Song of Songs: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture (Concordia Commentary | CC)
Overview
This commentary interprets the Song with reference to the holy estate of human marriage and the great mystery of Christ’s union with his betrothed bride, the Church. Solomon’s most beautiful poem contains a profound message of divine love, eschatological yearning, consummation, and eternal delights, with rich applications for the life of the Church and all Christians. A major portion of this commentary is devoted to hermeneutics and the development of a method of Old Testament interpretation that is Christological, ecclesiological, sacramental, and eschatological. This work also incorporates insights from early church fathers and the few Orthodox Lutheran theologians from previous centuries who have expounded the Song so as to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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- Bibliographical references and index
- Preface by the author
- A theological exposition of sacred Scripture
Top Highlights
“A distinctive feature of this commentary (which may mark it as Lutheran) is the insistence that the divine love celebrated in the Song has its source in the incarnation, unblemished life, vicarious suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is not one source of divine love among many; he is the fount, and all other sources or springs portrayed in Scripture (whether in the OT or the NT) ultimately well up from him.” (Page 5)
“An analogical hermeneutic interprets the Song’s love poetry in light of the analogy in Scripture between God’s love and the human love engendered by it and manifested in the lives of God’s people.” (Page 5)
“This commentary proposes a hermeneutic that can be described with the adjectives Christological and analogical” (Page 4)
“Against this world’s moral decay, the Song extols God’s joyful blessing upon a man and woman who fully enjoy the manifold delights of a relationship lived within God’s ordained boundaries of premarital chastity and marital fidelity. That the couple married is stated in Song 3:11. That the Shulammite remained a virgin until her marriage and remained faithful to her husband within that marriage is declared in metaphorical language in Song 4:12–5:1 and 8:10, among other passages. The Song extols the Shulammite as the model for the life of the believer because of her fidelity.34 The Song also holds out the offer of God’s forgiveness for those who have been promiscuous.35 Thus the message of the Song is one of Law and Gospel, in which the Gospel predominates.” (Page 10)
“The ultimate point of reference—the definitive interpretive context—will always be the cross and empty tomb of Jesus Christ.” (Page 4)
- Title: Concordia Commentary: Song of Songs
- Author: Christopher W. Mitchell
- Publisher: Concordia
- Publication Date: 2003
- Pages: 1,344
Reviews
1 rating
Marco Ceccarelli
3/28/2021
The large number of pages is already an indication that there is a mine of information in the book; and this is certainly appreciable. It is yet a pity that the writer's interpretative approach is a bit "fundamentalist" in the sense that he limits himself to making a reading (mainly) on the basis of the Christ-Church allegory, when instead one should at least start from the Old Testament context of the history of salvation and of the covenant relationship between God and israel. Not to mention that the commentator considers Solomon as the author of the canticle, which overlooks the fact that the text clearly alludes to the condition of the exile
