Songs, and the Song of Songs; four dramatis personae

How we have learned through Moses that there are things not only holy, but holy of holies, and others not only sabbaths, but sabbaths of sabbaths — so now too we are taught, Solomon writing, that there are songs not only songs, but a Song of Songs. Blessed indeed is the one who enters the holy place; far more blessed the one who enters the holy of holies. Blessed is the one who keeps sabbaths; more blessed the one who keeps the sabbath of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is the one who understands the songs and sings them — for no one sings except on feast days — yet far more blessed is the one who sings the Song of Songs. And just as the one who enters the holy place still needs many things before he can go into the holy of holies, and the one who keeps the sabbath God appointed for the people still needs much before he can keep the sabbath of sabbaths, so it is hard to find anyone who, passing through all the songs contained in the Scriptures, can rise to the Song of Songs.

You must go out from Egypt, and once you have gone out from the land of Egypt you must cross the Red Sea, so that you can sing the first song: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified. Yet even if you have sung the first song, you are still far from the Song of Songs. Walk the desert land in the spirit until you come to the well that kings dug, and there sing the second song. After that draw near the holy land, and standing on the bank of the Jordan sing Moses’ song: Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Again you must take the land under Jesus as soldiers and inherit the holy land, and let the bee prophesy to you and judge you — for Deborah is interpreted “bee” — so that you may also utter the song that stands in the book of Judges. Climbing next into the volume of Kingdoms, come to the song when David fled from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul and said: The Lord is my firmament and my strength and my refuge and my deliverer. You must reach Isaiah, so that with him you may say: I will sing a song to my beloved of his vineyard. And when you have passed through all these, climb higher still, so that as a soul made fair you may sing with the Bridegroom this Song of Songs.

Of how many persons it is composed I am not sure. Yet as you pray and God reveals, I seem to find four persons in it: the Bridegroom and the Bride; with the Bride, young women; with the Bridegroom, companies of companions. Some things are said by the Bride, some by the Bridegroom, some by the young women, some by the Bridegroom’s companions. It is fitting that at a wedding there should be a throng of young women with the Bride and a crowd of young men with the Bridegroom. Do not look for any of this outside those who have been saved by the preaching of the gospel. Understand Christ as the Bridegroom, and the Church as the Bride without spot or wrinkle, of whom it is written that he might present to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Those who are faithful yet are not of that sort the word has just described, but have somehow attained a measure of salvation — mark them as believing souls, the young women with the Bride. Angels, and those who have come to the perfect man, understand as the men with the Bridegroom. See then four orders for me: the one and the one, and two choirs answering each other — the Bride singing with the young women, the Bridegroom singing with his companions.

And when you have understood this, hear the Song of Songs, and hasten to understand it, and to say with the Bride what the Bride says, so that you may hear what the Bride too has heard. But if you cannot say with the Bride what the Bride said, so as to hear what is spoken to the Bride, hasten at least to be among the Bridegroom’s companions. And if you are still beneath even them, be with the young women who linger in the Bride’s delights. For these are the persons in this book, which is at once a story and a wedding-song; from it the nations too claimed an epithalamium for themselves, and a poem of this kind was taken up — for an epithalamium is what the Song of Songs is. First the Bride prays, and at once in the midst of her prayers she is heard. She sees the Bridegroom present; she sees young women joined to her company. Then the Bridegroom answers her, and after the Bridegroom’s words, while he suffers for her salvation, the companions answer that until the Bridegroom is on his couch and rises from the passion they will make certain ornaments for the Bride.