Together in the Garden The Friends 1 Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
Bede · AD 735 Where has your beloved gone, etc.? The beloved is said to depart and turn away, not because the Lord ever abandons those whom He has already acquired and continues to acquire others, but because by the power of His divine nature He can be present everywhere.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 For when one neighbor speaks to another about Christ, when one inquires of another how He may be found, what else is being searched out but how He ought to be sought? Although this can also be understood of the Synagogue, so that, once converted, it questions the Church, to which the Church immediately responds.
The Bride 2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spice, to pasture in the gardens and to gather lilies.
Bede · AD 735 To be fed in the gardens, etc. He is fed in the gardens, because He delights in the pious labors of the saints; He is fed in the gardens, because they are indeed His members to whom the fruits of righteousness come; and it should be understood not only of carnal but even of spiritual alms, which He predicted He would declare in judgment: "As long as you did it to one of these l…
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The Beloved descends into his garden to the bed of spices, because in visiting the Church, he comes with greater grace to those whom he knows to send forth from themselves to their neighbors the fragrance of good reputation through holy works and examples of virtues. He feeds in the gardens when he delights in the virtues of many souls.
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, who pastures among the lilies.
Leander of Seville · AD 601 He is, indeed, your true bridegroom. He is also your brother. He is likewise your friend. He is your inheritance. He is your reward. He is God and the Lord.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The Beloved descends into his garden to the bed of spices, because in visiting the Church, he comes with greater grace to those whom he knows to send forth from themselves to their neighbors the fragrance of good reputation through holy works and examples of virtues. He feeds in the gardens when he delights in the virtues of many souls.
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 Moreover, the Bride has spoken more rightly, and not putting forward merit but setting forth the benefit first, and confessing that she has been preceded by the grace of the beloved. Rightly indeed. For "who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him?" (Rom 11:35.) Finally, hear John, what he perceived in his Epistle on this matter.
The Bridegroom 4 You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, awesome as the bannered ones.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 He who was spoiled by the soldiers, who was wounded by the spear, that he might heal us by the blood of his sacred wounds, will assuredly answer you (for he is meek and lowly of heart, and gentle in aspect): "Arise, O north wind, and come, O south, and blow upon my garden, that my spices may flow out." For from all parts of the world has the perfume of holy religion increased,…
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 It should be noted, indeed, that the Synagogue will one day be converted to the faith through the preaching of the Church, so that, denying itself, it will follow Christ alone, and will love Christ with the same desire with which the Church loves him, whom she loves alone above all others.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 For it is necessary that the hierarchized soul have levels corresponding to the Jerusalem which is above. For the soul is something great: the whole universe may be described in it. The soul is called "as lovely as Jerusalem," for it is likened to Jerusalem through the disposition of the hierarchical levels.
5 Turn your eyes away from before me, for they have overwhelmed me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from the Gilead.
Gregory of Nyssa · AD 395 A goat is honored because its thick coat provides an image of beauty for the bride. Another reason for praise is that a goat can pass over rocks with a sure foot, agilely turn on mountain peaks, courageously pass through difficult, rough places, and can go safely on the road of virtue.
Bede · AD 735 Hair like a flock of goats, etc. These verses and the following ones placed above have been fully explained to the best of our understanding; but let us not hesitate to reiterate in explanation what the author of the sacred song did not hesitate to repeat in writing, so that we may either recall what was said before to memory or, with the help of divine grace, do something new…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The mind cannot see it with intellectual eyes, and so they must be turned away. Hence it is said in the Canticle: "Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away." For Christ goes away when the mind attempts to behold this wisdom through intellectual eyes; since it is not the intellect that can go in there, but the heart.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and not one among them bereaved.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 He praises these sheep also in the Song of Solomon, speaking of some perfect ones as the teeth of his spouse the holy church.
Bede · AD 735 All lambs of twin births, etc. For all the sheep with which the bride's teeth are arranged are multiplied by twin births, because every speech of the elect is fruitful with the twin love, that is, the love by which God and neighbor are loved; every speech talks about the perpetual health of mind and body; every speech is accustomed to fortify its listeners through the arms of j…
7 Like a slice of pomegranate is your temple behind your veil.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 What are the cheeks of the church of which the Scripture elsewhere says, "Your cheeks are as the bark of pomegranates"? They are the cheeks on which modesty is accustomed to shine, beauty to sparkle, on which there is either the flower of youth or the distinguished mark of perfect age.
Bede · AD 735 As the rind of a pomegranate, etc. It was said above that in the cheeks of the Church the insignia of her modesty is figured, in the pomegranate the ministry of the blood of the Lord is depicted.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 All these things said above about the Church, we have explained as best we could; therefore we now avoid repeating the same things about the Synagogue.
8 Sixty they are, queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Hence, then, it is that Scripture records that some of the Patriarchs had several wives at once, others took other wives when the former had died; so that this may be figuratively indicated, that certain men can exercise several virtues at once, while others do not begin those that follow before they have brought the former to perfection.
Aponius · AD 500 In the present verse, therefore, three orders of merit are indicated to be in the church according to the following enigma. First, clearly, there are teachers, living an immaculate life.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Solomon represents Christ, except in the women in whom there is no good that can have symbolical meaning. Hence, when it is said in the Canticle: "There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and maidens without number," this does not refer literally to wives: these women are placed here in a mysterious fashion, and they represent perfect and imperfect souls.
9 One she is, my dove, my perfect one; one she is to her mother, pure to the one who bore her. Daughters saw her and called her happy; queens and concubines, and they praised her.
Cyprian · AD 258 This one church is also intended in the Song of Songs, when the Holy Spirit says, in the person of the Lord: "My dove, my perfect one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, the choice one of her that bare her." Can one who does not keep this unity of the church believe that he keeps the faith?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the Lord gave the power to Peter that whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed," it is clear that that unity is also described as one dove without fault.
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 Contemplate what a glory is hers who compares herself to heaven, even to that heaven who is so much more glorious as he is divine. This is no rashness, taking her comparison from whence her origin comes.
The Friends 10 Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the white moon, pure as the burning sun, awesome as the bannered ones?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 The church is the sun and the moon and the stars, to which it was said, "Fair as the moon, bright as the sun." By it our Joseph is adored in this world as in Egypt, when he is raised from humble to high estate.
Cassiodorus · AD 585 You are rightly compared with this figure since you raise your precious head over all races, and you transmit the souls of the just like resplendent stars to the kingdom above.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Faith is a union of the Head with the body. The shining of light as related to faith is called allegory, and it is twofold, one directed to the Head and the other to the body. For there is one directed to the crucified Head, that was born, etc., and another directed to the body, that is, the Church, primitive, intermediate, and final.
The Bridegroom 11 To the garden of nut trees I went down, to look at the green shoots of the wadi, to see whether the vine had budded, whether the pomegranates had blossomed.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 You wish to know the place? He says in the Canticles, "I came down to the nut garden"; for it was a garden where he was crucified.
Bede · AD 735 I descended into the garden of nuts, etc. For the garden of nuts is the present Church, where we are scarcely able to perceive each other's consciences. Indeed, nuts are all fruits which are covered with a harder shell; conversely, all soft things are generally called evil.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 What do we understand by nuts, if not all the perfect, who while they retain divine wisdom within their bodies, carry as it were a kernel in a fragile shell?
12 I did not know — my soul set me among the chariots of my princely people.
Bede · AD 735 I did not know, my soul was troubled within me, etc. I did not know the gifts of spiritual grace with which you were illuminated by the Lord to bring forth the fruits of faith among all nations.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 As if she were saying: Seeing so many miracles taking place in the holy Church, why did I not perceive them in so great a time? Why did I remain unbelieving? Why did I persist so long through my unbelief in the darkness of ignorance?
The Friends The Bridegroom 13 Return, return, Shulamite! Return, return, and let us look upon you. What will you look upon in the Shulamite? Like the dance of the two camps.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Turn to us, O peaceful soul, that you may show your glory to your sisters and that they may begin to console themselves with the security of your repose and happiness. Turn to us once only, that we may see you, and turn again and hasten with all speed to that great Jerusalem, the city of the saints.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 For camps indeed belong to those who wage war. Camps, therefore, will be seen in the Shunammite, because for the faith which she now attacks, she will then fight valiantly against the faithless.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 These four fruits come forth in an orderly manner. Consideration in a direct line through the help of the citizens of heaven disposes toward the first act of wisdom, seen to be "as awe-inspiring as bannered troops" and the "companies of the camps."