"Divine wisdom has arranged for certain stumbling blocks and interruptions of the historical sense...by inserting in the midst of a number of impossibilities and incongruities, in order that the narrative might, as it were, present a barrier to the reader and lead him to refuse to proceed along the pathway of ordinary meaning."In the prologue to his commentary on the Song of Songs, Origen pointed out that the three books of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs were representative of the body, psyche and spirit of scripture that goes beyond our mortal nature.
Proverbs is a book of the body. It represents the literal sense of scripture, while Ecclesiastes works on the level of the psyche, the natural powers of the mind and heart. By pointing out that earthly things are vain and empty, Ecclesiastes reveals the futility of placing hope in the material world, and thus represents the moral sense of scripture, requiring no supernatural insight.
An initiate into the higher mysteries of Scripture could appreciate the allegorical sense of the Song of Songs - the love of the Bride for the celestial Bridegroom, that is, of the perfect soul for the Word of God.
Origen takes us through the three stages within the Song of Songs itself - there is the earthly love of the bride in 'let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth', the literal beginning of an epithalamium where the bride awaits her bridegroom in longing. Origen picks up the allegory used by Paul to refer to the dowry that has been sent as symbolic of Israel, receiving the Law and the prophecies, but awaiting the coming of the incarnate Logos, who will complete them. The moral sense is represented in shewing the Bride as a model for all Christians, who must train themselves to yearn without ceasing and so transcend their nature, to achieve union with God.
Ref: Armstrong, Karen. The Bible: A Biography, 'Charity', Atlantic, 2007, pg 112 - 115
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