1. Oral rhetorical quality of the Song as rooted in the oral tradition
2. Presence of both early and late features of the Song
3. Intentional markings such as adjuration refrain …show more content…
The Song may have been revised, refined, and reshaped over a period of centuries through a medium technology somewhat similar to the shared internet among poets, performers, hearers, audience turned poets, scribes, readers, literatis, and elders of ancient biblical Israel in order to transmit and preserve its communal and theological identity with core values that upholds sexual purity and virtue of expressing desire. Paper will hypothesize on the Song’s development by locating the oral rhetorical quality of the Song within the Oral-Scribal dimension of Scripture formation; reconcile the early and late features of the Song; and justify logical disjunction and cohesiveness of the …show more content…
Scholars agree on the heading “Song of Songs”, recognizing the Song as the ”best of songs”, the most excellent of songs, in like manner other superlatives are understood, such as the Holy of Holies was the most sacred part of the temple (Exod. 26:33; 1Kgs 8:6 and Lord of Lords, the lord above all lords, all powerful and mighty ((Ps. 136:3). However, there is contention on authorship. Traditional view of the Song, as held by early rabbis and church fathers, presume that Solomon wrote the Song because of 1:1 as well as the statement in 1 Kings 5:12 (BHS)/1 Kings 4:32 (NRSV) wherein it states that he composed one thousand and five songs as wells as three thousand proverbs. The Song, part of the triad of Solomonic books together with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes has been traditionally attributed to King Solomon. R. Hiyya Rabba declares that Solomon wrote all three books at an old age and the Song was the last one he wrote near his death On the other hand, Solomon. R. Yonatan reasons that the Song might have been among Solomon’s first compositions: “when a person is young, he recites song lyrics, when he matures, he says parables, and when he becomes an elder, he speaks of vanities and follies.” On the other hand, some modern scholars argue that the lamed in 1:1 does not have to imply scholarship, given its diverse use in the Hebrew Bible. Dell and Murphy infer that the reference to