ABSTRACT
This set of poems (dating as it stands from the second century bc), did not easily find its way into the canon. The many doubts from earliest times as to its suitability were allayed by its ascription to Solomon, the allusions to him in the text, and allegorical interpretations of the book. Jewish tradition saw in the Song the historical relationship of God and his people, and the book was traditionally read during the Passover feast. The Christian Church (including the translators of AV: see Song 1:1, 4:5nn) read it as an allegory of the relationship of Christ and the Church. This kind of allegorical interpretation is ancient and persistent; it is no more irrational to interpret the passionate lover of the Song as God than to interpret a red rose as a symbol alternately of Love or the house of Lancaster. Certainly, the sixteenth-century translators saw it in this light (see 4:5n), and the tradition continued. The popular Self-Interpreting Bible (Brown 1791: 696) insisted that this was a mystical allegory; and, well into the nineteenth century Davidson (1852), while accepting that the Song might have an origin as a lovers’ wedding song, stressed that its true value lay in its allegorical significances.
