Aimee Byrd

Well, that question could provoke a whole book of its own. One of the more common responses to me when I talk about how the Song of Songs is a book that ministers deeply to me, followed by either the awkward laughter or awkward silence, is the question about how one is even supposed to approach this book of the Bible. How do you read it? Is it linear? Is it a bunch of poems chopped up and compiled together? I think that many look at it as some sort of secret code about sex in which the key is lost.

If you’ve read any of my posts on the Song, you see both an allegorical and canonical approach. We can’t begin to understand sexuality until we get the point. Peter Leithart explains it like this:

Sex is allegory, and as allegory it is metaphysics and theology and cosmology. For Christians, sexual difference and union is a type of Christ and the church: How could an erotic poem (and in the Bible!) be anything but allegory? From the Song we relearn that poetic metaphor does not add meaning to what is itself mere chemistry and physics. Nor is erotic poetry a euphemistic cover for Victorian embarrassment. Poetry elucidates the human truth of human sexuality, and it seems uniquely capable of doing so. Only as allegory does the Song have anything to teach us about sex. Only as allegory can the Song play its central role in healing our sexual imaginations.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The allegorical and canonical approach guide us in interpretation, but what is its literary structure? It’s a song. And it’s the Song of all songs! And it is brilliantly written. With all the differing analyses out there, I find David Dorsey’s[1] the most helpful. He builds off the work of J. Cheryl Exum and William Shae, as he finds the lyrics forming seven cycles with internal cohesion within each unit, each ending in a refrain or concluding line and scene shift.

Six of the seven feature internal structures that are chiastic; and all but two are septenary. The seven constituent units of the book form a very obvious chiasm, at the center of which is, quite fittingly, 3.6-5.1, the Wedding Scene (if indeed it is that) and the book’s dramatic high point (4.16—5.1).

I’ve mapped out the structure suggested by Dorsey, along with some of his observations, and it has been enlightening. I don’t have space to do all that here, but I thought it interesting just to show what the Song is even telling us in its literary structure. Here are just a few quick notes on the 7 cycles. Even though the center of each chiasm often isn’t necessarily the emphasized point of its unit like the center of the over-all chiastic structure of the book is, I find them together telling us something. It’s also interesting to look at the mirroring qualities of the chiastic structure of the book. And it’s notable how many 7’s there are in the literary architecture and expressions.[2] Completeness. Perfection. Each unit has a pattern of seeking and finding with expressions of desire, except the last one, beginning with their unity and ending with her calling him to the spice-laden mountains which her body represents. Maranatha!

1^st chiasm/cycle: 1:2—2:7

Main Speaker: woman

Septenary

The center of the chiasm is the man’s voice (1:15):

How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

2^nd chiasm/cycle: 2:8—2:17

Main Speaker: Groom

7 participles (2:6-2:7)

The center of the chiasm is mainly the man’s voice, bookended by the woman’s (2:10—2:15)

Woman: My love calls to me.

Man: Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one. For now the winter is past; the rain has ended and gone away. The blossoms appear in the countryside. The time of singing has come, and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines give off their fragrance. Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

My dove is in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.

Woman: Catch the foxes for us—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom.

3^rd chiasm/cycle (3:1—3:5)

Speaker: woman

Septenary

Center of chiasm: 3b

I asked them “Have you seen the one I love?”

4^th chiasm/cycle (3:6—5:1)

Main speaker: Groom

Septenary

7 items (3:7—3:10)

7 body parts (4:1—4:5)

7 lofty places (4:8)

7 more admirable parts of woman (4:9—15)

The end of the unit, spoken by narrator (or Yahweh?) centers the Song:

Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!

Center of chiasm and of all seven cycles (4:7):

You are absolutely beautiful, my darling; there is no imperfection in you.

5^th chiasm/cycle (5:2—7:10)

Multiple speakers

Mirrors qualities with the 3^rd unit: both begin with woman in bed dreaming (?), night scene, streets of the city, guardians find her and are neglectful or abusive.

Septenary

10 parts of adoration of the Groom, from head down (5:11—5:16)

10 parts of adoration of the woman, from feet up (7:1-6)

Center of Chiasm, Groom is praising woman’s face (6:4-9):

You are beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, lovely as Jerusalem, awe-inspiring as an army with banners. Turn your eyes away from me, for they captivate me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming up from washing, each one having a twin, and not one missing. Behind your veil, your brow is like a slice of pomegranate. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and young women without number. But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique; she is the favorite of her mother, perfect to the one who gave her birth. Women see her and declare her fortunate; queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises.

6^th cycle, no chiasm (7:11—8:4)

Linear, 3 parts

The woman’s invitation

Mirroring qualities to the 2^nd chiasm/cycle:

In the 2^nd cycle, man gives invitation, in the 6^th it is the woman’s invitation

In the 2^nd cycle, man asks to hear her voice, in the 6^th we hear only the woman’s voice

Both have blosoming flowers, fragrance, possible mother’s house, wall/door, wine/vineyards. Neither are septenary.

7^th chiasm/cycle (8:5-14)

Chiastic heptad

Begins and ends with the two together

Mirroring qualities with 1^st chiasm: brothers, vineyard, woman’s worth, daughters of Jerusalem, alternating speakers, eyes, Song begins and ends with woman’s voice, immodestly calling her beloved to her. Both speak of silver, cedar, apple tree, breasts, vineyards, exclusive love, and Solomon is mentioned by name (which only happens again in center unit of Song, tying them together).

Chiastic center: brothers and the bride (8:8-10):

Brothers: Our sister is young; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on that day she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build a silver barricade on her. If she is a door, we will enclose it with cedar planks.

Woman: I am a wall and my breasts are towers. So in his eyes I have become like one who finds peace.

The chiastic center of the outer units, 1 and 7, both refer to their lover’s eyes. In the 1^st, the Groom tells the woman she has dove’s eyes. This is interesting because the dove in Scripture is used as a sign of the Spirit. As Gregory of Nyssa says, “Hence the most perfect praise of eyes is that the form of their life is shaped in conformity with the grace of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is a dove.”[3] When Christ looks at his bride, he sees himself. It is also foreshadowing. “God is within her; she will not be toppled” (Ps. 46:5). So, the bride can use the language of a fortress when she describes herself at the end of the Song, looking into his eyes. “I am a wall and my breasts are towers. So in his eyes I have become like one who finds peace.” She finds peace (the true Solomon) in the Bridegroom’s eyes. And as he says in that 1^st chiastic center, “How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful!”

The penultimate units, 2 and 6, are the only ones corresponding without the septenary structure. In the 2^nd unit, the man invites the woman out to the countryside, and she is shy, yet playful. The center of the unit invites all of our senses into this invitation. Desire is blossoming and potent. And yet, gentle and tender in seeking consent. The 6^th is the only linear unit, dominant with the woman’s invitation building on itself from the familiar blossoming countryside to her mother’s house, Zion.

We’ve got the night scenes in units 3 and 5, explaining not only Israel’s and the church’s history, but addressing our own experiences of abuse and neglect when it doesn’t seem like our Groom is there. “Have you seen the one I love?” We learn that he is with his people, the lilies, all along. He sees. “You are beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, lovely as Jerusalem, awe-inspiring as an army with banners.” With a focus on our Lord, we get back up. We hear who we are. And the world will see as well. Even queens “see her and declare her fortunate.”

And that middle. There it is. There’s so much. But right there in the center of the whole chiastic structuring of the Song, we hear what we long for: “You are absolutely beautiful, my darling; there is no imperfection in you.” The union of Christ and his bride is blessed by the Father himself, “Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!”

The Song is telling us a heck of a lot about God’s love for his people. While I usually love to write more on its metaphors, symbols, imagery, allegory, intertextual references, echoes, and allusions, literary structuring shows us how it all centers around that beautiful center—intimate presence with the Son, desire restored and fulfilled, and communion with the triune God.

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[1] David. A. Dorsey, LITERARY STRUCTURING IN THE SONG OF SONGS, JSOT, 46 (1990) 81-96.

[2] There are words that are mentioned 7 times in the Song as well, not mentioned here.

[3] Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Song of Songs, Homily 7.