Saturday, March 26, 2022

Dianne Bergant on Acceptance of the Song of Solomon as Canonical Based on Belief it was Truly Solomonic in Origin

  

Authorship and Canonicity

 

Neither the authorship of the Song nor its date of composition can be easily determined. The phrase ‘āšer lîšlōmōh (of Solomon) can variously meant that it was authored by that Judean king, or dedicated to him, or simply included in his royal holdings. Today scholars date the book from the fifth to the second century BCE.

 

The book’s canonicity raises even more questions. According to Rabbi Aqiba (d. 135 CE): “No one in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs defiles the hands (is sacred)” (Yadayim 3:5). Though the canonization of the book was well established, the reasons for his judgment is debated. Some maintain that the human love described served as an analogy for the covenant commitment between God and Israel. It is more likely that canonization was determined by its Solomonic attribution, which also resulted in its being grouped with other “Solomonic” books, Proverbs and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) in the Kethubim (Writings), and why it was included in the mĕgillôt or liturgical scrolls, to be read on the eighth day of Passover. (Dianne Bergant, “Song of Songs,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 748)