📖 Biblical Definition
The Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs or Canticles) is a poetic celebration of covenant love between a bridegroom and his bride — eight short chapters of dialogue, dream, and longing. Traditionally read by the Jewish synagogue as an allegory of YHWH and Israel, and by the Christian church as an allegory of Christ and His church (a reading already implicit in Ephesians 5:32), the Song is also the Bible’s great sanctification of bodily love within the covenant of marriage. It refuses both the gnostic shame of the body and the pagan worship of the body — it places desire under covenant, and covenant under God. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" (Song 8:7).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Song of Solomon — the Song of Songs; covenant love poetry.
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The eight chapters trace courtship, longing, separation, and reunion in lyrical Hebrew poetry. Jewish tradition assigns it to Solomon and reads it as Yahweh's love for Israel; Christian tradition reads it as Christ's love for the Church.
📖 Key Scripture
Song of Solomon 2:4 — "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."
Song of Solomon 6:3 — "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."
Song of Solomon 8:6 — "Set me as a seal upon thine heart… for love is strong as death."
Song of Solomon 8:7 — "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The Song is either reduced to erotica or spiritualized into bloodless allegory.
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One stream strips the Song of all spiritual meaning, treating it as ancient erotic poetry; another flees the poetry's bodily candor and turns it entirely allegorical, embarrassed by the text. Both readings betray the book.
Scripture holds both: this is covenant love embodied, sanctified, exclusive. It celebrates marital union as a creation good and simultaneously sings of the deeper Marriage between Christ and His bride. Body and soul, eros and agape, are not at war but at the altar.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Dod (beloved) and ahavah (love) saturate the poem.
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Usage
"'I am my beloved's' is the entire gospel in five words."
"Love is strong as death — and stronger, in the One who broke death."
"The Song will not be allegorized away or dragged into the gutter."