The Bride and Her Beloved The Bridegroom The Friends 1 I have come to my garden, my sister, bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends; drink and be drunk with loves!
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 The place of his burial was a garden.… What is he going to say who was buried in the garden? "I gather my myrrh, and my spices"; and again, "Myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices." These were the tokens of his burial, and in the Gospels it is said, "The women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared," and "there also came Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh…
Bede · AD 735 Eat, my friends, and drink, etc. That is, you too who are my friends by doing what I have commanded you, are also most dear, embracing me with undivided love: therefore I beseech you to fill your hearts with the acts of the saints, as with the choicest feasts.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Furthermore, this charity gives to the soul a fire. Hence, in the Canticle, "Set me as a seal on your heart... for stern as death is love," when it loves to such a degree that it is totally carried up to the supremely desirable, and sees prosperity as nothing, and adversity as nothing, since all things are like a single straw in a furnace.
The Bride 2 I was asleep, but my heart was awake. The voice of my beloved, knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one — for my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 According to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God.
Aponius · AD 500 "I sleep and my heart remains awake." The divine Word, who is to be understood here under the title of the heart, never sleeps or falls asleep while hidden within the veil of the flesh, but he carries the sleeper. He explains this in a deeply mysterious way to the friends and beloveds who believe in him and whom he invites to partake of the joy of human salvation.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 In this union the mind is joined to God, wherefore in a certain sense it sleeps, while in another it keeps vigil: "I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil." Only the affective power keeps vigil and imposes silence upon all the other powers; then man becomes foreign to his senses: he is in ecstasy and hears "secret words that man may not repeat," because they are only in the hea…
3 I have taken off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I soil them?
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.
Bede · AD 735 I have stripped off my tunic, etc. As if he openly says, I have abandoned the affairs of weak matters, how can I take them up again? For he who girds himself for the duty of preaching and takes on the care of governing souls, it remains that he should also be vigilant to provide the necessities of temporal aids to those to whom he preaches eternal things.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 His bride stripped herself of her tunic, because she cast off all the outward things by which she was burdened. Concerning this tunic it is said: "Now let him who has a tunic sell it and buy a sword" (Luke 22:36). For he buys a sword by selling his tunic, who renounces temporal things for the sake of eternal ones, and living in holy conduct, acquires the word of preaching.
4 My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my insides stirred for him.
Bede · AD 735 My beloved put his hand through the opening. My beloved puts his hand through the opening when the Lord secretly and invisibly kindles us with the hidden spur of divine love toward virtuous acts. He puts his hand to us when, seeing us longing to rest, he recalls to our memory his work in us—not only that we are men but also that we belong to him.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The beloved sends his hand to the bride through the opening so that she may arise, when through subtle understanding he makes manifest to her by inspiring how great is the power of divine operation: namely, that he is able to save even amid dangers; that even in peace no one is saved except through him; that he does not abandon those hoping in him in the tumult of battle.
5 I rose, I myself, to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped myrrh, and my fingers flowing myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
Gregory of Nyssa · AD 395 Resurrection is not effected in us unless a voluntary death precedes it. Such a voluntary death is indicated by the drops of myrrh dripping from the bride's hands, for her fingers are filled with this spice. She says that myrrh did not come into her hands from any other source—if this were so, myrrh would mean something accidental and involuntary.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 By myrrh the mortification of our flesh is figured; hence the holy Church says of her workers who strive for God even unto death: "My hands have dripped with myrrh." Therefore we offer gold to the newborn King if we shine in his sight with the brightness of heavenly wisdom.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 Having been touched, she rises to open: because when she receives the spirit of love more abundantly than usual, she immediately thinks about the edification of her neighbor; and by preaching she acts so that, with hearts opened, the Bridegroom, coming to dwell in her neighbors, may find an entrance for entering.
6 I opened, I myself, to my beloved — and my beloved had slipped away, had passed on. My soul went out when he spoke. I sought him and did not find him; I called him and he did not answer me.
Gregory of Nyssa · AD 395 The bride says, "I sought him, but found him not." How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Hence again she says: "My soul melted when the beloved spoke." For the mind of a person not seeking the form of its Creator is badly hardened, because it remains cold in itself. But if it has now begun to burn with desire to follow him whom it loves, melted by the fire of love it runs.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 We make a bolt for the door when, through the pleasures of the flesh, we bar the entrance of the heart against the Bridegroom. But we open the bolt when, having removed fleeting pleasures, we soften our heart—which had previously been hard—into the love of Christ, and make a free entrance for the Bridegroom knocking at the door.
7 The watchmen who go about in the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me. They lifted my shawl from upon me, the keepers of the walls.
Bede · AD 735 The keepers of the walls took my cloak from me. The keepers of the walls are also the highest teachers, as they strive to also instruct those capable of governing and fortifying the Church.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 While the bride is troubled in her search for the beloved, she encounters the watchmen of the city: that is, while the holy mind afflicts itself with desire for her Bridegroom Christ, she receives the words of the preachers in the divine Scriptures, and through them, as long as she is exiled from Christ, she devotes herself to the love of the very one whom she was seeking.
8 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem: if you find my beloved — what shall you tell him? That I am sick with love.
Bede · AD 735 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find, etc. Worthily, the bride languishes with love, having been struck and wounded by the sword of the Spirit, she casts off the garment of carnal desire, for as much as the holy soul gains strength in God, so much is she made weak and infirm towards the affection of this world, as if debilitated.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 For when we disclose our thoughts to holy men, when we spread out our desire to them—whether they are still living among us or have already entered eternal life—and pray through God that by praying for us they may offer to the Lord Christ the desire with which we are moved, what else do we do than adjure the daughters of Jerusalem to announce to the beloved, to whom they are ne…
The Friends 9 What is your beloved more than a beloved, most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than a beloved, that you so adjure us?
Bede · AD 735 How is your beloved better than another beloved, etc. It is open for a faithful brother to say to another faithful brother: I beseech you, because I find that you are fervent in the love of the Redeemer, also speak to me of Him, confirm me with a salutary exhortation, so that the same love in my heart may grow by His benefits and gifts.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 But the Saints themselves, if they are still with us, both pray for those who ask them to pray and, when asked to carry the message, out of humility inquire as though they did not know, saying: What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women?
The Bride 10 My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, bannered above ten thousand.
Gregory of Nyssa · AD 395 All these elements constituting the bridegroom's beauty are made known for our benefit but do not show his invisible, incomprehensible beauty.…Therefore, whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest by the beauty of creatures can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty, the fountain of beauty whose emanation established…
Aponius · AD 500 He is white because he is the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness "who enlightens everyone entering the world," according to John the Evangelist and the preaching of the prophets.
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 But is he still black? Far from it! Your beloved is radiant and ruddy. Beautiful indeed is he whom the flowers of roses and the lilies of the valleys surround; that is, the choirs of martyrs and of virgins: and I who sit in the midst am in harmony with both choirs, a virgin and a martyr.
11 His head is gold, pure gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
Julian of Eclanum · AD 455 Hair is also represented by another comparison, wherein the shape of its locks seems to mimic the brilliance of gold. "His hair is like waves of palms," so that they would surely seem to be curly and golden.
Bede · AD 735 His hair lifted like palm trees, etc. The hair of the beloved's head is the throng of saints, who adhere to God with faithful service; and deservedly are they compared to raised palm trees, because they expect the sweetness of perpetual reward. Hence it is that the Psalmist says: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree" (Psalm 92).
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The head of Christ is God. This head is rightly called gold, because in comparison with the Creator every creature is reckoned a most worthless thing (1 Cor. 11). His locks are like clusters of palm branches, black as a raven. What do we understand by the locks of Christ, if not all the faithful?
12 His eyes are like doves beside channels of water, bathing in milk, sitting by a full pool.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "Your eyes", it says, "are like doves upon the fullness of the waters" (to the "fullness of the waters", therefore, we must hasten, for in these the beauty of the bride is described), "and your neck", it says, "like a turtledove's". In the doves the eyes are praised.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "His eyes like doves on pools of water," once again here by mention of the "eyes" admiring his keen sight. Hence her saying they are like doves "on pools of water" reminds us of the dove coming down on him in the Jordan.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The eyes of the bridegroom are like doves, because the preachers of Christ who show us the way live in simplicity. Moreover, they are said to be beside streams of water, because they always dwell in the refreshment of the divine Scriptures.
13 His cheeks are like a bed of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are lilies, dripping flowing myrrh.
Bede · AD 735 His cheeks are like beds of spices, etc. Just as the words on the lips of the Lord expressed what He spoke, so in His cheeks the modest piety and sternness of His countenance are simultaneously expressed.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 If preachers are designated by the eyes, fittingly by the cheeks are figured those in the Church who are reported to have ended their lives by martyrdom in the Church. For while they do not hesitate to pour out their blood for the faith of Christ, they redden like cheeks on the face of the Bridegroom.
14 His hands are rods of gold set with beryl. His belly is a slab of ivory overlaid with sapphires.
Bede · AD 735 His hands are like cylinders of gold, etc. After the lips, the Church praises the hands of her Redeemer, that is, His deeds after His words, because He showed by His actions that what He taught with words was to be believed. For instance, while teaching on the mountain, the crowds were amazed at His doctrine.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 For what is designated by the hands of Christ, if not the holy works which He performed in the world, and which are set before us for imitation? For He Himself says: "He who loves me, let him follow me" (John 12:26). And the Apostle: "He who says he abides in Christ ought to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6).
15 His legs are pillars of marble founded on sockets of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.
Gregory of Nyssa · AD 395 A pillar must rest on the foundation of truth. Truth is golden, and its bases are the bridegroom's legs adorning his hands and head. The foundation may be interpreted as marble. We understand by the Song's words that the body's legs are marble pillars, that is, those persons who support and bear the body of the church by exemplary lives and sound words.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "His form is like choice incense, like cedars." Here again she makes reference to the fact of two natures, calling the divine nature "incense" since by the law incense was offered to God, and by "cedar" referring to the human nature in its not being affected by the rottenness of sin, the cedar of all trees not going rotten.
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 But those spiritual feet of God, which the penitent must first kiss spiritually, I ought not to pass over. I know your curiosity, which allows nothing to pass by altogether uninvestigated of its own accord.
16 His palate is sweetness, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 The pure soul revolves around this, contemplates it, and sees God, and abounds in all good things. Therefore, it says: The throat sweetens, and the whole desire. For God is the author of all good things, and whatever exists, all of it indeed belongs to Him.
Bede · AD 735 Such is my beloved, etc. The more devoutly the Church or any holy soul loves God, the more familiarly it considers God as a friend; for he who still, because of weakness of mind or consciousness of sin, observes the divine commandments with servile fear, must necessarily call Him more as Lord than as Father or friend, because he has not yet reached that apostolic perfection, by…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 When this peace has been attained, there necessarily follows a superabundant spiritual delight, and then the person is fit for contemplation and for the gazes and embraces of the Bridegroom and the Bride, which take place according to the spiritual senses, by which is seen the supreme beauty of Christ the Bridegroom under the aspect of Splendor: is heard the supreme harmony und…