Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.101–2.114

"Your name is an ointment emptied out. Therefore the young maidens have loved you and drawn you after them. We shall run after the fragrance of your ointments." The historical exposition runs on in the present passage as in what preceded, until there is some change of characters; for the order of the drama which we have adopted in this exposition requires it. Certainly a kind of prophecy about Christ may be seen in these words, spoken in the person of the bride: what was to happen at the coming of our Lord and Saviour, that his name would be so spread through the globe of the earth and the whole world that it would become a fragrance of sweetness in every place; as the Apostle too said: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ in every place; to some a fragrance from death to death, to others a fragrance from life to life." For if it had been a fragrance from life to life for all, he would surely have said here too: "All have loved you and drawn you." But as it is he says: when your name became an ointment emptied out, those who loved you were not the aged souls clothed with the old man, having wrinkles and spots, but the young maidens, that is, souls set in the growth of age and beauty, who are always being made new and are renewed day by day, putting on the new man who was created according to God.

For the sake of these young maidens, then, who are set in the growth of life's progress, he who was in the form of God emptied himself, so that his name might become an ointment emptied out; so that he might no longer only dwell in unapproachable light and remain in the form of God, but that the Word might become flesh, so that these young maidens, the souls set in the growth of progress, might not only love him but also draw him to themselves. For each soul draws and takes the Word of God to itself according to the measure of its capacity and faith. And when souls have drawn the Word of God to themselves and planted him in their perceptions and understandings, and have felt the sweetness of his delight and fragrance, when they have caught the fragrance of his ointments, that is, have recognized the reason for his coming, the causes of redemption and passion, and the charity by which he, the immortal, went even to the death of the cross for the salvation of all, then, invited by all these as by the scents of some divine and ineffable ointment, the young maidens, that is, souls made full of vigour and eagerness, run after him, and hasten toward the fragrance of his sweetness not with slow step or tardy pace but with swift course and all speed; as he too who said, "So I run that I may lay hold." As for the saying, "Your name is an ointment emptied out; therefore the young maidens have loved you and drawn you after them; we shall run after the fragrance of your ointments": the young maidens draw Christ to themselves, if it is understood of the churches, which is one when it is perfect, but many young maidens while they are still being instructed and making progress. These, then, draw Christ to themselves through faith; for when Christ sees two or three gathered in faith in his name, he goes there and is in their midst, drawn by their faith and called forth by their unanimity. But if this is to be understood in the third exposition, of the soul following the Word of God, then whatever soul has been instructed first in moral matters, and secondly trained in natural matters, through all the things which we showed above are taught in these disciplines, its very amendment of conduct, its learning in things, and the uprightness of its discipline draw the Word of God to it, and he is gladly drawn; for he comes most willingly to instructed souls, and graciously allows himself to be drawn by them, and kindly consents.

I ask, indeed: if his name alone, because it became an ointment emptied out, has done so great a work and so roused the young maidens that first they drew him to themselves, and having him with them caught the fragrance of his ointments and at once ran after him; if, I say, all this was brought about by his name alone, what do you think his very substance will do? What power, what vigour will these young maidens receive from it, if in some way they can at some time reach his incomprehensible and ineffable substance itself? I think that if they ever reach this, they will no longer walk or run, but, bound by certain bonds of his charity, will cling to him, so that no room for any movement remains in them any longer, but they are one spirit with him, and what is written is fulfilled in them: "As you, Father, are in me and I in you, and we are one, so may these also be one in us." But now for the present, as it seems, the bride, having joined to herself many young maidens, of whom it is said later on that there is no number, records that she runs toward the fragrance of the bridegroom's ointments, captivated by one sense only, that is, by smell; whether because she herself still needs running and progress, or because she herself is perfect but confesses that she too runs for the sake of these young maidens who still need running and progress; as he too who, though not himself under the law, yet became as under the law in order to win those under the law, and again, though he was under the law of Christ, yet to those without the law became as without the law himself, in order to save those without the law. And this happens, as we said, when only his fragrance has as yet been received. What do you think they will do when the Word of God has taken possession of their hearing and sight and touch and taste, and has supplied to each sense powers from himself suited to their nature and capacity? So that the eye, if it can see his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, will no longer wish to see anything else, nor the hearing to hear anything other than the Word of life and salvation. And whoever's hands have handled the Word of life will handle nothing material, nothing fragile and perishable any more; nor will the taste, when it has tasted the good Word of God and his flesh and the bread that came down from heaven, allow itself to taste anything else after this.

For because of his sweetness and delight every other flavour will seem harsh and bitter to it, and therefore it will feed on this alone. For whatever sweetness it desires it will find in him, since he makes himself suited and fit for all things. Thus for those who are born again of incorruptible seed he becomes reasonable milk without guile; for those who are weak in some respect he offers himself as vegetables, for the friendship and favour of hospitality. But for those who, according to their capacity for receiving, have senses trained to distinguish good and evil, he offers himself as solid food. And if there are any who have come out of Egypt and, following the pillar of fire and cloud, have come into the desert, he comes down to them from heaven, offering them a fine and delicate food like that of angels, so that man eats the bread of angels. He has many other and countless differences of food in himself, which meanwhile one who is clothed with skin and flesh, bones and sinews cannot receive. But whoever is found worthy to depart and be with Christ, and who, having been found faithful in little, will be set over much, will taste and receive the delight of the Lord, being led to a certain place which, because of such abundance and variety of foods, is called the place of delights. For this reason too he is said to have been placed in Eden, which means delights. For there it will be said to him: "Take delight in the Lord." And he will take delight not in the one sense of eating and tasting only, but will take delight in hearing and sight, and in touch and smell. For he will run toward the fragrance of his ointment.

And so whoever has come to the height of perfection and blessedness will take delight with all his senses in the Word of God. Hence, being in these passages, we beg those who hear them to mortify their carnal senses, so as not to take anything of what is said according to the movements of the body, but to bring those diviner senses of the inner man to grasp these things; as Solomon teaches us, saying: "You will find a divine sense." And as Paul too writes to the Hebrews about the perfect, as we mentioned above, that they have senses trained to distinguish good and evil; showing that there are in man, besides these bodily senses, five others too, which are acquired by training and are said to be trained when they examine the understanding of things with keener sharpness. For what the Apostle says about the perfect, that they have senses trained to distinguish good and evil, is not to be heard carelessly or at random. To make this clearer, let us take an example, if you will, from these bodily senses, and then at once come to those divine senses which scripture names the senses of the inner man. If the bodily eye has the exercise of sight with no obstacle in the way, it will perceive the colours, sizes and qualities of bodies wholly and without any falsehood. But if sight is hindered by darkness or some other weakness, it will think red to be white and green black, or something straight when it is crooked and twisted; the judgment of the mind will without doubt be confused, and one thing will be done for another. So too the inner sight, unless it has been trained by instruction and diligence so that through much experience it has the discernment of good and evil, but ignorance and inexperience have fallen on its eyes like darkness, or the sickness of some wickedness has come upon it as on bleary eyes, cannot see the difference between good and evil at all; and so it will come about that it does evil things instead of good and spurns good things as if evil. According to this pattern which we have treated concerning the sight of the body and of the soul, you will consequently also recognize clearly, regarding hearing, taste, smell and touch, by referring each of the powers of the bodily senses of its own kind to the senses of the soul, what exercises should be applied to each, or what amendment should be provided. We have pursued these matters in a somewhat broader digression, wishing to show that the sense of smell of the bride and the young maidens, by which they smelled the fragrance of the bridegroom's ointments, is said not of the bodily sense, but of that divine sense of smell of the one who is called the inner man.

This sense of smell, then, where it is sound and whole, on receiving the fragrance of Christ leads from life to life. But if it is not sound, on receiving this fragrance it casts down from death to death, according to him who said: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ, to some from life to life, to others a fragrance from death to death." Indeed, those skilled in the knowledge of herbs and perfumes say that there are certain perfumes at whose scent some animals die at once, while others are refreshed by the same scent and recover life. So now too, in these very expositions and discourses which we have in hand, there seems to be life from life for some, and death from death for others. For if the one called the natural man, who cannot perceive and understand the things of the Spirit of God, hears these things expounded in this way, he will without doubt laugh, and declare them foolish and empty, saying that dreams rather than the causes of things and divine doctrines are being treated. For these, then, this fragrance of the Song of Songs is declared to be from death to death, that is, from the death of unbelief to the death of judgment and condemnation. But to those who follow the spiritual and subtle sense, and understand that there is greater truth in the things that are not seen than in those that are seen, and that invisible and spiritual things are held truer with God than visible and bodily things, such an understanding will without doubt seem worth embracing and following. For they recognize that such is the way of understanding the truth by which one comes to God. But if the one who judges these things foolish and laughable is a stranger to the faith, it is no wonder. But if he is one of those who seem to believe and accept the authority of the scriptures, and yet does not accept the form of this spiritual exposition but laughs at it and disparages it, let us try to instruct and persuade him from other passages of the scriptures. If perhaps he can come to his senses in this way, let us say some such things to him: it is written, "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes."

Let him tell us, then, what are the eyes that are enlightened by the light of the commandment. And again: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." What are these ears, such that only one who has them is said to hear the words of Christ? And again: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ to God"; and elsewhere: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." And what another says: "Our hands have handled the Word of life." Do you think he will not be moved by all these to notice that all of them are said not of the bodily senses but of those which we have taught are in each person according to the inner man? Unless one who is like this is driven by the vice of contentiousness and boasting. For since by these vices the inner sight is blinded, the smell is blocked, and the hearing is hardened, he rightly can neither see nor hear spiritual things, nor catch this fragrance of Christ. Having now received it, these young maidens, in whom this sense was quite sound and vigorous, run after him toward the fragrance of his ointments, and do not faint as they run or grow weary, because, refreshed by the sweetness of his fragrance, which is from life to life, they continually grow stronger. The saying "Your name is an ointment emptied out; therefore the young maidens have loved you" can also be taken in this way. The only-begotten Son of God, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself and took the form of a servant. He emptied himself, no doubt, of the fullness in which he was. Those, then, who say that we have all received of his fullness are the young maidens, who, receiving of that fullness of which he emptied himself, so that his name became an ointment emptied out, say: "We shall run after you toward the fragrance of your ointments." For unless he had emptied out the ointment, that is, the fullness of the divine Spirit, and humbled himself to the form of a servant, no one could have received him in that fullness of divinity, except perhaps the bride alone, since she seems to indicate that this ointment emptied out gave cause for love not to herself but to the young maidens.

For she says: "Your name is an ointment emptied out; therefore the young maidens have loved you." As if to say: The young maidens have loved you for this reason, that you emptied yourself of the form of God and your name became an ointment emptied out; but I have loved you not for the ointment emptied out but for the very fullness of the ointments. For she indicates this in the place where she says: "The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." And as for her saying that she too will run after him with the young maidens, I say the reason is that all who are perfect become all things to all, in order to win all, as we have already explained above. "The king has brought me into his chamber; let us exult and rejoice in you." Having shown her bridegroom that the young maidens, captivated by his fragrance, were running after him, and that she too would run with them in order to give them an example in everything, now, as if she had already won the prize of her labour for having run together with those running, she says that she has been brought by the bridegroom, the king, into his chamber, to see there all the royal riches. In this she rightly rejoices and exults, since she has now looked upon the king's secrets and hidden things. This, according to the order of the drama set out, is as it were the historical understanding. But since the subject is the church coming to Christ, or the soul clinging to the Word of God, what else is to be believed to be Christ's chamber and God's storeroom, into which he brings the church or the soul cleaving to him, but his own hidden and secret mind, of which Paul too said: "But we have the mind of Christ, so that we may know the things freely given us by God"? Those are the things which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him.

So when Christ leads the soul into the understanding of his mind, she is said to be brought into the king's chamber, in which are hidden his treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It seems not without meaning that, though she could have said, "My bridegroom has brought me," or "my kinsman," or something of the kind, as is her custom, now, since she was going to say "chamber", she said "the king's chamber" and put no other name in which perhaps someone even of middling rank could be understood. I think the king is named here so that by this name the chamber might be shown to be very rich, being royal and filled with many and immense riches. Very near this, it seems to me, was he too who said that he had been caught up to the third heaven and thence into paradise, and had heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak. For what do you think were those words he heard? Did he not hear them from the king? And did he hear them placed in the chamber, or near the chamber? And I believe those words were such as to urge him to greater progress and to promise him that if he persevered to the end he too could enter the chamber, according to what is also promised through the prophet: "I will give you treasures dark, hidden, unseen; I will open them to you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God, who called your name Israel." So the young maidens run after him and toward his fragrance, each one, however, according to her strength: one more swiftly, another a little more slowly, another lower than the rest and last, another in the first place.

Yet all run, but one is perfect, who runs so as to arrive and alone receive the prize. For she alone it is who says, "The king has brought me into his chamber," whereas before she had spoken not of herself alone but of many: "We shall run after you toward the fragrance of your ointments." So she is brought into the king's chamber and becomes queen, and she it is of whom it is said: "The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, arrayed in many colours." But of these young maidens who ran after her and had remained far behind her in the course of the running, it is said: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her; her companions shall be brought to you; they shall be brought with gladness and exultation, they shall be led into the king's temple." We must also notice this here: just as the king has a certain chamber into which he brings the queen or his bride, so the bride too has her own chamber, into which she is told by the Word of God to enter and shut the door, and so, with all her riches enclosed within that chamber, to pray to him who sees in secret and perceives what wealth, namely the virtues of the soul, the bride has stored within her chamber, so that seeing her riches he may grant her petitions. For to everyone who has, more will be given. As for the words "Let us exult and rejoice in you," they seem to be said in the person of the young maidens, wishing and asking the bridegroom that, just as the bride has attained what is perfect and exults, so they too may deserve to complete their course and come to the king's chamber, so that, having seen and looked on all the things the bride glories in, they too may exult as she does and rejoice in him. Or it may also be taken as said to the bride by the young maidens, congratulating her and promising and asking that they may become sharers in her exultation and gladness. "We shall love your breasts more than wine." The bride, after she was found worthy to receive kisses from the very mouth of the bridegroom and to enjoy his breasts, says to him: "Your breasts are better than wine." But the young maidens, who had not yet come to that blessedness nor received the height of perfection, nor had fulfilled by practice and works the fruits of perfect charity so as to declare from experience that his breasts are good, yet seeing the bride delighted and refreshed by the bridegroom's breasts, that is, by the fountains of wisdom and knowledge that flow from his breasts, and taking the cups of heavenly teaching, as imitators of her perfection and longing to walk in the same footsteps, make a promise and say: "We shall love your breasts more than wine"; that is: We have not yet risen to such perfection as already to love your breasts more than wine, or your breasts that are above wine (the sense will hold either way); yet we have hope, being young maidens, of advancing to the age at which we may not only be fed and nourished from the breasts of the Word of God, but also love the one who nourishes us.

These young maidens, as we have often said, are souls that seem to have been steeped in the first instructions, of value at the beginning, and gladdened as it were by a kind of wine, the teaching of guardians, stewards and a tutor, being little ones; who had it in their power to love wine, but did not yet have the age to be moved or roused by love of the bridegroom's breasts. But when the fullness of time has come, and Christ has advanced in them in age and wisdom, and they have begun to perceive what the bridegroom's breasts are, and what perfection of the Word of God and what fullness of spiritual teaching is signified in them, they even promise that they will love the bridegroom's breasts more than the wine which they now drink as little ones; that is, that they will be more inclined toward the doctrines of Christ, perfect and established in all fullness, than they seem to have been before, whether in general studies or in the teachings of the law and the prophets. "Righteousness has loved you." This too the young maidens seem to me to say, as though making amends for having promised that they will love the bridegroom's breasts more than wine, and not loving them now in the present nor showing the full force of charity.

This saying, then, is like that of people accusing themselves, as those who have not yet cast off all iniquity and come to righteousness, so as to be able already to love the bridegroom's breasts more than wine; knowing that it is unfitting for any iniquity still to remain in one who has come to the perfection of spiritual and mystical teaching. Since, then, the height of perfection consists in charity, and charity admits no iniquity, and where there is no iniquity there is without doubt righteousness, righteousness is therefore rightly said to be what loves the bridegroom. And see whether this is not also why the Saviour said in the Gospel: "If you love me, keep my commandments." If, then, whoever loves Christ keeps his commandments, there is no iniquity in him, but righteousness abides in him; righteousness, then, is what keeps his commandments and loves Christ. And again: if the one who keeps the commandments is the one who loves Christ, and the commandments are kept in righteousness, then it is righteousness that loves Christ; whoever does anything unrighteous neither keeps the commandments nor loves Christ. So it will be that, as much iniquity as there is in us, so far are we from the love of Christ, and so much transgression of his commandments is found in us. And therefore let us set down righteousness as a kind of straight rule, so that if there is any iniquity in us, applying and laying over it the straightedge of God's commandments, whatever is crooked in us, whatever is twisted, may be cut off by the line of this rule, so that it can be said of us too: "Righteousness has loved you." We can also take it in this way, so that what he said, "Righteousness has loved you," seems like saying: Justice has loved you, and truth, and wisdom, and chastity, and each of the virtues. And do not be surprised if we say that it is the virtues that love Christ, since elsewhere we are accustomed to take Christ as the substance of the virtues themselves. You will often find this applied in the divine scriptures according to the places and occasions. For we find that he himself is called justice, and peace, and truth.

And again it is written in the Psalms: "Justice and peace have kissed"; and: "Truth has sprung from the earth, and justice has looked down from heaven." All these he is said to be, and again they are said to embrace him. He is also called the bridegroom, and the same is also named the bride, as is written in the prophecy: "As a bridegroom he has set a crown on me, and as a bride he has adorned me with ornament."

"I am dark and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the skins of Solomon." In other copies we read: "I am black and beautiful." Here again the person of the bride is brought on speaking, but speaking not to those young maidens who usually run with her, but to the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she seems to reply, as to those who had disparaged her ugliness, and to say: I am dark, or black, as far as colour goes, daughters of Jerusalem; but beautiful, if one looks at the inner lines of my features. For the tents of Kedar, she says, which is a great nation, are black, and the name of the nation Kedar itself is interpreted blackness or darkness. The skins of Solomon too are black; yet not for this is the blackness of the skins unbecoming to so great a king in all his glory. So do not reproach me, daughters of Jerusalem, with the fault of my colour, since beauty of body, whether natural or acquired by exercise, is not lacking. This is what the historical drama and the form of the story set out contain. But let us return to the mystical order. This bride who speaks holds the person of the church gathered from the gentiles. The daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she speaks, are those souls who on account of the election of the fathers are called beloved, but enemies on account of the Gospel. These are the daughters of the earthly city of Jerusalem, who, seeing the church from the gentiles, ignoble as she is because she cannot claim the nobility of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, yet forgetting her own people and her father's house and coming to Christ, despise her and belittle her for the lowliness of her birth.

The bride, perceiving that the daughters of the former people reproach her and for this call her black, as one who lacks the brightness of her fathers' instruction, replies to this and says: I am indeed black, daughters of Jerusalem, because I do not descend from the stock of famous men and have not received the illumination of the law of Moses; yet I have my beauty with me. For in me too there is that first thing, that which was made in me in the image of God; and now, coming to the Word of God, I have recovered my beauty. For though you compare me for the darkness of my colour to the tents of Kedar and the skins of Solomon, yet Kedar too descended from Ishmael; for he was born second from Ishmael, and Ishmael was not without a share in the divine blessing. You also compare me to the skins of Solomon, which are none other than the skins of the tabernacle of God; and yet I wonder at you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you wish to reproach me with the blackness of my colour. How have you not remembered what is written in the law, what Miriam suffered, who disparaged Moses when he had taken a black Ethiopian woman as his wife? How do you not know that the outline of that image is now fulfilled in truth in me? I am that Ethiopian woman; I am black indeed because of the lowliness of my birth, but beautiful because of repentance and faith. For I have received into myself the Son of God, I have received the Word made flesh. I have come to him who is the image of God, the firstborn of all creation, who is the brightness of the glory and the radiance of his substance, and I have become beautiful. Why then do you reproach one who turns from sin, which the law surely forbids? And how do you boast in the law while transgressing the law? But since we are in these passages where the church that has come from the gentiles says that she is black and beautiful, although it seems long and laborious to gather from the divine scriptures in which places and in what way the figure of this mystery went before, yet it seems to me that it should not be passed over entirely, but recalled as briefly as possible.