I haven’t much to say about the Song of Solomon: it is one of the few books of the Bible where even scholars admit that they don’t really know what to do. Just this: There is very little (if any) conflict in this book. This fact makes me wonder whether the claim that Songs envisions a time when Israel is at peace in the Land is sustainable. I should be clear: by peace in the land, I mean that Israel is experiencing the Land as God promised.
Archive for March 14th, 2007Some (rather unorganised) Thoughts on Ecclesiastes Texts to consider: “As Galling later discovered, Koheleth’s sayings arose in reaction to an assumed body of wisdom tradition. Therefore almost every topic within the traditional teachings of the sages is touched upon in Ecclesiastes: God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked; an act and its consequence is inextricably linked; life is the highest gift of God and death is a threat; diligence brings its reward and slothfulness its toil. At times Kohoeleth flatly rejects the tradition, while at other times he modifies or even affirms it. That there are contradictions within the book arises from the shifting contexts to which he speaks and from his critical judgement against traditional wisdomwhich would lay claim to greater human understanding than Koheleth would grant. To attempt to eliminate the tension within the book either by a theory of different literary sources, or by suggesting different voices in a dialogue is to seek to circumvent the context established by the editors” |
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