by Justin Marple | Apr 6, 2014 | OT Writings Commentary, Song of Songs Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
Song of Songs 3:1-4:7 is not necessarily the best division of the text because Song of Songs 4:1-7 fits better with the text that follows than that which precedes it. But in any case, the three songs here move from one that climaxes in sex, one about a wedding day,...
by Justin Marple | Mar 31, 2014 | OT Writings Commentary, Song of Songs Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
One of the themes of the Song of Songs, which is seen in both halves of chapter 2, is warnings regarding love. Sometimes those warnings have to do with obstacles to the blossoming relationship, but even more often those warnings have to do with not hurrying love...
by Justin Marple | Mar 23, 2014 | OT Writings Commentary, Song of Songs Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
I have already noted that the grammatical construction with the singular of the plural indicates the superlative – Song of Songs = the best song. It is also worth noting as we begin to look at the book that it may also be an intentional clue to the genre of the book...
by Justin Marple | Mar 13, 2014 | OT Writings Commentary, Song of Songs Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
While some English Bibles will call this book the ”Song of Solomon,” its Hebrew title is ”Song of Songs.” The grammatical construction of a singular of the plural of the same thing is the way in Hebrew to do the superlative. Thus this is the...
by Justin Marple | Mar 10, 2014 | OT Writings Commentary, Ruth Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
English Bibles place Ruth after Judges and right before 1 Samuel. As a historical sequence this makes some sense given that Ruth is set in the time of the judges (Ruth 1:1) and it then can serve as a brief introduction to the book of Samuel (assuming that you...
by Justin Marple | Mar 14, 2010 | Lamentations Commentary, TEACHING, The Five Scrolls
The parallel book in the chiasm, Song of Songs, is incredibly difficult to divide into poems. In fact, that book seems to be a disorganized compilation of erotic poetry. On the other hand, Lamentations describes a very chaotic situation in a very structured way. There...
Recent Comments