"Portrait of a Couple as Isaac and Rebecca" (detail),ca.1669; Rembrandt van Rijn (Rijksmuseum)
The Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon) is a long, gorgeous, erotic poem in (of all places) the Bible. Actually a series of poems, it is written primarily in the voices of two young lovers praising and yearning for each other. Although traditional religious interpretation sees the poetry as an allegory for God’s love of humankind, it is undeniably also a celebration of sexual love. Other than to provide a reading for countless wedding ceremonies, what is the Song of Songs doing in the Bible? How does it achieve its poetic effects? And, just in time for Valentine’s Day, how can we read it to best understand its vision of love and love’s place in what it means to be human?
Explore the history and enduring appeal of the Song of Songs with Tod Linafelt, a professor of biblical literature at Georgetown University. A past president of the mid-Atlantic region of the Society of Biblical Literature and a former holder of the Cardin Chair in the Humanities at Loyola University, his most recent book is The Hebrew Bible as Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford).
