The Song of Songs

A Commentary on the Book of Canticles or

The Song of Songs

by Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm.

Edited by

S. Dean McBride, Jr.

Fortress

Press Minneapolis

The Song of Songs

A commentary on the Book of Canticles or the Song of Songs

© 1990 Augsburg Fortress

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write to: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, 426 S. Fifth St., Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Scripture quotations are the author’s own translation.

Excerpt from Song of Songs: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Marvin H. Pope, copyright © 1977 by Doubleday. Used by permission. Excerpts from The Harps That Once …: Sumerian Poetry in Translation by Thorkild Jacobsen, copyright © 1987 by Yale University Press. Used by permission. Excerpts from The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry, edited by William Kelly Simpson, copyright © 1972 by Yale University Press. Used by permission.

Cover and internal design by Kenneth Hiebert Typesetting on an Ibycus System at Polebridge Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Murphy, Roland Edmund, 1917–

The Song of songs: a commentary on the Book of Canticles or the Song of songs / by Roland E. Murphy: edited by S. Dean McBride, Jr.

p. cm. — (Hermeneia—a critical and historical commentary on the Bible)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-8006-6024-2

1. Bible. O.T. Song of Solomon—Commentaries.

I. McBride, S. Dean (Samuel Dean), 1937–.

II. Bible. O.T. Song of Solomon.

III. Title.

IV. Series.

BS1485.3.M87 1990

223’.9077-dc20 89-16891

CIP

Hermeneia

—A Critical

and Historical

Commentary

on the Bible

Old Testament Editorial Board

Frank Moore Cross, Harvard University, chairman

Klaus Baltzer, University of Munich

Paul D. Hanson, Harvard University

S. Dean McBride, Jr., Union Theological Seminary in Virginia

Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., Duke University

New Testament Editorial Board

Helmut Koester, Harvard University, chairman

Harold W. Attridge, University of Notre Dame

Adela Yarbro Collins, University of Notre Dame

Eldon Jay Epp, Case Western Reserve University

James M. Robinson, Claremont Graduate School

IN MEMORIAM
MSGR. PATRICK W. SKEHAN

Contents

The Song of Songs Foreword to Hermeneia

Preface

Reference Codes

1. Abbreviations

a/ Sources, Secondary Literature, and General

b/ Textual Sigla

2. Short Titles

Editor’s Note

Introduction

1. Authorship, Date, and Canonicity

2. Hebrew Text and Traditional Versions

3. History of Interpretation

A. Early Jewish Interpretation of the Song and the Emergence of Christian Allegorical Exposition

B. Origen of the Song of Songs

C. Christian Interpretation in the Middle Ages

D. Jewish Interpretation in the Middle Ages

E. From the Reformation to the Modern Era

4. Literature of Love: Ancient Near Eastern Texts

A. Ancient Egyptian ...