Yamauchi, Edwin2019-09-252019-09-252017-03-141961http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/164100"The book of Canticles, or the Song of Solomon, is a most fascinating book. As Morris Jastrow has said: The Song of Songs is one of the smallest books of the Old Testament. It consists in the conventional subdivision of the text of eight chapters with a total of only 117 verses. And yet this little book has been the subject of more controversy than perhaps any other production of similar size.' Canticles is not only an intriguing and controversial book, it is also a difficult book to interpret. The first dominant school of interpretation was the allegorical. This view represented the book as picturing the love of God for mankind, and justified its representation from explicit references, such as in Hosea, where Jehovah's love for Israel is plainly stated in terms of marital affection. The allegorical view was for many centuries the "orthodox" view of Jews, Roman Catholics, and Protestants"engWith permission of the license/copyright holderCanticlesOld Testamentinterpretationmarital affectionComparative religion and interreligious dialogueBiblical TheologyOld TestamentBiblical hermeneutics, Interpretation of the BibleBiblical TheologiesArticle