Lovemaking Outdoors in the Song of Solomon
Sex in the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon
The Song of Songs isn’t an easy book to understand, not least because many of the metaphors that are used don’t fit as neatly into our twenty first century culture. So reading it in conjunction with a good commentary can be particularly helpful.
Here’s an excerpt from one of the introductory chapters from the Expositor’s Bible Commentary:
“The prospect of children is not necessary to justify sexual love in marriage. Significantly, the Song of Solomon makes no reference to procreation. It must be remembered that the book was written in a world where a high premium was placed on offspring and a woman's worth was often measured in terms of the number of her children. Sex was often seen with reference to procreation; yet there is not a trace of that here. The Song is a song in praise of love for love's sake and for love's sake alone. This relationship needs no justification beyond itself”.
That said, most commentators are understandably quite conservative about their interpretations of this book. Theologians aren’t necessarily the sort of people you’d expect to get into great detail when writing about sex.
As an indication that the Bible isn’t as conservative about sex as some people think it is; what do you make of this?
Outdoor Lovemaking in the Song of Solomon
There appears to be at least one, if not two examples of lovemaking outside (in the open air) in the Song of Solomon. Here's the first.
Song of Solomon 7:
10 ¶ I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.
11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
Expositors Bible Commentary on Song of Solomon 7
9b-13 Now the maiden responds. There is no holding back. She belongs to him. There is a primeval Edenic purity about all of this. Once again we are reminded of that first couple that God gave to each other and commanded to be one flesh. We cannot keep from thinking of that context when she speaks of "his desire" for her (v.10). The Hebrew word is teshuqah; it is found in Genesis 3:16 in reference to Eve's desire for her husband. It is as if we are observing the Fall momentarily reversed. This word is found only three times in all of the OT. It occurs in Genesis 4:7 as well as in 3:16 and here. It obviously is a very strong, almost overpowering, urge. His desire for her easily equals hers for him. She is at no disadvantage. She relishes the security of her relationship to her husband.
The bride's joy and fulfillment are such that she is ready to get out into the fields and vineyards to let the common nature that flows in lovers and the cosmos rejoice together (vv.11-12). "Mandrakes" (v.13) were prized for their aphrodisiac properties. The joys the two now are experiencing in each other are but the beginning of raptures that she is prepared to bring to him.
Here’s the second.
Song of Solomon 1:16
How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.
i.e. green with vegetation; covered with growing plants or grass: a verdant oasis.
Theologians believe that even after the crucifixion Paul kept Nazirite vows at the temple and offered sacrifices. One predictable adjustment to a written Torah law about circumcising gentile proselytes in Acts, caused massive turmoil in the church. If most of the other "Old Testament" laws were abolished, why wasn't a similar level of controversy recorded then? Was the Torah really "done away" in Galatians ?
Go back to the start of Judianity - A "Third Way" Between Judaism or Christianity?
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