A TITLE The opening verse gives the title “The Song of Songs.” This is the Hebrew way of expressing the superlative Of Solomon’s 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:32), this one was his best or most important The more common title assigned to the book is “Song of Solomon,” also based on 1:1 Sometimes the book is referred to as Canticles (“series of songs”) B AUTHOR The traditional view is that Solomon was the author This is strongly supported by internal characteristics of the book (Refer to outside sources for a discussion of this.) The name Solomon appears at these places in the book: 1:1,5; 3:7,9,11; 8:11,12 The reference at 1:1 may be translated either “of Solomon” or “about Solomon.” C DATE WRITTEN Solomon probably wrote this book while he was still young, before being drawn away from Jehovah by his seven hundred wives (1 Kings 11:3-4) A suggested date is 965 B.C D RELATION TO OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE In our English Bibles the Song of Solomon is the fth of the poetical books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon In the Hebrew Bible it is the rst of the “Five Rolls” (Megilloth): Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther Portions of it were sung on the eighth day of the Passover feast, which was the Jews’ rst and greatest of the annual feasts In ancient times the Jews revered Canticles as uniquely sublime They likened Proverbs to the outer court of the Temple; Ecclesiastes to the holy place; and Song of Solomon to the most holy place The New Testament book that has the same type of purpose as the Song of Solomon—re ection about a Bridegroom and His Bride—is the epistle to the Ephesians E FORM The book is a uni ed lyrical poem It is a series of stanzas or songs of varied lengths.2 Our later survey study will reveal that there is a topical unity of the various songs, even though there is no de ned dramatical progression, as in the book of Job Because of its poetical form, we may expect to nd the usual gures of speech found in poetry (e.g., simile: “Thy hair is as a ock of goats,” 4:1, KJV) Also, the phraseology of the poetry is strictly Oriental, and must be read in that light (e.g., chap 4) F SETTING OF STORY The main characters of the Song of Solomon are Solomon, a Shulamite woman, and a group called “daughters of Jerusalem”: Solomon The king of Israel (1 Kings 1:32-37), Solomon was the son of David and ... OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE In our English Bibles the Song of Solomon is the fth of the poetical books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon In the Hebrew Bible it is the rst of the. .. times the Jews revered Canticles as uniquely sublime They likened Proverbs to the outer court of the Temple; Ecclesiastes to the holy place; and Song of Solomon to the most holy place The New Testament. .. (Megilloth): Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther Portions of it were sung on the eighth day of the Passover feast, which was the Jews’ rst and greatest of the annual feasts