Song of Songs

The Song of Songs (also called the Song of Solomon) is an Old Testament book of love poetry — a celebration of the love between a man and a woman. The Church has always read it as an allegory of the love between God and his people, and ultimately between Christ and the Church (CCC 1611).

What It Is

The Song of Songs is a collection of love poems celebrating erotic and spousal love with extraordinary beauty and candor. It contains no explicit mention of God. Its inclusion in the biblical canon was debated in ancient Judaism, but Rabbi Akiva defended it as the "holiest of holy writings" — "the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel."

The Allegorical Reading

The Church's tradition — from Origen in the 3rd century through Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th — has read the Song of Songs as an allegory of the love between God and Israel, and between Christ and the Church, and between God and the individual soul. The passionate desire of the lover for the beloved expresses the intensity of divine love for humanity and the soul's longing for God (CCC 1611).

The Literal and the Spiritual

The literal meaning — the celebration of human spousal love — is also theologically significant. The Church teaches that marriage between a man and a woman reflects the covenant love of God for his people. The Song of Songs thus sanctifies both the literal (human sexual love in marriage) and the spiritual (the soul's union with God; CCC 1611).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the literal meaning of the Song of Songs important? Yes. The Church does not treat the literal meaning as merely a cover for allegory. Human love, marital sexuality, and the beauty of the human body are genuinely celebrated in Scripture. The allegorical reading builds on, rather than replacing, the literal one (CCC 1611).