The NIV Application Commentary Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs.
It is one of the challenges of reading the Song to explore how far this is necessarily true and how far Christian readers have been influenced in their reading more by Platonism and Gnosticism than by b.
Christians have often felt that they must choose between these options--that a text about human love and sexual intimacy could not be at the same time a spiritual text.
The Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon) has been read, historically, by Christians, in two primary ways--as a text which concerns the love and sexual intimacy of human beings and as a text which uses the language of human love and intimacy to speak of something else--the relationship between Christ and the church.
Perhaps this is one reason why Ecclesiastes is seldom read or preached on in modern churches.
When considered in the context of the NT, the dissonance between Ecclesiastes and its scriptural context seems even greater; for if there is one thing that we do not find in this book, it is the joy of resurrection.
We find ourselves apparently reading about the meaninglessness of life and the certainty of death in a universe in which God is certainly present but is distant and somewhat uninvolved.
When considered in the larger context of the OT, Ecclesiastes stands out as an unusual book, whose connection with the main stream of biblical tradition seems tenuous.
The argument is itself complex and sometimes puzzling and has often provoked the charge of inconsistency or outright self-contradiction.
The interpretation even of words which occur frequently in the book is often unclear and a matter of dispute, partly because there is frequent word-play in the course of the argument.
Ecclesiastes regularly challenges the reader as to grammar and syntax.
Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs have always presented particular challenges to their readers, especially if those readers are seeking to understand them as part of Christian Scripture.
The NIV Application Commentary Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs
