SOLOMON'S PORCH

expression. His sacrifice at Gibeon (v.*) gives another aspect; his religion was associated with external display. So the magnificence of the Temple, the pageantry and holocausts of its dedication (8), certainly ministered to his own glory, no less than to God's. His prayer, however, if it be in any sense authentic, is full of true piety, and he seems to have had a real delight in religious observances (9^) . His fall is connected with his polygamy and foreign wives (11, cf. Neh 13"). He not only allowed them their own worship, a necessary concession, but shared in it; the memory of his 'high places,' within sight of his own Temple, was preserved in the name ' Mount of Offence.' This idolatry was, in fact, the natural syncretism resulting from his habitual foreign intercourse. Self-indulgence and the pride of wealth evidently played their part in his deterioration. Of his actual end nothing is known; he was an ' old man ' (1 K 1 1') at sixty years„but Jeroboam's flight suggests that he could still make his authority felt. Ecclesiastes gives a good impression of the ' moral ' of his life; but whether he actually repented and was 'saved' was warmly debated by the Fathers. Dt 17"'' criticises his Egyptian alliance and harem, his love of horses and of wealth, and Sir 47'2-2i is a fair summary of the career of one whose 'heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father' (1 K 11*). His wisdom could not teach him self-control, and the only legacy of a violated home-life was a son ' ample in foolishness and lacking in understanding.'

C. W. Emmet.

SOLOmOK'S PORCH,— See Temple, § 11 (a).

SOLOMON'S SERVANTS.— See Nethinim.

SOMEIS (1 Es 9«) =Shimei, Ezr 10='.

SOMETIME, SOMETIMES.— There is no difference in the use of these two forms in AV, and except in Sir 37" (Tor a man's mind is sometime wont to tell him,' etc.), where the meaning is 'occasionally,' as now, both forms are used in the sense of ' once upon a time.'

SON. — See Child, Family.

SON OF GOD, SON OFMAN.— See Person of Christ, I. §§ 3. 4.

SONG OF SONGS (or CANTICLES) .—1. Place in the Canon, interpretation, structure.— (a)TheSongof Songs is one of the Kethublm, Hagiographa, or Writings, the third of the three classes into which the Jewish Canon was divided. Printed copies of the Heb. OT follow the arrangement of the German and French MSS in plaicing it at the head of the five Megilloth or Rolls — the short books which are read at the great annual solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, the 9th Ab, Feast of Booths, Purim. Probably it owes its premier position to the tact that Passover is the earliest festival of the year. But there is reason for believing that a more ancient order survives in .the LXX, where it stands by the side of Prov. and Eccles., the two other works to which Solomon's name was attached.

Grave doubts were long entertained by the Rabbis respecting the canonicity of Canticles (a common name of the book, from Vulg. Canticum Canticorum).

The Synod ofJamnia(A.D.90-100),after some discussion, decidedmfavourof its reception, and Rabbi Akiba(tA.D. 335) lent to this conclusion the weight of his great infiuence: ' All the Hagiographa are holy, but the Song of Songs is the most holy, and the whole world is not of such importance as the day in which it was given.' The opening words_ of the Targum are equally strong: 'Songs and praises which Solomon the prophet, the king of Israel, spake by the Holy Spirit before Janweh, the Lord of the whole world. Ten son^ were sung in that day, but this song was more to be praised than they all,' The Midrash asserts that ' Canticles 13 the most excellent of songs, dedicated to Him who one day will cause the_ Holy Ghost to rest on us; -it is that song in which God praises us and we Him.'

(6) It was evidently admitted into the OT because it was supposed to treat of a religious theme. This is Implied by its title in the Syriac Version: 'Wisdom of Wisdoms, which is Solomon's: the book which is called

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SONG OF SONGS

in Hebrew Shirath Shirim (i.e. "Song of Songs").' The theme was supposed to be the reciprocal love of Jahweh and Israel, and the story of that love in the history of the Chosen People. This was here enshrined in an allegory somewhat analogous to Hos 1-3 and Ezk 16. The Church adopted this line of interpretation from the Synagogue: Christ is the bridegroom, the Church or the soul is the bride.

The rubrics prefixed to many verses in Cod. Amiatinus of the Vulgate illustrate the manner in which this was worked out: 'Voice of the Synagogue,' 'Voice of the Church,' 'Voice of Christ,' "Voice of Mary Magdalene to the Church,' 'Christ calls together the nations.' To some writers the Virmn Mary was the bride, and Canticles told the story of the Incarnation. Luther read here Solomon's thanksgivings for the blessings bestowed on his kingdom. The school of allegorists has lost ground considerably in modem times, but is not yet extinct. There were, however, almost from the beginning, exegetes who saw that the subject really treated of in Ca. is the mutual love of man and woman. In the early Church the great name of Theodore of Mopsuestia stands out on this side, and among the Jews that of Ibn Ezra. Castelho was driven out of Geneva by Calvin for asserting it, and Luis de Leon was thrown into prison by the Inquisition for the same cause.

(c) The question of form is closely connected with that of subject. Origen was the first to point out its affinity to the drama, but the earliest attempt to work this out thoroughly was made as late as 1722 by a German, G. Wachter. He has found many followers. Solomon and a country maiden were supposed to be the two leading characters. He married her, and his love for her led him to adopt a simpler mode of life. But is there not a third important character in the play? Later students answered in the affirmative. The revised explanation was that Solomon carried off ' the Shulammite ' to his harem, and, abetted by the women already there, the 'daughters of Jerusalem,' sought to divert her affections from her shepherd-lover: failing in this, he at last mag-nanimously resigned her to the shepherd. Leaving aside all detailed objections, the consideration which is fatal to these and all conceivable forms of the theory is that the drama has no place in Semitic literature. If Ca. had been an exception to the rule, how is it that there is not a single stage-direction, not a note of any kind to identify the speaker or regulate the action?

Certain important MSS of the LXX show how keenly this defect was felt: to each longer or shorter section they prefix 'The Bndegroom,' 'The Bride,' ' A second time the Bride adjures the maidens,' or the like, and one MS (23) runs to the following length, before 5', ' Not having found the bridegroom, the bride went out, and, as one found by the city-watchmen in the night, she is wounded and the keepers of the wall take her veil.'

And how is it that there is, within the poem itself, no movement towards a climax, no knot united or cut, no denouementf Matters are as far advanced at 1* 2' as at 85.

Even during the period when the drama-theory was most vigorously maintained, some distinguished scholars held that Ca. is made up of a number of originally detached pieces, which were eventually brought together because they all treat of Love. Wetzstein's Die Syrische Drescktafel (1873) furnished a strong reinforcement of this opinion. He had observed, whilst resident in Syria, that the peasant bridegroom and bride are entitled king and queen for the first week of married life [a con-temporary Arabic epithalamium has since then been cited {.ZATW xxiv. p. 42) in which the man actually bears the name of the reigning Sultan, Abd il-Hamid]; they are attended by a vizier, have their throne on the threshing-floor, and receive the homage of the whole countryside. Songs and dances are executed by the 'friends of the bridegroom,' the bystanders, and the newly married pair. Some of these ditties, especially those which enumerate the charms of the bride, ate of ex-actly the same character as certain sections of Canticles, and 7'"- corresponds precisely with the wasf (' descrip-