Delicious Allegory
While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. Song of Songs 1:12 JPS
Was on his couch – Is exegesis art or science? Or maybe both? The historical-critical method of exegetical analysis will inform you that this verse employs a Hebrew term (meisev) that describes a couch used for reclining at meals. However, the term also implies sexual involvement (like specially-built couches for the French kings). Nard, of course, is often associated with erotic scents. So this exegetical process places the verse in the genre of Semitic erotic poetry. Comparable poetry is found in Babylon. It appears as if nothing else is happening here except the intimacy of innuendo.
But Rabbi Meir didn’t agree. In his exegesis, a midrash, he claims that this verse speaks about the relationship between God and Israel. “Even while God was still resting upon Mt. Sinai to commune with Moses, the people gave off the odor (reiah) of sin, due to their worship of the golden calf.”[1] Now the verse isn’t about the etymology of the words or the genre of the literature. Now it’s about historical Israel and YHVH. In his allegorical explanation, each element of the original verse is really a code for some event in the life of Israel. The king is God. The couch is Sinai. The nard is sin. Exegesis has become art.
With our Western analytical orientation, you and I probably find this not only fanciful but absurd. Are we to treat every occurrence of the word melek (king) as a cipher for YHVH, or every instance of nirdi (my nard) as a code for sin? Certainly not! Then why should we read these words as allegorical in this verse? The answer has much more to do with cultural expectations than theological facts. When the rabbis confronted the sexuality of Song of Songs, they did not live in the world of ancient erotic poetry. They lived in the world of regulated decorum, gender restrictions and high moral standards. It was simply unthinkable that the biblical text would model Babylonian suggestiveness. Consequently, the meaning of the text had to be altered to fit the morals of the culture. The history of Israel was read into the text to make it palatable. Problem solved.
Except, of course, that the words didn’t change. The text is the text. The meaning I derive from the text is the interpretation of the words according to the paradigm I employ. You and I can easily agree that the word is melek, but you think it means “king” and I think it means “God.” The argument is not about the text. It is about the interpretive scheme I used to understand the text. You think the word “cross” means “punishment for sin.” I think it means “Roman execution device.” You think “law” means restriction. I think “law” means freedom. You think “faith” means creed. I think it means walk. And as long as we do not engage in debate about the interpretive scheme, we will get nowhere talking to each other. Can we stop talking about the text and start talking about what we mean?
Topical Index: couch, meisev, interpretive scheme, Song of Songs 1:12
[1] Michael Fishbane, The JPS Bible Commentary: Song of Songs, p. 47.
Sold! Let’s start talking! What are we going to talk about first?
How bout’ the text.
🙂
I believe that discussion is limited with as long as the two responses remain “that is what it means to me” and “this how “The Spirit” has revealed it to me.” As long as the bible is used as a self interprative peice of art instead of an instruction book with solid contexual foundations we lose the ability to ask much of anything don’t we?
Precisely! Oh to internalize “it is not, all about me.”
Cheryl, you are so right. The discussion is not going to get very far if what we make out of one part of that text is not lining up with the rest of it. The Bible is a self explanatory Book which people all down through time have discovered to their delight.
Not knowing any better, I put some of the blame on people like Kierkegaard (and I have a notebook of his prayers that I copied I loved them so much), who turned reality into an inside job: what it means to me. I think the biggest danger there is that we are such composite beings: so much of us is still not really us; we are not all there yet(!), and those not-so-us parts can get these really crazy impressions and then we go thinking “well, that’s just me”. Well, maybe not!
We have an infallible Word, however, that has been manifested to us in triplicate: the Word on the mountain of fire; the Word on Mount Calvary, and the Word that was promised to us in His Spirit. These three will always agree. I think we can start there, and stay there, with safety.
Laurita,
I wonder about ‘infallible’. If we are talking about any of the translations, then surely they are not infallible. 🙂
Well, the original was surely written so (infallible). The Book tells me that it comes with its own Translator, so the Translator I learned to use was the one written into that Book. If I don’t understand it in one place, the light will shine clearly in another and show me how it is supposed to fit. There is harmony in the entire work in that, once you learn the tune, its not very hard to sing along even in those places. You can grasp in your heart what your mind is being blocked from. There’s where the Translator comes in. If the tune stays clear; that is to say, what I understand in one place does not confuse me in the others, then I figure I am going in the right direction. I don’t think anybody has ever grasped the entire thing; how could they?
Your exegesis (the text interprets itself) is good, conservative, Christian theology, but it isn’t (unfortunately) supported by the history of exegesis nor by the text itself. This Bible was written over centuries with different cultural influences and even in different languages. It “interprets itself” only if I believe so and cause it to be so. Every scholar will tell you that there are passages in the text that are indecipherable today. They meant something once, but no one today knows what. The text doesn’t help us with these since the text itself is temporally and linguistically dependent. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a clue. We know most of the story, but some parts of the story are “forced” to conform to the rest in spite of what the language says or doesn’t say. The problem is much more complex than you allow. That doesn’t mean it is insurmountable. It just means it isn’t simple.
I don’t think we can leave out of it what we want out of it and what we expect, either. I guess you would call that part of the paradigm we each bring, but paradigms, per se, are not bad, either, which is to say, there are better ones and worse ones, for sure. I get out of life what I bring to it, and that Word is surely no exception. Even Satanists, I hear tell, keep a version on their pulpits; but, well, it has got to be a little harder to read something correctly that you are holding upside down and backwards!
Here’s Your Sign
~ For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.. ~
~ And they placed over his head the cause of His death in writing: “This is Yeshua the King of the Judeans.” ~
King of the Jews? Yes. But not only. Friend, He is King of all kings and LORD of all lords. The Lamb? But not only. For He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Shepherd of the sheep? Yes. But not only. For He is the Sovereign Shepherd-King of all who know His voice and follow Him.
And this shall be a sign unto you.. [unto who?] “you” shall find the babe [the Messiah] wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger..
And this shall be a sign unto you – “a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son… ”
Just how many signs — how many wonders – how many blows of the hammer of the written Word of God will it take to break the rock (our hard hearts) to pieces?
~ He went about doing good.. ~ – Who did? Who “went about doing good?”
~ He ever lives to make intercession for them ~ “Who” ever lives to make intercession for them?
~ And, as another scripture says, “They will look on the One they have pierced.”
(John 19:37)
~ I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only [begotten] Son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. [and] “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo”.… (Isaiah 12.10,11)
And LORD, haste that day..- may “that” day be “this”day.. Amen.
And the Child shall be called … “Pele-Yoez-El-Gibbor-Abi-ad-Sar-Shalom”
What Child is this?
~ And when they saw the star, — they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. [Why?]
After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground [Why?] – and worshiped Him. [Why?]
~ Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh ~ Gifts fit for a King. [Why?]
It is because my dear “sign-seeking” friends, — THIS is Jesus! King of the Jews!!
Yes. ~ And when the saw Him – they worshiped HIm!..~ but some doubted.
Are you a “shouter?” [HE IS LORD!!] -or a “doubter?”
Thomas too, was a doubter..
~ Then He said to Thomas, [LORD, speak unto us as well!]
“Put your finger here, and examine My hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, – but believe.” (John 20.27)
LORD, — I too believe; (please) help my unbelief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pshxf2cC9ZA
So, there is freedom in the law! Beaurfiul! I am just beginning to grasp this. But where to put the emphasis?
Mathew 23:23-24 for example
I hear many people say “the Bible” says this, but not everything in the Bible is clear and straightforward, it is subject to ‘interpretation’ and there are contradictions. Just my two cents worth for today.
Yes !! Let love keep singing!!
Except most people don’t want to discuss meaning & heart interpretation because this would include getting closer to the heart ,with potential for greater accountability, exposure , and intimacy ….
There is certainly much to be said about anything and everything. “Scientists” are saying Antarctica is melting too fast for a healthy planet (plane?.) Other “Scientists” say it’s melting slower than has been said. And neither know more than an infinitesimal amount about all the particulars involved and yet dogmatic pillars are erected supported by politics, economies and powers.
It’s exhausting to say the least in any attempt to decipher it all. Who the hell really knows? No one that I personally know of. Yet, my life goes on and on. I engage with those that so desire. I smile at those that don’t. Generations have come and gone that I know nothing of. Billions (I’m told) of individuals have lived and died and I have known nothing of them, at all.
Tomorrow will be given as another day to face what I know, discover what I don’t and decide to do with what I decide to grasp and own as my own. Doing with each step with my heart bent toward YHVH seeking him to walk along with me and nudge me this way or that as I DO.
A little more faith shown by action that I know is needed from me than faith that is but a said belief void of that which resembles what YHVH has done in the past.
I am slowly remembering.
Want to know what I remember?
Just watch what I do.
Some days you’ll see a lot.
Others, unfortunately, you will see that I remembered nothing.
Faith was absent in those times.
Sometimes I stop walking and sink in the lake.
Other times I lower a friend through a hole in the roof to a the source of life.
Some days I’m a loyal servant.
Other days I’m an idiot, a fool.
Not name calling here or inflicting self destructive assertions, just describing what I do from days to days.
I seek. I seek for a few to walk with, to chat with, to learn with, to think with, to fall and get up with.
I come across a multitude but few express a desire. But, I’ll keep walking and looking. I remember a time when I snubbed a few people when I wasn’t looking. They might have been looking when I wasn’t.
The world is vast. Scriptures are there and often mysterious. But I love a good puzzle. Particularly one created by a great mystery maker. The clues escape me so many times but I’ve noticed I find them more often when I’m actively doing and looking than when I’m whining, arguing and fussing. Weird how that works.
I have no idea where all this came from. It’s just my today’s word. (No capital letters!) I guess what I mean is I have more instances of “hmmmmmm” now than when I can say “this is so.” Funny thing though, I have less stress now than when I had all those dogmatics documented, delineated and defined. Weird. But I’m cool with that. On the other hand, there’s always tomorrow. Right?
Quote I read somewhere, “God has spoken, and everything else is commentary.”