Gregory of Nyssa — Commentary on Scripture

Song of Solomon 1:1

Another Solomon is signified here: one who is also descended from the seed of David according to the flesh, one whose name means peace, the true king of Israel and builder of God’s temple. This other Solomon comprehends the knowledge of all things. His wisdom is infinite and his very essence is wisdom, truth, as well as every exalted, divine name and thought. [Christ] used Solomon as an instrument and speaks to us through his voice first in Proverbs and then in Ecclesiastes. After these two books he speaks in the philosophy set forth in the Song of Songs and shows us the ascent to perfection in an orderly fashion.…It is not accidental, I think, that the book is ascribed to Solomon. This serves as an indication to readers to expect something great and divine.…
Proverbs teaches in one way and Ecclesiastes in another; the philosophy of the Song of Songs transcends both by its loftier teaching.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:2

“Your breasts are better than wine,” signifying by the breasts the heart. Nobody will err if he understands by the heart the hidden, secret power of God. One would rightly suppose that the breasts are the activities of God’s power for us by which he nourishes each one’s life and bestows appropriate nourishment.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:5

The bride further speaks to her pupils of an amazing fact about herself in order that we might learn of the bridegroom’s immense love for humankind who added beauty to the beloved [bride] through such love. “Do not marvel,” she says, “that righteousness has loved me.” Although I have become dark through sin and have dwelt in gloom by my deeds, the bridegroom made me beautiful through his love, having exchanged his very own beauty for my disgrace. After taking the filth of my sins upon himself, he allowed me to share his own purity, and filled me with his beauty. He who first made me lovely from my own repulsiveness has showed his love for me.…The bride says, although the beauty given to me by being loved by righteousness now shines forth, I still realize that in the beginning I was not radiant but black. My former life has created this dark, shadowy appearance. Although I am black, I am now this beautiful form, for the image of darkness has been transformed into beauty.… Then the text adds further words for strengthening the minds of its pupils. The cause of darkness is not ascribed…

The bride further speaks to her pupils of an amazing fact about herself in order that we might learn of the bridegroom’s immense love for humankind who added beauty to the beloved [bride] through such love. “Do not marvel,” she says, “that righteousness has loved me.” Although I have become dark through sin and have dwelt in gloom by my deeds, the bridegroom made me beautiful through his love, having exchanged his very own beauty for my disgrace. After taking the filth of my sins upon himself, he allowed me to share his own purity, and filled me with his beauty. He who first made me lovely from my own repulsiveness has showed his love for me.…The bride says, although the beauty given to me by being loved by righteousness now shines forth, I still realize that in the beginning I was not radiant but black. My former life has created this dark, shadowy appearance. Although I am black, I am now this beautiful form, for the image of darkness has been transformed into beauty.…
Then the text adds further words for strengthening the minds of its pupils. The cause of darkness is not ascribed to the Creator, but its origin is attributed to the free will of each person.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 1:13-14

The location of the heart is said by experts to lie between the two breasts. Here is where the bride says that she has the sachet in which her treasure is kept. Also, the heart is said to be a source of warmth from which the body’s heat is distributed through the arteries. The body’s members are thereby heated, animated and nourished by the heart’s fire. Therefore the bride has received the good odor of Christ in the governing part of the soul and has made her own heart a kind of sachet for such incense. And so she makes all her actions, like parts of the body, seethe with the breath from her heart so that no iniquity can cool her love for God in any member of her body.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3

Song of Solomon 1:15

When her own beauty is manifest, the loveliness of her eyes is extolled. The bridegroom says that her eyes are those of a dove that seem to convey this meaning: when the pupils of the eye are clear, the faces of those gazing at them are clearly reflected. Persons skilled in studying natural phenomena say that the eye sees by receiving the impression of images emanating from visible objects. For this reason the beauty of the bride’s eyes is praised since the image of a dove appears in her pupils. Whenever a person gazes upon an object he receives in himself the image of that object. He who no longer attends to flesh and blood looks toward the life of the Spirit. As the apostle says, such a person lives in the Spirit, conforms to the Spirit, and by the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the body. This person has become wholly spiritual, neither natural nor carnal.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Song of Solomon 2:7

An oath works in two ways. In the present text, the soul is progressing toward great heights, as we have seen. At the same time she is instructing less advanced souls in the way of perfection. She uses the oath not to assure them of the progress she herself has made but to lead them through their oath to a life of virtue. She adjures them to keep their love alert and watchful until his good will come to fulfillment, that is, until all are saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Song of Solomon 2:8

The voice of the bridegroom was heard when God spoke through the prophets. After the voice the Word came leaping over the mountains that stood in his way, and by bounding over the hills, he made every rebellious power subject to himself, both the inferior powers and those that are greater. The distinction between mountains and hills signifies that both the superior adversary and the inferior one are trampled and destroyed by the same power and authority. The lion and the dragon, superior beasts, are trampled; so too are the serpent and the scorpion, which are inferior.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 5

Song of Solomon 3:1-4

The chamber is indeed the heart that becomes an acceptable dwelling of God when it returns to that state which it had in the beginning made by “her who conceived me.” We would be correct by understanding “mother” as the first cause of our being.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 6

Song of Solomon 3:6-7

What then is their meaning? Perhaps the loveliness of the divine beauty has something fearful about it as characterized by elements contrary to corporeal beauty. What attracts our desire is pleasant to the sight, soft to the touch, and not associated with anything fearful or terrifying. But that incorruptible beauty is fearful, terrifying and not easily frightened. Since our desire for carnal things in the body’s members is subject to passion and defilement, like a band of robbers it ambushes the mind, captivates it and carries away the will. Therefore it becomes God’s enemy; as the apostle says, the wisdom of the flesh arises from what is inimical to God. It follows that the love of God arises from what is opposed to carnal desire. If carnal desire consists of weakness, laxity and laziness, the love of God is made up of a fearful, terrifying fortitude. An unrelenting anger scares and puts to flight the ambush resulting from pleasure, thus revealing the soul’s beauty as pure and no longer sullied by a desire for carnal pleasure. The king’s nuptial bed is therefore surrounded by armed…

What then is their meaning? Perhaps the loveliness of the divine beauty has something fearful about it as characterized by elements contrary to corporeal beauty. What attracts our desire is pleasant to the sight, soft to the touch, and not associated with anything fearful or terrifying. But that incorruptible beauty is fearful, terrifying and not easily frightened. Since our desire for carnal things in the body’s members is subject to passion and defilement, like a band of robbers it ambushes the mind, captivates it and carries away the will. Therefore it becomes God’s enemy; as the apostle says, the wisdom of the flesh arises from what is inimical to God. It follows that the love of God arises from what is opposed to carnal desire. If carnal desire consists of weakness, laxity and laziness, the love of God is made up of a fearful, terrifying fortitude. An unrelenting anger scares and puts to flight the ambush resulting from pleasure, thus revealing the soul’s beauty as pure and no longer sullied by a desire for carnal pleasure. The king’s nuptial bed is therefore surrounded by armed men expert in battle. The sword at the thigh terrorizes and causes fear against dark, nocturnal thoughts and against those who lie in ambush to shoot arrows in the darkness at the upright of heart. The weapons of those standing guard around the bed destroy impure desires.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 6

Song of Solomon 3:10-11

No one can adequately grasp the terms pertaining to God. For example, “mother” is mentioned in the Song in place of “father.” Both terms mean the same, because there is neither male nor female in God. For how can anything transitory like this be attributed to God? But when we are one in Christ, we are divested of the signs of this difference along with the old person. Therefore every name equally indicates God’s ineffable nature; neither can “male” nor “female” defile God’s pure nature. Because of this, the father mentioned in the gospel parable prepares a wedding. The prophet says of God, “You have placed on his head a crown of precious stones.” Hence the Song says that a crown is placed upon the bridegroom by his mother. Since the nuptials and bride are one, one mother places the crown upon the bridegroom’s head. Neither does it make much difference whether one calls the Son of God the only begotten God, or the Son of his love. According to Paul, each name has the capacity to be a bridal escort that leads the bridegroom to dwell in us.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 7

Song of Solomon 4:2

Now is the time to examine the beauty attributed to the teeth of shorn sheep.… If we look at the literal meaning of this verse, I do not see how teeth can be compared with prolific sheep.… What then can we gather from these words? Persons reducing the divine mysteries into small fragments for a clearer interpretation of the text make spiritual food more easily acceptable for the body of the church. They perform the function of teeth by receiving the thick, dense bread of the text into their mouths. By a more subtle contemplation, they make the food delectable.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 7

Song of Solomon 4:10-12

Because a seal protects the inviolability of whatever it guards, it scares off thieves; everything not stolen remains unharmed for the master. Praise of the bride in the Song would then testify to her excellence in virtue because her mind remains safe from enemies and is guarded for her Lord in purity and tranquility. Purity seals this fountain while the radiance and transparency of the bride’s heart is unclouded by no mire of evil thoughts.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Song of Solomon 4:13-15

When the Word raises his bride to such a point through her ascents, he leads her even further, saying that her garments have the scent of frankincense. Scripture testifies that Christ is clothed with this frankincense. The end of a virtuous life is participation in God, for frankincense manifests the divinity. The soul is not always led by the Word to what is higher by means of honey and milk, but after having been compared with the scent of frankincense, the garden becomes an image of paradise. It is not loosely guarded as with our first parents, but protected from every side by recollection of the bridegroom’s command.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Song of Solomon 4:13-15

In order that we may know the plants that the Word cultivates in believers, the Song calls the trees he planted “pomegranates.” These issue from the bride’s mouth. The pomegranate is difficult for a thief to grasp because of its thorny branches, and its fruit is surrounded and protected by a rind bitter and harsh to the taste. Once the pomegranate ripens in its own good time, and once the rind is peeled off and the inside revealed, it is sweet and appealing to the sight much like honey to the taste; its juice tastes like wine and affords much pleasure to the palate. I think that the issues from the bride’s mouth [are] a “garden of pomegranates” present in the souls of those listening to her. We must heed her words and not become soft by indulgence and enjoyment of this present life. Rather we should choose a life that has become toughened by continence. Thus virtue’s fruit is inaccessible to thieves and is protected by the bitter covering of self-control. Surrounded by a solemn, austere way of life, it wards off as though by spiny thorns those who approach the fruit with evil intent.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Song of Solomon 5:2-5

Resurrection is not effected in us unless a voluntary death precedes it. Such a voluntary death is indicated by the drops of myrrh dripping from the bride’s hands, for her fingers are filled with this spice. She says that myrrh did not come into her hands from any other source—if this were so, myrrh would mean something accidental and involuntary. Rather her hands (the operative faculties of the soul) drop myrrh, meaning a voluntary mortification of her bodily passions.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 12

Song of Solomon 5:2-5

Once all the senses have been put to sleep and are gripped by inaction, the heart’s action is pure; reason looks above while it remains undisturbed and free from the senses’ movement.…If a person pays attention to the senses and is drawn by pleasure in the body, he will live his life without tasting the divine joy, since the good can be overshadowed by what is inferior. For those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them; they realize that what enters the senses must be avoided. Therefore, when the soul enjoys only the contemplation of being, it will not arise for those things that effect sensual pleasure. It puts to rest all bodily movement, and by naked, pure insight, the soul will see God in a divine watchfulness. May we be made worthy through this sleep, of which the Song has spoken, to keep our soul vigilant.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 10

Song of Solomon 5:6

The bride says, “I sought him, but found him not.” How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search. Therefore the bride says, “I have sought him by my soul’s capacities of reflection and understanding. He completely transcended them, and he escaped my mind when it drew near to him.”How can that which is always beyond everything we know be designated by a name? For this reason the bride understands every function of a name as a sign of the ineffable good. The significance of each word falls short and shows something inferior to the truth.… The soul thus calls the Word as best it can. It cannot do so as it wishes, for the soul desires more than it is capable of. The soul does not wish what it is incapable of receiving, such as God himself, but its choice is in accord with its wish. Since the one called is unattainable, the bride says, “I called him, but he d…

The bride says, “I sought him, but found him not.” How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search. Therefore the bride says, “I have sought him by my soul’s capacities of reflection and understanding. He completely transcended them, and he escaped my mind when it drew near to him.”How can that which is always beyond everything we know be designated by a name? For this reason the bride understands every function of a name as a sign of the ineffable good. The significance of each word falls short and shows something inferior to the truth.…
The soul thus calls the Word as best it can. It cannot do so as it wishes, for the soul desires more than it is capable of. The soul does not wish what it is incapable of receiving, such as God himself, but its choice is in accord with its wish. Since the one called is unattainable, the bride says, “I called him, but he did not answer.”

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 12

Song of Solomon 5:10

All these elements constituting the bridegroom’s beauty are made known for our benefit but do not show his invisible, incomprehensible beauty.…Therefore, whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest by the beauty of creatures can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty, the fountain of beauty whose emanation established all living beings in existence. Similarly, whoever views the world of this new creation in the church sees in it him who is all in all. This person is then led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 13

Song of Solomon 5:10

All flesh implies birth, with marriage as the means for bringing it about. The person, however, who is not subject to a birth of flesh with respect to the mystery of religion does not submit to the actions effected by human nature or to the passions arising from the mind. He understands that the generation of the flesh belongs to all humankind. The bride says that he who partakes of flesh and blood is “white and ruddy.” However, by indicating the body’s nature by these two colors, she does not say that Christ partakes of that birth common to humankind. Rather, God assumed our human nature from the multitude of people he had begotten. From the passage of succeeding generations, Christ alone entered this life by a new form of birth. Nature did not cooperate in this birth but served it. Therefore, the bride says that her spouse is “white and ruddy.” That is, he dwells in this present life through flesh and blood while having been begotten from virginal purity. His conception is virginal. His birth is undefiled and without pangs. His bridal chamber is the power of the Most High overshado…

All flesh implies birth, with marriage as the means for bringing it about. The person, however, who is not subject to a birth of flesh with respect to the mystery of religion does not submit to the actions effected by human nature or to the passions arising from the mind. He understands that the generation of the flesh belongs to all humankind. The bride says that he who partakes of flesh and blood is “white and ruddy.” However, by indicating the body’s nature by these two colors, she does not say that Christ partakes of that birth common to humankind. Rather, God assumed our human nature from the multitude of people he had begotten. From the passage of succeeding generations, Christ alone entered this life by a new form of birth. Nature did not cooperate in this birth but served it. Therefore, the bride says that her spouse is “white and ruddy.” That is, he dwells in this present life through flesh and blood while having been begotten from virginal purity. His conception is virginal. His birth is undefiled and without pangs. His bridal chamber is the power of the Most High overshadowing the virgin like a cloud. He is a nuptial torch of the Holy Spirit’s splendor. His bed is free from passion, and his marriage is incorruptibility.The bridegroom born under such circumstances as these is rightly called “chosen from myriads.” He was free from birth resulting from marriage, for his existence does not come from marriage. No terminology pertaining to human birth can rightly pertain to Christ’s incorruptible, painless birth because virginity and childbirth cannot apply to the bridegroom at the same time. As the Son is given to us without a father, the child is thus begotten without birth.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 13

Song of Solomon 5:12

The eyes “upon the fullness of waters” are compared with doves because of their simplicity and innocence, and the Word says they have been washed in milk. A quality of milk is that it does not reflect any image. Every other liquid is like a mirror whose smooth surface serves to reflect the image of those gazing in it. However, milk lacks such reflective capacity. This is, then, the best praise for the church’s eyes. They do not reflect deceptive, shadowy pictures of nonexistent things that are erroneous, vain or contrary to the true nature of reality. They look, rather, at being itself, and do not reflect the false visions and fantasies of life. Thus the perfect soul bathes its eyes in milk to keep them pure.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 13