Fragments on the Song of Songs 1–3

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." Let him not woo me through the prophets, she says, but let him converse with me himself, by spiritual perception, of which John says, "And our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life." She says this as one who has heard the prophets saying, "The king desired your beauty," and elsewhere, "As a bridegroom will rejoice over a bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you." Whenever we think that we are being kissed from the mouth of the bridegroom …; but as long as we are at a loss, let us undertake to keep saying, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth."

"The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." That is, your virtues are above the virtues found among us, according to the saying, "His virtue covered the heavens"; for he is wisdom itself and righteousness itself, while we are wise and righteous by participation, by choice and by power, coming to be in the fragrance of these.

"Your name is ointment poured out; therefore the maidens [loved you]." Perhaps prophesying the power of the name of Christ that filled the world at his coming, so that it became, as Paul says, to some a fragrance from death to death, to others of life to life, the bride would have said, "Therefore all have loved you." And not only the maidens, being renewed day by day and having no wrinkle or spot. It was poured out, so that it is no longer kept in silence, shut up among things not to be spoken.

"The king brought me into his chamber." That is, … he means the soul worthy of love, or the church, or the ruling mind of Christ, into which Paul entered and said, "But we have the mind of Christ," so that we may see the things freely given us by God. And what are these? "… and they have not come up into the heart of man; for these things God has prepared for those who love him." For in the bridegroom's chamber are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, hidden. For she, as having gone before the maidens, was brought in, and stood as a queen at the right hand of the king, in a robe woven with gold, as David says; and of the maidens: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her," and so on.

"We will love your breasts above wine; uprightness [has loved you]." That is: even if now, through weakness, we love wine more than your breasts, O bridegroom, when we have been made better we shall love them more than it. Wine, gladdening the maidens, is the things of the law; but perfection is the breasts of the bridegroom. Then, by way of excuse for not yet loving, she says, "Uprightness has loved you"; but we have not yet made our own paths straight.

"I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the tent-curtains of Solomon." The church from the Gentiles says this to the souls from Jerusalem, or to Jerusalem, confessing her blackness, because she is not from illustrious or enlightened fathers; for this reason she is also compared to darkness. But she is beautiful because of the Word whom she received, and resembles the tent-curtains of Solomon, which he had among the other things he possessed in his glory.

"[Do not look at me because] I am darkened, [because the sun has looked askance at me]"; or: because, when I had been darkened by sin, Christ, whom the Scriptures proclaim the Sun of righteousness, passed me by on account of my unbelief.

"The sons of my mother fought within me; they made me keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I did not keep." That is, the teaching disciples of Christ, wishing to cleanse me of the evil thoughts I had before this, and of the demons that worked with them, fought against these within me, being sons of the same mother as I, I mean of the free woman: they being taken up into the remnant according to the election of grace, while I received the covenant that belongs to the Jerusalem above and was born again from the promise. They did not first make her a keeper and then fight; but having fought, they first made her fit to be placed in the vineyards for keeping. … And these are Moses and the prophets, each of whom was a full field which the Lord has blessed, and a vineyard. Anyone who has come to be in them, and does not keep his former state, as being a vineyard in Sodom, has used the present saying.

"If [you do not know yourself …] feed your kids by the tents of the [shepherds]." The much-repeated maxim among the Greeks, "Know yourself," was anticipated, having been handed down to the wise Solomon. By it the soul is now threatened by her lover and bridegroom: unless she keeps the beauty given her according to the image of God, [she will suffer] being cast out from within and being set among the last, feeding the left-hand kids. And you will feed them by the tents of the shepherds, now of this one, now of that, like some wanderer, until, taught by experience, you turn back to the knowledge of yourself. The saying will also fit the church. One knows oneself by knowing whether one has a good or a bad disposition, and whether one falls far short on the road to virtue or stretches forward to what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind; and whether one has not yet arrived, or has been perfected, or is drawing near the borders of beauty. It is also a task to stand by each action and see how it came about, in every thought and word. By "women" he means souls that are not pure or not undefiled. But if she neglects knowledge of herself, she would be tossed about and carried around by every wind of teaching, in the trickery of men, and would feed her own left-hand kids anywhere rather than by the good Word. … She is now beautiful among women, numbered with the church of God and more beautiful than the little ones in it. For those who are called in this way the women of the church are incomparably better than the Gentile souls, which go after their lovers, the opposing powers, and are called women but not virgins. For how is she not better, who has turned back to her own creator? "Go out" is like being handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, being separated from the church, after having been brought, as she said to the maidens, by the king into his chamber.

"Why have your cheeks become beautiful like a turtledove's?" Paul also calls the church, the bride, the members of Christ. Her face, as it were, are those who excel the rest in beauty, thinking nothing shameful, bearing for her the fruit of the modesty of self-control; who, perhaps not beautiful before, changed so much that it is said to the bride, "Why have your cheeks become beautiful," having no spot or wrinkle? And perhaps also because they know only the one God; for the turtledove too mates with one alone.

"We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver." This means: the silver was not plentiful, nor poured out (few things were spoken in secret by the prophets and by the wise of old); but when he came to dwell among us, the things in the inaccessible parts of the temple were seen by the one who sees, the true veil being torn from top to bottom so that what was inside might be seen, when he who lay down and slept as a lion and as a lion's whelp is raised. … And after this. For then those who have been conformed to his resurrection will themselves receive, in return, likenesses of gold; for they will be multiplied with silver and with gold. …

"[While the king was at his couch,] my nard gave its fragrance." … For having anointed the feet of Jesus with her own nard and wiped them with her hair, she received this fragrance back transformed by the fragrance of the bridegroom; perceiving it as it came upon her head, she says, "My nard has given me the fragrance of the bridegroom." Therefore, as from the skin of Jesus, the disciple's ointment filled the whole house.

"[A bundle of myrrh is my kinsman to me;] he will lodge between my breasts." Having said that the nard has given me the bridegroom's fragrance, I now say that my kinsman breathes of myrrh, not poured out or breathing outward, but bound up and giving its sweet smell more densely. The church from the Gentiles, having the first people as brother, since Christ according to the flesh was from it, has called him brother's son and bridegroom. And since Aquila has rendered it "father's brother," one must say that the former people is the father of the church from the Gentiles, since from the law and the prophets among them came both the birth in God and our advancement to godliness. When the bride's father has been explained in this way, the Savior is a brother, having come to be under the law as they were.

"Behold, you are beautiful, my companion; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves." Now the bride seems to have gazed more clearly than before at the beauty of the bridegroom, and through her dove-like eyes to have perceived the [beauty] and eminence in the Word. And perhaps she also hints that the body is the common couch of herself and the bridegroom, in which the soul, while still in it, is counted worthy of fellowship with the Word. So Paul says, "Our bodies are members of Christ": by "our" he says that the body belongs to the bride, by "members of Christ" to the bridegroom. She calls the bridegroom shady because of the density of the contemplations in the Word and in wisdom. And if the common bed of both is flourishing, it is no wonder that every good action done through the body is also signified with reference to the body, …

"I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys." He calls "flower" that which is on its way to becoming fruit. In the earthly place, called "plain", the bridegroom Word is a flower in relation to the things to come; for when the perfect comes, he will change the flower so that it becomes fruit. And since they cannot yet contain more than the flower, he speaks of the earth; for this reason the bridegroom became like a flower of the plain. For he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, so that afterwards we might be able to behold his glory. But perhaps to the nobler ones, called level plains, he is a flower, and to those lower and more hollow than these, a lily.

Having said this, the bridegroom compares [the bride with the daughters], who are thorns when compared with her. Such are the souls that are not near the bridegroom; but the one near him is a lily shining out in their midst.

"As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons; in his shade I longed and sat, and his fruit was sweet in my throat." It was fitting for the bride, who had become wholly the bridegroom's through his beauty, to say nothing about herself, but, in answer to what the bridegroom had said about himself, to compare him to an apple tree, and the sons of others to trees of the wood; and, out of the excess of her longing, to desire even his shade, and to leave its quality to its depth. She seems to say these things to the maidens, as the bridegroom said the first things to his companions. By "sons" she means either the companions, whom she likened to fruitless trees beside the bridegroom, or those who are strangers to him. Under his shade she both longed and has sat down. Jeremiah too says in Lamentations: "The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations." For how could his shadow fail to become a cause of life for us, who have become free from the shadow of the law? For the law had a shadow of the good things to come; and we are no longer under law but under grace, even if we are now under a shadow, though one far different. For after the present life we shall no longer see through a mirror and in a riddle, but face to face we shall behold the truth. And the bride also will say, "Until the day breathes and the shadows move away." For our life too is like a shadow, and the one from the Gentiles sat in the shadow of death, and the unbelievers still sit there.

"Bring me into the house of wine." She says this to the friends of the bridegroom, the holy angels, or the apostles and prophets, all but saying, "Mingle me with the body of Christ."

"Support me with ointments, heap me among apples, for I am wounded by love." Symmachus rendered it thus: "Make me recline among flowers," that is, among fragrant trees that bear good fruit, in blossom; bad trees are called unfruitful or bearers of bad fruit. Some copies have, "Support me with things without ointment"; this is to be understood either of the faithful who are not, however, such as to be called members of her who has no spot or wrinkle, or of those who are strangers to the faith but upright. And she said, "heap me among apples"; for the bride wishes to rest among many apples rolled around her, which I think are the fruit of the apple tree among the trees of the wood, the bridegroom, so that she may share in their quality. "For I am wounded by love-longing," she says, according to Symmachus; by the chosen arrow, according to Isaiah.

"The voice of my kinsman: behold, he comes leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills." Some have assigned this to what precedes, but the Hebrew sets it as a section of its own. And it is clear that the bride, while conversing with the daughters of Jerusalem, suddenly perceives the voice of the bridegroom, who, as is likely, is conversing with some others. She perceives him conversing on the mountains and hills lying near the bride's place, so that he is no different from a fawn. Then, in his eagerness for the bride, he came near the house and appeared behind it; then, leaping, he reaches the windows of the house, as if lovingly wishing to peep in at her. Near the house where the bride is, many nets have been spread to ensnare the bride and those with her; these the bridegroom, being stronger, broke through, and peered through them, and calls the bride to come near, encouraging her by his deed to despise the nets, as already torn, and the hard season that has passed by through them, which he calls winter, bringing useless and violent rain. He urges her also by the beauties of the present season, speaking of flowers as in spring, and the tending of vines; and he describes the voice of the turtledove, the early figs of the fig tree, the vines in blossom, and the place where he will rest with her. When she had come there, he wished her to appear to the bridegroom with her whole face, and to let him hear her sweet voice.

"My kinsman answers and says to me: Arise, come, my companion, my beautiful one, my dove; for behold, the winter has passed, the rain has gone, it has gone its way; the flowers have appeared in the land; the time of pruning has come; the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land; the fig tree has put forth its early figs; the vines are in blossom, they have given their fragrance," and so on. Arise, he says, from things perceived by the senses to things perceived by the mind, so that we may be together. "The rain has gone": we might say that the rain was the time before his coming, when God commanded the clouds to rain the word of the law and the prophets; and that this ceased, since the law and the prophets were until John. Spring and summer come after his coming, because there is no longer need of rain, when the flowers that come through Christ have appeared in the land. And from his coming the fig tree is not cut down, though it was fruitless in the former time; for now it has put forth early figs, and the vines are in blossom. Therefore it says, "We who are among the branches are the fragrance of Christ to God."

"Arise, come, my companion, my beautiful one, my dove; and come, my dove, in the shelter of the rock, close to the outer wall; show me your face, and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face [is lovely]." He wishes the soul to pass beyond the things of sense. As with a city, he calls the sensible world a wall and an outer wall. So the soul that shares in the Word must come to be in the shelter of the rock, not only outside the wall of the city, but outside the outer wall too. To her, as having come near with unveiled face, he says, "Show me your face." He desires also to hear her speak, admiring her voice as sweet. The outer wall is what Isaiah calls the surrounding wall, when he says, "He will set a wall and a surrounding wall." He wishes her, then, having come out of bodily things, not only to be at the wall, which is the account concerning the world, but also close to the outer wall, which is the account that is the last of bodily things and the beginning of incorporeal ones.

"Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards, and our vines are in blossom." The bridegroom says this to his friends, either angels or holy men, those who are teachers of the church. The exhortation is for the salvation of the vineyards, so that, when the crafty powers that corrupt the beginning of the fruit's growth are caught, the vines may advance from blossoming to the ripening of the fruit, being tended by God, yet able, by their own free will, to bear fruit or not. Or perhaps men too are foxes of a kind, who through the sharpness of heterodoxy hinder those who have begun to run well. He wishes them to be caught while they are still small, before they advance further in impiety; for a fox that has grown large cannot be caught by those friends, and is hunted by the bridegroom alone; but when they are beginning to do worse things, they are easily caught even by the friends. And he would call the vineyards small; for it cannot, against … .

"My kinsman is mine, and I am his, he who feeds [among the lilies]." The bride says this to the companions of the bridegroom, as one who has no share with the foxes: for they shared with us in blood and flesh, and we with him in incorruption. Or because God comes to be in the soul, and the soul moves its dwelling into God. So also Paul: "The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body"; for the bride, the church, is the body of Christ, in no way for sexual immorality, but always for the Lord. And the Savior himself: "Abide in me, and I in you." But in what follows it is written the other way round: "I am my kinsman's, and my kinsman is mine." Perhaps this is because the beginning of the kindness came from the bridegroom; for if he had not shown himself to her, she would not have been devoted to the bridegroom, since it was by beholding his divine beauty that she came to a saving love. Then she reversed the order: before the perfect comes, she says, "I am my kinsman's"; but when he has been perfectly revealed and leaves nothing hidden, she perceives it and says, "and my kinsman is mine." It has been said somewhere in the prophecies, "The Lord himself will shepherd us for ever," but not as he now feeds us among lilies that are in the midst of thorns. Accordingly, having said, "I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys," he adds, "As a lily among thorns, so is my companion among the daughters." And observe that, as in the case of the bride, … he did not say. For this reason he has come, so that his flock may not be caught in thorns. Therefore he also boasts in a mystery, saying in the person of Jacob, "By day I was burned up by the heat"; for in the heat of the present life we need the one who shepherds us, because of the noonday demons. For it says to the one who does well, in the same way, "The sun will not burn you"; since he who bears our weaknesses and was pained for us was burned up by the heat on our behalf, to redeem us from them, as also from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us. He feeds also among lilies until the shadows of life pass, according to the saying, "Our days pass by like shadows." And perhaps before his coming, through the law and the prophets, he fed among lilies while it was still the burning heat; but after his coming he feeds, but not among lilies; for it is as when the day has breathed that it is said, "Beloved, know that it is the last hour."

"Turn, my kinsman, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of the hollows." The earlier words the bride said to the maidens, but these she says to the bridegroom, so that he may take a likeness that fits the present season: to the gazelle, for its keen sight; to the young stag, for destroying the race of serpents. Doing these things on the mountains of the hollows, she says, "Turn" from being in the form of God, and take these things up, out of your love for me, coming to dwell among men, most of whom spend their time in hollows because of their wickedness. The mountains of the hollows are the righteous, who rise above evils. When the Word has turned, he becomes like a gazelle in those devoted to contemplation, and like a young stag in those who are more given to action and to the overthrow of the opposing powers. The "or" in "or a young stag" is disjunctive. Theodotion said, "on the mountains of incense," no less signifying the saints.

"On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved; I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hearken to me. I will rise now and go about in the city, in the markets and in the broad streets, and I will seek him whom my soul loved. I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hearken to me. The watchmen who go about in the city found me: Have you seen him whom my soul loved? It was but a little while after I passed from them, until I found him whom my soul loved. I held him and did not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her who conceived me."

Having spoken of the mysteries that come before the marriage, she now calls him by night to the bed, wishing to share in more secret things and to partake of the more perfect rest; for this is the bed. "By night" means in a time of quiet, and far from the sight of those who cannot contemplate such things. The soul of one who seeks on the bed the deeper things of the divine Word must first have been wounded by love; and the beloved waits for the rising of her who longs for him, so that, having heightened her love, he may at the right time show himself to her who has toiled greatly in seeking him. For having said, "On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved," and "I sought him and did not find him," she adds, "I will rise now and go about." So then, putting off lying on our backs and closing our eyes, let us rise up, obeying the one who says, "Awake, O sleeper." The whole world is the city; going around it … in the contemplation concerning it, coming to be in the wise teachings; for these are the markets, from which one can take something useful; but also in the broad streets; for wisdom is sung in the ways out, and in the broad streets she speaks boldly. And we too have been commanded to write upon the breadth of our heart. But since she seeks greater things than are found in the markets and broad streets, she says she has not found him. Yet she goes on toward finding him, and is found by those who watch over the city and go about it. These would be the ministering spirits; these are those whom the Lord sent out to walk about the earth, and of them she asks about the beloved. Their answer is not written. We are taught that, if we are to find the beloved, we must pass a little beyond them and become better than such angels, of whom Peter seems to speak in his Epistle when he teaches the excellence of the things laid up for the perfect, "into which angels long to look." It is to be desired that we pass such ones by a little, so that the beloved may be found, and when found may be held, and when held may not be let go. For the holding is useless unless continual meditation holds what has been understood. Therefore she says, "I did not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house," so that, after her departure from here too, she may enter with him into the house of the Jerusalem above, where she brings in the more common of the contemplations of the Word, and the more secret ones into the chamber of her who conceived the bride. The same one is signified as mother and as she who conceived, because the beginning of formation lies in conception; she is called mother after the forming, and … of the conception.

"Who is this who comes up from the desert like columns [of smoke]?" … Very beautiful is the soul that comes up by life and by word, fleeing the sins found among the many; this is what is called coming up from the desert. And that the righteous man is the fragrance of Christ in every place among those who are being saved: they send up a sweet smoke that gladdens the …