Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.141–2.154

For this reason, then, in the present passage the bride desires to be enlightened with the full light of knowledge, lest, wandering through ignorance, she become in any way like those schools of teachers which are conducted not through the very wisdom of God but through that of the philosophers and the rulers of this world. For the Apostle too seems to say this where he says that "we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the rulers of this world knew." And again he signifies the same when he says: "For we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given us by God." For this reason, then, the bride of Christ seeks the noonday resting places and asks God for the fullness of knowledge, lest she seem to be like one of the schools of philosophers, which is called veiled, because the fullness of truth is covered and veiled with them. But the bride of Christ says: "But we with unveiled face behold the glory of God." "Unless you know yourself, O good (or beautiful) one among women, go out in the footsteps of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds." Among the other sayings of Chilon, one of the seven whom fame celebrates among the Greeks as outstanding in wisdom, this is reported to be admirable, in which he said: "Know yourself," or "Recognize yourself." Yet Solomon, who, as we showed in our preface, preceded all these in time and in wisdom and knowledge of things, speaking to the soul as to a woman, with a kind of threat, says: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful one among women, and recognize that the causes of your beauty come from this, that you were made in the image of God, through which very much natural beauty is in you; and unless you know how beautiful you were from the beginning; although even now you surpass other women and are called alone beautiful among them, yet unless you know who you are (for I do not want your beauty to seem good by comparison with inferiors, but that you should match yourself, compared and made equal to yourself and your own beauty): if you do not do this, I command you to go out and be placed in the last footsteps of the flocks, and to pasture no longer sheep or lambs but kids, namely those who for their wickedness and wantonness will stand on the left of the king presiding at the judgment.

And when I have shown you, brought into the royal chamber, the things that are the highest goods, if you do not know yourself, I will show you also the things that are the worst evils, so that you may profit from both, as much from fear of evils as from desire of goods. For if you do not know yourself, and live in ignorance of yourself, and pursue no study of knowledge, you will without doubt not even have a tent of your own, but will run about through the tents of the shepherds, and pasture kids now in the tents of this shepherd, now of that, a restless and wandering animal, assigned to sins. And you will suffer these things until you understand by the facts themselves and by experience how great an evil it is for a soul not to know itself, nor its beauty, by which it surpasses the others, not virgins but women, namely those who have suffered corruption and have not remained in the integrity of virginity. These are the things which the bridegroom says, following the order of the drama set before us, after all that the bride had spoken, rousing the bride's mind with a stern threat to care for knowledge of herself. But now let us refer these things, as the rest, to Christ and the church; for he, speaking to his bride, that is, to the souls of believers, has placed the sum of salvation and blessedness in knowledge of oneself. How, then, the soul may know itself, I think cannot be explained either easily or briefly; yet we shall try, as far as we can, to open a few things out of many.

It seems to me, then, that the soul ought to gain knowledge of itself in two ways: what it is, and how it is moved; that is, what it has in its substance and what in its dispositions. For instance, it should understand whether it is of good disposition or not good, of right purpose or not right; and if right, whether it keeps the same course toward all the virtues, as much in understanding as in acting, or only toward the necessary ones and those close at hand. And whether in its state it admits progress, so as to grow in the understanding of things and in the increase of virtues, or stands and rests in what it has been able to reach; and whether it is occupied only with cultivating itself, or is eager to benefit others and contribute something useful, whether by the word of teaching or by the example of deeds. But if it knows that it is not of good disposition or of right purpose, it should understand this very point: whether it is very far off and distant from the way of the virtues, or already set on the road and trying to walk it, desiring to lay hold of what lies ahead and forget what lies behind, but has not yet drawn near; or is near indeed, but has not yet come to perfection. It also seems to be the task of the soul that knows itself to know whether the evils it does it does from disposition and eagerness, or from some frailty, and, as that man says, doing as it were what it does not will and doing what it hates; and again, whether it seems to do good things from its dispositions and right purpose. For example, whether it restrains anger with some people but lets it out with others, or always restrains it and shows it to no one at all. Likewise with sadness: whether in some matters it rejects it but in some admits it, or in all things admits it not at all. So too with fear and the other things that seem contrary to the virtues.

It is also the task of the soul that knows itself to see whether it is very eager for glory, or a little, or not at all. It gathers this from whether it delights in praise much, or moderately, or not at all; and whether it is saddened by reproaches a good deal, or a little, or not at all. In giving and receiving too there are certain signs for the soul that knows itself: whether what it gives and bestows it gives with a disposition to share, as one who is pleased that there should be fairness among men; or, as that man says, out of sadness or necessity, or at least seeking thanks, whether from those who receive or from those who hear. And in receiving, the soul that knows itself will observe whether it regards what it receives with indifference, or rejoices as if over some good. Such a soul will also weigh itself in understanding, to know whether the hearing of any plausible argument easily moves it, and whether it is stolen upon by the art or sweetness or cunning of words, or whether this happens to it rarely or never at all. But let what we have said in this kind of knowledge suffice. For it is possible for one who wishes to gather countless other things like these, by which the soul can know itself, and, if it has been able to repair and restore the beauty which it received at its creation in the image of God, contemplate it. This, then, is what the present saying teaches the soul under the figure of a woman, that it should recognize itself, and it says: "Unless you know yourself"; that is, unless you lead your perceptions through each of the things we have mentioned above, and hold the discernment of each: what is to be done, what avoided, what you lack and what you have in abundance, what must be corrected and what kept; but if you choose to live indifferently among the other souls of men of common life, whom here he calls women, among whom you are beautiful, as one who has already received the kisses of the Word of God and beheld the secrets of his chamber; if, I say, you do not know yourself, but choose to live indifferently like the common crowd, go out in the footsteps of the flocks, that is, be in the rest of the flock; if after all the things that have been conferred on you, you do nothing outstanding, and do not, knowing yourself, set yourself apart from the life of the herd.

And you will be not only in the flock but in the footsteps of the flocks. For whoever has not understood his own pre-eminence will become last and least. And for this reason, when it has neglected knowledge, it must be carried about by every wind of doctrine, to the deception of errors, so that now it pitches its tent with this shepherd, that is, a teacher of the word, now with another; and so it is carried about everywhere, pasturing not sheep, which is a simple animal, but kids, wanton and restless thoughts assigned to sin, cultivating them with various teachers sought out for this very purpose. And this will be the punishment of the fault of that soul which has not been eager to know itself and to follow that one shepherd alone who laid down his life for his sheep. This is one kind in which the soul should understand itself, in its dispositions and acts. But that other part is deeper and more difficult, in which the soul that is already beautiful among women is commanded to know itself. If it can attain this, let it hope for all good things; if not, let it know that it must go out after the footsteps of the flocks and pasture in the tents of shepherds who are strangers to it. Let us see, then, and begin, as far as we can, to discuss the knowledge of this part too.

The divine word says through the prophet: "Light for yourselves the light of knowledge." And among the spiritual gifts one very great gift, which is ministered through the Holy Spirit, is the word of knowledge; and the chief work of this knowledge is that of which it says in the Gospel according to Matthew: "No one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him." In Luke it says thus: "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him." And according to John it is written thus: "As the Father knows me, I also know the Father." And in the forty-fifth psalm it says: "Be still, and know that I am God." So the chief gift of knowledge is to know the Trinity; and in the second place, to know his creation, according to him who said: "For he has given me true knowledge of the things that are, the constitution of the world and the power of the elements, the beginning and end and middle of times," and so on. Among these things, then, there will also be a certain knowledge of itself for the soul, by which it ought to know what its substance is: whether bodily or incorporeal, and whether simple, or composed of two, or three, or more parts. And also, according to the questions of some, whether it was made, or not made by anyone at all; and if it was made, how it was made; whether, as some think, its substance too is contained in the bodily seed, and its origin is passed down together with the origin of the body; or whether it comes perfect from outside and puts on a body already prepared and formed in the woman's womb.

And if so, whether it comes newly created and is made for the first time when the body is seen to be formed, so that the need to animate a body is believed to have been the cause of its making; or whether, made earlier and long ago, it is thought to come for some reason to take a body; and if it is believed to be brought into this by some cause, what that cause is, so that it may be known, is the work of knowledge. And this too is asked: whether it puts on a body only once, and having laid it aside afterwards does not seek it again; or whether, when it has laid aside the body once taken, it takes it up again; and if it takes it a second time, whether it keeps it always, or at some time casts it off again. And if, according to the authority of the scriptures, the consummation of the world is at hand, and this corruptible state will be changed into incorruption, it does not seem doubtful that it cannot come into a body a second or third time in the state of the present life. For if this were accepted, it would necessarily follow that by such successions following one another the world would know no end. And further, the soul should seek knowledge of itself: whether there is some order, or there are some spirits of the same substance as itself, and others not of the same but different from it; that is, whether there are other rational spirits as it is, and others lacking reason; and whether its substance is the same as that of the angels, since the rational is believed in no way to differ from the rational. Or if it is not such by substance, whether it will be such by grace, if it is found worthy; or whether it cannot become wholly like the angels unless the quality or likeness of its nature admits it. For it will seem possible to restore what has been lost, but not to confer what the Creator did not give from the beginning.

And let the soul also ask this, in order to know itself: whether the virtue of its soul can come and go, or is unchangeable, or once acquired never flows away again. But why need I mention more of the reasons for which the soul should know itself, lest perhaps, if it neglects to know itself perfectly, it be commanded to go out in the footsteps of the flocks and pasture kids, and that not in its own tent but in the tents of shepherds; since one who wishes to pursue these things has at hand the fullest opportunities to take from what we have mentioned above, in which he can exercise himself in the word of knowledge as far as he is able? Let these things be said by the Word of God also to the soul that is set in progress but has not yet risen to the height of perfection. It is called beautiful because it is advancing; but so that it may also come to perfection, a necessary threat is made to it: that unless it knows itself through each of the things we have said above, and exercises itself watchfully in the word of God and the divine law, it will happen to it to gather the opinions of different people on each of these things, and to follow men who have said nothing outstanding, nothing from the Holy Spirit. For this is to go out in the footsteps of the flocks and to follow the teaching of those who have themselves remained sinners and could provide no remedy for sinners. Whoever follows them will seem to pasture kids, which signify sins, going round the tents of the shepherds, that is, the various sects of the philosophers. Consider, then, more fully how terrible is what is foreshadowed under this figure. "Go out," he says, "in the footsteps of the flocks." He speaks as if to a soul already inside and placed within the mysteries; yet because it neglects to know itself and to ask what it is, and what or how it ought to do and not do, it is told: "Go out," as one who is sent outside by the one in charge for the fault of this sloth. So great is the danger to the soul in neglecting knowledge and recognition of itself.

But perhaps, since we have given a twofold exposition of the soul's knowledge of itself, it will seem to someone that, according to the one, concerning the soul that neglects to examine its conduct and actions, to inquire into its progress, or to search out its vices, it is rightly told, "Go out," by which it seems to be driven as it were from the inner places outside. But according to the other exposition, in which we said that it ought to know its nature and substance, and the state in which it was or in which it will be, it will be thought hard. For what soul will easily be found so perfect, so powerful, that the reason and understanding of all these things lie open to it? To this we shall reply that the saying we have in hand is addressed not to all souls, nor to the young maidens to whom the bridegroom speaks here, nor to the other women, nor to the eighty concubines or the sixty queens, but to her who among all women is called alone beautiful and perfect. Hence it appears that these things are said to such beloved souls as, though much grace of perception and understanding has been given them by God, yet neglect the parts of knowledge and apply no effort to knowing themselves. To these, then, the divine word utters a threat: because from those to whom much is given, much is required. "The lowly will be worthy of pardon and mercy, but the mighty will be mightily tormented." If, then, you too, soul, who are more beautiful and more eminent among the others, for example in teaching, neglect yourself and remain in ignorance of yourself, how will those who wish to be built up be instructed, or those who contradict be refuted and rebuked? Fittingly, then, it is said to her with a kind of threat: "Go out in the footsteps of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds." What Moses writes can also be drawn to this: that if an Israelite woman commits adultery she is to be stoned, but if it is a priest's daughter she is to be burned with fire. So the threat will seem just against those who can be capable of recognition and knowledge, but neglect it through sloth; against them the bridegroom's indignation is most just, because he knows that the negligence of one turns to the loss of many. For such a soul will seem like him who hid the denarius he had received in the earth, so that the master might gain no profit of money from it; or like the one whom God is said to have slain because he was wicked, namely Onan or Er, who, receiving the seeds of natural knowledge and grudging posterity, spilled them on the ground.

The shepherds too, as we have already said before, if this threatening word is addressed to the church, are to be taken as the rulers of this world, or those angels under whose care the other nations are held, assigned to this either by lot or for certain more secret causes. But if this threat is referred to each soul that neglects to know itself, the wise men and teachers of this world are to be understood, who teach the wisdom of this world; so that in sum this may be understood: that it is necessary for a soul, especially one that is good and beautiful in perception and alert in mind, to know itself and to give attention to knowledge of itself through the exercises of teaching and divine studies, and through this to be led by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of adoption. Or if such a soul neglects itself and turns away from divine studies, it must give its attention to worldly studies and the wisdom of the world, and be led by the spirit of this world, again in fear. This is what the Apostle indicates when he says: "But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God." And again: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, in whom we cry: Abba, Father." This is what could occur to us for the present on this passage; now let us turn to what follows. "To my horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots I have likened you, my close one." The historical sense seems to show this: as then in Egypt, when Pharaoh pursued the people of Israel and went out with chariots and horsemen, my horsemen, that is, those of my Lord the bridegroom, far surpassed the chariots of Pharaoh and were more excellent, since they overcame them and sank them in the sea; so you too, my close one, my bride, surpass all women, having been made like my horsemen, which, compared with Pharaoh's chariots, are surely mightier and more magnificent.

This, for the present, seems to me to be the order and direction of the words themselves. But let us see whether, according to the mystical understanding, he calls the chariots and four-horse teams of Pharaoh those souls which are under that spiritual Pharaoh and placed under the spiritual hosts of wickedness, which he himself drives and leads to pursue the people of God and to oppress Israel. For it is certain that the temptations and tribulations which the demons stir up against the saints they stir up through certain souls fitted and suited for this very purpose. Mounting them as chariots, they harass and assail either the church of God or individual believers. As for the Lord's horsemen, what they are, in Exodus, where Pharaoh's chariots are overcome and sunk in the sea, we read nothing written, except only that the Lord cast Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the Red Sea. Yet we find in the fourth book of Kingdoms that Elisha says to his servant, who was afraid at the coming of the enemy who had come with horsemen and chariots: "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those with them." "And Elisha prayed," it says, "and said: Lord, open the eyes of this servant, that he may see. And the Lord opened his eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horsemen, and chariots of fire round about Elisha, which had come down to him." And in the prophet Habakkuk we read clearly and plainly of the Lord's horsemen, and that he mounts his horses. These are the words of scripture: "Are you angry with the rivers, Lord, or is your fury against the rivers, or your onset against the Red Sea? You who mount your horses, and your horsemanship is salvation." So there are horses of the Lord, which he mounts, and his horsemen. These I think are none other than those souls which accept the bridle of his discipline and bear the yoke of his gentleness, and which are led by the Spirit of God; and in this is their salvation. In the Revelation of John we read that a horse appeared to him, and one seated on it, faithful and true, and judging with justice, whose name is the Word of God. For it says: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it was called faithful and true, and judging and fighting with justice;

and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself; and he was clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name was called the Word of God. And his army was in heaven, and they followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure." But we need the grace of God to open to us the understanding of these things, so that we may see what these visions signify, what the white horse is, and who is the one sitting on it, whose name is the Word of God. Perhaps someone will say that the white horse is the body which the Lord took, in which he who in the beginning was with God, God the Word, was clothed or carried. Another will say it is the soul which the firstborn of all creation took, of which he said: "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." Another will think that both together, body and soul, are called a white horse, since there was no sin there. Another, in the fourth place, will say that the church, which is also called his body, is seen as the white horse, as having no spot or wrinkle, which he sanctified for himself by the washing of water. And according to these things he will also take the details that follow: the army of heaven and the host of the Word of God, and how each of those following the Word of God sits on white horses and is clothed in white and clean linen. To this white horse, then, on which he who is called the Word of God rides, or to this heavenly cavalry which follows him likewise on white horses, Christ compares his church and makes her like. As for "among Pharaoh's chariots", we can take it in this way: that as far as this cavalry of the Lord overcomes and surpasses the cavalry and chariots of Pharaoh, so far do you, who are beautiful among women, surpass and overcome all the other souls which still bear Pharaoh's yoke and endure his riders; or else that this cavalry of mine, which has been cleansed by the washing of water, made pure and white, and has been found worthy to have the Word of God as its rider, was taken from among Pharaoh's chariots.

For from there all believers come, since Christ came into this world to save sinners. In this way, then, the sense of this verse can be explained: "To my cavalry, which was formerly among Pharaoh's chariots and now follows me on white horses, purified in the washing of water, I liken you, my close one." Blessed, then, are those souls which have bent their backs to receive the Word of God as rider upon them, and bear his bridle, the reins of his commandments; for they no longer go by their own will, but are led and led back in everything by the will of the rider. And perhaps, according to the fact that the church has been gathered from many souls and has received the example of life from Christ, it will seem that she received it not so much from the very Godhead of the Word of God, which surely surpasses those acts or dispositions that ought to be given to men as an example; but that the soul which was taken up by him, in which was the highest perfection, was set as the example, and that it is this which is called here "my close one", whose likeness the church too ought to have, gathered as she is from many souls, namely those which formerly were under the yoke and chariots of Pharaoh and are called the Lord's cavalry. Which of the two expositions seems to fit the verse before us better, you who read will judge. "How beautiful your cheeks have become, like a turtledove's; your neck like necklaces." The order of the drama seems to have this sequence: after the bridegroom had used a rather stern threat to the bride, protesting to her that unless she knew herself she would go out in the footsteps of the flocks and pasture not sheep but kids, she blushed at the sternness of the command, and the blush of modesty spread over her face made her cheeks beautiful and far lovelier than they had been; and not only her cheeks but her neck too became so comely as if adorned with the ornaments of necklaces.

The beauty of her cheeks, then, is compared to turtledoves, because by such birds both the modesty of the face and its liveliness are indicated. This is the explanation of the historical drama. But let us come to the matter itself. The apostle Paul, writing to the church of the Corinthians, says: "But the body is not one member but many. And if the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not for that reason not of the body. And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it is not for that reason not of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smell be? But now God has set each member in the body as he willed." And after discussing this at length, he finally says: "Now you are the body of Christ and members in part." And again, writing to the Ephesians, he says: "Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Let wives be subject to their husbands as to the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, himself the Saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved his church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her by the washing of water in the word, that he might present to himself a glorious church, having no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but that she might be holy and spotless." And shortly after: "For no one," he says, "ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body," and so on. By these things, then, we are taught how the bride of Christ, who is the church, is also his body and members. So if you hear the members of the bride named, understand that the members of the church are meant. And just as among them there are some who are called eyes, no doubt because of understanding and the light of knowledge, and others ears for hearing the word of teaching, others hands for good works and religious ministries, so there are others too who are called her cheeks.