Song of Solomon

Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, grant mercy and healing upon us, who grieve. Amen.” Love: An Ethical Decision Read: Song of Solomon John Wesley is known as a founder of the Methodist Movement in search of the Scriptural way of salvation and a life of holiness. A member of the holy club at Oxford in the 18th Century, he studied in the tradition of piety seeking inner peace and divine grace. His search established the foundation of a world-wide parish promoting Christian Perfection, a…

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison explores the toxic relationship within a family living on “Not Doctor Street” in Michigan during the early 1950’s and 60’s prior to the Civil Rights Act and end the of segregation. Even though they were no longer slaves, they were treated as if they were not a meaningful part of society. Blacks worked in low paying jobs and lived in all- black neighborhoods. Throughout the novel, there is a theme of the irrelevance of black lives. The very name “Dead” was given…

Elements of the fantastic in Songs of Solomon seem to present themselves most frequently through the character Pilate Dead. From the first moment the audience is introduced to her she is singing, "O sugarman done fly away/ Sugarman cut across the sky/ Sugarman gone home…,” (Morrison, 6). In this moment, she presents as a siren urging Robert Smith to his death with her voice. It is as if she is wielding power beyond that of a human. She is something unnatural, something with powers beyond that of…

In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, the names of characters foreshadow their emotional and physical state. Names indicate an inevitable mold that the characters fit into overtime. Macon I and his son, Macon II fit into to their last name, Dead. When Macon Dead I endures a physical death, which causes his son to endure an emotional death. Emotional death is when a person is numb to all emotions while they live a numb life. However, Macon Dead III or Milkman defies his probable future because he…

Ecclesiastes Revealing the Truth The book of Ecclesiastes has been said to have occurred between the fifth and third centuries BCE in Persia. Scholars have placed emphasis on the fifth century BCE period because it was a time where commercialization thrived and the standardization of currency occurred. Introducing the problem of unequal wealth distribution which is why it’s been considered the “dark age” in the history of Israel. However, it wasn’t the first time money was introduced and the…

A prophet is a person regarded as an inspired teacher, or proclaimer of the will of G-d. “The English word “prophet” comes from Greek and literally means “spokesperson.” This further provides meaning since the prophets were “messengers of G-d”. In Hebrew the name עמוס (Amos) means laden, burdened, carried, and brave. In the Old Testament, a person named “Amos” besides the prophet is never mentioned. Out of all of the prophets, “Amos is the first of the “writing prophets,” that is prophets whose…

Throughout history two terms, Messiah and Son of God, have been used by different people to indicate differing expectations as to who the savior of Israel was going to be. The term messiah is from the Hebrew word mashiach, meaning anointed. In the Greek, the word cristos translates into Christ, and it too means anointed. By identifying Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, Mark is conveying to his first-century audience that Jesus was a suffering Messiah and the Son of God who encompassed…

The construction of the First Temple is interrelated to the economic power of the United Monarchy. Solomon conscripted seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters, and they “quarried out great, costly stones” to build the foundation of the temple. He traded King Hiram of Tyre twenty thousand cors of wheat and twenty cors of fine oil for…

After reaching the summit of its greatness during the reigns of David and Solomon in X b.C, the ancient kingdom of Israel was increasingly more vulnerable to the will of its powerful neighbors and internal struggles. Divided its royal lineage in two main branches, north and south, the Assyrians took advantage of the situation to conquer the northern kingdom. The South with capital in Jerusalem, tried to maintain their independence making strongholds between Egypt and Babylon, the latter, at the…

The Star of David is a symbol used to identify Judaism. It’s supposed to represent the shape of King David’s shield (Levine 2015). This symbol is well respected in Israel, it’s part of their national flag. It’s called a hexagram or six-point star (Levine 2015). One of the first Jewish uses of the Star is part of the colophon; part of the embroidery of the title page of a book, the printer sometimes included the family name on the colophon which showed class and wealth (Levine 2015). Today the…