Song of Solomon (Everyman's Library)

And then fiction, Toni Morrison. I remember reading Song of Solomon, which is still one of my favorite novels. And I thought, you know, if in a nonfiction way, I could write that way.

Saying something is pitch black is like saying something is green. What kind of green? Green like my bottles? Green like a grasshopper? Green like a cucumber? Lettuce? Green like the sky is just before it breaks loose to a storm? Well, night black is the same way. May as well be a rainbow.

And he said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again seven times. And at the seventh time, he said, behold, a little cloud, like a man's hand is rising out of the sea.

The Song of Solomon chapter 5, The groom's song of love and the torment of separation. I come to my garden, my sister, my bride.

I slept but my heart was awake. Hark! My beloved is knocking. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one.

His head is the finest gold. His locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside springs of water bathed in milk, fitly set.

His cheeks are like beds of spices yielding fragrance. His lips are lilies distilling liquid myrrh. His arms are rounded gold set with jewels. His body is ivory work encrusted with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns set upon bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.

As I said, it is day 164. We are reading 1 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 14-15, Song of Solomon 3.

The Song of Solomon Chapter 3 Love Seeking the Bridegroom Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.

And the first is an allegory, right? It's for the Jews, it was relationship between God and his chosen people Israel. For Christians, it's between Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, the bride.

And the third way of reading the Song of Solomon is admitting the literal sense of the book.

And so as Catholics, as modern-day Christians, we can read it in all those ways because it is all three of those things.

And in many ways, we want to not only acknowledge the goodness of human love and that's in the Bible, enshrined in the Bible, is that love between man and woman. So, so beautiful, so powerful, so life-defining, but also that love between our God and us, his people.

Behold, you're beautiful, my love. Behold, you're beautiful. That sounds good. That makes sense. Your eyes are doves.

And the final chapter of the Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon Chapter 8.

Love is as strong as death. His devotion is relentless as the netherworld.

And so we recognize that not only is love as strong as death, but love led you, God, to death for us, for our sake, in pursuit of us, so that you could draw us near to your heart, so that you could make us your children, so that you could love us in the way that you desire to love us.

And then actually today, we're also introducing a new book, the book of the Song of Solomon chapter one.

We have roughly eight days that we're going to go through the Song of Solomon, one day for each chapter, as well as continuing tomorrow with 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.

So essentially when it comes to Song of Songs in your Great Adventure Bible, you can see this as the note on the first page, but it says that there are three basic ways that historically people have read the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon.

And the first is an allegory, right? It's for the Jews, it was a relationship between God and his chosen people Israel. For Christians, it's between Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, the bride.

And so as Catholics, as modern-day Christians, we can read it in all those ways because it is all three of those things.

And then actually today, we're also introducing a new book, the book of the Song of Solomon chapter one.

So one last note on the song of Solomon so essentially when it comes to Song of Songs in your Great Adventure Bible you can you can see this as the note on the first page but it says that there are three basic ways that historically people have read the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon and the first is an allegory right it's for the Jews it was relationship between God and his chosen people Israel for Christians it's between Jesus the bridegroom and the church the bride that's that's the first way of reading the Song of Songs so it's it's God wooing his beloved who is the people of Israel or the church now the second way is it's human love poetry and that is a way to to read this is it's simply it's another way to say it is erotic love poetry which is one of the reasons why people didn't read the Song of Songs or they weren't allowed to read the Song of Songs until they were of a certain age and a certain maturity level because it is somewhat racy in those terms and the third way of reading the Song of Solomon is admitting the literal sense of the book they say that it's to be taken in it's called type which is basically a prefigurement right or a foreshadowing of the union of Christ and his church or God and Israel and so as Catholics as modern-day Christians we can read it in all those ways because it is all three of those things and in many ways we want to not only acknowledge the goodness of human love and that's in the Bible enshrined in the Bible is that love between man and woman so so beautiful so powerful so life-defining but also that love between our God and us his people initially the people of Israel and now in the age of the church all those who belong to him through baptism and so as you read this love story this love poetry it's going to have some really interesting images like they're going to be even more for example there's behold in verse 15 of chapter 1 behold you're beautiful my love behold you're beautiful that sounds good that makes sense your eyes are doves oh okay it's gonna it's gonna get kind of i want to say weirder but it's gonna get a little weirder get a little more poetic we'll say it like that