Wednesday, May 22, 2019

E.W. Hengstenberg on the Song of Solomon


In his Old Testament Christology, written in the early 19th century (and translated into English in 1854), E.W. Hengstenberg (1802-1869) wrote the following about the Song of Solomon Why the following should be of interest to Latter-day Saints is that the author clearly struggles to make sense of the Song of Solomon and its contents and it being viewed as inspired scripture:

The Song of Solomon does not, strictly speaking, possess a prophetical character. It does not communicate any new revelations; like the Psalms, it only represents, in a poetical form, things already known. It sufficiently appears . . . The Song of Solomon then, is no apocalypsis—no revelation of mysteries till then unknown. There is in it no such disclosure as is e.g. 2 Sam. vii. on the descent of the Messiah from David, or as is that in Mic. v. 1 (2) on His being born at Bethlehem, or even as it that in Is. liii. on His office as a High priest, and His vicarious satisfaction. (Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, Old Testament Christology [trans. R. Keith; 2 vols.; 1854; repr., Mac Dill, Fla.: MacDonald Publishing Company, 1971], 1:113)

 For a good summary of the debate concerning the canonicity of the Song of Solomon, see: