Origen on the Song of Songs as the Spirit of Scripture: The Bridegroom's Perfect Marriage-Song
J. Christopher King
Abstract
This book explores Origen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs in his Commentary and two Homilies on the Song of Songs. Origen portrays the Song under two complementary and inseparable aspects: first, as the unique Scripture in which the eschatological nuptials of Christ and his Bride are really present as text; second, as the spirit of Scripture unveiled, laid bare, and fully manifest in all its erotic power to lure, inflame, and make the reader ‘one spirit’ with the Lord. The study proceeds in two parts. The first establishes some of the relevant principles of Origen’s hermeneutic, and clea ... More
This book explores Origen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs in his Commentary and two Homilies on the Song of Songs. Origen portrays the Song under two complementary and inseparable aspects: first, as the unique Scripture in which the eschatological nuptials of Christ and his Bride are really present as text; second, as the spirit of Scripture unveiled, laid bare, and fully manifest in all its erotic power to lure, inflame, and make the reader ‘one spirit’ with the Lord. The study proceeds in two parts. The first establishes some of the relevant principles of Origen’s hermeneutic, and clears away prior accounts of his Song exegesis that have obscured the actual foundations of the reading developed in the Commentary and Homilies. The second part shows that Origen’s actual exegetical procedure in the Commentary proves that his spiritual reading of the Song is rooted entirely in certain hermeneutical demands, not in psychological or ascetical compulsions. These hermeneutical demands lead Origen to make the greatest conceivable claims for the character of the Song, namely that the Song fully and intelligibly represents the eschatological mystery, manifesting the ‘spirit’ of Scripture in the plan form of a text.
Keywords:
Origen,
Song of Songs,
Commentary,
Homilies on the Song,
scripture
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2005 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199272181 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2006 |
DOI:10.1093/0199272182.001.0001 |
