Eros exalted: Secrets of love from the Song of Solomon

The Public Square
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New Warhorn Media post by john.carpenter:

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Can I just say how great it is that Radiohead is putting up stories.

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Ha. Radiohead is the automated system, and when the author doesn’t (yet) have an account here, it defaults to Radiohead.

I do hope to hear what people think of this piece or questions or comments. I found it helpful, personally.

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I hadn’t thought so much about chapter 8 before. We really let down our young people when we don’t both protect and encourage them on their paths to marriage.

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I recently finished a commentary on Song of Solomon which took the position that it should be interpreted purely as an allegory. This is hard to accept, as this article points out. Yet I’m not sure I can take the other position - that it is not an allegory. Ephesians 5 shows us how marriage points to Christ and the church. God chose to create husbands and wives so that we are surrounded by pictures of Christ and the church. With this context, how can we read the most marriage-focused book of the Bible without it being full of allegory to the marriage which will be the the pinnacle of history?

And this is a quibble, but when I read this:

who writes an instruction manual in poetry? Wouldn’t you be irritated if you got an instruction manual, like on how to assemble a bicycle, and it was written in poetry, with rhymes and symbolic terms?

I was reminded some recent reading of some selections from 16th century English agricultural manuals, and they actually were written in verse. The reason poetry was used was likely mostly as a memorization aid, but doubtless it was fashionable to exercise learning and skill as a writer by writing in poetry. But the broader point that it’s not a how to manual still stands.

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I agree. When I taught a brief Bible survey Sunday school class years ago, that is what I said about Song of Songs. It’s certainly about a man and a woman and their loving and physical relationship.

Therefore it’s also about Christ and his bride.

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Or it’s primarily about Christ and his bride, but it’s using the love of a man and a woman to tell that story.

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Radiohead > chatgpt

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Me too. I meet with some young men on Tuesday mornings. It was a helpful springboard to discussion on the biblical teaching on marriage and sex.

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