Academic literature on the topic 'Song of Solomon Old Testament'

A widespread early Christian tradition regarded Solomon as the great exorcist and magician of antiquity, the forerunner of the exorcistic activity of Jesus, and the genius of later Christian magic and divination. In time, this tradition (henceforth the “Solomon magus” tradition) would become increasingly syncretistic and would yield the numerous grimoires and claviculae of the Middle Ages, but in the early centuries of Christianity, the tradition produced texts which were more or less haggadic, that is, engaged in the exegesis of canonical materials and rooted in earlier Jewish interpretive traditions. Modern students of the documents of this tradition have long perceived its debt to the Old Testament, particularly to the portrait of Solomon in 1 Kgs 5:9–14 (4:29–34), a text which both traditional Christian and modern critical interpreters have subsequently explained in nonmagical terms. While Solomon's magical identity is widely recognized to be inspired by the biblical description of his greatness, little is known about how readers in the Solomon magus tradition interpreted the canonical books of traditional Solomonic authorship—the Song of Songs, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Wisdom of Solomon.

The Hebrew Old Testament contains, besides prose narratives and laws, a considerable amount of poetry. The books of Lamentations, Proverbs and Psalms and the Song of Solomon, together with the prophetic oracles that make up the books of Amos, Habakkuk, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Obadiah and Zephaniah, consist entirely, or almost entirely, of poetry. In several other books, especially Job and the books of the prophets Haggai, Isaiah and Jeremiah, poetry predominates, while in the books of history and law, although prose predominates, poetry is never entirely absent, brief though its manifestations sometimes are. The vast majority of the poetry is sacred, as would be expected from texts that occur within religious writings. The relatively small amount of profane poetry consists of a handful of short examples and the Song of Solomon.

«Журнал для исследования Ветхого Завета» («Journal for the Study of the Old Testament») — один из ведущих научных журналов по библеистике. В этом библиографическом обзоре рассматриваются все публикации журнала, содержащиеся в выпусках с 15-го по 18-й; все четыре выпуска вышли в 1980 году. Особенно следует отметить интересные статьи, посвящённые следующим темам: книга Еноха, особенности библейских этимологий, историчность повествований об Иосифе и Моисее (№ 15), Бревард Чайлдс, канонический подход (№ 16), функции псалмов, эсхатология Книги Даниила, анализ избранных эпизодов Песни Песней, красота и бесплодие в библейских типовых сценах (№ 17), точки согласия в современных исследованиях по богословию Ветхого Завета, значение библейских исследований, арамейский язык в Библии, политика безопасности царя Соломона, древнейший рассказ о царе Сауле в 1 Цар. (№ 18). «The Journal for the Study of the Old Testament» is one of the leading scientific journals in biblical studies. In this bibliographic review we will consider all the publications of the journal, contained in issues from № 15 to 18; all these 4 issues came out in 1980. Especially the interesting articles should be marked on the following topics: book of Enoch, features of biblical etymologies, historical nature of the Joseph and Moses narratives (№ 15), Brevard Childs, canonical approach (№ 16), function of Psalms, eschatology in the Book of Daniel: analysis of some episodes of the Song of Songs, the beautiful and the barren in biblical type-scenes (№ 17), a convergence in recent Old Testament theologies, role of biblical research, Aramaic in the Bible, politics of security of the king Solomon, ancient narrative stratum about the king Saul in 1 Samuel (№ 18).

In December 1891, an adaptation by Paul-Napoléon Roinard of the Old Testament text of the Cantique des cantiques (Song of Songs) of Solomon was performed at the recently created Théâtre d'Art, expressly to present a new idea of theatre as total art by engaging the visual, aural, and olfactory senses of the audience. One of the few theatre historians who has mentioned this remarkable endeavour notes that in it,‘music, words, colour, even perfume, were to be harmonized; all the senses were to be involved, simultaneously, in the one overwhelming experience’. Roinard's synaesthetic experiment drew on a range of sources including Baudelaire, Wagner and Rimbaud, and, most strikingly, featured scents pumped into the auditorium on cue by young symbolist poets stationed in the far edges of the proscenium and in the balcony and using hand-held vaporizers. According to the outline Roinard provided in the programme, nine scents were used: frankincense, white violets, hyacinth, lilies, acacia, lily of the valley, syringa, orange blossom, and jasmine. Each of these odours had corresponding orchestrations of speech (specific vowel sounds), tones (original music composed by Mme Flamen de Labrély), and colours.

The book of proverbs lies in the Old Testament. Beautiful and wisely sayings of prophet Solomon Sang of the Songs and Proverbs are considered the masterpieces that reflect the highest rank of poetry and the most influenced sayings. The book of Proverbs consists of seven (7) sections and thirty-one (31) chapters.The first section (chapter 1-9) consists of sayings of Solomon in which the father or teacher advise his son or students. The second section consists of two parts, the first part (10-14) contrasting the righteous and the wicked, and the second (15-22:16) addressing wise and foolish speech. Verse 22:17 opens ‘the words of the wise’, until verse 24:22, with short moral discourses on various subjects. Verses 24:23-34 ‘also belong to wise’ chapters 25-29 are proverbs of Solomon composed by “the men of “Hezekiah”, contrast the just and the wicked proverbs 30 are ‘The words of Agur’ the last chapter 31 consists of the words of king Lemuel and the proverbs of the ideal wise woman. This article describes the composition of proverbs and throws light on the importance of these golden sayings.

41 verse texts are extant of the original 42 poems (also described as hymns, psalms or songs) which comprise the so-calledOdes of Solomon—a corpus not to be confused with the 18 so-calledPsalms of Solomon.As can be seen from the Appendix, the history of the discovery and publication of these poems began with C.G. Woide at the end of the eighteenth century.1 Up to that time the only evidence for theOdes of Solomonwas twofold. On the one hand, there was an enigmatic Latin quotation of three lines (i.e. 19:6-7a) in theDivinae Institutionesof Lactantius (c.240-c.320). On the other hand, the mere titlewas listed together with the better knownin the so-calledof Ps.-Athanasios and theascribed to Nikephoros Patriarch of Konstantinopolis (c.750-828). In these two canon-listsPsalmsandOdesappear in this order among the Old Testament's ‘antilegomena’ which is a category between ‘canonical’ and ‘apocryphal’.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates one of the central aspects of a Kenyan woman’s identity, namely the notion of sexuality, which unfortunately also underlies numerous socio-economic and developmental challenges currently confronting Kenyan women. The research shows that in Kenya, patriarchal ideologies are used to control the sexuality of women in the name of ‘our culture’. Thus, it is and has been difficult for many Kenyan women to live with dignity as beings equally created in the image and likeness of God. The study, therefore, sought to identify, expose, criticize, destabilize and to deconstruct patriarchal ideologies that deny Kenyan women the right to live with dignity. Patriarchal ideologies that have been used to mute the voices of Kenyan women on matters of sex and sexuality are challenged by introducing the voices of Kenyan women. The latter is done with reference to poetry that reflects the voices and experiences of Kenyan women as a means of expressing who they really are in the midst of a society that silences them. It is shown that, by means of poetry, the full power and energy of these women may be mobilized. Moreover, the voices and experiences of Kenyan women offer a contextual re-reading of the Song of Songs for their dignity. The study presents the female voice in the Song of Songs (a text from a male pen) as responding in a new way to the patriarchal Old Testament society on matters of sex and sexuality. In the process, a twofold strategy is proposed with which negative perceptions of the sexuality of women in the worldview of Kenya may be addressed: First, this study proposes that it is important to purposefully steer conversations regarding issues of sex and sexuality. The latter is done in the conviction that this is one way of creating a platform for addressing other gender-based injustices that deny Kenyan women the right to live with dignity. Second, by focusing on Kenyan poetry, as well as on the female voice in the Song of Songs, there is a possibility of reconstructing positive aspects of the sexuality of Kenyan women, which may allow them to live with dignity. To achieve the aim of this study, to re-read the Song of Songs for the dignity of Kenyan women, an African Women’s Theological approach is used within the broader context of feminist and womanist approaches to the Song. Through an African Women’s approach to the Song of Songs, the study asks how the female voice that spoke boldly in the patriarchal setting of the Old Testament can also be liberating in the Kenyan patriarchal setting. The female voice in Song of Songs presents issues of sex and sexuality in a new way. As such, it is proposed that the latter voice, read through the hermeneutical lens of Kenyan women’s poetry or poetry on Kenyan women, has the potential to inform and therefore to transform the patriarchal setting of the Kenyan society. It is only if Kenyan women are empowered to negotiate safe sex and to express their sexuality on their own terms and conditions, that this will be fully realized.
AFRIKKANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek een van die sentrale aspekte van ’n Keniaanse vrou se identiteit, naamlik die idee van seksualiteit, wat ongelukkig ook onderliggend is aan talle sosio-ekonomiese en ontwikkelingsuitdagings wat Keniaanse vroue tans konfronteer. Die navorsing toon in Kenia word patriargale ideologieë gebruik om die seksualiteit van vroue te beheer in die naam van ‘ons kultuur’. Dit is dus moeilik vir baie Keniaanse vroue om met waardigheid te leef as gelyk-geskape na die beeld en gelykenis van God. Hierdie studie poog om patriargale ideologieë wat Keniaanse vrouens die reg om met waardigheid te leef ontneem te identifiseer, te kritiseer, te destabiliseer en te dekonstrueer. Die studie daag patriargale ideologieë uit wat gebruik is en word om die stemme van Keniaanse vrouens oor seks en seksualiteit stil te maak. Dit word spesifiek gedoen deur die stemme en ervarings van Keniaanse vrouens in poësie te gebruik (soms in die gedigte van manlike digters!) as uitdrukking van hulle lewens te midde van ”’n patriargale samelewing. Dit word getoon hoedat hiedie gedigte die krag en energie van hierdie vroue kan mobiliseer. Meer nog, die stemme van Keniaanse vrouens bied die geleentheid tot ’n kontekstuele herlees van Hooglied met die oog op die erkening en beskerming van hulle waardigheid. Die vroulike stem in Hooglied word verstaan as ’n nuwe reaksie op die Ou Testamentiese samelewing met betrekking tot kwessies soos seks en seksualiteit. In die proses word daar met ’n tweeledige strategie voorendag gekom waarmee die negatiewe opvattings oor die seksualiteit van vroue in die wêreldbeeld van Keniaanse mans aangespreek kan word. Eerstens word die noodsaak voorgestel van ’n doelbewuste rigtinggewing aan gesprekke oor seks en seksualiteit. Dit word gedoen vanuit die oortuiging dat dit een manier is om ’n platform te skep waar gelsagsgebasseerde ongeregtighede wat Keniaanse vroue die reg op ’n menswaardige lewe ontsê aangespreek kan word. Tweedens, deur op Keniaanse poësie en die vroulike stem in Hooglied te fokus, word voorgestel dat dat posititewe aspekte van die seksualiteit van Keniaanse vroue herkonstrueer kan word, wat dan kan meewerk om hulle met waardigheid te kan laat leef. Ten einde bogenoemde doelwit van hierdie studie te bereik, word ’n Afrika-vrouebenadering toegepas in die lees van Hooglied. Dit vind plaas binne ’n breër konteks van Feministiese en sogenaamde “Womanist” benaderings tot die boek. Met ’n Afrika vroue benadering as leesstrategie, word aangedui dat en hoe die vroulike stem wat vreesloos in haar eie patriargale, Ou Testamentiese konteks spreek ook bevrydend kan funksioneer binne die Keniaanse patriargale konteks. Daar word dus getoon dat die vroulike stem in Hooglied seks en seksualiteit op ’n nuwe manier aanbied. Gevolglik stel hierdie studie voor dat die vroulike stem in Hooglied, gelees deur die hermeneutiese lens van Keniaanse gedigte oor of deur vroue, die potensiaal het om die patriargale konteks van die Keniaanse samelewing eendersyds te ontbloot en andersyds te transformeer. Dit is slegs wanneer Keniaanse vroue bemagtig word om vir veilige seks te kan onderhandel en hulle seksualiteit op hulle eie terme uit te kan druk, dat hulle menswaardigheid ten volle gerealiseer sal word.

Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2004.
Title from electronic submission form. ETSU ETD database URN: etd-1118104-085337 Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet at the UMI web site.

The TSol is a Christian composition of late antiquity which narrates the story about how King Solomon built the Temple of God with the aid of demons he subjugated. Comparative analysis between the TSol and Jewish literature of late antiquity (between the closing centuries BCE and the Talmudic era), and the New Testament is primarily to establish any literary dependence and explore the nature of contact between the TSol and these materials; and also to isolate Jewish elements in the TSol. The Jewish materials discussed are the Hebrew Bible, the LXX, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Pseudo-Philo, certain Qumran documents (11 PsApa and the Copper scroll), Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs, rabbinic literature, and certain Aramaic incantation texts. My research has shown that parallels do exist between the TSol, the Jewish literature discussed and the New Testament. The parallels between the TSol and the aforementioned literature are twofold: verbal and conceptual. Verbal parallels occur in the form of technical terminology; quotations, allusions and echoes. The second type of parallels appears in the form of motifs, themes, structural elements and ideas. These parallels seem to dominate in my analysis. There is no need to explain the parallels between the TSol and the literature discussed in terms of literary dependence. I have attempted to demonstrate that these parallels in most of the literature are indicative of indirect influence through shared use of the biblical tradition: motifs, stories and themes regarding King Solomon; a common fund of oral tradition(s) regarding Solomon's magical power over demonic world; shared literary language, milieu, and cultural conventions. Moreover, the author of the TSol seems to have recycled Jewish materials pertaining to Solomon and related motifs in his work. Apart from the New Testament, the best case for a direct influence of a Jewish work on the TSol is Tobit.

Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body.
Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies
D. Th. (Old Testament)

Deze dissertatie levert een bijdrage aan een christelijk geïnspireerde visie op begeleiding vanuit de oudtestamentische wijsheidsliteratuur; in het bijzonder het boek Spreuken. Hoofdstuk 1 bevat een algemene inleiding waarin het begrip begeleiding wordt gedefinieerd. In hoofdstuk 2 staat de vraag naar de context van de wijsheid centraal. Er wordt een (conceptueel) kader ontwikkeld over begeleiding in oud-Israël om zo inzicht te krijgen in de wijsheidsleraren en hun leerlingen. Het derde hoofdstuk richt zich op de theologie van de wijsheid en beantwoordt de vraag welke invloed de wijsheid en de theologie op elkaar hebben gehad en hoe de theologie van de wijsheid zich verhoudt tot de theologie van het Oude Testament. Dit hoofdstuk besteedt daarnaast aandacht aan het Godsbeeld en het mensbeeld van de wijsheidsleraren en behandelt (theologische) thema’s die relevant zijn voor begeleiding. Hoofdstuk 4 houdt zich bezig met Salomo, de mannen van Chizkia, Agoer en Lemoeël. Salomo neemt in de wijsheidsliteratuur een prominente plaats in en wordt genoemd als auteur van verzamelingen van spreuken in het boek Spreuken. ‘Zijn’ wijsheid heeft een sociale verandering in oud-Israël op gang gebracht. Hoofdstuk 5 buigt zich over de vraag tegen welke achtergrond het boek Spreuken moet worden gelezen. Vragen die gesteld worden, zijn wie de mogelijke auteur van het boek is, in welk tijdvak het boek is ontstaan, uit welke verzamelingen het boek bestaat, en voor wie en met welk doel het boek is geschreven. De antwoorden werpen licht op de teksten die in hoofdstuk 6 onder de loep worden genomen en worden, in hoofdstuk 7, toegepast op begeleiding. Het zesde hoofdstuk neemt als uitgangspunt teksten uit het boek Spreuken die licht werpen op begeleiding. Deze teksten worden uitgelegd aan de hand van toonaangevende wetenschappelijke commentaren. Tot deze teksten behoren de inleiding op Spreuken (1:1-7), de ‘vrees voor JHWH’-teksten, ‘leven’-teksten, werkwoorden die het proces kenmerken dat leidt tot een ‘levend leven’ en opdrachten aan de vader/leraar (en daarmee aan de begeleider). Hoofdstuk 7 geeft antwoord op de onderzoeksvraag welke aanwijzingen kunnen worden afgeleid uit het boek Spreuken voor begeleiders en christelijke opleidingen tot begeleidingskundige? en wendt de kennis opgedaan in de voorgaande hoofdstukken aan om te komen tot een Bijbels geïnspireerde visie op begeleiding in een hedendaagse context.
Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
D.Th. (Old Testament)

The Song of Songs has often been seen as a literary outlier within the canon and attempts to classify it alongside other literature have had limited success, more convincing parallels being found in ancient Near Eastern material than in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament itself. However, as Francis Landy puts it ‘no text is isolated, self-sufficient; none can be understood without reference to others’ (‘The Song of Songs in the Garden of Eden’, p. 516). I discuss the eligibility of the Song for a Solomonic wisdom corpus in Chapter 3. In this chapter I focus on a more thematic intertextual approach, starting with the Song of Songs but moving both within and outside the ‘Solomonic corpus’ in the imagery of garden and water. The garden, as typified in mythical terms by the garden of Eden (but not exclusively relating to this garden alone), is also called the ‘garden of the LORD’ in various texts. Then there is water that is so essential to the growth and maintenance of a garden and to all life. A thematic intertextuality seeks to find links primarily through themes, images, or metaphors used—in this case, gardens and water and echoes of an ideal Eden.

Whilst it is generally agreed that the book of Proverbs is the mainspring of ‘wisdom’, there is considerable disagreement as to what exactly, beyond Proverbs, to include in the wisdom category and what the criteria for inclusion should be. That Job and Ecclesiastes should also form this core and that it should be further defined by the apocryphal books of Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon is often taken for granted, but the material is very diverse in nature and genre. Then the question arises, should the net be widened to other parts of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, to narratives such as the Joseph Narrative and Succession Narrative or to a slippery selection of psalms that appear to be ‘wisdom’ in character, to Song of Songs and beyond. In fact, how do we classify any text showing significant wisdom influence? Indeed, is this categorization of ‘wisdom’ helpful at all? In this chapter, I suggest that there is a ‘core’ of wisdom material and that, as I have argued elsewhere, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes make up this core. Here, I go beyond this statement to evaluate the associations of other material with this core and suggest that the notion of family resemblance is a helpful descriptor for complex relationships between this material. I also consider the role of Solomon as the ‘father’ of wisdom and as the (symbolic?) figure that holds this ‘family’ together.