What to make of The Song of Solomon

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