Commentary on the Song of Songs 1 part 7/9

walking in the flesh, you do not war according to the flesh, and you press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling, and you seek the things above, where I am, seated at the right hand of God.

For those who behold your order are amazed;

for with you there is nothing disorderly, nothing undefined, nor undiscerning, but all things are ordered and judged;

and you know accurately the sequence of things, you have been taught to prefer the bridegroom above all, and after him those who are near to him.

'Turn away your eyes from before me, for they have set me aflutter.'

And what he says is of this sort:

The beauty of your eyes, and the vision of your seeing power, and the keenness of your understanding have drawn me into love of you;

but do not gaze upon me beyond measure, lest from this you draw harm to yourself;

for I am unattainable and incomprehensible, surpassing all comprehension — not only human but also angelic;

and even if you should wish to overstep the bounds and to pry into things beyond your power, not only will you find nothing, but you will also dim your eye and make it more dull.

For such is the nature of light;

for just as it illumines the eye, so it punishes its insatiable greed with harm.

'Turn your eyes away from before me.' Do not search out things too hard for you, and do not seek things too mighty for you;

the things that were commanded to you, ponder these.

To these he again adds the former praises, and says:

'Your hair is like flocks of goats that have appeared from Gilead.'

'Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing,'

'all of them bearing twins, and there is none barren among them.'

'Your lips are like a scarlet cord, and your speech is lovely.'

'Your cheeks are like the rind of a pomegranate, apart from your silence.'

Having interpreted these things above, we consider it superfluous to interpret them twice;

for it is possible, even if someone should forget the interpretation, by running back to those passages to find the clarification.

And it was not simply nor by chance that he offered the same praises to the bride a second time, but by reminding her of her own beauty and exhorting her to keep it safe and to receive no blemish;

for 'behold,' he says, 'what manner of one I have made you in place of what you were, and what beauty of season I have graciously given you, and how great a loveliness I have bestowed upon you;

keep this for me unharmed unto the end.'

For being always together with you, I examine your members and diligently inquire whether any harm has befallen them.

The bridegroom says these things also to those women, urging the bride to persevere in her beauty.

'There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.'

'One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the chosen of her who bore her;

the daughters saw her and will call her blessed; the queens and the concubines also, and they will praise her.'

We have been taught that there are many and diverse ranks of the godly;

and teaching this, the Lord said:

'In my Father's house are many mansions.' And in the distribution of the talents:

Not all received five talents apiece, but one five, another two, another one, each according to his ability. And in the parable of the sower he says:

'But some fell upon the good ground, and produced fruit, some thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold'; and he names as good all the ground, not only that which produced the hundredfold, but also that which produced the sixtyfold and that which produced the thirtyfold.

For the number thirty is among those that are praised;

for it has three tens united to the triad;

and the number sixty has a double blessing;

for thirty, when doubled, begets sixty;

belonging to the right hand, and being completed in ten tens;

and those skilled in these matters call this a square number.

But nonetheless, even though the hundred is perfect, yet the sixty also and the thirty are among those that are praised;

for the Lord named them all good ground.

Let us then understand that the bride signifies the souls perfected in all philosophy and virtue, those which for the sake of love for the bridegroom alone endure the toils of virtue, and choose to do and to suffer all things.

Such was the blessed Paul, when he said:

such souls, then, fill up the company of the bride — those held fast by the longing for the bridegroom alone;

but there are certain ones like hired servants, who through desire of the good things to come endure to bear the sweat-labours for the sake of virtue;

these I consider are here named queens, as desiring the kingdom, and for its sake choosing to bear the toils of piety.

And there are others not yet deemed worthy of freedom, but still willing to serve as slaves, and fulfilling the divine laws through fear of Gehenna;

these I suppose are named concubines;

for the bridegroom consorts with such also, becoming all things to all.

And there are yet others who live in slothfulness, neither held fast by love for the bridegroom, nor drawn by longing for the kingdom, nor pricked by fear of Gehenna, but managing their own affairs rather carelessly;

yet holding their faith unshaken, and preserving the doctrines of piety intact, and turning away from every heretical and alien teaching, while nonetheless living rather negligently — now taking care of themselves, now again wallowing in slothfulness, now sinning, now welling up the tears of repentance.

These the bridegroom here calls maidens;

and since such as these are more numerous than the queens and the concubines, he says:

'And maidens, of whom there is no number' — not only because on account of their multitude they cannot be numbered, he says, but also because they are unworthy of being counted.

For of the worthy, even the very hairs are numbered with the Father;

but nonetheless with these too the bridegroom at times consorts, wishing to draw them away from slothfulness, and guiding them toward what is perfect, and from every side working out their salvation.

But let us inquire why then he said sixty queens, but eighty concubines.

The number sixty has six tens, and the ten signifies perfection, while the six contains the number of the world's creation;

for in six days the God of all fashioned the whole creation.

The souls, then, that in this world are perfected in virtue and desire the kingdom, he named sixty queens;

for the bride lives her life above this world, and finds herself outside of it, and soars above it, and becomes wholly the bridegroom's, and continually envisions him;

but these, living their life in this world, pursue the perfection of virtue as far as is possible, longing to attain the kingdom;

while those who fulfil the laws through fear of the judgment were fittingly called eighty.

For divine Scripture calls the time of judgment the eighth.

'O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath, nor chasten me in your anger.' And a little further on,

teaching that in the time of judgment no room for repentance will be given to those who have sinned and have not repented.

Since therefore, fearing these things, they followed the divine laws, and did so neither through longing for the kingdom nor through love for the bridegroom, they are fittingly said to be eighty;

for the number eight signifies the eighth, and the ten signifies perfection;

but he calls the bride superior to these, both to the sixty and to the eighty;

for 'One is my dove, my perfect one' — again naming her spiritual, and one.

For above the sixty and the eighty, 'she is the only one of her mother';

and she has as her mother the sacred font, the Jerusalem above.

'And she is the chosen of her who bore her.' For those others also were born from her;

but this one she has preferred above all, and holds as her chosen daughter.

Wherefore, when the daughters saw her, they called her blessed — that is, the young maidens; and not they alone, but queens also and concubines shall praise her.

For she has surpassed them, inasmuch as she pursued the highest wisdom neither for reward nor from fear of punishment, but out of longing for the Bridegroom.

May it be granted us, aided by the divine grace, to attain unto the perfection of the bride!

But if we should prove too weak for that, may we at least become of the number of the queens;

and if we fall short even of these, may we not be far from the concubines;

and if we should appear unworthy even of these, may we at any rate be reckoned among the young maidens, and preserve inviolate the confession of true religion, and not be utterly deprived of fellowship with the Bridegroom, but enjoy his beauty by his grace;

for unto him be the glory unto the ages of ages.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;

for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Let us therefore ask, concerning the remaining words of the Song of Songs now before us, for their clear meaning, and let us cry aloud, saying:

Reveal thou our eyes, and we shall behold the wondrous things out of thy law;

for he himself giveth the word to them that preach the good tidings with great power.

Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it. And he imparts of his grace even to the unworthy oftentimes, for the benefit of the many.

We are confident, therefore, that even to us he will now grant the revelation of the deep meaning of the text, not for our own worthiness, but for the benefit of those who shall read, or hear, the interpretation;

come then, let us boldly venture upon what remains.

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, choice as the sun, awesome as the ranked hosts? Now in the words preceding this, the Bridegroom depicted in speech the beauty of the bride, and praised each member separately, and then again offered a praise of the whole; and, as when an encomium is composed according to art, he made also a comparison, setting the bride side by side with the young maidens, and the concubines, and the queens, and showing her far superior by a great measure.

For he said that she possessed such comeliness that she was not even envied by those very ones with whom she was compared;

for, confessing their defeat, they call her blessed and thrice-blessed.

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? For as yet only in part was her light beheld, being veiled together with this corruptible body;

and even as the dawn is the borderland of night and day, and proclaims the beginning of the one and the end of the other, and signifies the coming of the day, so too in the present life those souls that have been perfected in godliness and in all wisdom — whom the divine Scripture calls Church and bride — send forth certain brief rays from their own virtue.

But when, according to the blessed Paul, this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then all their light is laid bare.

And foreseeing this, the ministers of the Bridegroom not only liken her to the dawn, but also call her fair as the moon, choice, and as a sun that works amazement in those who dare to gaze steadfastly upon it;

and they added 'choice,' not only signifying her difference from the stars, but also making plain the perfection of the moon herself;

that is to say, as the moon at the full, shining with abundant light, not crescent, nor half, nor gibbous, but the perfect full moon, having nothing incomplete, displaying its whole circle illumined.

Thus then, he says, is she fair, as a choice moon. Those skilled in these matters say that the moon, receiving her light from the rays of the sun, takes but little light when only a small portion of her faces the sun;

but when, coming opposite, she beholds the whole sun, and like a mirror reflects his entire disc, she is wholly illumined, and leaves no part of her body unlit.

Even so also the Church of Christ, being the assembly of souls perfected in virtue, beholding as in a mirror with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, according to the blessed Paul, is transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit; and she becomes wholly full of light, so as to resemble the moon, and a choice moon, that is, a full one.

And not only does she resemble the moon, but also the sun — a sun that works amazement in those who behold it.

Now I do not think this expression is set down merely at random.

For nothing is spoken by the divine Spirit as it were by chance.

But since life is night, according to the blessed Paul —

for 'the night,' he says, 'is far spent, and the day is at hand' — necessarily, as in the night, the Church is like a kind of moon, giving light to the wayfarers, and pointing out the straight road.

since the time after the Lord's coming is like a kind of dawn, signifying the state to come as it were the coming of a day;

for 'as the dawn,' he says, 'we shall find him ready.' But when the great and manifest Day of the Lord shall come, according to the voice of the prophet — concerning which the blessed Paul says, 'The day is at hand' — then she shall no longer shine as the moon, but as the sun, working amazement not only in unbelieving men, but also in the young maidens, and the concubines, and the queens, and in the very bodiless powers themselves.

And the Lord himself is a witness, saying:

'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun.' And the blessed Paul also says:

'There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars;

for one star differeth from another star in glory.' The bride of Christ, then, looks forth as the morning;

for at the present time her beauty is known only in part.

And she is fair as a choice moon, filled with the Lord's light, and illuminating the whole world with her rays;

wherefore also the Lord in the holy Gospels said to his own holy disciples:

'Ye are the light of the world'; and showing what manner of light, he adds, saying:

'Let your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven.' And the bride is not only as a choice moon, but shall also flash forth as the sun in the life to come, astounding all with her radiance.

And they shall marvel not only at her light, but also at her order;

for in the bride of the Lord there is nothing disorderly, nothing undefined, nothing indiscriminate.

For she directs what is to be done as it were by a plumb-line, and, using rule and measuring-square, she regulates her own life.

After the praises of the Bridegroom's ministers, the bride, relating the things concerning herself, says:

I went down into the garden of nuts, to see amid the fruits of the torrent-stream, to see whether the vine had budded, whether the pomegranates had blossomed;

there will I give thee my breasts.

My soul knew not; it made me the chariots of Aminadab.

The meaning is exceedingly buried in the obscurity of the words;

but calling upon the divine grace as our helper, let us dig through to the depth, and draw up the treasure.

but they contribute all their zeal, so as to deliver all other men also from unfruitfulness, and to render them productive, and to bring forth the fruit of virtue;

and it teaches that, in doing these things and offering the teaching to other men, they fell in with the chariots of Aminadab, or, as Symmachus rendered it, the chariots of a people whose leader goes before, or, as Aquila has it, the chariots of a people of a willing ruler. And they call the present life a garden of nuts, which is bitter and toilsome and laborious, yet has within itself the fruit of virtue hidden.

For indeed the fruit of the nut has its outermost husk bitter, and its second shell hard and resistant;

but the edible part is, as it were, laid away and hidden in a bridal chamber, and is not brought out without labour.

Such also is the present life, having bitter pains and sorrows, having toils and sweat, yet not barren nor unfruitful, but having its fruit hidden.

but when Christ our life shall be made manifest, then shall we also live in him. — I went down, then, into the garden of nuts, that is, into human life.

And why didst thou go down, O bride? To see amid the fruits of the torrent-stream. Again she called the present things a torrent-stream;

for the torrent is not ever-flowing, but is borne along in winter, and in summer ceases and dries up.

Such are the delights of life;

for at the present, like a torrent-stream, glory is borne along, and wealth, and kingship, and luxury, and the other flowers of life;

but when the life to come appears, it wanes and ceases and stops, after the manner of a torrent.

I went down, therefore, she says, into the garden of nuts, to see amid the fruits of the torrent, and desiring to learn whether the pomegranates had blossomed. For life has some men figuratively named vines, and others pomegranates, according to the diverse achievements of virtue.

For some bring forth love, and cherish concord, being joined together in mind, even as the seeds of the pomegranate;

while others cultivate wine worthy of the fathers' winepresses, being earnest to give heed to contemplation.

And by 'descent' she means condescension;

for indeed the blessed Paul also became to the weak as weak, that he might gain the weak;

and to those without law as without law — being not without law toward God, but under the law to Christ — that he might gain those without law.

I went down, therefore, she says, into the garden of nuts, taking thought for the fruits of the torrent, and for the fruits of the vine and the pomegranate.

I will not let thee go, no, not even there.

But rather: 'I will hold out my breasts to you' — that is, the streams of my teaching.

For you make your own the things done to those little ones, and you say:

'Inasmuch as you did it to one of these least little ones, you did it to me.' To these words he adds:

Symmachus rendered it thus, saying:

'My soul was thrown into perplexity by the chariots of a people that leads.' For, she says, in doing these things I fall into perplexity and amazement, because I procured salvation for them,

yet they set upon me, being persuaded by the devil who commands them, becoming as it were his chariots and driven by him as by a charioteer.

For 'Aminadab' is interpreted as 'of a people that leads,' or 'of a ruler of a people.'

And this may be understood exactly from both Aquila and Symmachus, and from the fifth edition.

The bride, then — that is, the choir of those perfected in virtue — says that: 'We, for our part, take all care for the unbelievers, devising means to procure salvation for them from every quarter;

but some of them, becoming as it were the chariots of the ruler of this age, who now works in the sons of disobedience, according to the blessed Paul, set upon me, rendering evil in return for good.'

And this too can be clearly found both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of the blessed Paul.

For as they preached the word of godliness, some they persuaded to believe, but by the unbelievers they were driven out, maltreated, tortured, and endured countless forms of death.

And the blessed Paul is witness, saying:

'In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Five times I received forty stripes save one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I spent in the deep;

in journeys often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren,' and what follows.

When these things had been spoken by the bride, the attendants of the bridegroom answer and say to her:

'Return, return, O Shulammite!'

Aquila rendered these words more clearly:

'Return,' he says, 'return, you who are at peace.' For just as the writing names Solomon as our peaceable Lord, so also it names his bride as being at peace, since she has obtained the peace that comes from him and has been delivered from the former war.

Seeing her, then, driven and warred upon by those chariots, the bridegroom's attendants, to encourage her, say:

'Return, you who are at peace; return, return, and we shall look upon you' — that is: Do not fear those who persecute, but hold fast to the teaching;

bring forth the proclamation of the teaching;

do not dread the chariots, do not fear war, you who are called 'one at peace.'

For if you continue in proclaiming, we shall behold your kingdom.

To these things are similar the words spoken by the Lord to the blessed Paul.

For he too, being worn down and troubled by the many trials, says:

'There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted overmuch;

and concerning this I three times besought the Lord, that it might depart from me.' He then answers him, saying:

'For my power is made perfect in weakness.' And this the bridegroom's attendants say here:

'Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, and we shall look upon you.' To them the bridegroom says:

'What will you see in the Shulammite, who comes as the choirs of the camps?' For, he says, what do you expect to see in her who is at peace? Do not hope to behold any cheap and partial goods;

for behold, she comes as the choirs of the camps. And the terms seem in a way to be opposed to one another;

for choirs do not accord with camps;

for the one is festive, the others military.

And a festival is opposed to war.

But this bride, welded together from many saints, is likened to camps because of her manly and noble spirit and her military panoply;

and she is a choir, bearing the divine hymnody in her mouth.

'The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.' And again:

'Order the feast with thick boughs, even unto the horns of the altar.' The camps the blessed Paul indicates, saying:

'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;

casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' And again:

'Take up,' he says, 'the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having accomplished all things, to stand.' And, like some general, he supplies the soldiers also with weapons, and says:

'Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace;

and above all, taking up the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one;

and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' And that the saints are like not only to camps but also to choirs, let us hear the Lord saying:

'Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went forth to meet the bridegroom.' Fittingly, then, the bridegroom says: 'What will you see in the Shulammite, who comes as the choirs of the camps?' And he did not say 'the camps of the choirs,' but 'the choirs of the camps.' For from the camps come the choirs, and the athletes of virtue, victorious in the camps, return chanting the paean, and dancing they sing the hymn of victory.

Having spoken these things to the attendants, the bridegroom turns his discourse to the bride and says:

'How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of Nadab!' Now Aquila said 'of a ruler,'

but Symmachus 'of a leader.' And who could this leader be, or ruler, but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit? Who also in the forty-fourth psalm says to her:

'Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a governing Spirit.' The bridegroom, then, first praises the bride's steps for being straight, and travelling the royal road, and shining beautifully in the sandals.

And what the sandals are, the blessed Paul taught us, saying:

'Having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.' And the beauty of these feet the prophet Isaiah too, foreseeing it, said:

'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of peace, of those who bring good tidings of good things!' Using these same words, the bridegroom too in this writing says:

'How beautiful are your steps, O daughter of Nadab!' But that we may take some contemplation not only from the interpretation of the name, but also from the name itself, come, let us inquire who Nadab was.

Bringing strange fire into the tabernacle of God, he met the end of his life.

We find, then, that the Lord's bride also — I mean the Church — brought into the divine tabernacle not the legal fire, but the new fire.

And she received this fire from the bridegroom himself.

'For I came to cast fire upon the earth.'

'The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.' Fittingly, then, he addresses her as daughter of Nadab, inasmuch as with the new fire she wholly consumed as a burnt offering the sacrifice of men.

For even if, according to the intent, they differ by reason of the change of fire, yet one and the same deed was performed by him and by her.

These things we have said for the present, that we may not leave even the appellation unconsidered.

Again, then, the bridegroom goes through her members one by one, and to each offers the fitting praise, and says:

'The graceful lines of your thighs are like necklaces, the work of a craftsman's hands.'

(2:5.) 'Your navel is a rounded bowl, that never lacks blended wine;

your belly is a heap of wheat set about with lilies.'

'Your neck is like a tower of ivory;

your eyes are like pools in Heshbon, at the gates of the daughter of many.'

'Your head upon you is like Carmel;

and the tress of your head is like purple; a king is bound in the tresses.'

Earlier, then, the bridegroom, beginning from the bride's upper parts, praised her;

But in the present passage, having made his beginning from her steps and her sandals, he has ascended as far as the braid of her head.

And after the sandals and the steps he marvels, not at her thighs, but at the graceful lines of her thighs, and he says that they resemble little chains fashioned by a craftsman.

For just as those chains, he says, hold their gems fixed in the gold with every harmony, so that beholders marvel not only at the materials of the gold and the stones, but also at the art of the goldsmith,

even so each of the parts of the active virtue is adorned with rhythm and harmony.

For by the thighs he figuratively named the active virtue, since it is through these that, making our journey, we accomplish what we will.

The Bridegroom, therefore, marvels at the Bride, beginning from the practical and ascending to contemplation, having done the opposite at the outset;

for beginning from contemplation, he came down to practice.

For 'Thine eyes,' he said, 'are doves,' signifying by this the spiritual faculty of the soul's power of sight.

But here he marvels first at the active virtue, and quite fittingly;

for first being enlightened, and opening the closed eyes of the soul, and receiving the divine light, we are made firm in faith;