on
Song of Songs
by
John F. Brug
NORTHWESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—except for brief quotations in reviews, without prior permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Card 94-74992
Northwestern Publishing House
1250 N. 113th St., Milwaukee, WI 53226-3284
© 1995 by Northwestern Publishing House.
Published 1995
ISBN 978-0-8100-0542-6
A Unique Challenge
The Song of Songs is the most challenging book in the Bible. The Song is filled with so many rare Hebrew words that it is sometimes hard to make sense of the sentences, but the book of Job has even more rare words and hapax legomena. There is considerable difference of opinion about the outline and the divisions of the Song, but it is equally hard to connect the verses in Proverbs or the chapters in Psalms. There is, however, no other book for which there is such basic disagreement about the theme and topic of the book as there is for the Song of Songs. What is the book about? Is it primarily about the love of woman and man, or is it about the love of God and his people? The Song is so difficult, on so many levels, that it has been compared to a lock for which the key has been lost.
Certainly no literary work of comparable size has received so much attention or has had such different interpretations imposed on its every word. Pope’s commentary devotes almost 750 pages to the exposition of a song that covers only about ten pages in the Hebrew text. Pope states that it would take the lifelong labors of a team of scholars to do a thorough survey of the history of the interpretation of the Song. His “brief sketch” of the history of the interpretation of the Song covers 140 pages. His bibliography of works on the Song covers 55 pages.
The Song has been met with the most diverse reactions. Rabbi Aqiba called it “the Holy of Holies” of Scripture and expressed his outrage that some of his contemporaries used parts of it as a profane love song. The Song became the appointed reading for Passover, the most important festival of Israel’s religious calendar, yet some rabbis recommended that only those over 30 be allowed to read ...
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About Commentary on Song of SongsThe Song of Songs is one of the most challenging books in the Bible. The Song is filled with so many rare Hebrew words that it is sometimes hard to make sense of the sentences, but the book of Job has even more rare words and hapax legomena. There is considerable difference of opinion about the outline and the divisions of the Song, but it is equally hard to connect the verses in Proverbs or the chapters in Psalms. There is, however, no other book for which there is such basic disagreement about the theme and topic of the book as there is for the Song of Songs. What is the book about? Is it primarily about the love of woman and man, or is it about the love of God and his people? The Song is so difficult, on so many levels, that it has been compared to a lock for which the key has been lost. John F. Brug’s Commentary on Song of Songs is a solid, well-researched, and practical commentary based on the Hebrew text. Brug approaches Song of Songs with a literal and an allegorical interpretation—in its interpretation of the text this commentary presents the insights and applications of both of these approaches to the Song. In each section it begins with a literal interpretation of the text, followed by the application of its statements both to male-female love and divine-human love. In order to grasp the depth of this wonderful book of the Bible, Brug convinces that both approaches are needed: “The Song originated not in a pagan society, but among God’s people. More specifically, it was given to them by the God who is love. As we study this Song we will ponder the mystery and beauty of love between man and woman, but our sight will also rise above this to the love of God and His people.” This is a concise commentary that you will refer to time and time again. The entire Hebrew text of the Song is included with the author’s own translation, and with the Logos Bible Software edition all Scripture passages in John F. Brug’s Commentary on Song of Songs are tagged and appear on mouse-over. What’s more, Scripture references are linked to the Hebrew texts and to the wealth of language resources in your digital library. This makes these resources more powerful and easier to access than ever before for scholarly work or personal Bible study. With the advanced search features of Logos Bible Software, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “love,” or “marriage”. |
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