8/07/19 

Song of Solomon 1:2

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;

In all my years of teaching, the Song is probably my favorite to teach.  There are great numbers of questions, beginning with the title, about it.  But most of them are irrelevant.

There is really no reason to doubt the author is Solomon.  It is an epic poem.  But it is not a Roman, Danish, or Shakespearian epic.  It is Hebrew and therefore it does not conform to any other standard than what Hebrews would expect.

Though it uses characters that were familiar to the people who received it, these characters need not have any particular historical identification.  They were characters in a poem and an historical identity was not necessary.

I personally subscribe to it being a description of the purity and pleasure of a Biblical male and female relationship.  I do not find anything to make me believe it is an allegory of Christ and the Church as His bride.  Nearly all orthodox men believed this allegorical view up into the 20^th century, though the majority no longer do.

The beauty, pleasure, and privacy of human marriage love is described vividly but in a chaste and private way.  This is a gift from God and it is to be recognized and received as such.