Decoding The Meaning of The Song of Solomon

The Song of Solomon stands as one of the most debated books in the whole of scripture. Throughout Church history and even further back into its Jewish roots, the Song of Solomon has been interpreted as either purely at face value – an erotic poem between two lovers – or pushed over into the allegorical category – describing the love of God towards the Church or the Jewish people. In fact, Rabbi Akiva is quoted in the Tofesta, Sanhedrin 12:5 as teaching, “The one who warbles their voice when they recite the Song of Songs when they are in a feasting hall and makes it like a song has no share in the world to come,” meaning that Rabbi Akiva believed to read and interpret the book as erotic poetry and not strictly as allegory has no place in the Kingdom of the Messiah. So, what does the Song of Solomon really mean? That’s what we’ll be talking about today!

So, is the Song of Solomon completely allegorical and are we in the wrong for reading it at face value as a love poem? Well, it’s not like the more conservative or perhaps modest reading of the text has no grounding. For both Christian and Jewish teaching, the Bible is full of references and metaphors in which our relationship to God is describe through the language of marriage.

For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.

For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you in overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer. - Is. 54:6-8

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. - Jeremiah 3:6-9

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. - Eph. 5:25-30

These are just a few of the many times throughout scripture that the relationship with God and His people is shown through the lens of a marriage relationship. It is in light of the many Old Testament passages specifically that pushed Rabbis in the 4th to 8th centuries to translate the Song of Solomon in the Targum as completely allegorical. The plain reading of Song of Solomon 1, verse 3 says:

Your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. - Song of Solomon 1:3

In the Targum version, it sounds slightly different.

“At the sound of your miracle and might which you performed for the people, the House of Israel, all the nations who heard the report of your might and good signs trembled; and your Holy Name was heard in all the earth, and it was more choice than the oil of high office with which the heads of kings and priests were anointed. And therefore the righteous loved to follow the path of your goodness in order that they may possess this world and the world to come.” - Aramaic Targum to Song of Solomon 1:3

Now, maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t have gotten any of that from the original text.

It is not just the Jewish Rabbi’s from 1,500 years ago who have interpreted the Song of Solomon in a very rigid, allegorical fashion. The Passion Translation, pseudo paraphrase of the Bible as interpreted by Brian Simmons goes so far in pushing the spiritual allegory view of the Song of Solomon that the words of the bridegroom are printed in red, a tradition typically reserved for emphasizing the direct words of Jesus! Here is another comparison from the ESV, a more direct translation, against the same passage in the passion version.

Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. - Song of Solomon 4:3-5

Your lips are as lovely as Rahab’s scarlet ribbon,

speaking mercy, speaking grace.

The words of your mouth are as refreshing as an oasis.

What pleasure you bring to me!

I see your blushing cheeks

opened like the halves of a pomegranate,

showing through your veil of tender meekness.

When I look at you,

I see your inner strength, so stately and strong.

You are as secure as David’s fortress.

Your virtues and grace cause a thousand famous soldiers

to surrender to your beauty.

Your pure faith and love rest over your heart

as you nurture those who are yet infants.

The problem with interpreting the Song of Solomon as purely allegorical is that, as seen in the works of of the Aramaic Targum or Brian Simmons’ Passion Translation, it forces us to impose different words and different meanings onto the text. These approaches, in their attempt to emphasize one truth, disregard the obvious others. What the Song of Solomon actually does is something that we see happening all throughout scripture: it creates tension. Tension is uncomfortable and makes us want to run to one side of the pull or the other, but if we are dedicated to understanding the truth of God’s word, we have to wrestle to plant ourselves right in the middle. Again, we will see tension everywhere we look in the Bible: Why are the Israelites God’s chosen people if they keep sinning and rebelling against Him over and over again? How can David be called a man after God’s own heart after he hooks up with the wife of one of his closest friends and then has that man killed for it? Why, as Christians, do we still struggle with sin? Does God predestine everyone to heaven or hell or do we have freewill? How can we be called the righteousness of Christ when we keep failing to do the simple things He commanded? Tension.

So, what is the answer to the tension in the Song of Solomon? If it’s not just an allegory, is it erotic poetry meant to be viewed only in the context of a soon to be husband and wife? It’s not either or, it’s both and, and so is the rest of life. Our lives, and all of creation in fact, are all part of a greater story, a meta-narrative, an allegorical redemption arc where everything, EVERYTHING, points back to the Creator, the Author, God. The Song of Solomon is both an erotic poem AND an allegory, and the erotic nature of the poem is intended to be there because sex, itself, is a naturally and erotically physical AND supernaturally spiritual and allegorical act. John Piper, a long time pastor, theologian and author, says it like this.