Homilies on the Song of Songs preface–1

Jerome to the most blessed Pope Damasus. Origen, while in his other books he surpassed everyone, in the Song of Songs surpassed himself. For in ten volumes, which come to almost twenty thousand lines, he discussed first the Seventy Translators, then Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, and finally the fifth edition, which he writes that he found on the shore of Actium, so magnificently and clearly that in him seems to me fulfilled what is said: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” So, passing over that work, since it would require immense leisure, labor, and expense to translate such great matters fittingly into Latin, I have translated, faithfully rather than elegantly, these two discourses, which he composed in the manner of everyday speech for little ones still at the breast, offering you a taste of his thought, not a meal. You may judge how highly those great things should be valued, when the small things can please so much.

As we have learned through Moses that some things are not only holy but the Holy of holies, and others not only sabbaths but the Sabbath of sabbaths, so now we are taught, as Solomon writes, that there are some things not only songs but the Song of Songs. Blessed indeed is he who enters the holy place, but more blessed he who enters the Holy of holies. Blessed is he who keeps the sabbaths, but more blessed he who keeps the Sabbaths of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is he who understands songs and sings them (for no one sings except at festivals), but much more blessed he who sings the Song of Songs. And just as he who enters the holy place still needs much in order to be able to go into the Holy of holies, and he who celebrates the Sabbath which the Lord appointed for the people still needs many things in order to keep the Sabbaths of sabbaths, so it is hard to find one who, passing through all the songs contained in the Scriptures, can ascend to the Song of Songs. You must go out of Egypt, and, having gone out of the land of Egypt, cross the Red Sea, so that you may sing the first song, saying: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously magnified.” But though you have sung the first song, you are still far from the Song of Songs. Walk spiritually through the land of the wilderness until you come to the well which the kings dug, so that there you may sing the second song. After this come to the neighborhood of the holy land, so that, standing on the bank of the Jordan, you may sing the song of Moses, saying: “Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.” Again you need to fight and possess the holy land as an inheritance, and to have a bee prophesy to you and a bee judge you (for Deborah means “bee”), so that you may also utter that song which is contained in the book of Judges. Then, going up to the book of Kingdoms, come to the song when David fled from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and said: “The Lord is my support and my strength and my refuge and my deliverer.” You must come to Isaiah, so that you may say with him: “I will sing a song to my beloved, of my vineyard.” And when you have passed through all, climb to higher things, so that, as a beautiful soul with the Bridegroom, you may sing this Song of Songs too. But how many persons it consists of, I am uncertain. Yet, through your prayers and the Lord's revelation, I seem to myself to have found four persons in it: the husband and the bride; with the bride, young maidens; with the bridegroom, bands of companions. Some things are said by the bride, others by the bridegroom, some by the maidens, some by the companions of the bridegroom. For it is fitting that at a wedding there should be a multitude of maidens with the bride and a crowd of young men with the bridegroom. Do not look for all these outside; do not look for them outside those who have been saved by the preaching of the gospel. Understand Christ as the bridegroom, the church as the bride without spot or wrinkle, of whom it is written: “that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish.” Those who, though they are believers, are not such as the word just described, but seem to have obtained salvation in some measure, consider to be the souls of believers, and the maidens with the bride. Understand the angels, and those who have come to the perfect man, as the men with the bridegroom. So there seem to me to be four orders: the one man and the one woman, and two choirs singing to each other, the bride singing with the maidens, the bridegroom singing with his companions. And when you have understood this, hear the Song of Songs, and hasten to understand it and to say with the bride what the bride says, so that you may hear what the bride heard. But if you cannot say with the bride what she said, so as to hear what was said to the bride, hasten at least to be with the bridegroom's companions. And if you are inferior even to them, be with the maidens, who dwell among the bride's delights. For these are the persons in this book, at once a drama and a wedding song; whence the pagans too claimed the wedding song for themselves, and this kind of poem was taken up from it. For the Song of Songs is a wedding song. First the bride prays, and at once, in the midst of her prayers, she is heard. She sees the bridegroom present; she sees the maidens joined to her retinue. Then the bridegroom answers her; and after the bridegroom's words, while he suffers for her salvation, the companions answer that, until the bridegroom is at rest and rises from his passion, they will make certain ornaments for the bride. 2. But now the very words must be set out, in which first the voice of the bride praying is heard: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” This is their sense: How long will my bridegroom send kisses through Moses, send kisses through the prophets? Now I long to touch his own mouth; let him come himself, let him come down himself. So she prays to the bridegroom's Father and says to him: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” And because she is such that the prophetic word is fulfilled in her, in which it is said, “While you are still speaking I will say, Here I am,” the bridegroom's Father hears the bride and sends his Son. Seeing him whose coming she prayed for, she stops praying and speaks to him face to face: “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” The bridegroom, then, Christ, sent by the Father, comes anointed to the bride, and it is said to him: “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” If the bridegroom touches me, I too shall be of good fragrance, I too shall be anointed with ointments, and his ointments will reach even to me, so that I can say with the Apostle: “We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place.” But we, when we hear these things, still stink with sins and vices, of which the prophet speaks in repentance: “My wounds have grown foul and festered because of my foolishness.” Sin has a putrid smell; virtue breathes ointments, whose types you will find in Exodus. You will find there also stacte, onycha, galbanum, and the rest. These indeed are for incense; then for the perfumer's work various ointments are taken, among which are nard and stacte. And God who made heaven and earth speaks to Moses, saying: “I have filled them with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may do the works of the perfumer's art”: and God teaches perfumers! Unless these things are understood spiritually, are they not fables? Unless they contain some secret, are they not unworthy of God? It is necessary, then, that whoever knows how to hear the Scriptures spiritually, or certainly whoever does not know but desires to know, should strive with all labor not to live according to flesh and blood, so that he may become worthy of spiritual secrets, and, to say something bolder, may be kindled with spiritual desire or love; for there is also a spiritual love. And as there is a certain fleshly food and another spiritual, and one drink of the flesh and another of the spirit, so there is a certain love of the flesh coming from Satan, and another love of the spirit having its beginning from God; and no one can be possessed by two loves. If you are a lover of the flesh, you do not grasp the love of the spirit. If you have despised all bodily things, I do not say flesh or blood, but silver and possessions, and the earth itself and the heaven itself, for these will pass away; if you have despised all these, and your soul is bound to none of them, nor are you held by love of any vice, you can grasp spiritual love. We have spoken thus because the occasion arose to say something about spiritual love. But it profits us to keep the precept of Solomon, or rather of him who spoke through Solomon, saying thus of wisdom: “Love her, and she will keep you; surround her, and she will exalt you; honor her, that she may embrace you.” There is a certain spiritual embrace; and would that it may happen that the bridegroom's embrace may enclose my bride more closely, so that I too may say what is written in the same book: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.” 3. “Let him kiss me,” then, “with the kiss of his mouth.” It is the custom of the Scriptures to put the imperative mood for the optative, as there: “Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name,” for “May it be hallowed”; and now in the present passage, “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth,” for “May he kiss me.” Then she beholds the bridegroom. He comes anointed with ointments; nor could he come to the bride otherwise, nor was it fitting for the Father to send his Son to the wedding otherwise. He anointed him with various ointments; he made him Christ. He comes breathing various fragrances, and hears: “For your breasts are better than wine.” Fittingly the divine word names one and the same thing with different words according to the nature of the passages. When a victim is offered in the Law, and it wishes to show understanding, it speaks of the little breast of separation. But when someone reclines with Jesus and enjoys communion with his mind, it speaks not of the little breast, as above, but of the breast. And when the bride speaks to the bridegroom, since a wedding song is introduced, it names neither the little breast, as in the sacrifice, nor the breast, as with John the disciple, but the breasts, saying: “For your breasts are better than wine.” Commune like the bride with the bridegroom's mind, and know that thoughts of this kind intoxicate and gladden. And as the Lord's cup that intoxicates is most excellent, so the bridegroom's breasts are better than all wine. “For your breasts are better than wine.” In the midst of her prayers she turns her words to the bridegroom: “And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” The bridegroom comes anointed not with one but with all ointments. But if the bridegroom deigns to come to my soul too, made his bride, how beautiful must she be, to draw him to herself from heaven, to make him come down to earth, that he may come to his beloved? With what beauty must she be adorned? With what love must she burn, that he may say to her what he said to the perfect bride: your neck, your eyes, your cheeks, your hands, your belly, your shoulders, your feet? Of these, if the Lord grants, we will discuss how the bride's members vary and how different praise is spoken of each part, so that after the discussion we may labor that the like may be said of our soul too. “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” If you see the bridegroom, then you will understand that what is said is true: “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” Many have had spices. The queen of the South brought spices to Solomon, and many others possessed spices; but however much anyone has had, they cannot be compared with the fragrances of Christ, of which the bride now says: “The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” I think that Moses too had spices, and Aaron, and each of the prophets; but if I see Christ and perceive the sweetness and fragrance of his ointments, I at once pronounce my judgment, saying: “The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” 4. “Your name is ointment poured out.” It is a prophetic mystery. As soon as the name of Jesus came into the world, it is proclaimed as ointment poured out. In the Gospel too a woman, taking an alabaster jar of ointment of precious pure nard, poured it over the head and feet of Jesus. Observe carefully which of the two poured it on the Savior's head: for the sinful woman is shown to have poured it on his feet, and she who is said not to have been a sinner, on his head. Observe, I say, and you will find that in the reading of the Gospel it is not fables and stories that have been written by the evangelists, but mysteries. The house was certainly filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Whatever the sinful woman had is to be referred to the feet, and whatever the woman who was not a sinner had, to the head. Nor is it surprising that the house was filled with fragrance, since in this way the world has been filled. It is written in the same place of Simon the leper and his house. I think that the leper is the ruler of this world, and that this leper is called Simon, whose house at Christ's coming was filled with a sweet fragrance, as the sinful woman repented and the holy woman poured the fragrance of ointment on Jesus' head. “Your name is ointment poured out.” As ointment by its pouring out spreads its fragrance far and wide, so the name of Christ has been poured out. In all the earth Christ is named; in all the world the Lord is preached. For “his name is ointment poured out.” Now the name of Moses is heard, which before was enclosed within the narrow bounds of Judea alone; for none of the Greeks remembered him, nor do we find anything written of him, as of others, in any history of pagan literature. As soon as Jesus shone forth in the world, he brought out with him the Law and the prophets, and truly it was fulfilled: “Your name is ointment poured out.” 5. “Therefore the maidens have loved you.” Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the word of pouring out is fittingly introduced: “Your name is ointment poured out.” Saying this, the bride sees the maidens. When she was asking the bridegroom's Father, and speaking face to face with the bridegroom himself, the maidens were not yet present; but in the midst of her prayers the choir of maidens enters and is praised by the bride's words: “Therefore the maidens have loved you, and drawn you.” And the maidens answer: “After you, in the fragrance of your ointments, we will run.” How beautifully the bride's attendants do not yet have the bride's confidence! The bride does not follow behind, but walks joined at his side and takes the bridegroom's right hand, and her hand is held by the bridegroom's right. But the handmaids walk behind her. “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her who bore her.” “After you,” then, “in the fragrance of your ointments we will run.” It was said to those who walk with all honor: “After you, in the fragrance of your ointments, we will run,” according to that saying, “I have finished the course,” and that, “Those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize.” The prize is Christ. And these indeed are the maidens, who, we know, stand outside because of the beginning of their love, according to that example: “The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.” The maidens experience something of this kind: when the bridegroom goes in, they remain outside; but the bridegroom's beautiful one, perfect, without spot, without wrinkle, having entered the bridegroom's chamber, the royal inner room, returns to the maidens and tells them what she alone has seen, and says: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” She does not say, “He has brought us, many, into his chamber”; many remain outside; the bride alone enters the chamber, to see the hidden and secret treasures, and report to the maidens: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” Again the maidens, that is, the great crowd of beginning brides, when the bride has entered the bridegroom's chamber and sees her husband's riches, while they await her coming, sing joyfully: “We will exult and rejoice in you.” They rejoice at the bride's perfection. There is no rivalry in virtues; this love is pure, this love is without fault. “We will exult and rejoice in you. We will love your breasts.” She who is greater already enjoys the milk of your breasts and speaks exultantly: “Your breasts are better than wine.” But these, who bring exultation and joy, since they are maidens, bring love and say: “We will exult and rejoice in you; we will love your breasts more than wine.” “We will love,” they say, not “we love.” Then they speak to the bride: “Uprightness has loved you.” They praise the bride, giving her the name of uprightness from her own virtues. “Uprightness has loved you.” 6. Again the bride answers the maidens: “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the skins of Solomon. Do not look at me, because I have been blackened, because the sun has looked down on me.” She is indeed beautiful, and we can find how the bride is beautiful; but we ask how, black and without whiteness, she is lovely. She has repented of her sins; conversion has given her beauty, and therefore she is sung as beautiful. But because she has not yet been cleansed of the filth of all her sins, not yet washed unto salvation, she is called black; but she does not remain in the dark color. So she is white when she rises to greater things, and when, beginning from lowly things, she climbs to the heights, and it is said of her: “Who is this who comes up made white?” And so that this mystery may be described more clearly, it does not say, as is read in most copies, “leaning on her kinsman” (in Greek, epistērizomenē epi ton adelphidon autēs), but epistērizomenē epi to stēthos autou, that is, “reclining on his breast”; and significantly it is said of the soul, the bride, and of the Word, “reclining on his breast,” because there is the ruling part of our heart. Hence, withdrawing from fleshly things, we should think spiritual things, and understand that it is much better to love in this way than to cease loving. She comes up, then, reclining on the breast of her kinsman; and she who now, at the beginning of the Song, is set down as black, at the end of the wedding song is sung: “Who is this who comes up made white?” We have understood how the bride is both black and beautiful. But if you too do not repent, beware lest your soul be called black and ugly, and you be disfigured by a double foulness: black because of past sins, ugly because you persist in the same vices. But if you repent, your soul will be black because of old sins, but because of repentance it will have something, so to speak, of Ethiopian beauty. And since I have once named the Ethiopian, I wish to call Scripture as witness on this point. Aaron and Miriam murmur because Moses has an Ethiopian wife. And now Moses marries an Ethiopian woman, since his Law has passed over to this Ethiopian woman of ours. Let Aaron murmur, the priesthood of the Jews; let Miriam murmur too, their synagogue; Moses does not care about the murmuring; he loves his Ethiopian woman, of whom it is said elsewhere too through the prophet: “From the ends of the rivers they will bring offerings.” And again: “Ethiopia will stretch out her hand to God first.” Beautifully, “first”; for as in the Gospel the woman who had a flow of blood was healed before the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, so Ethiopia was healed while Israel was sick. “By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.” You too, soul of the church, turn your words to the daughters of Jerusalem and say: “The bridegroom loves me more, he cherishes me more than you, who are many daughters of Jerusalem. You stand outside and see the bride entering the chamber.” Let no one doubt that the black woman is called beautiful. Who are we, that we should know God, that we should proclaim the Song of Songs, that we should have come from the ends of Ethiopia, from the end of the earth, to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon? And when the voice of the Savior is heard thundering, “The queen of the South will rise up in judgment and condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here,” hear the mystical things that are said. The queen of the South, the church, comes from the ends of the earth and condemns the men of this generation, that is, the Jews given over to flesh and blood. She comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, not of him who is proclaimed in the Old Testament, but of this one who in the Gospel is greater than Solomon. “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem,” black like the tents of Kedar, beautiful like the skins of Solomon. The names themselves also suit the bride's beauty. The Hebrews say that Kedar means “darkness.” “I am black,” then, “like the tents of Kedar,” like the Ethiopians; beautiful like the skins of Solomon, which he made at that time for the adornment of the tabernacle, when he built the temple with the greatest zeal and labor. For Solomon was rich, and in all his wisdom no one surpassed him. “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the skins of Solomon. Do not look at me, because I have been blackened.” She has given an account of her blackness, and, turned to better things through repentance, she announces to the daughters of Israel that she is black but beautiful, as we explained above, and says: “Do not look at me, because I have been blackened.” “Do not wonder,” she says, “that I am of a dark color; the sun has looked down on me.” For the brightness of its light shone on me with full ray, so that I was darkened by its heat. For I did not receive its light in me as was fitting, as the dignity of the sun required: “By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles”; and again: “By the unbelief of the Gentiles, the knowledge of Israel.” You have both in the Apostle. 7. “The sons of my mother have fought against me.” We must consider how the bride says, “The sons of my mother have fought against me,” and when the battle of her brothers rose against her. Look a little at Paul, the persecutor of the church, and you will understand how a son of her mother fought against her. The persecutors of the church repented, and her adversaries, turning again to their sister's banners, preached the faith which they formerly destroyed. Singing this now with the prophetic Spirit, the bride says: “They fought against me; they made me keeper in the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept.” I, the church, I, the bride, I, without spot, have been set as keeper of many vineyards by the sons of my mother, who once fought against me. Distracted by this anxiety and care, while I keep many vineyards, I have not kept my own vineyard. Understand this of Paul, and of any other of the saints who is anxious for the salvation of all; and you will see how, not keeping his own vineyard, he keeps the vineyards of others; how even, to gain others, he himself suffers losses in some things; for though he was free from all, he made himself the servant of all, that he might gain all. “I became,” he says, “weak to the weak, a Jew to the Jews, to those under the Law as under the Law,” and the rest; and he says: “My own vineyard I have not kept.” Then she beholds the bridegroom, who, once seen, departs. And he often does this throughout the whole Song, which no one can understand unless he experiences it himself. Often, God is my witness, I have seen the bridegroom approaching me and being with me very much; and when he suddenly withdrew, I could not find what I was seeking. So again I long for his coming, and sometimes he comes again; and when he has appeared and been seized by my hands, he slips away again; and when he has slipped away, he is sought by me again; and he does this often, until I truly hold him and come up leaning on my kinsman. 8. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” I do not ask about other times, when you pasture in the evening, when at dawn, when at sunset; I ask about that time when, in the flower of the day, in full light, you are in the splendor of your majesty. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” Observe carefully where you read of noon. With Joseph, the brothers hold a meal at noon. The angels are received by Abraham in hospitality at noon, and other things of this kind. Seek, and you will find that divine Scripture does not use any word in vain or by chance. Who of us, do you think, is worthy to reach noon and see where the bridegroom pastures, where he lies down? “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” For unless you tell me, I begin to be tossed about wandering, and, while I seek you, I run into others' flocks. And because I blush at others' looks, I begin at once to cover my face and mouth. For I am a beautiful bride, and I do not show my bare face to others, but only to you, whom I have long since kissed. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon, lest I become like one veiled over the flocks of your companions.” So that I may not suffer this, that I may not become veiled, that I may not cover my face, and, coming even to others, perhaps begin to love those whom I do not know: therefore tell me where I may seek and find you at noon, lest perhaps I become like one veiled over the flocks of your companions. 9. After these words the bridegroom communes with her and says: Either know yourself, that you are the bride of a king, and beautiful, and made beautiful by me, since “I have presented to myself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle”; or know that, if you do not know yourself and know your dignity, you will suffer the things that follow. What are they? “If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks, and pasture” not flocks of sheep, not of lambs, but “your kids.” For he will set the sheep on the right and the kids on the left. “If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds.” In the tracks of the shepherds, he says, you will become last, not among the sheep but among your kids, living with whom you will not be able to be with me, that is, with the good shepherd. 10. “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my beloved.” If you wish to understand, O bride, how you ought to know yourself, recognize to whom I have compared you, and then you will see that you are such that you ought not to be troubled, when you have recognized your beauty. What, then, is “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you”? I know the bridegroom as a horseman, as the prophet says: “And his riding is salvation.” You have been likened, then, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. As much as my cavalry differs (for I am the Lord, and I sink Pharaoh in the waves, and his crested officers or charioteers and his riders and horses and chariots), as much, I say, as my cavalry differs from the horses of Pharaoh, so much better are you, bride, than all the daughters, you, soul of the church, than all souls that are not of the church. So, if you are a soul of the church, you are better than all souls; if you are not better, you are not of the church. “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my near one.” Then he describes the bride's beauty with spiritual love: “Your cheeks are like a turtledove's.” He praises her face and is kindled by the blush of her cheeks. For the beauty of women is said to lie chiefly in the cheeks. So let us too understand the beauty of the soul in the cheeks. Her lips and tongue let us declare to be understanding. “Your neck is like a necklace.” Like the ornament that usually hangs on the neck of virgins and is called hormiskos, so, without this adornment, your neck itself is an ornament. After this the bridegroom lies down. “He lay down like a lion, he slept like a lion's whelp,” so that thereafter he may hear: “Who will rouse him?” While he sleeps in the meantime, the bridegroom's companions, the angels, appear to the bride and console her with these words: “We cannot make golden ornaments for you; for we are not as rich as your bridegroom, who may give you a golden necklace. We will make likenesses of gold; we do not have gold.” And in this too there is reason to rejoice, if we make likenesses of gold, if we make studs of silver. “We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver,” but not for all time, only until your bridegroom rises from his couch. For when he has risen, he himself will make you gold, he himself silver; he himself will adorn your mind and understanding, and you will be truly rich in the bridegroom's house, a beautiful bride, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.