A Handbook on the Song of Songs
Overview
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“Partly due to scholarly advances such as the discovery of similar material in Egypt, and to the fact that very few of the allegorical interpretations agree with one another, there has been a general move away from this approach. Today many scholars conclude that the Song is a serious collection of poems about human love.” (Page 4)
“The young woman is asking where her lover might be because she does not want to have to hide her identity like a prostitute in order to spend time with him.” (Page 34)
“In Jewish tradition the Song of Songs has become the text appointed for reading on the Eighth Day of Passover.” (Page 1)
“Clearly we have to admit that the origins of Song of Songs are obscure.” (Page 3)
“In the culture and language of the Hebrews, a name is more than the sound by which we identify a person or object; it includes the nature of the person or thing so identified, together with their reputation. From this perspective the young woman praises her lover by referring to his reputation in the community. This means that tev ‘the sound of your name’ is rather limited, as name has a much more profound meaning.” (Page 21)
- Title: A Handbook on the Song of Songs
- Authors: Graham S. Ogden and Lynell Zogbo
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 266