Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 13th book of the Bible. We just keep moving past these

milestones you guys. Congratulations. We read through the whole book of Song of

Solomon or Song of Songs depending which version of the Bible

you're reading. This book is incredibly layered and there's a lot of uncertainty

about several aspects of it. For instance, we don't know if Solomon wrote it or

if it was written about Solomon,

or if it was just written during the time of Solomon.

If it was written about Solomon, it would have to be about his relationship with his first wife

because the book describes a monogamous relationship and he eventually

had a thousand women in his harem, 700 wives and 300 concubines.

And we'll see how well that goes for him.

And here's another confusing thing. People have argued for centuries

over whether it's a story about human love or if it's an allegory about God's love

for his people. Personally, I tend to think it's both.

Much like how David can write a song about his own personal misery that is also a

prophecy of the coming Messiah.

But that's just my opinion.

Most commentators believe that ancient Jews regarded it as love poetry that belonged in the wisdom literature of scripture.

And in fact, from what I understand, young Hebrew boys were even forbidden to read it because it was too risque.

For the sake of today's conversation, we'll look at it like the ancient Jews did,

literally.

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