Show BIBLICAL LOVE SONGS The nocalled Song of Solomon Is not the work of one poet but a late post ISxIlio collection of popular nuptial songs and lovcdltilcs which rnay all have been sung at Hebrew weddings although they I wero not originally composed com-posed for this purpose They were probably compiled In the neighborhood of Damascus after the beginning of the Seluoldnn era Jli IJ C Jn Pal estiiiL the autumii IS the usual time for weddings after the harvest snys Dai man In the Introduction to his Palestinian Pales-tinian Divan the young nven have leisure lei-sure and also monuy lo pay for the brides but In the t country east of the Jordan especially In the neighborhood of Damascus the majority of the weddings wed-dings laki placo during March which Is the most beautiful month of the year This Springtide of Love Is dercrlbcd In the bcjiullful poem which We llnd In tin second chapterof the Song of Solomon Sol-omon and from which i quote a single extraHark Hark dearest mine behold be Is coumi hug Over mountains I leaping over hillocks skipping Behold lu IK Ptin < Jlu behind our wull there i From windows I peer down through tam tIcs peuplng Arise my durllng Ah conic my fair one The most beautiful poem of these I Biblical iovedit t los Is contained I Inverses In-verses G and 7 of the lastchapter which must be preceded by the beginning of the third chapter At nIght ts I lay on my pillow for him whom I love was I longing 1 will mIte and fri me forth through the I city both through streets that am wldu and arc narrow For Love mm Death is stiong tint IasHlon I us Sheoi unyielding Its Ilnmcs arc tlnims of Ire UK Hughes mint InBlics of lightning Nothing hi able to quench It Neither I can any bUvams dinwn it If I OIK should resign for It all his possessions posses-sions Could any man therefore contemn hliuV If the bong of Solomon is nothiimg haiL 1 collection of profane lovodltties In praise of fonsual I Irve some mlijht raise LImO question whether the Song of Songs Is not out of placo In the T3lblc It Is nowhere cited In the New Testament The great Hebraist J D MlelmHlH of the University of Got tingen omitted the Song of Songs from his critical 1 irnnslnTlon of the I Bible Prof Frunx Dcllfsch of Lotpslc one of the I foremost nibllcal < 5cliulars of the nineteenth century and one of the most devout Christ In nil I ever mot in my life stated In t lie IjitrpdurUon to his commentary on the Song oC Solomon that this book was the most dlfllcull h I book in the Old Testament but the meaning becomes perfectly plain In fact too plain as soon as wo know that It I IF not an allegorical dramatic poem but a collection of popular lovedltiles which must be Interpreted on the hauls of the erotic Imagery in the Talmud and modern Palestinian and other Mohammedan Moham-medan poetry |