Biblical Lovemaking

A Study of Song of Solomon

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum

Copyright © 1983

by Ariel Ministries Press

Third Printing, 2003

ISBN: 0-914863-03-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form—except for brief quotation in a review or professional work—without written permission from the publishers.

This volume is dedicated to my own Shulamit

Mary Ann

in all the spirit of Ahavah

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Introduction 1:1

PART ONE—COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 1:2–5:1

Chapter One—The First Idyll: The Wedding Day Reflections 1:2–2:7

Chapter Two—The Second Idyll: The Courtship Period Reflections 2:8–3:5

Chapter Three—The Third Idyll: Marital Union Reflections 3:6–5:1

PART TWO—SEXUAL ADJUSTMENTS IN MARRIAGE 5:2–8:14

Chapter Four—The Fourth Idyll: Sexual Problem Reflections 5:2–6:9

Chapter Five—The Fifth Idyll: The Return to Galilee Reflections 6:10–8:14

APPENDIX

Recommended Books and Tapes on Marriage

INTRODUCTION

1:1

The English text has titled this book as The Song of Solomon. The Hebrew text, however, reads:

The Song of Songs,

Which is Solomon’s

In the Hebrew construction there is a repetition of the noun in the genetive, thus making it a superlative. It is THE Song of Songs, the one song surpassing all other songs. The song is one of many composed by Solomon and of his 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:32), it is the choicest of his songs. This is the force of the Hebrew construction.

Similar Hebrew superlatives are found in expressions such as Holy of Holies (that is, the Most Holy), vanity of vanities (that is, the most vain), the King of Kings (that is, the greatest of all kings). The point of the construction is to emphasize choiceness.

This very construction explains the high Jewish attitude towards this book of the Bible. Rabbi Akiba, a leading rabbi of the Bar Cochba Revolt (132–135 a.d.) stated, “No day in the whole history of the world is worth so much as that in which the Song of Songs was given: for all the writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies” (Mesilla 7a). In another place Rabbi Akiba said, “The whole world attained its supreme value only on the day when the Song of Songs was given to Israel” (Mishnah Yadaim 3:5).

Yet in spite of this high view of the book, because of its erotic content, the rabbis forbade the book to be read by anyone under the age of thirty. But once proper age had been attained, the Midrash Rabbah points out the importance of giving attention to the message of this book:

Had any other man composed them, it would have been incumbent on you to incline your ear and to listen to them; all the more since Solomon composed them. Had he composed them out of his own mind, it would have been incumbent on you to incline your ear and listen to them; all the more then since he composed them in the Holy Spirit.