Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Song of Solomon 1:1

Some commentators misrepresent the Song of Songs, believe it to be not a spiritual book [and] come up instead with some fanciful stories inferior even to babbling old wives’ tales and dare to claim that Solomon the sage wrote it as a factual account of himself and the Pharaoh’s daughter.… Those of a more serious frame of mind, on the contrary, gave the name “royal” to the material, and saw the people referred to as the bride and the groom.…My view is that when they read this composition and noticed in it unguents, kisses, thighs, belly, navel, cheeks, eyes, lilies, apples, nard, ointment, myrrh and the like, in their ignorance of the characteristics of the divine Scripture they were unwilling to get beyond the surface, penetrate the veil of the expression, gain entrance in spirit and behold the glory of the Lord with face unveiled. Rather, they gave the text a corporeal interpretation and were drawn into that awful blasphemy.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PREFACE

Song of Solomon 1:1

Let us consider why on earth Solomon the sage called it not Song but “Song of Songs”; after all, the fact that nothing that is the result of the divine Spirit’s action is said idly and to no purpose is clear to people of a sober and pious mind. This being the case, the question needs to be asked why the work is called “Song of Songs” and not Song. In fact, we find many songs, psalms, hymns and odes, oral and written, both in blessed David and in the biblical authors before him and after him.…Solomon the sage … composed a song that was not for triumph in battle or for morning prayer but for a wedding.… The Song of Songs … outlines his wedding and depicts his love for the bride. “Bride” is the term he uses of the people who in the above songs have been freed from captivity, have attained their freedom and associated themselves to the king, retaining an indelible memory of his favors, giving evidence of great benevolence and affection for him and constantly attending on him. Then, when the powers on high enquire, “Who is the king of glory?” they long to be with him, unable to bear being…

Let us consider why on earth Solomon the sage called it not Song but “Song of Songs”; after all, the fact that nothing that is the result of the divine Spirit’s action is said idly and to no purpose is clear to people of a sober and pious mind. This being the case, the question needs to be asked why the work is called “Song of Songs” and not Song. In fact, we find many songs, psalms, hymns and odes, oral and written, both in blessed David and in the biblical authors before him and after him.…Solomon the sage … composed a song that was not for triumph in battle or for morning prayer but for a wedding.…
The Song of Songs … outlines his wedding and depicts his love for the bride. “Bride” is the term he uses of the people who in the above songs have been freed from captivity, have attained their freedom and associated themselves to the king, retaining an indelible memory of his favors, giving evidence of great benevolence and affection for him and constantly attending on him. Then, when the powers on high enquire, “Who is the king of glory?” they long to be with him, unable to bear being separated even for a short space of time from their savior. This is the reason this book is called the Song of Songs, the phrase suggesting that those other songs were composed with a view to this song, and the others lead to this one.…
This is the reason, therefore, that the book is called the Song of Songs, in that it teaches us the major forms of God’s goodness and reveals to us the innermost recesses and the holiest of holy mysteries of divine loving-kindness.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PREFACE

Song of Solomon 1:1

It is also necessary to say by way of introduction that three works belong to Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Proverbs offers those interested moral benefit, while Ecclesiastes comments on the nature of visible realities and thoroughly explains the futility of the present life so that we may learn its transitory character, despise passing realities and long for the future as something lasting. The Song of Songs … brings out the mystical intercourse between the bride and the bridegroom, the result being that the whole of Solomon’s work constitutes a kind of ladder with three steps—moral, physical and mystical. That is to say, the person approaching a religious way of life must first purify the mind with good behavior, then strive to discern the futility of impermanent things and the transitory character of what seems pleasant, and then finally take wings and long for the bridegroom, who promises eternal goods. Hence this book is placed third, so the person treading this path comes to perfection.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PREFACE

Song of Solomon 1:1

Let us, therefore, understand the church as the bride, and Christ as the bridegroom, and as the young girls attending the bride souls that are pious and youthful, who have not yet attained the virtue of the bride and been accorded perfection—hence their attending on the bride but not being called brides.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PREFACE

Song of Solomon 1:1

Let us set about the commentary by making this considerable recommendation to those reading it, not to charge us with plagiarism if they find in our commentary something said by the fathers. We admit, in fact, that we have found in them the basis for clear exposition; far from being plagiarism, however, such material is an inheritance from our forebears. Some things that we include we have taken from them, other things we came up with ourselves and added; some things expressed at length by certain commentators we abbreviated, other things requiring further work we developed.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PREFACE

Song of Solomon 1:2

Let no earthbound and materially minded person, however, be abashed at the mention of “kisses.” Let them, on the contrary, consider that also at the moment of holy communion we receive the bridegroom’s limbs, caress and embrace them, press them to our heart with our eyes, imagine a kind of embrace, believe ourselves to be with him, embrace him, caress him, love driving out fear, in the words of the divine Scripture.…The Song of Songs introduces the bride saying, “Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth.” Now, by “kiss” we understand not the joining of mouths but the communion of pious soul and divine Word. It is like the bride saying something of this kind, I experienced your words in writing, but I long to hear your very voice as well, I wish to receive the sacred teaching directly from your mouth and to caress it with the lips of my mind.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:4

She is admitted to the inner chamber, the quarters and rooms of the bridegroom, and boastfully says to her own retinue, “The king introduced me into his chamber,” that is, he revealed to me his hidden purposes, the plan concealed from ages and generations he made known to me, the treasuries obscure, hidden, and unseen he opened to me, in keeping with the prophecy of Isaiah.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:5

The bride is saying this no longer to the young girls but to those taking pride in the law, glorying and boasting, and reproaching her not only for her foreign origins but also for her former superstition and the black color coming from it. Hence she says to them, “I am not only black but also beautiful: though once blind, I gained my sight, and though once clad in rags, I am now clothed in a vesture of gold, of a rich variety, enjoying the king’s regard. I attend on the king, displacing you for raging against the king, delivering him to death, and defiling the bridal chamber with a series of adulteries. So do not reproach me for my black color, nor bring my former vices to the fore: I am black, I admit, but beautiful and pleasing to the bridegroom.… I too am Ethiopian, then, but the bride of the great lawgiver, daughter of a Midianite priest, an idolatrous man. I forgot my people and my father’s house—hence the king desired my beauty.”“So do not gaze on me for my being black, because the sun looked at me; you will see me, black though I now am, made white, and you will cry out, ‘Who…

The bride is saying this no longer to the young girls but to those taking pride in the law, glorying and boasting, and reproaching her not only for her foreign origins but also for her former superstition and the black color coming from it. Hence she says to them, “I am not only black but also beautiful: though once blind, I gained my sight, and though once clad in rags, I am now clothed in a vesture of gold, of a rich variety, enjoying the king’s regard. I attend on the king, displacing you for raging against the king, delivering him to death, and defiling the bridal chamber with a series of adulteries. So do not reproach me for my black color, nor bring my former vices to the fore: I am black, I admit, but beautiful and pleasing to the bridegroom.… I too am Ethiopian, then, but the bride of the great lawgiver, daughter of a Midianite priest, an idolatrous man. I forgot my people and my father’s house—hence the king desired my beauty.”“So do not gaze on me for my being black, because the sun looked at me; you will see me, black though I now am, made white, and you will cry out, ‘Who is this who emerges in her whiteness?’ I shall tell you also the reason for this blackness: I became black through worshiping creation instead of the Creator, and adoring this visible sun instead of the sun of righteousness. But I saw the difference between the one and the other, and forsook the creature to worship the Creator. So do not gaze on me for being blackened because the sun looked at me—or, as Symmachus says, fastened upon me. In fact, ‘I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem’: black as a result of the former impiety, beautiful as a result of repentance; black as a result of unbelief, beautiful as a result of belief. I was as black ‘as the tents of Kedar,’ which means darkness; I became beautiful ‘like Solomon’s curtains.’ ”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:5

In the Song of Songs the bride cries aloud, “I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem”—“black” in the sense of deceived, besmirched by the stench of wild beasts, and “beautiful” in the sense of awaiting for your arrival from heaven as Lord for the sake of my salvation. He suggested at the same time both the gloom of impiety and the charm given by divine grace.

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 87:3

Song of Solomon 1:7

It is logical for the bride to enquire at the time of midday where the bridegroom takes his rest because when the light of knowledge became stronger, heresies developed which, while bearing the name of Christians, were nevertheless devoid of truth. This is the reason she is exercised and anxious to learn the spot where the bridegroom rests the sheep, the risk of falling in with the flocks of so-called companions. It should be understood that just as there were the prophets and the false prophets opposed to them, and likewise apostles and false apostles of an opposite mind, so too false Christs are referred to in the divine Scripture. Hence the Lord also says, “Many false prophets will rise up and will lead many people astray.” And blessed Paul was in the habit of speaking not only of false brethren but also of false apostles—hence his remark, “For such people are false apostles.” The bride begs not to fall in with these people since they give the appearance of shepherds and likewise seem to have flocks and herds. Of such kind are the people who hold the views of Arius, Eunomius, Marc…

It is logical for the bride to enquire at the time of midday where the bridegroom takes his rest because when the light of knowledge became stronger, heresies developed which, while bearing the name of Christians, were nevertheless devoid of truth. This is the reason she is exercised and anxious to learn the spot where the bridegroom rests the sheep, the risk of falling in with the flocks of so-called companions. It should be understood that just as there were the prophets and the false prophets opposed to them, and likewise apostles and false apostles of an opposite mind, so too false Christs are referred to in the divine Scripture. Hence the Lord also says, “Many false prophets will rise up and will lead many people astray.” And blessed Paul was in the habit of speaking not only of false brethren but also of false apostles—hence his remark, “For such people are false apostles.” The bride begs not to fall in with these people since they give the appearance of shepherds and likewise seem to have flocks and herds. Of such kind are the people who hold the views of Arius, Eunomius, Marcion, Valentinus, Mani and Montanus. While invested with a Christian appearance and name, building churches, reading divine Scriptures to sheep led astray, wrongly tending their followers and thought to be companions of the bridegroom, they are instead pernicious schemers, providing the sheep with poison instead of nourishing draughts.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:9

Here in figurative fashion he referred by “Pharaoh” to the implacable foe of our nature, the noxious enemy common to us all whom he drowned in the holy waters of baptism like Pharaoh. My mare, then, which I used when I overwhelmed Pharaoh’s chariots, I judge you to resemble since you are close to me and have love for me.… So from the apostolic words we understand the mystical words of the Song, and hear the bridegroom saying, I declare that you, being close to me, and hence called an intimate, getting the name from the fact, are like my mare, which I used when drowning the spiritual Pharaoh with his chariots, and I granted you freedom.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:10

“How beautifully made your cheeks, like those of a turtledove.” Zoologists claim that the turtledove not only likes solitude but is also not promiscuous, the male mating with one female, and the female associating with one male, and at the death of its mate it refrains from mating with another bird. Appropriately, then, he says the church in its relationship to Christ is like her, shunning relations with others, and reluctant after his death to abandon him, awaiting instead the resurrection and looking forward to his second coming. He also says her neck is like a necklace; this is a choker, a kind of ornament beautifying the neck. He is commending her for nicely carrying the yoke of religion, of which the bridegroom says in the Gospels, “Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:11-12

Logically they said “golden ornaments” and not gold itself, since the bridegroom’s presents are greater, and his servants’ do not have equal splendor. Hence we show the divine Gospels greater respect, though we also respect the law and the prophets and the writings of the holy apostles.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 1:13-14

“It will lodge between my breasts,” that is, in the governing part of my soul, which is located in the heart lying between the breasts. This indicates the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by God, “I shall dwell and walk about among them, and I shall be their God and they shall be my people, says the Lord almighty.” The bridegroom in person also makes the promise, “We shall come, my Father and I, and shall make our abode with him.”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 1

Song of Solomon 2:1

I was “a flower of the countryside,” that is, I assumed an earthly body and sprang from the earth, being eternal and exalted or, rather, immeasurable. I became “a lily” not of mountains or hills, or simply of the countryside, but of “valleys”: I brought not only the good news of salvation to the living but also resurrection to the dead, descending to the lower parts of the earth to fill everything. This is the reason he calls himself “a flower of the countryside, a lily of the valleys,” that is, the dead: to them he both promised and brought into effect a return to life.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 2:6

“His left hand under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.” Let us be careful once more, however, not to get involved in corporeal ideas on hearing “left hand” and “right hand.” Solomon, in fact, speaks of wisdom, which is a habit and not substance: “Length of life and years of existence are in her right hand, and in her left wealth and glory.” Likewise regarding the “embrace” you can find in the Proverbs the saying, “Love her, and she will keep you safe; ring her about with a rampart, and she will exalt you; honor her, and she will embrace you.” Let us take occasion from this, then, to understand the references spiritually, believing the so-called embrace to be a communion between the divine Word and the pious soul, and the “right and left hands” should be understood in the way taken by us. So as not to leave its deeper meaning undiscerned, however, let us interpret it this way: God is in the habit of bestowing both beneficence and punishment, distributing both to those who deserve them. Let us accordingly understand beneficent grace in the case of the right hand, and punishm…

“His left hand under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.” Let us be careful once more, however, not to get involved in corporeal ideas on hearing “left hand” and “right hand.” Solomon, in fact, speaks of wisdom, which is a habit and not substance: “Length of life and years of existence are in her right hand, and in her left wealth and glory.” Likewise regarding the “embrace” you can find in the Proverbs the saying, “Love her, and she will keep you safe; ring her about with a rampart, and she will exalt you; honor her, and she will embrace you.” Let us take occasion from this, then, to understand the references spiritually, believing the so-called embrace to be a communion between the divine Word and the pious soul, and the “right and left hands” should be understood in the way taken by us. So as not to leave its deeper meaning undiscerned, however, let us interpret it this way: God is in the habit of bestowing both beneficence and punishment, distributing both to those who deserve them. Let us accordingly understand beneficent grace in the case of the right hand, and punishment in the case of the left, and thus listen to the bride saying, “His left hand under my head,” that is, “I am beyond punishments, I am not subject to them, on account of my closeness to the bridegroom and my attention to his service”; and “His right hand will embrace me,” that is, “He will regale me with his beneficence and fill me with it as though enfolding and embracing me, and satisfying my desire.”

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 2:7

“I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and forces of the field to stir up and awaken love for as long as he wishes,” that is, “Do not allow love for God in us to slumber: stir it up and inflame it, and pour the memory of kindnesses like oil on it lest it be said of us also, ‘They fell into a deep sleep, and found nothing.’ ” In other words, if you do not proclaim day in day out his salvation and recall the marvels he worked, and instead you forget his kindnesses, love will be extinguished and die, as it were. We must, on the contrary, continually rekindle it, stir it up and lift the flame itself on high.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 2:10-14

It makes sense, therefore, for the bridegroom to call the bride, mature in virtue as she is, “dove,” that is, spiritual and filled with the Holy Spirit.…The bridegroom encourages and consoles his church in its struggle with trials, “peeps through the windows and looks in through the netting,” and urges her to stand fast and to fly to him.…
He is saying, if you rest in the middle of the two Testaments and draw benefit from both, you will find there the manifold gifts of the Spirit. The bride, accordingly, by accepting the spiritual exhortation and lying between the lots, found the wings coated in silver through which she was bidden fly up to the bridegroom.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 2:15

“Catch us little foxes that demolish vineyards.” Some commentators actually applied “little” to the “vineyards”; but the sense is no different in either case. By “foxes” he refers to those with a deceitful attitude who harm the Lord’s churches that are just beginning to flourish—hence his saying “our vines blossom.” By “foxes” he is hinting at the heretics warring against people in the church and endeavoring furtively and deceitfully to steal away those not yet made firm in the faith. By persuasiveness in word and by the snares and intricacies of argumentation they lead astray those of simpler disposition and damage the vines. For this reason he bids those exercising the teaching role to hunt them down and ensnare them with the arguments of the truth and rid the blossoming vines of this damage.

COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

Song of Solomon 2:16

They who are blessed by the boons of God and have learned to know these passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly carry on their lips this his dearest name and cry in the words of the Song of Songs, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”

LETTER 146