of the same kind.

but coming within this, we search out the mind of the Spirit, and being illumined by Him we take up spiritually the things of the Spirit.

And when we hear God saying to Jerusalem, 'Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite,' we understand a kinship not of nature but of disposition.

For by nature they were descendants of Abraham, who traced his lineage from Shem;

but by the depravity of their manner they came to be akin to the race of the accursed Canaan.

And these are children of Canaan.

For whose wickedness they imitated, of those they obtained kinship.

'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as father.' Thus He called those who boasted in Abraham a brood of vipers, on account of their kinship in wickedness.

And the Lord Himself likewise, to those who said, 'We have Abraham as our father,' answered saying:

'You are of your father the devil.' And to show the reason He adds:

'And the works of your father you wish to do.' And making clear what sort of works, He says: 'That one was a murderer from the beginning.' So then, in the same way here too the God of all things declared:

'Your root and your origin are from the land of Canaan.'

'Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.' Then, showing their manner of life in Egypt, neglected and deemed worthy of no care, He says:

'On the day you were born,' He says, 'they did not bind your breasts.' By 'breasts' and 'bindings' He spoke figuratively, since it is the custom for maidens from childhood to tend to their breasts.

'Shall a bride forget her adornment, or a virgin her breast-band?' Virgins tend to these things, wishing to please their own bridegrooms.

During the time of their sojourn in Egypt, the multitude of the Jews took no thought even for the parts of virtue; and He says fittingly:

'On the day you were born, they did not bind your breasts;' that is, they did not deem worthy of care that nourishing part of the soul, the source of nourishing milk, so as in due time to hold out the nipples of teaching to those who came after.

And continuing in the figure, He says, 'You were not washed in water;' that is, you did not put off the filth of Egyptian idolatry;

but, as though newly born by coming out of that slavery, you still bear the marks of birth, not having washed yourself, but still wrapped about with your mother's filth.

In keeping with this He adds:

'Neither were you rubbed with salt,' which it is customary for midwives to apply to newborns.

And this too we shall understand according to the laws of allegory;

knowing that salt is spiritual understanding and the divine teaching, which contracts and dries up what is rotten and keeps things sound.

'Have salt;' and again, 'You are the salt of the earth.' And in the Old Testament also we find no sacrifice offered without salt.

Thus we understand the words, 'Your navel was not cut.' For since, according to those skilled in such matters, the navel is like a kind of root of the embryo (for through it, as through a root, it draws nourishment, and grows, and is brought to completion),

He fittingly here said that Jerusalem had not been cut;

as one born from Egypt, yet still drawing in Egyptian idolatry, and drawing that evil nourishment from her mother's womb.

'And I passed by you,' He says, 'and saw you trampled down in your blood.' And this signifies the sacrifices offered to the idols.

'From your blood, live; be multiplied.' Since He permitted them indeed to sacrifice;

yet He ordained that they sacrifice to Himself, not because He Himself had need of sacrifices, but condescending to their weakness. 'Do you delight,' He says, 'in sacrifices and blood? Then do not sacrifice to the demons;'

'but offer the sacrifices to me.'

'For I bear with it, though I have no need of the offerings, working out salvation for you in every way.'

'From your blood, live; be multiplied.' Thus let us understand the words, 'Your breasts were made upright;' meaning, that which had before hung slack through great licentiousness and incontinence and madness for idols, having received care from me, was made upright, and became as it were the breasts of virgins.

'And your hair,' He says, 'grew;' that is, deprived of all adornment, you suddenly came to have hair capable of being adorned.

'But you were naked and put to shame;' for as yet neither had the Law been given, nor the Tabernacle prepared, nor had the bridal gifts been brought.

'And I passed through by you, and saw you;'

'and behold, your time was come, the time of those who take a bride;' meaning, You had become ripe for marriage, and fit for union.

'and I covered your shame.' By the 'wings' He signifies the manifold graces;

the priesthood, prophecy, civil leadership, kingship, the miracles, those ineffable gifts.

'And I swore to you.' This one may clearly find in the writings of the great Moses.

'For I will lift up,' He says, 'my hand to heaven, and I will swear by my right hand:

'As I live for ever.' And again:

'I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Adonai.' 'The wedded union,' He says, 'became lawful, and compacts were made between us;'

and dowry-documents followed, containing lawful stipulations, signifying that if you should transgress the appointed compacts, you shall be cast out of the house, and deprived of the bridal gifts, and shall depart naked, just as you came in.

'But I both cleansed you when you were defiled, seasoned you when you were destitute of salt, and clothed you when you were naked, and made your breasts to stand upright when you were unchaste.'

'And I entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Adonai;'

'and you became mine, and I washed you with water, and rinsed your blood off from you, and anointed you with oil, and clothed you in embroidered garments.'

"And I clothed you with a garment of hyacinth-blue, and girded you with fine linen," and what follows.

This too may be learned exactly from the writings of the most divine Moses.

For he prepares the priestly adornment and the holy oil of anointing, having been taught the manner of its preparation by the God of all.

So let us understand the bracelets of the hands, and the necklace of the throat, and the ring of the nostril, and the pendants of the ears, and the crown of boasting set upon the head.

For by the bracelets of the hands he names the practical virtue;

and by the pendants of the ears, the hearing of the divine oracles, to which one must cling as the ear clings to the pendant;

and by the necklace of the throat, the adornment of understanding shining in the ruling faculty, which rests upon the heart that is suspended from the throat;

and by the ring set in the nostril, the bridle of the divine laws;

this being a metaphor drawn from bulls, which are led in this way by the ox-drivers.

For indeed through Hosea the prophet God again says such things:

"As a heifer stung to madness was Ephraim maddened." And again, "I heard," he says, "Ephraim lamenting:

You have chastened me, O Lord, and I was not chastened;"

So too let us understand the harlot's dwelling.

For by these things he signified the houses of the idols.

And he called it a harlot's dwelling;

since she who was as it were joined to God, and named Him her husband, fell in love with the wicked demons, and built temples for them, and offered to them the gifts that had been bestowed upon her by God.

"And at the head of every way you built your places of harlotry, and defiled your beauty, and spread your legs to every passer-by," thereby indicating the excess of her licentiousness.

For you did not consort with your familiars alone;

but, alluring all who passed by, you coupled licentiously.

And here again by "coupling" he names, figuratively, the service of the idols.

"And you played the harlot with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, the men of great flesh." Here again by such names he indicated the greatness of the idolatry and the excess of the impiety;

"And you were not like a harlot gathering wages;

the adulterous woman is like you, who, receiving wages from her husband, gave wages to all who committed fornication with her;

and you gave wages to all your lovers, and you laid a burden upon them, that they should come to you from round about in your fornication, and in you there came about things perverse beyond other women in your fornication." And by these things again he signified that, receiving from God grain and wine and oil and sheep and oxen and calves, they offered the sacrifices to the idols;

dishonouring God, whose gifts these things were;

while offering these to those who had never bestowed anything whatever, but were only the authors of destruction;

and holding out payment to the adulterers, while receiving no payment from them.

Like these also are the words in the prophet Jeremiah:

"For now," he says, "you have committed adultery with the wood and the stone."

"Lift up your eyes to the height, and see where you have not been defiled."

"How," he says, "has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, she that was full of judgement? In her righteousness lodged, but now murderers." And once more:

"What," he says, "is this bill of divorce of your mother? Or to whom, being in debt, have I sold you? Behold, for your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I sent away your mother." And what need is there to recount all that is spoken by the God of all through the prophets? For even what has been said suffices to teach us how we must understand the divine Scriptures, not attending to the letter alone, but unfolding also its meaning.

Having thus been led from the old bride to the new, let us so understand the book of the Song of Songs, and, leaving behind those false and harmful opinions, let us follow the holy Fathers, and understand one bride conversing with one bridegroom, and learn from the holy apostles who the bridegroom is and who the bride.

"I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." And he speaks of the bride as composed of many.

For "I betrothed you," he says, not "you" (singular), so that clearly it is the godly souls, perfect in virtue, that are meant.

For the divine word knows the Church as the bride;

and it names Christ as the bridegroom.

And the great John also, who showed the end of the law and the beginning of grace, standing midway between the schoolmaster and the wise teacher—he in whom the shadow received the body—says: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." And the Lord Himself also names Himself the bridegroom.

For when the Pharisees accused the holy apostles of not fasting, He added, saying:

"The sons of the bridechamber cannot fast so long as the bridegroom is with them.

But days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they will fast." Therefore let us understand the Church as the bride, and Christ as the bridegroom;

and the maidens as those who follow the bride—souls godly and youthful, but not yet imitating the virtue of the bride nor accounted worthy of her perfection.

The writing also has certain others who are with the bridegroom;

and to me it seems rather that these are angels.

Since the divine oracles taught us to understand as the bride herself those souls perfected in virtue;

and nothing is more perfect than apostles and prophets, save the angels;

therefore it seems to me rather that those who minister to the bridegroom, and who are zealous to serve the bride, are angels.

For we find also, immediately at the birth of the bridegroom, an angelic choir exulting and rejoicing and hymning and crying aloud;

and an angel appears to Joseph, commanding both the flight into Egypt and the return from thence;

and after the contests against the devil, angels came and ministered to Him who had striven on behalf of our weakness and had overthrown the adversary, praising, hymning, and tending Him.

And at the time of the Passion also, angels were present, upholding what was human.

And angels sitting by the tomb proclaimed His resurrection;

and when He was taken up into the heavens, angels said to the apostles:

And this too it is necessary to say beforehand, that we were taught that there are three writings of Solomon: the Proverbs, and the Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs;

and the Proverbs offer moral benefit to those who are willing;

while the Ecclesiastes interprets the nature of things visible, and teaches thoroughly the vanity of the present life, that, having learned its perishableness, we may despise these things as passing, and desire the things to come as abiding.

But the Song of Songs teaches the mystical union of the bride and the bridegroom;

so that the whole undertaking of Solomon is as it were a ladder having three steps: the moral, the natural, and the mystical.

and then in this way to survey the vanity of things passing, and the perishableness of things that seem delightful;

and from thence at last to soar aloft, and to long for the bridegroom who has promised the eternal good things.

so that one, walking by the way, may come to that which is perfect.

And I consider that the wise Solomon, having been taught these things by his father, who was indeed a prophet and a great prophet, composed them.

For he assuredly heard him singing:

"The queen stood at your right hand, clothed in a garment wrought with gold, adorned with divers colours." And again:

"Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty, for He is your Lord." Assuredly they do not permit the reading of it to lads, and to those still imperfect in age;

but they command that it be read only by those who have attained to manhood, and who are able to comprehend hidden things, and to understand spiritually what is written.

Therefore, ceasing from wrangling—whether the book was composed prophetically, or whether, having learned from his father, he teaches what he was taught—let us lay hold of the interpretation;

having only besought those who will read, not to accuse us of theft, if they find in our interpretations anything that has been said by the Fathers.

For we too confess that from those men we have found the starting-points of our clarity of exposition;

and such a thing is not theft, but a paternal inheritance.

Some things we set down having received them from those men, while other things we ourselves add, having discovered them by our own further inquiry.

And some things, as having been stated at length by certain writers, we abridge;

but those things that require fuller working-out we expand.

And in general we have taken up this labour, which I think will not be without profit to those who will come upon it.

But if the interpretation should appear not to be precise, accept at least the labour, and teach what is lacking.

Since, taking courage in the divine grace, we have ventured upon the interpretation of this book, come, let us first of all examine the very title of the book and set it clearly in order.

The Song of Songs, which was sung by Solomon.

Let us consider why the wise Solomon called it not a 'Song' but the 'Song of Songs.'

For that nothing is spoken by the divine Spirit rashly or in vain, as being worked without purpose, is evident and established for those who employ sober and pious reasoning.

We must consider for what reason this composition is called the 'Song of Songs' and not simply a 'Song.'

Great Moses too sang: his first song, the song of victory, when the sea, being divided, became a road for the Israelites themselves but a grave for the Egyptians;

and he sang a second song of thanksgiving, the one at the well;

and a third, in which he recounted the divine gifts and denounced the ungrateful disposition of the people.

And some songs were morning songs, others evening songs.

But the wise Solomon composes not a song of victory, nor a morning song, but a bridal song.

For songs of victory declare the overthrow of enemies and the release of captives, as in the saying: 'Making wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.'

'He breaks the bow and shatters the weapon, and burns the shields in the fire.'

'Be still, and know that I am God;