I find that
I do not like the Bible book The Song of Solomon! It is so sexual/sensual.
One might
say, well, if it weren’t for sex there would be no reproduction of the species.
I find myself wondering if the book’s purpose is to offer the material view
of creation versus the spiritual.
One is
reminded that Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary
Baker Eddy says that the time will come when there will be no marriage of the
sexes:
… the time cometh of
which Jesus spoke when he declared that in the resurrection there should be no
more marrying nor giving in marriage, but man would be as the angels. Then
shall Soul rejoice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then white-robed
purity will unite in one person masculine wisdom and feminine love, spiritual
understanding and perpetual peace. (S&H 64:20) (Jesus words are found in Matt.
22:30, Mark 12:25, and Luke 20:35.)
There
is no reference in Mary Baker Eddy’s
writings to The Song of Solomon, but pages 115-116 of Science and Health are very instructive. It puts passions and appetites in their place in the Scientific
Translation of Mortal Mind. So, this pair (passions and appetites) appears in full
flight in the first degree; we see it lessening via temperance in the second
degree; they disappear in purity in the third degree, i.e.
First
Degree: Depravity.
(Unreality) PHYSICAL.
Evil beliefs, passions and
appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride envy, deceit,
hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death.
Second
Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.
(Transitional qualities)
MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.
Third
Degree: Understanding.
(Reality) SPIRITUAL. Wisdom,
purity, spiritual
understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.
I note also
the definition of WINE from Science and Health, i.e.
WINE.
Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornication; temptation; passion. (p. 598:17)
Hang on!
Didn’t Mrs. Eddy said of the Bible that every word can be interpreted
spiritually. That definition of wine seems to cover it all.
In her Miscellaneous
Writings 1883-1896 we find:
She [Mary Baker Eddy]
affirmed that the Scriptures cannot properly be interpreted in a literal way.
The truths they teach must be spiritually discerned, before their message can
be borne fully to our minds and hearts. That there is a dual meaning to every
Biblical passage, the most eminent divines of the world have concluded; and to
get at the highest, or metaphysical, it is necessary rightly to read what the
inspired writers left for our spiritual instruction. The literal rendering of
the Scriptures makes them nothing valuable, but often is the foundation of
unbelief and hopelessness. The metaphysical rendering is health and peace and hope
for all. The literal or material reading is the reading of the carnal mind,
which is enmity toward God, Spirit. (Mis.169:15)
Last week’s
Bible Lesson on Substance gave us the story of Abigail and Nabal (First Samuel, chapter 25). This story
reminded me of a passage in SH’s chapter on Marriage:
When the ocean is stirred
by a storm, then the clouds lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened
shrouds, and the waves lift themselves into mountains. We ask the helmsman: “Do
you know your course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?” He answers bravely,
but even the dauntless seaman is not sure of his safety; nautical science is
not equal to the Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest understanding,
firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on and awaits the issue. Thus
should we deport ourselves on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and working,
one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible propulsion precipitates
his doom or sunshine gladdens the troubled sea. (SH 67:4)
Surely Abigail
“stuck to the wreck.” What an awful match that seems to have been with Nabal!
We find the material sense of passion manifest in Nabal’s sense of pride in
his holdings, and a more spiritual sense of passion in Abigail’s wisdom and
brotherly love. The chapter
Marriage is wonderful!
But I keep
hearing, “selfishness and sensuality causing constant retrogression.” It’s in Science
and Health, p. 22:5—
Vibrating like a pendulum
between sin and the hope of forgiveness, -- selfishness and sensuality causing constant
retrogression, -- our moral progress will be slow.
Some further
thoughts from Science and Health:
SH 43:28—The Science Jesus taught and lived must
triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelligence, and
the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs.
SH 547:28—Inspired thought relinquishes a
material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual
and immortal.
SH 64:17—Marriage should signify a
union of hearts. (Union of hearts rather than sex.)
Old-fashioned
me turned to Dummelow for enlightenment--The One-Volume Bible Commentary. He emphasizes that the song is a poem. After all, a song is
usually a poem. I like the way he brings nature into it all:
“It
would be a dull eye that missed the beauty of the poem. Its author responds
immediately to every charm of Nature... He carries us along with him into the
open air, to the vineyards, the villages, the mountains. He awakes us at
daybreak to catch the scent of the forest trees, to gather the apples and the
pomegranates, to listen to the grateful plash of falling waters. He loved the
flocks of wild pigeons, the crocuses, the fields embroidered with lilies! His
verse is fragrant with the breath of spring. (p. 402)
And
surprisingly, Rev. Dummelow begins his commentary with “improvements on the Authorised
Version”. These improvement cover the whole 8 chapters of the book. See p. 402-3.
These lines from
the Song of Solomon are nice:
Ch. 2:11,12—For,
lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;/The flowers appear on the
earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is
heard in our land.
Ch. 2:15—Take
us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender
grapes.
Joyce Voysey
