A Commentary on the Song of Songs: From Ancient and Medieval Sources (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Commentary on the Song of Songs: From Ancient and Medieval Sources

The next plea in Solomon's favour is of small weight independently, but not without importance in a cumu lative argument. He is praised, in the same passage which mentions the number of his writings, for his from wis Of great skill in natural history. And he spake of trees, history; from the cedar tree that 1s in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. (1 Kings iv. There is no book of Scrip, ture which dwells so much as the Canticles upon natural imagery, or which mentions so many names of animals and plants in terms implying familiarity with their habits. The only reply which has been sug gested to this plea is that other people may have known these things as well as Solomon. No doubt; but the real point at issue, that the internal evidence is so far perfectly consistent with the traditional au thorship, is not in the least weakened by such a demurrer. The like may be said of the analogies of and from idea and diction, admittedly existing between Proverbs M3135? And Canticles.1 They do not fix with certainty the verbs parts of the Book of Proverbs which are due to Solo mon's pen, nor do they give any clue to the priority of date in either case. But allowing, as all do, that Solomon is author of part of the Proverbs, the coin cidences lend additional weight to the traditional view, and, as must never be forgotten in discussions of the kind, make the burden of disproof heavier for the contesters of the claim in possession.

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