Exposition of the Song of Solomon

“Explanation of the Song of Solomon” is 15 conversations delivered by St. Gregory of Nyssa during the service and recorded by his listeners. Around 389, he edited these notes at the request of Deaconess Olympias, to whom he dedicated the final version of the interpretation. In the preface of St. Gregory defends against some church exegetes the need for an allegorical interpretation of Holy Scripture. The saint offers his “mystical interpretation” of this biblical book, depicting under the symbol of spiritual marriage the unity of the human soul with Christ. The highest degree of such a union is the “frenzy of the mind”, achieved through the “divine and sober intoxication” of the soul united with God in a spiritual union. In accordance with this, the entire content of the book is given a mysterious meaning: the groom is Christ, the dove is the Church, the descent of the groom into the garden is the sacrament of the incarnation, the kiss is the closest union of Christ with the soul, etc. St. Gregory reflected in this work the very essence of his own religious mood and expounded the doctrine of ecstasy. As moral purification progresses, the soul comprehends God more and more. But each achieved level of knowledge of God opens up a number of new steps for her. The object of her desire each time “flies away from the embrace of her thoughts,” only arousing an even greater thirst for knowledge. This long process ends in ecstasy. The state of ecstasy itself is characterized by the following features: 1) it comes suddenly and unexpectedly for a person; 2) a person’s thought detaches itself from sensory views and rational concepts; 3) the change of feelings and thoughts, reminding a person of time, stops for a moment, and his soul comes into contact with motionless eternity; 4) the state of ecstasy is similar to “intoxication or the frenzy of the mind possessed by wine”; 5) in ecstasy, a person cognizes the essence of God, and not just His activities. But even in a state of ecstasy, the knowledge of God’s being comes down to the knowledge of the incomprehensibility and sinlessness of God. *The title of the work in Greek is ᾿Εξήϒησις τοῦ ῎Αισματος τῶν ᾿Αισμάτων. *The title of the work in Latin is Homiliae in Canticum canticorum. Contents Preface. For the Olympics And to your honest life and to your pure soul, I considered it fitting to carefully study the Song of Songs, with the intention, as you both personally and in writing explained to us, with a proper review of the book, to make explicit the wisdom hidden in the sayings, cleared by sound concepts from the literal, at first glance, word meaning. Why do I willingly agree that your concern for this will not only be useful to you for your morality (for I am sure that the eye of your soul is pure from every passionate and impure thought, and in these Divine sayings it freely sees unalloyed mundaneness), but will even serve as a kind of guidance for people who are more carnal, so that they too can come to the spiritual and immaterial state of the soul, to which this book leads with its hidden wisdom. But since it seems to some of those who belong to the Church that it is a general rule to adhere to the letter of the Holy Scripture, and they do not agree that anything is said in it for our benefit in mysterious ways and in hints: then I consider it necessary, first of all, to justify ourselves in this before those who accuse us, and namely, that we do not do anything inappropriate, trying in every possible way to grasp in the Divine and God-inspired Scripture what is useful for us; so, if some literal reading is useful, understood in the sense in which it is said, then we already have in readiness what is required: if something said with secrecy, mysteriously and presumably does not serve any benefit according to the closest understanding, then such sayings, as the word that teaches us in parables prescribes, we will take in a different meaning, understanding what was said, either as a parable, or as a “dark word”, or as “sayings” wise”, or as one of the riddles (Proverbs 1:6). And according to the science of interpretation, whether anyone wants to call it the use of speech, or allegory, or something else, let us not argue about the name, just to adhere to useful understandings. For the great Apostle, when he says that “the Law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14), also includes historical narratives under the name of Law, so that all inspired Scripture for those who read it is the Law, not only by explicit commandments, but also by historical narratives, meaning deeply teaching the conduct of the mysteries and a pure way of life. The Apostle uses the method of interpretation whatever he pleases, meaning what is useful; and does not care about the name that should be given to the method of interpretation. On the contrary, intending to turn history into proof of the dispensation of covenants, in one place he says that he “changes his voice” (Gal. 4:20); and then, having mentioned Abraham’s other children, born to him from a slave and from a free woman, he calls the view of them an allegory (Gal. 4:24); also, having outlined some historical events, he says: “Images were received by them; and they were written for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10, 11); and having also said that “the mouth of the threshing ox should not be blocked”, he added that it is not “God wills”, but “for our sake everything has been written” (1 Cor. 9:9-10); and in another place he calls less clear understanding and knowledge partly “a mirror and fortune-telling” (1 Cor. 13:12); and also calls the transition from the physical to the mental turning to the Lord and removing the veil (2 Cor. 3:16). In all these different ways and names of rational views, Paul teaches us one type of teaching, which must not necessarily stop at the letter, so that at first glance the apparent meaning of what is said about a virtuous life could harm us in many ways, but, on the contrary, moves on to an immaterial and mental view, so that carnal concepts change in meaning and understanding after the carnal meaning of what is said is shaken off like dust. And for this reason the Apostle says that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6): since history (that is, in Scripture), if we dwell on bare events, in many places presents us with examples of bad life. For what benefit in relation to virtue will the Prophet Hosea, giving birth to “children of wickedness” (Hos. 1:2), and Isaiah, entering “to the prophetess” (Is. 8:3), bring to the listener, if anyone stops at the letter of what was said? Or how much will the stories about David contribute to a valiant life, how adultery and murder come together into one crime? But if there is any basis showing the blamelessness of what was arranged by this, then the word of the Apostle will turn out to be true, that “the letter kills,” since it contains examples of evil deeds, “but the spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6), because the concept that was initially presented and worthy of condemnation is translated into Divine meanings. We know that the Word Himself, worshiped by all creation, when in human likeness and form through the medium of flesh communicated the Divine secrets, so revealed to us the meaning of the law, that the two people whose testimony is true, according to His word, are He Himself and the Father (John 8:17-18); and the copper serpent placed on high, which for the people served as a cure for deadly remorse, according to His explanation, is the dispensation completed for us on the cross. And He teaches His holy disciples themselves the subtleties of understanding in hidden and secret words, in parables, in similitudes, in dark sayings, in legends offered mysteriously, although he interpreted this for them in private, explaining what was said unclearly, and sometimes, if they did not understand the meaning of what was said, he blamed their slowness and inability to understand. For when the Lord commanded them to abstain from the leaven of the Pharisees, and they were thoughtlessly looking at their bags, in which they did not bring grain supplies, then he reproaches them as if they did not understand that the leaven meant teaching. And again, when the disciples offered Him a meal, and the Lord answered: “It is food for the Imam to eat, of which you do not know” (John 4:32), and they assumed that he was talking about bodily food brought to Him from another place, then he interpreted His word that the fulfillment of the saving will is a suitable and appropriate meal for Him. And in the Gospel sayings you can collect thousands of such passages that in them something else appears at first glance, and the meaning of what is said relates to something else. So, for example, we should understand the water, which He promised to the thirsty, that believers would become sources of rivers from it (John 7:38); as well as “the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:33), the church being destroyed and erected “in three days” (John 2:19), “the way” (John 14:6), “the door” (John 10:7), “the stone”, which is considered nothing by those who build it and is set as the cornerstone (Matt. 21:42), two “on one bed” (Luke 17:34), grinding millstones: one taken, the other abandoned (Matt. 24:41), “a carcass of eagles” (Matt. 24:28), a fig tree becoming succulent and branches vegetating (Matt. 24:32). Let all this and the like be an incentive for us to use Divine sayings and test them, to be attentive when reading and in every way to investigate whether there is somewhere a word that is above the understanding that appears at first glance, guiding the thought to the Divine and incorporeal. Therefore, we are confident that the tree forbidden to eat is not the fig tree, as some have claimed, or any other fruitful tree. For if the fig tree was deadly then, then, of course, it would not serve as food now. Moreover, we learned from the Master’s saying, which decisively teaches that nothing “entering the mouth” can defile “a person” (Matthew 15:11). On the contrary, we are looking for some other meaning in the law that would be worthy of the greatness of the Lawgiver. And if we hear that paradise is the work of God’s planting, and that in the midst of paradise the tree of life is planted, then from the Revealer of hidden secrets we try to find out what kind of plants the Father is the worker and planter of, and how is it possible in the very middle of paradise for there to be two trees, the tree of salvation and the tree of destruction? For the exact middle, as in the circumference of a circle, must, of course, be in one center. If, on any side of the center, another center is placed, then, of all necessity, the entire circle will move along with the center, so that the former center will no longer be the middle. So, if there was only one paradise there, then why does Scripture say that, although each of the trees was presented separately, nevertheless, in the middle there was both, while how strange it is for the deadly one to be a planting of God, which is taught by the same Scripture, which states that all the works of God are “very good” (Gen. 1:31)? If someone does not see the truth in this with the help of wisdom, then to those unable to reason it will seem that what has been said is untenable and fabulous. And it would take a long time to collect what is found in each of the Prophets, as, for example, Micah says that “in the last days a mountain will be revealed above the tops of the mountains” (Micah 4:1), but he refers to the mountain as the mystery of piety, revealed to the destruction of the opposing forces. Why does the exalted Isaiah say that a rod and a flower arise from the root (Is. 11:1), thereby indicating the appearance of the Lord in the flesh? Or what is the meaning, according to the literal meaning, of the great David, “a mountain strewn with darkness” (Psalm 67:16), or “a chariot of darkness” (Psalm 67:18), or “a host of youths” left “among the young men of men” (Psalm 67:31), or a foot dipped “in blood”, or “the tongues of dogs” (Psalm 67:24), or Lebanon, like a calf, shed with cedars (Psalm 28:6)? And besides this, it is possible, from the rest of the prophecy, collecting thousands of passages, to teach the need for such a view of sayings in relation to their meaning, rejecting which, as some would like, in my opinion, everyone will act like someone who offers a grain plant as food to a person at a meal, without processing it, without threshing the ear, without separating the grains from the chaff on a winnowing machine, without grinding the grain into flour and without preparing the bread in the proper way to bake bread. Therefore, just as unprocessed growth constitutes food for livestock, and not for people; so another may say that the food of foolish rather than intelligent people consists of divinely inspired sayings not prepared by a more subtle review, and not only the sayings of the Old Testament, but even many in the Gospel teaching, such as: “the spade that consumes the threshing floor” (Matthew 3:12), the chaff that is blown away by the wind, the wheat that remains at the feet of the winner, “unquenchable fire”, a good granary, a tree bearing bad fruit, a wreath with an ax, menacingly indicating the cutting of trees (Matthew 3:10), stones transformed into human nature (Matthew 3:9). Let this be written by me for your prudence, as a kind of written justification before those who make it a law in Divine sayings not to look for anything more than their immediate literal meaning. If we wanted to commit our work to paper after Origen, who labored diligently on this book, then let no one accuse us of this, bearing in mind the Divine saying of the Apostle, who says: “Everyone will receive his reward according to his labor” (1 Cor. 3:8). But I did not write this for show; on the contrary, since much of what was said in the Church was noticed out of curiosity by some of those around us, I took this, that, everything that was coherent in their remarks, taking from them, and others that necessarily required addition, adding from myself, I compiled this interpretation, in the form of conversations; following the passage he read, offering a review of what was said, he used as much leisure time for this as time and business permitted during these days of fasting; because in their continuation this word was prepared by us for the hearing of the people. If the continuation of life and a peaceful state are granted to us by the Giver of life - God, then perhaps we will strive for the rest, because now our word and review have already reached half. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us all forever and ever! Amen You might be interested in: