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Pentecost
Wisdom / Poetry

Song of Songs

Also known as: Song of Solomon, Canticles

Old TestamentWisdom tradition; traditionally SolomonHebrew

Song of Songs is a poetic celebration of love and desire. Jewish and Christian readers have also heard in it the deeper mystery of covenant love between God and his people.

Song of Songs — manuscript, icon, or classical biblical art from Wikimedia Commons.
Southern France, Toulouse(?), 13th century - Fol. 249v, Song of Songs, historiated initial O, theVirgin and Child - 2008.2.249.b - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif — https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.2.249.b

Why Song of Songs Matters

Song of Songs is a poetic celebration of love and desire. Jewish and Christian readers have also heard in it the deeper mystery of covenant love between God and his people.

The book's central themes include love, desire, covenant delight, and spiritual interpretation. Read inside the whole canon, those themes are not isolated topics but part of Scripture's unified witness to God's covenant work and to Christ.

Canonical Reception

Song of Songs is received across the Christian traditions and belongs to the Hebrew Scriptures. Its place in the canon anchors how the Church reads its witness to Christ. In this entry it is marked as recognized in the Protestant canon, the Roman Catholic canon, Eastern Orthodox canons, Oriental Orthodox canons, the Hebrew Bible.

Reading With The Church

A faithful reading of Song of Songs asks first what the text says in its own setting, then how its words are received in the full scriptural economy. The goal is not to flatten historical context into later theology, but to hear the book as part of the one biblical canon read by the Church.

Key Passages
  • Song of Songs 2:16
  • Song of Songs 4:7
  • Song of Songs 8:6-7