Ancient precedent would bar those under thirty from reading the Song of Songs. While Mitchell doesn’t take so firm a stance in this commentary, he does acknowledge that the Song is one of the most difficult scriptural books to interpret. Read intertextually with Ephesians 5:21-33, Christ’s wedding parables, and New Testament nuptial imagery, Mitchell’s translation understands the lovers in the song in relation to the holy estate of human marriage and the divine mystery of Christ’s union with his bride the church, using a robust hermeneutic and incorporating insights from early church fathers and orthodox Lutheran theologians. 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.

Features

• Essays on the Pastoral applications of the Song
• Topical studies on theological themes of the sacraments, sexuality, and the vineyard
• Hermeneutical approaches to justification, Christology, and more in the Song

Additional Essays

• Biblical support for Christology in the Old Testament
• Is Marriage an Allegory, a Type, a Sacrament, a Prophetic Sign, an Analogy, or What?
• On the Historical settings of the Song