The Song of Songs: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators (The Church's Bible)

Rating:
Summary: Make me hear your voice...
Review: The books in this series by Eerdmans, 'The Church's Bible', is part of a series of historical reflections on biblical development and interpretation during the first millennium of Christianity. As the series editor Robert Louis Wilken points out, during that first thousand years, all questions of practice, theology and ethics began with the biblical text. Few are familiar with the richness of commentary and understanding that comes from the scholars, saints and biblical explorers of the first thousand years, the 'undivided' years, of Christendom. This series presents biblical texts laid out with commentary following from the wide variety of writers from that period.

In this particular volume, produced by Richard Norris, the selected commentaries largely come from sermons or interpretations written specifically for the Song of Songs. Many of them, according to Norris, are incomplete - that is, they only concentrate on small portions of the biblical book. Other sources included reference the Song of Songs incidentally or peripherally, yet demonstrate important points about Christian thought from these historical periods.

Wilken provides a series introduction, discussing general Old Testament themes and interpretations, and following this Norris provides a basic introduction to the text and the method of this volume. The main section sets out the text of the Song of Songs in a side-by-side parallel of a translation from the Septuagint and from the Vulgate (the books used by the ancient commentators), followed by passages from the ancient authors. All of these are presented in new translation by Norris into modern English. The pericopes are also introduced with commentary by Norris to set overall context and themes.

There is an appendix with brief biographical information on each of the twenty-one ancient commentators. This include well-known names such as Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, Gregory of Nyssa and Bede the Venerable, but also lesser-known names such as Rupert of Deutz and Apponius (known really only for his commentary on the Song of Songs). Origen is included in the list despite his somewhat problematic relationship with the church.

This is a book designed for scholars, clergy, and others who have a deep and abiding interest in the history the way texts are interpreted. Combined with modern commentaries on the same texts, books of this series can be enlightening and fascinating for the reader to see how much things have changed, and how many things have not.