Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Samuel Payne" <sam AT sampayne.worldonline.co.uk>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2001 4:55 AM
Subject: Song of Songs 1000/200

> It is superficially attractive to make a holy allegory of the book,

This "superficially" rather ignores that the main reason the S of S's was
accepted into the canon of scriptures was precisely BECAUSE it was taken to
be an allegory. I very much doubt of either the Rabbis or the early
Christian Fathers would have accepted it as a portrayal of "carnal" love. So
we must assume that they made the RIGHT decision for the WRONG reasons?

> So it is fitting that God devote a small segment of the Bible
> to this reality.

Does not this rather see "the Bible" as if it came down from heaven, ready
packaged? It ignores that MEN selected certain books for inclusion, and for
certain reasons.

Samuel Payne