PROCOPIUS OF GAZA, CHRISTIAN SOPHIST: EPITOME OF SELECTED EXPOSITIONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY GREGORY OF NYSSA, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN, PHILO OF CARPATHOS, APOLLINARIS, EUSEBEY OF CAESAREA, AND OTHERS, NAMELY DIDYMUS, SAINT ISIDORE, THEODORET, AND THEOPHILUS.
CHAPTER ONE
AGregory of Nyssa. — Through the things written here, the soul is in a certain way betrothed to the immaterial and spiritual marriage of God; and it requires the understanding of pure, white-robed listeners to become intimate with the incorruptible bridegroom. The superscription also urges us toward this. For just as the Holy of Holies excels in holiness, so this present song surpasses those of David, Moses, and the rest of the prophets. In the manner of an epithalamium, it explains the tempering of the human soul with the Divine; for Solomon, in pointing to this through nuptial terms, discloses both the ineffable desire that is owed to God (since the nuptial desire is greater than any other appetite) and the utmost freedom from passion: for he who is to be joined to God must be so pure that he even makes the very impulses of the passions a proof of impassibility. Solomon proceeded in such an order, teaching this: τῇ
A For while it is still a tender soul, he proposes proverbs and exhorts it to love wisdom; thus he says repeatedly, "My son," and promises a necklace and a crown, as to one who is young; and toward the end, he praises the courageous woman. Then, for the one thus introduced into the Ecclesiastes, he strips away all things, calling them fleeting and vanity, so that he might give the soul wings toward that which remains. And now, he joins this soul, thus purified, to the one who is truly and solely Good, desiring the soul to hasten to God, neither through fear of punishment nor by hope of rewards—for both are servile—but by the allure of love.
1. Song of Songs.
Nilus. B The book of the Songs is like a woman shining with natural beauty and adorned with all-encompassing finery, further embellishing her natural beauty, yet in her conduct and outward appearance, she is very different from that which is hidden. For just as the aspect of such a woman moves pleasure in the incontinent, but experience proves her temperance, which does not agree with the open display, so also in the book at hand, the phrasing, which is fashioned in a more erotic manner, seems in some way to be bait for the uneducated, but the meaning, revealing the austerity of the mysteries to those who approach, renders the difficulty of the thoughts easy to grasp through the sweetness of the diction; and while persuading it to serve the gravity of contemplation, it artfully builds the path toward the mystagogy of the dogmas signified, leading one away from the passion that the letter seems to suggest.
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." C The Bridegroom is the fountain of life, crying out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John vii, 37); for from his mouth flow the words of life, to which the soul, pressing its own mouth, endeavors, according to the prophet, to draw in the spirit, for this kiss cleanses every filth. On this account, the Lord seems to reproach the leper Simon, saying, "You gave me no kiss" (Luke vii, 45)—for otherwise you would have been cleansed of this passion.
Origen.—Otherwise: "Not through the prophets," etc.
"For your breasts are better than wine, D and the scent of your ointments above all aromatics."
Gregory.—The childlike teaching of God surpasses the intense and most fervent sophistry of the world; and from the local position of the breasts, he reveals the heart, and the hidden and ineffable power of the Godhead, through which God nourishes the power and life of each, granting appropriate food to everyone of those who receive it.
Philo.—Or even [let] the breasts be the two Testaments, which are superior to earthly speech.
Apollinaris.—Since there are many wines in the Scripture...
and now the breasts of the Bridegroom are set in comparison with the better ones—for they would not have been compared to the worse ones—the Bride, having been gladdened by many and various wines and having obtained the provision to receive these breasts of the Bridegroom which are better than those, says this, preferring them to the wine that is in the Law and the Prophets. And the same [is true] regarding the ointments as that concerning the wine. Observe, however, how she calls it “the scent” in the case of the evangelical way of life, but in the case of the legal worship she has set down the “aromatics” themselves, declaring the spiritual excellence of the former, but the coarseness of the latter. A
*Unguentum effusum nomen tuum.*
Procopius.—Perhaps she is prophesying the power of the name of Jesus, filling the world with its presence at his coming, so that—according to Paul, to whom it is “an odor from death to death, to others an odor from life to life” (2 Cor. ii, 16)—the bride might have said, “Therefore have all loved thee,” not only the maidens who are renewed day by day and have neither spot nor wrinkle, but it has been poured forth so that it can no longer be kept silent, locked away in mysteries. B
Cyril.—It also signifies the name of the Only-Begotten, invoked among all nations, by which all the nations truly smell sweetly to him, bearing his own appellation. C
Gregory.—The ointment itself of the divine nature, or rather the perception of the divine essence, exceeds every name and concept. Yet in a marvelous way, those things that are fashioned as divine names provide material that shows a certain slight richness of the divine ointment; through these we name God wise, powerful, good, holy, blessed, and Judge and Savior, and such-like. D
Nilus.—Just as an ointment that is kept closed becomes manifest by the sweetness of its odor when it is poured out, so too thy name, O Bridegroom, while thou wast still held in the paternal bosom unknown, after the emptying [kenosis] has the testimony from itself like a poured-out ointment, confirmed by the power of signs. But the maidens loved thee for this reason, because they drew thee from the bosom of the Father, desiring thy presence; after the benefit from thy sojourn, and after the experience of the miracles, they recognized thy name, and followed after thee after the feeling of thy kindness. But I, who am already betrothed to thee according to thy visitation, perceived the scent of thy ointments even before thy sojourn—and having recognized thy good breasts later, I anticipated their knowledge through grace. And the maidens who are drawn after the Bridegroom can also be said to be the woman with the issue of blood and the Canaanite woman, since both of them drew forth the ointment through sympathy.
A *Apollinarius.* For by the name of Christ all things are cleansed, healed, and baptized, which confers upon us the true sweetness of fragrance—the Holy Spirit, I say—and this name, having been poured out, effects the outpouring of the Spirit upon all, according to what is said: "You were washed and you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." Being that which makes the name, it is rightly called ointment poured out.
*Therefore the maidens have loved thee:* [VERS. 3] *they have drawn thee after them; we will run after the odour of thine ointments.*
*Gregory.* For who would not be captured by the love of such beauty, provided he is endowed with an eye capable of discerning it? Therefore they drew Him toward a mutual love, for Wisdom says: "I love those that love me."
*Cyril.* Paul was a youth saying: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." For this reason he also loved Him greatly when he said: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" But how did they draw Him? By treading in His footsteps and enjoying the Evangelical ointments. But if we run, as the speech of the maidens soon says, "we will walk after the Lord our God."
*The king hath brought me into his chamber.*
*Gregory.* The souls that are still young run in the odour of the ointments. But the perfected bride, like Paul, is brought into the inner chambers and the kingdom of heaven.
B *Origen.* He speaks of the inscrutable things, etc.
*Cyril.* Here he calls the kingdom a chamber in a certain sense.
*Nilus.* He calls the Lord’s body the chamber, into which the blessed soul has been brought, dwelling with the God-Word and reigning with Him. Furthermore, it was likely that those from the Synagogue who saw her—as it were, exulting and with a proud gesture—would suffer at her saying to the maidens, "The king hath brought me into his chamber." Aptly knowing this according to the purpose of the thought, and conjecturing the jealousy that arose in them from this account—namely, that she, who is ignoble and black, boasts that she is deemed worthy of the king’s chamber that belongs to them—she is not ashamed to confess candidly what those women, as I said, C had in a way despised and mocked, adding the reason why she was kindly addressed by the Bridegroom.
*Let us be glad and rejoice in thee.*
*Procopius.* The maidens say to the bride: Grant us a share of your knowledge, just as he who reclined upon the breast of Christ and was loved by Him shared the theology with us.
*Gregory.* By this ecclesiastical judgment D
the Word reveals the economy; for the first ones who were discipled by grace, and who became eyewitnesses of the Word, would not have confined the good to themselves, but transmitted the same grace to those who came after them by succession. For this reason the maidens say to the bride, because the first among them was filled with good things by the Word face to face and was deemed worthy of the hidden mysteries: "We shall exult and rejoice in you; for your exultation is our common joy."
"We will love your breasts more than wine; uprightness has loved you."
*Procopius.* As you love, they say, the breasts of the bridegroom more than wine, so we do likewise in imitation of you, by which you give milk to those who are infants in Christ.
*Apollinaris.* Therefore, we love the abundance of your words more than what is human, because uprightness—that is, Jesus—has loved you; through whom what is crooked is directed into the straight; such is the disciple whom Jesus loved.
*Origen.* Even if still because of infirmity, etc.
*Verse 4.* "I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tabernacles of Cedar, as the skins of Solomon."
*Nilus.* Even if now I seem to you to be black, bearing certain signs of my former state, know nevertheless that under the Ethiopian skin, as if under a shadow, there lies an inimitable beauty, which will shine forth in the nuptial bath.
*Origen.* For when He shall wash me in the laver of baptism, then shall I ascend radiant, having washed away the dark quality that had come upon me; so that you, seeing me then, will be amazed and say: "Who is this that ascends whitened?" Why then do you boast, O daughters of Jerusalem, of your affinity to the fathers, while by your works you deny that affinity, and drive away the righteousness that is by faith? But the phrase "as the tabernacles of Cedar and as the skins" signifies the extremities of the two qualities in which she has been engaged, I mean virtue and vice; as she put off the blackness of idolatry and became beautiful like the skins of Solomon. Or, the "tabernacles of Cedar" may also refer to those from among the Gentiles, and the "skins of Solomon" to those who have gathered from among the Jews and been added to the faith.
*Theodoret.* The Church composed of the Gentiles is black, inasmuch as she was led into error and was covered in soot by the judgment of the irrational; but she is beautiful, inasmuch as she awaits You, the Master, who are to come from heaven for my salvation. He has pointed out at the same time the darkness of impiety and the hour given to her by divine grace.
*Origen.* This the Church from among the Gentiles says, etc.
*Gregory.* Do not marvel, he says, that uprightness—
A I have loved me; but because He also illuminated me when I was black, through the repentance for those things by which I had been blackened. And do you therefore, even if darkness has lived in you formerly (for this is Kedar), become the curtains of Solomon, of Christ the peaceful king, and the dwelling of the light; for in part she called the royal curtains a tabernacle.
VERS. 5. *Do not look at me because I am black; because the sun has looked down upon me.*
*Gregory.* He confirms the mind of those who learn, so that they do not ascribe the cause of their dark appearance to the Creator, but to the free choice of each one, saying: Do not think that I was created black, but that I was rendered so by the malign sun, concerning whom it is said: "The sun shall not burn you by day."
*Origen.* Or because Christ, for the sake of unbelief, looked askance at me, who had been darkened by sin, whom the Scriptures proclaim as the Sun of Righteousness.
*The sons of my mother have fought against me: they have set me as a guard in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not kept.*
*Gregory.* By "sons of my mother" he meant the intelligible enemies; for they are likewise participants of reason, and all from one cause of divine nature; who, he says, casting me out of the good vineyard, that is, the paradise, stationed me to guard their vineyards, in which the cluster of bitterness and the grape of gall and the fury of dragons is cultivated. He says "in the vineyards" because of the manifold form of wickedness; but where she remembers the ancient fall, having left the young maidens, she again turns her speech to the bridegroom, invoking Him through prayer.
*Origen.* That is, the disciples of Christ who teach me, etc.
*Cyril.* Perhaps she accuses herself, because she did not guard her own vineyard, allowing it to be plundered by everyone passing along the way, and to be ravaged by a boar from the forest, and to be grazed upon by a solitary wild beast. But B perhaps she also glorifies God, because being unable to guard her own vineyard, neither by cultivating nor tending it, she has progressed to such a degree that she has been able to guard many vineyards.
*Apollinaris.* However, these things can also be referred to those who previously indeed persecuted the Church, but afterwards taught those very ones whom they had persecuted, such as was Paul. For Symmachus has rendered it singularly, saying: "The son of my mother fought against me: he set me as a guard in the vineyards." That is to say, after I had been a persecutor, He set me to guard the commandments of God.
*Cyril.* Or by the sons of her mother she speaks of the synagoge’s scribes and Pharisees, who fought against those who believed in Christ, commanding them to keep the worship according to the law; for this is the vineyard. But I, she says, have not kept this one. C D
For what things were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ, as the blessed Paul says. A Ver. 6. *Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest down in the mid-day: lest by any means I should be as a veiled one over the flocks of thy companions.*
*Gregorius.* I do not know your name, she says, but I call you by your love; for it is fitting that I should love the one who loved me and laid down his life for me. And when I have found your pasture, I desire to be filled with the heavenly food, without which no one can enter into life; there you will make me rest in the light of the resurrection, which knows no shadow. But teach me how it is possible to attain these things, B lest perhaps, stumbling, I fall among the flocks of shepherds not your own. For she strives to keep until the end the beauty which she has acquired, and she asks about this. But the Bridegroom, kindling a greater desire, delays the response; the friends of the Bridegroom, however, answer and speak the things that follow, explaining through counsel the manner of the security of the goods that are present to her; yet their speech is veiled.
*Cyrillus.* He calls the apostles his companions; for he said: “I will not now call you servants, but friends.” For you are friends. And by "veiled," she means "covered," as Paul says: “For until this day, when Moses is read, a veil is upon their heart.” Therefore, the repentant Synagogue says to Christ: C "Show me yourself, so that while your companions are feeding the Churches, I may not remain having the veil upon my heart."
Ver. 7. *If thou know not thyself, O fair among women, go forth in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed thy kids in the tabernacles of the shepherds.*
*Gregorius.* This is a safeguard: to know yourself. But whoever walks in the wandering footsteps of those who went before will unnoticed be changed from a sheep into a kid. Therefore, the friends of the Bridegroom say: "O soul, who from black have become fair, if you have any care to preserve your beauty, do not follow the wandering, lest you be added to the flock of the kids, D which has taken its place on the left." There is a clearer reading that preserves the syntax: *If you do not know yourself, O fair among women, go out from the footsteps of the flock, and you shall feed the kids instead of the tabernacles of the shepherds; so that 'go out' may be instead of 'you shall go out'.*
*Philo.* Another says the speech is as if from the Bridegroom to her who alone is fair out of all the synagogues: "Know where you were and where you now are, and from whom you have your beauty. But if you make yourself unworthy of my glory, feed the souls of sinners in the tabernacles of the kings of Israel."
A Cyrill. — Or, if you do not repent, he says, you shall be found behind the nations, inasmuch as you do not have the fruits of justice, remaining barren, and following after the flocks which I established for myself.
Apollinarius. — According to the edition of Symmachus, it has this meaning: If you have not yet recognized the character of my flock, and do not shepherd your own people according to my laws, go forth and follow the flocks; for thus you will know that my sheep do not walk after the manner of the Jewish flock; for being shepherded in such a way, and shepherding your own young charges, which he called kids, you will know where Christ pastures, and who those are that are pastured by him, having a spiritual and most beautiful character, according to which the excellent Church is beautiful among women.
Origen. — Moreover, that most famous maxim among the Greeks, "Know thyself," had already been handed down beforehand as a precept by the wise Solomon, etc.
VERS. 8. I have likened you, my mare, to my horses in the chariots of Pharaoh, my neighbor.
愈 Gregory. — The mare of God, opposed to the chariots of Pharaoh, is a certain angelic and invisible power that sinks the Egyptian; to which the soul purified by the laver is likened, which plunges into the waters every Egyptian thought and all alien malice once expressed in the chariots of Pharaoh. To this mare of mine I have now likened you.
Cyrill. — Or, because you have received my faith, O Church, you are likened to the apostles, of whom is that saying: "Mount upon your horses, and your riding shall be salvation," who also were prepared against the chariots of the spiritual Pharaoh.
VERS. 9. How beautiful have your cheeks become as a turtledove’s.
Gregory. — Since a mare is wanton, the continence of the turtledove has adorned her. For I spoke of a mare, he says, not as if she had need of a bit and bridle, for a pure life is fitting for you.
Cyrill. — Or it proposes modesty before the bridegroom. For the cheeks of the turtledove are red; but to this connection a contrary saying is directed through the prophet: "You have had the face of a harlot, you have been without shame before all."
D Origen. — But Paul also calls the members of the Church the bride of Christ, etc.
Your neck is as necklaces [Vulg. jewels].
Gregory. — He praises the neck turned in the shape of a circle, which we see occurring everywhere in the proud colts of horses. For the mention of necklaces indicates a circle, the shape of which, when shown on the neck, renders the horse more comely than itself; for a cove is spoken of, properly indeed in maritime places where the shore is hollowed out inward in the shape of the moon, and receives the sea in its bosom; and rest...
rests within itself those who sail from the open sea. But by metaphor, because of the shape, the ornament around the neck is called a "cove" (torques). For as a horse, curving its neck into the shape of a circle, looks upon its own feet, whereby its pace is rendered unobstructed and safe, neither stumbling against a stone, nor stepping foolishly into a pit; so also this is no small thing for the praise of the soul, namely, to look upon itself and to hasten with all security toward the divine course. But if it were likened to only one small "cove," the praise would surely be imperfect, as not having the same testimony in the case of the other virtues; but now, by the likeness to the multitude of "coves," the discourse embraces the testimony of every virtue. B
Didymus. — For the "coves" are pure faith, immaculate temperance, and a clean life; that is, the thing itself is an adornment, not mere wearing of finery.
Cyrill. — He calls the neck the soul's submissiveness; for how could it not be a beautiful ornament to studiously bear the yoke of Christ?
Vv. 10, 11. We will make thee similitudes of gold with studs of silver; until the king is at his rest.
Origen. — This, however, was not much, nor was the silver poured out, etc.
Gregory. — It is well C not to pass over this unexamined: why is it that not gold itself is taken for ornament, but the "similitudes" of gold? And not silver itself, but the "studs" pressed from this material after the similitude of gold? What is signified by this is of such a kind: namely, that the divine nature exceeds every faculty of understanding. Now, the notion which arises in us concerning it is a "similitude" of that which is sought; for it does not show the form of it itself—which no one knows nor is able to see—but through a mirror and in an enigma it portrays a certain apparent species of that which is sought, which exists in souls D from a certain conjecture. And every word which signifies such conceptions of the mind has the power of a certain individual point, not being able to explain what the thought of the mind wishes. So that while every conception of the mind is below the comprehension of God, every interpreting discourse seems to be a brief point, since it cannot be simultaneously extended with the breadth of the thought. Therefore, the soul, which is led as if by the hand through such conceptions of the mind to the thought of those things which cannot be grasped, he says ought, through faith alone, to introduce into its own habitation that nature which surpasses all intelligence. And this is that which is said by the friends: "To thee, O soul, who art rightly likened to a horse, we will make certain images and likenesses of virtue"; for such also is the power of the silver of the words.
which appear as scintillating flashes, unable to express with precision the meaning contained within. But thou, receiving these by faith, wilt become the vessel and dwelling-place of Him who is to recline within thee through His residing in thee; for thou shalt be both His throne and His house. These things the friends of the Bridegroom bestowed upon the pure and virginal soul; and these would be the ministering spirits, sent forth for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. A
Philo. — And the likenesses of gold are the martyrs, tested as gold in the fire, bearing on their body the marks of Christ; and this not only in times of persecution, but also in times of peace, one must walk the narrow and constricted path, until the King comes in the regeneration. B
Cyril. — That is to say, silver in Scripture is habitually divine doctrine; but gold is the divine charisms. All things which preceded the advent of Christ were likenesses and a shadow of good things to come, as the Apostle says. But when Christ rose, He bestowed perfect gifts upon men. Before the resurrection, we had likenesses from His companions, both by the Law and the prophets.
Nard gave forth its fragrance.
Procopius. — He speaks of a fragrance gathered to the bride from various virtues, just as from flowers; for she experiences in herself the sweet scent of Christ. Or perhaps he refers to His passion, in which the alabaster jar of ointment, being poured out, gave forth its scent everywhere. C
Origen. — For he says the scent of the Bridegroom, etc.
Gregory. — For just as you, he says, you ministering spirits, do not bestow the pure gold of the divinity itself, but rather images of gold through the conceptions of the mind that we are capable of receiving—not unveiling what is His with clear speech, but providing certain appearances of what is sought through the small marks of rational silver—so also I, through the perception of this ointment, have received the sweet scent of that One by my senses. And it seems to me to possess this meaning: Just as from diverse aromatics, which give off fragrance according to this or that property, an artful and measured mixture produces such ointment from those which are cast in together—with one certain odoriferous herb, whose name is nard, which gives its name to the whole composition—so also if someone, having gathered every fragrant flower from the various meadows of virtue, and having made his whole life one ointment through the sweet scent of each of the pursuits of life, and having become perfect in all things, is not able to fix his gaze naturally upon the Word of God Himself, as if upon the orb of the sun, because of the transcendence of His essence; yet, as in a mirror, he sees the sun within himself; for the rays of true and divine virtue D
A light up and make visible to us the invisible, and make graspable the inaccessible, depicting the sun within our own mirror; or perhaps it alludes to the Passion of Christ, upon which the alabaster jar of ointment, having been poured out, gave forth its fragrance.
Vers. 12. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he shall abide between my breasts.
Gregory.—By these things she indicates a greater and more perfect philosophy, which only those who are already perfect can successfully pursue. For since it is the custom for women who desire to adorn themselves not only to seek external ornaments in order to be pleasing to those who live with them, but also to take pains B that by means of a certain sweet fragrance their bodies might appear more pleasant to their own husbands, they conceal inside the folds of their garments the aroma appropriate for such a purpose; and by this as it sends forth its own vapor, the body is at the same time affected by the sweet smell of the spice. She says, therefore, both that he is a bundle [of myrrh] hanging, as it were, from my neck, and that he is a fragrance refreshing the body upon my breast; that he is the Lord Himself, not another aroma. For the effect of myrrh exists in the bundle of conscience, dwelling in my very heart as if in a deep and most interior place, in which the good is treasured up, and it gives life to the members of the body, as no iniquity cools the love toward God. Moreover, he has become myrrh, just as truly as rain descending upon a fleece, and as drops trickling upon the ground. In the Psalms also it says: "Myrrh, and stacte, and cassia from thy garments." C Might then the stacte and the myrrh, which the bride carries about as a bundle in her own heart, be a symbol of the Lord’s death?
Origen.—After she said the nard of the bridegroom, etc.
Cyril.—By the nard and the bundle of myrrh, the burial of Christ is signified, which Nicodemus, bringing [the spices], wrapped about His body. But the bride bears the breasts—the two Testaments—in the midst of which Christ abides.
Vers. 13. A cluster of cypress is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.
Gregory.—Who is so blessed that, in seeing his own fruit in that very cluster of his own soul, he sees the Lord of the vineyard? See how much she has grown, she who recognized the sweet fragrance of the bridegroom in his own nard, who made him, as stacte, fragrant, and gathered the aroma in the bundle of her heart, so that D the good might remain with her forever, without ever fading; she becomes the mother of the divine cluster—which, before the Passion, indeed, was budding, that is to say, flowering, but in the Passion poured forth wine. For the wine that gladdens our heart becomes and is named the blood of the grape after the economy of the Passion. But since we enjoy the cluster in a twofold manner, namely, when the flower with its sweet aroma
gladdens the senses, and when the already perfected fruit A is available for us to use, either for the purpose of eating or to be gladdened by wine at feasts; here the bride is still offering as fruit the flowering cluster. They call the vine flower "Cyprus." For the child Jesus who was born for us, in those who receive him, growing in various ways in wisdom, age, and grace, is not the same in all, but appears according to the measure B of the one in whom he dwells—according to the capacity of the one receiving him, such he appears, either as an infant, or progressing, or being perfected, according to the nature of a cluster, which is not always seen on the vine in the same form, but changes its form with time, flowering, budding, being perfected, ripening, becoming wine. Thus, therefore, the cluster of Cyprus is a cluster promising wine, though not yet being wine, but coming into being through the flower; and hope is the flower, confirming the grace that is to be. For it delights the sense of smell more than the sense of taste, by the expectation of good things, sweetening the senses of the soul with the vapors of hope. The addition of the word "Gaddi" signifies the rich land in which, having struck its roots, the vine produces a fat and sweet fruit. For those who write the history of places say that the lot of Gaddi is well suited for the nourishment of clusters. Since, therefore, one who keeps the will of the Lord consonant with the Law, and meditates upon it C day and night, becomes a tree that always puts forth shoots, made rich by the influx of waters, and bearing fruit in its due season, for this reason the bridegroom’s vine also, having struck its roots in the rich soil of Gaddi, irrigated and increased by divine teachings, has produced this flowering and budding cluster, which is made similar to the form of the bridegroom. For if he himself is the vine, we are the branches; and in him, who is the vine, we bear fruit.
Nilus. — He calls "cluster of Cyprus" the flowering grape, or the cluster from Cyprus, perhaps because that land possesses some exceptional fertility for clusters. Whichever of these might be said by the bride, it agrees with the reasoning that follows; for by calling her own kinsman a flowering grape, she says something like this: that as long as he is among perceived dangers, he is a flowering cluster, except to those who through hope await D his perfection. But to me, even while he is in the flower, if he does not yet provide the enjoyment of eating, yet at least he provides that of fragrance, and he indicates the gladness of the resurrection, in the flower implicitly suggesting the fruit, and in the meantime comforting with the sweet scent of the flower. For in the vineyards is Engaddi, which is interpreted as "eye of temptation." For the Lord hanging on the cross, as if in a place of temptation, was exposed to the eyes of all, bringing much despair to those who looked upon him; but the perfect soul, possessing perfect love toward him and having been persuaded by the prophets that these things had to come to pass, was not scandalized; for she says that although the things which came to pass disturbed many, or even all, yet none of these things moved me, nor did it cause me to stagger; even if, according to the
A other exposition, it is a cluster of Cyprus, we must consider how, when it was a cluster of Cyprus, it is said to be not in the vineyards of Cyprus, but in En-Gaddi. Perhaps, therefore, when he was in the bosom of the Father, before the incarnation, he was a cluster of Cyprus, being God the Word; but when he came to the world through the flesh, he came to be in the vineyards of En-Gaddi, in which the eyes of the tempter, not having an accurate grasp of the truth, made what appeared difficult to distinguish, with the mind moving equally toward both sides—toward the divine dignity on account of the magnitude of the miracles, and toward human lowliness on account of the passions. After, therefore, the bridegroom has exchanged with her such precision both in actions and in doctrines themselves, or rather attesting to the things that belong to her, he says: Behold, you are fair, and so forth.
14. Behold, you are fair, my neighbor, behold, you are fair; your eyes are doves.
*Gregory.* In what preceded, he bore witness to a certain beauty of appearance like that of a horse; but now, as if of a virgin, he finally accepts the beauty that has shone forth, and says: Behold, you are fair, my neighbor. The discourse teaches through these things that this is the resumption of beauty, to have become near the source of the beautiful. For previously, he says, you were not fair, because, being alienated from the archetypal beauty through the evil neighborhood of wickedness, you were changed into what is ugly. But now, having departed from the fellowship of evil, and having approached me, the archetypal beauty, you also have become fair, having been fashioned like a mirror to my character. Then, having paused, and having beheld her as if in a certain addition and intensity of beauty, he repeats the same words again, saying: Behold, you are fair. B But in the former he called her "neighbor," and here he makes her known from the appearance of the features. For, he says, your eyes are doves. For previously, when she was likened to a horse, the praise was in the cheek and neck; but now, when C her own beauty has appeared, the grace of her eyes is praised. The praise of the eyes is that the eyes are a dove's, for whatever one fixes the eyes upon, one receives the likeness of it into oneself. For those who are skilled in the natural sciences of such things declare D that the eye, receiving the incursions of images that emanate from visible things, thus performs the vision. Therefore, since the bride is no longer looking upon flesh and blood, that is, upon the corporal life, but is delivered from bodily passion, she is rightly said to have the appearance of a dove in her eyes, that is, to have the character of spiritual life illuminated by the perspicacious faculty of the soul. And since her pure eye has become capable of the character of the dove, that is, of the Holy Spirit, for this reason she is also capable of beholding the beauty of the bridegroom. For "No one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. XII, 3).
A Nilus. — He says "beautiful" twice, because of her purity in both men, that is, in the interior and in the exterior. He rightly calls her eyes those of a dove, since, while all others changed their minds according to the diversity of circumstances occurring around Him—some thinking one thing about Him before the passion, and others thinking differently during the passion itself, and though they shook the firmness of their resolve with heterodox fantasies contrary to the truth—she alone understood spiritually what was being done, judging none of the events according to the opinion of the multitude, but guarding in both times the opinion she had held from the beginning concerning Him as God. Furthermore, he calls her "near" because of the incarnation, since He assumed her body. He also calls her "sister" because of the purity of their union, and "bride" because of her freedom from envy; for, always being a bride, she has a vibrant and fresh love, loving and being loved.
Cyril. — He calls her beautiful, not just as he had spoken before among women; but now that he denotes her with the title of "near," the bridegroom doubles the bride’s praise, commending her theoretical and practical gifts at the same time. He speaks of the eyes of the mind and heart, and as a dove's eyes because of their perspicacity, which is also understood as being given by the Spirit. He says, therefore, that the bride has received a mind which looks only upon God. The eyes are also the innocent and keen-sighted teachers of the Church.
Vers. 15, 16. Behold, you are beautiful, my kinsman, and comely; our bed is shaded. Our beams are cedars, our rafters are cypresses. C
Philo. — Or "beautiful" in the Law, "comely" in the Gospel; "beautiful" in the prophets, "comely" in the apostles; "beautiful" in the good things of the present age, "comely" in the things of the future. "Our bed is shaded," for You protect us even in death. "For if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall not fear evils, for You are with me" (Ps. XXII, 4). The bride, glorying in the house built for her by the bridegroom, says these things, designating the holy prophets as the beams; for "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall multiply like the cedar in Lebanon." For the rafters are the harmony of the boards, fitted for the carving of the craftsmen.
Gregory. — "For all things," he says, "which previously seemed beautiful to me, such as glory or beauty or power or anything of that kind, I turned away from. My judgment concerning the good is no longer led astray, so that I might esteem anything else to be good and beautiful besides You. For You are truly beautiful, and not only beautiful, but the very essence of the beautiful, who extend beauty along with the eternity of life, to whom the name 'philanthropy' was given. And as You have sprung forth to us out of Judah—for the people of the Jews is a brother to those from the nations approaching You—rightly, on account of the manifestation of Your divinity which took place in the flesh, were You named 'kinsman' by her who loves You. Then he added, 'Our bed is shaded'; that is to say, 'I have known You,' or rather, 'He shall know'"
' A that human nature became shaded through the dispensation. For You came, she says, you beautiful kinsman, to our bed, having become shaded; beautiful, but as we are able to receive You. For indeed Your resting with humanity shaded the divinity with flesh; for who could have endured the apparition? She calls the bed, like a bride, interpreting in a tropical sense the mingling and communion of human nature with the Divine. And this could not have been possible had not the Lord appeared to us as 'shaded' through the body; He who is not only bridegroom, but is also the builder, both constructing the house for us and becoming the material of the craft. For He places a roof upon the house, beautifying the work through incorruptible material; such is the cedar and the cypress. For cedars, because they are tall, encompass the width of the house with a roof, while cypresses, through what are called the paneled ceilings, adorn the construction of the house from within. For since in the Gospel B the Lord calls the various assaults of temptations 'rain,' in the case of him who built his house well upon the rock—'that the rain descended, and the winds blew, and the rivers came, and the building remained uninjured in these' — we have need of such beams, which are the virtues that do not admit the influx of temptations, being firm and unyielding; and keeping safe the state of being untouched by evil during temptations, lest, becoming softened through the impact of sufferings, we become hollow, and admit from without the influx of such waters flowing into the heart within our chambers, through which the things stored up in us are destroyed. But the discourse intimates through the beams and the panelling—which is a certain well-measured and carved fixing of planks, varying the beauty of the roof—and through the fragrance that naturally follows the cypress, which is also incapable of rot C and is suitable for every art of craftsmanship, that we must not only rightly order the habitual virtues in the soul in accordance with guilelessness, but also must not be neglectful of the decency that appears outwardly. For we must provide things good before God and men; both to be manifest to God, and to persuade men, and to have a good testimony from those outside; and to shine with bright works before men, and to walk decently toward those outside. These are the paneled ceilings fashioned through the good odor of Christ, of which the cypress is an enigma, in the honesty of life. D
Nilus. — Benevolently again, or rather, stupefied that she should hear herself called beautiful by the bridegroom (for she thought that such an appellation was fitting for Him alone, and for no mortal), she immediately turns the testimony back to Him, saying: 'Behold, you are a beautiful kinsman of mine, and handsome,' instead of, 'exceedingly,' for so it seemed good to some to divide it; and after this, 'pros,'
and thereafter the words: *Our bed is shady*, meaning the common body in which both rest, namely God the Word and the blessed soul; the Bridegroom taking care that it should not remain under the open sky, lest again, from the injury of the rays of the opposing sun, it should suffer any of its former darkness. According to another punctuation, it will be understood as though the Bride were saying: “O Bridegroom, you alone are truly called beautiful and fair, possessing beauty not acquired, but natural.” But when you have also become our couch and are shady, possessing indeed the pure form of divinity, but veiling that same form with the form of a servant; and working, as if under the veil of the flesh, things that belong to the divinity, but remaining difficult to recognize on account of the covering of the body which hides those things that are performed miraculously.
Origen. — Now the Bride seems to have looked into the Bridegroom’s beauty more accurately for the first time, etc. B
CAPUT II
VERS. 1. *I am the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys.*
Cyrill. — As though she had already received the rain from above, and brought forth the fruit of virtue, the Bride compares herself to a rustic flower; and she shows how much the coming of Christ benefits us, since she describes even the valleys, which were unfit for any seed, as being full of such flowers. For she calls herself a valley, because she had formerly been oppressed by the demons who dwelt in her.
Philo. — The Bride says these things; for she heard from Isaiah: *The desert shall rejoice and flourish like a lily* [Isa. xxxv, 1]; and from the Lord: *Consider the lilies of the field* [Matt. vi, 28]. The Lord intends to say that those who are faithful upon the earth flourish after death. For the lily of the valleys designates the dead. C
This the Bride explains about herself, saying: “After the Bridegroom, who built for himself a house, had been shaded in our bed by the body, covering himself with the cedars of virtues, I became, she says, a fragrant and pure flower, and splendid, from human nature; in the breadth of the field, excelling other flowers in elegance of color and fragrance of scent, called a lily, shining with the splendor of continence.” But this field, by comparison with the celestial summit, is called a valley, in which that which is well-cultivated is led up from the depth of the valley to the height, just as the nature of the lily brings it about, so that its beauty may remain for it on high, stained in no way by earthly mixture, nor choked by the thorns of life, which are the malign powers, which she silently intimated to be daughters of the devil.
Nilus. — She calls herself a lily, either because she is an ornament to the valleys—so named on account of the humility of deeds or thoughts—splendidly in both D
A adorned and shining; or because in the future judgment she is to judge such souls by a comparison of her own rightly performed deeds, having in her nature nothing more than those others, just as the Ninevites and the queen of the South shall condemn the unbelieving generation. She is said to be a flower of the field, perhaps because of the valleys, which are signified (both on account of their humility and lack of cultivation, and because the nations that come from the depth of impiety to knowledge are pluralistically so named), and because of the field of Israel, because it had been made level for the suitability of cultivation by prophetic and legal teachings. It is well said that she is the flower, not the fruit, of these; for the plow of the Cross, which the Lord laid upon the apostles as if upon oxen, having sent them forth in common for the cultivation, was not yet cutting through the earth, nor had the earth yet been watered with the blood of the Master; wherefore it was unfruitful B and barren.
Origen: He calls that a flower which is on the way to becoming fruit, etc. (27).
Verse 2. *As the lily among thorns, so is my neighbor among the daughters.*
Gregory. — As much as we see of the ascent unto the heights, so much progress do we see occurring in the soul. The first ascent is to be likened to the horses that have taken away the opposing power from the midst. The second ascent is for the soul to become a neighbor and to make the eyes of a dove for itself. The third ascent, then, is to be called no longer a neighbor, but a sister of the Master. "For whoever does," He says, "the will of my Father who is in the heavens, this is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matt. XII, 49). Since, therefore, she has become a flower, having been in no way harmed by the thorn-bearing temptations C in regards to becoming a lily, and having forgotten her people and the house of her father and mother, she has looked toward the true Father; wherefore she is also called sister of the Son, by the spirit of adoption having been transformed into this kinship, and having been delivered from the communion with the daughters of the falsely-named father, she again becomes [one of] the eyes of the dove; I mean, by the spirit of prophecy.
Nilus. — This is the voice of the Bridegroom, offering testimony to the Bride far more brilliantly than she had previously offered regarding herself; for since she called herself a lily and the rest of the souls "valleys"—either being modest or indeed not knowing—not altogether hitting the mark by guessing at the truth, He who knows the properties D of the states of those things that occur, established the comparison. And He likens her to a lily, because she in no way accepts concern for bodily things, but fulfills the necessity of the body without care for those things that happen, having chosen an untroublesome and spontaneous manner of life because of concern for the kingdom of the heavens, as is shown in the Gospels; but with thorns...
having likened the rest, because they had all their care concerning A worldly things, and as yet did not know that the cares spent upon them were becoming thorns, but that they themselves had become thorns out of their great zeal regarding these concerns.
VERS. 3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.
*Gregory.* What then is it that she has seen? Holy Scripture is accustomed to call the wild life of men "the wood," in which various kinds of passions luxuriate, in which ruinous beasts nest and injure men, whose nature, remaining idle in the light and in the sun, exerts its power in the darkness. Therefore the apple tree is planted in the wood: insofar as it is a tree, it is of the same essence as the rest, "For he was tempted in all things through likeness, without sin." But insofar as it brings sweetness to the senses of the soul through its fruit, it has a greater difference from the wood than the lily has with the thorns; for that exhales B only sweetly and delights by sight, but the apple is sweet in smell, and in taste, and in sight. Rightly therefore did the Bride see the difference that is her own from the Lord, since he indeed becomes our joy and the joy of our eyes, as one who is light in them, and an ointment for the sense of smell, C and life to those who eat. Furthermore, human nature, perfected through virtue, becomes a flower, not only nourishing the husbandman, but adorning itself, yet not providing food for the Giver; for "Thou hast no need of my good things," says the divinely-begotten one. The lily, then, as we said, is the soul being perfected, adorning itself alone, as we mentioned; but the Lord has become as an apple tree in the wood, because he has grafted human nature toward that which is beautiful and fragrant and edible; for we are in need of his D goods; wherefore, says the Bride, "his fruit is sweet in my throat." Fruit, however, is doctrine, of which David says: "How sweet are thy words unto my throat, above honey to my mouth." But by "sons" she means not some friends of the Bridegroom, but those of darkness, who are also called sons of wrath by the communion of works.
*Nilus.* The comparison indeed shows excellence. For the Bride named all men "trees of the wood" as being fruitless, but she called her own Bridegroom an "apple tree" as being fruitful. For since he had already preceded her with his praises and had compared her to a lily, as in the midst of the thorns of the other women, she in turn makes return, calling him an apple tree in the midst of the trees of the wood, because he indeed is a fruit-bearing plant, while the trees of the wood are fruitless; and by the water from which they are watered, she clearly indicates the difference toward them, since concerning these, Ecclesiastes says: "I made for me pools of water, to water therewith the forest that bringeth forth trees." But concerning him David says: "And it shall be, he says, as the tree that is planted by the streams of water.
A But it is not the same thing to be watered by ever-flowing streams as it is to be irrigated by waters collected in a cistern by human devising. For the former signifies the heavenly Word; the latter, human teaching. Furthermore, just as the apple, while preserving its fragrance enclosed within its skin, nevertheless distributes it to the outside, so also the divinity was hidden by the body; yet it distributed its activity, and even upon the flesh that appeared outwardly it proved its effectiveness.
The shadow, moreover, in which the Spouse desired to sit (since shade is mostly formed by leaves rather than by anything else, as the dense conjunction of verdant leaves wards off the solar ray), represents those things which the Lord’s humanity performed according to human nature—eating and drinking and whatever were the works of nature—because He performed even these with a certain usefulness, knowing the measure not of insatiable appetite, but of the sufficiency required by necessity. For the fruit of the apple is the works of virtue, which has also become sweet in her throat, gladdening the perception of her soul by the wholesome quality of its taste. B This text, however, contains a doctrinal teaching in addition to this moral contemplation; for if the law has a shadow of the good things to come, and there are certain things [that are] of the things to come; and the body is Christ, from Whom the shadow also exists, [He is] in the shadow of the law. Rightly did the Spouse sit—not performing the law itself in a carnal manner, but [enjoying] those things which are signified by it—being idle from the typical commandments (for "sitting" signifies idleness), but abundantly enjoying the fruits and being refreshed by them, both by smell and by taste, and by delight and enjoyment; for taste is the instrument of nourishment, but smell is [the instrument] of delight. C
Origen. — "It was fitting for the Spouse," etc. (28).
Philo. — He says [this] meaning the sons of the Jews, according to that saying, "I have begotten sons," whom He also called as unfruitful trees of the forest; in whose midst is Christ according to the flesh, as being a partaker of blood and flesh, of whom the apple is an image, bearing in itself both redness and whiteness, and sweetness and fragrance.
Apollinaris. — But then indeed the senses of my soul are made sweet, when the shade of the apple wards off for us the heat from temptations, so that we are not scorched by such a sun. D For there is no other way to be refreshed under the shadow of the tree of life, unless desire has led the soul to it.
4. Bring me into the house of wine.
Origen. — "This to," etc. (29).
Gregory. — Or how does the soul, which was correctly likened to a mare, run the good and divine race? For extending herself to the things that are before, she is not content with the bowl of wisdom, but [longs] to enter into the winepress itself of the mystical wine.
and into that vine which nurtures such a cluster. A Nilus. — The Bride reasonably demands, then, to be brought into the wine cellar. For since she alone, while the cluster was yet hanging upon the cross and set at nought by all—because it was still in its flower and did not yet reveal to all the use of the wine—firmly believed in her mind what would later be demonstrated; having established within herself such a predisposition, so as to behold in the budding grape, while it was yet on the cross above, the time before the wine, to bear witness to divinity, and to hold fast with certainty the proclamation of the grape hanging on the cross, as if it were already spoken, and having experienced that thing before the outcome of events which many experienced only after the event—which is a singular reward of such judgment—she asks for entry into the wine cellar. But if the wine is the Word, the wine cellar would be the Father, for in Him the Word is found. After, therefore, she was dwelling in such a cellar, she rightly asks also that charity be ordered in her, as one who, through such urgency, had long since become worthy of the love by which charity would be ordered in her, no longer as happens to those who love her, but that she might be among the ordered and the elect, existing henceforth by right in the number of the beloved and occupying that place.
Apollinarius. — Wine is also called [that which brings] gladness to the heart, according to the Psalmist; and wine is [also that which brings] fragrance, according to Zechariah.
C It is fitting for the stranger Bride to say, "Bring me into the wine cellar," for she was not previously in the vineyard. For after those who were called about the third, sixth, and ninth hours, she is called about the eleventh, having heard: "Why do you stand here all the day idle? Go you also into my vineyard." For she was idle, because she was not working her own [vineyard], but was guarding the vineyards of others; and she receives first the reward of charity, the royal seal, the spiritual gift. Whence also Aquila says, "He ordered charity in me." For it belongs to charity to say, "I wish to give to this last as also to thee." Order charity in me.
Gregory. — Existing now in the object of her desire, she leaps forth again to what is greater, and says: "Since I have come into the wine cellar, subject me to charity, which is beside me [or: order charity in me]." D For however you may use the inversion of the word, the meaning is the same through both, whether from that which she is subjected to charity, or from that in which charity is ordered. Or perhaps we are also taught what sort of charity ought to be exhibited to God and how we ought to be affected toward one another, lest the fulfillment of charity become disorderly and inverted. For it behooves one to love God with all one's soul, and heart, and strength, and one's neighbor as oneself, and his wife...
if one exists, as a soul purer than one's own, as Christ loved the Church; but if it is a more passionate soul, as one's own body; and the enemy, in that we should not return evil for evil, but repay injustice with kindness. She says, therefore: "Set in order charity in me," lest I fall away again, preserving the inclination toward what is better; and teaching how one must love God and how one must love one's neighbor—or perhaps this too is something to be surmised through the word, since I who was first loved, on account of disobedience, was reckoned among the enemies; but now, having returned again to the same grace, being joined to the Master through charity: confirm for me the stability and immutability of this grace, you friends of the Bridegroom, by care and attention preserving for me the fixed dwelling toward what is better.
A 5. "Stay me with flagons." Gregory: That is to say, with the virtues. For virtue is not only to look upon the good, and to become a participant in that which is better, but also to preserve immutability in the good; he therefore who wishes to be stayed in flagons seeks that stability in the virtues be added to him. For virtue is an ointment, because it is separated from every foul odor of sins; for sin is foul-smelling. Therefore, "Stay me with flagons, compass me about with apples; for I am sick with love."
Nilus: Perhaps she asks for this to be done to her either as a reward for things well done, or, as being bitten by desire, she asks for consolation, as if it were a refreshment. For since she is as though melted by the memory of the Beloved, she desires to be stayed by the ointments of contemplation, and to be compassed about by the apples of the Bridegroom’s miracles and the fruit of actions. For contemplation, delighting through the variety of thoughts, is the fragrance of ointments; but action, together with nourishment, possesses sweetness. For the works of virtue also produce joy, gladdening the conscience of the worker with the hope of rewards. Some, however, take "Compass me about with apples" to refer to death, as if the Bride wishes to be deemed worthy of burial with the saints, altogether understanding as apples those who said: B "We are the fragrance of Christ."
"Compass me about with apples." Cyril: Secure me with evangelical doctrines; for these emit to us the fragrance of Christ. "And would that I," he says, "might be placed with his saints; for just as He himself is an apple, so also those who are with Him, being of a common body and participants, are apples."
Procopius: That is, with the better fortunes according to God. C
Gregory: (31) That always looking on high, I may behold the good things, in the Bridegroom being shown; for there, gentleness... D
there, placidity, there, forgetfulness of injuries toward enemies and kindness toward those who mourn, there, continence and long-suffering, and the like things; which, being joined together in beautiful order, produce a most graceful spectacle, leading upward to the height of a life of virtue. And Christ is an apple, on account of the whiteness of his flesh and the redness of his blood, and the fragrance of his preaching. B Origen. — Symmachus published it thus: "For I am wounded with love."
Gregory. — Having said these things, she praises the archer for his skill in shooting, as one who directs the shaft rightly into her. For, she says, I am wounded by love. By this speech she shows the shaft that is fixed deep in her heart; but the archer of the shaft is Love; and we have learned from Scripture [1 John iv, 16] that God is Love, who sends forth his chosen shaft, his only-begotten Son, upon those who are saved, tinting the triple point of the goad with the Spirit of life. The goad is faith, so that in whomsoever it may be, it brings along with the shaft the archer as well, as the Lord says: "I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him" [John xiv, 23]. C The soul, therefore, which has been raised up through divine ascents, sees the sweet shaft of love by which it was wounded in itself; and it makes a boast of such a wound, saying: "For I am wounded by love." Yet not only this, but it also itself becomes a shaft in the hands of the archer, the left hand directing the head toward the upward goal, and the right hand drawing the shaft toward itself. She says, therefore:
Ver. 6. *His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.*
Cyril. — The left hand is called the Law, the right hand the Gospel. Or, the left hand is to be understood as the present life, D but the right as the future; which indeed shall embrace me, after it has been said to those who are on the right: "Come, you blessed of my Father" [Matth. xxv, 34].
Gregory. — He says also elsewhere: "Length of life and years of life are in the right hand of wisdom; and in her left, riches and glory" [Prov. iii, 16]. Therefore, his right hand is the knowledge of divine things, from which eternal life exists; but the left is the knowledge of human things, from which come riches and glory. He says, therefore, that my mind surpasses human things, and divine knowledge shall cover me. For it is also said again: "Honor her, that she may embrace you." He shows, therefore, that he is the same, both Bridegroom and our archer, and that the purified soul is both Bride and shaft. As a shaft, therefore, he directs it toward the good goal; as Bride, he takes it for the communion of incorruptible eternity; granting length of life and years of life through the right hand; but through the left, the riches of eternal goods and the glory of God, of which those who seek the glory of the world become bereft. Therefore he says, that...
A his left hand is under my head, through which the arrow is directed toward the mark; but his right hand, embracing me and drawing me to himself, makes me light so that I may be carried toward that upward motion, and be sent thither, and not be separated from the archer, but rather rest in him. Then he turns his discourse to the daughters of the Jerusalem above. And this discourse is an exhortation, introduced with an adjuration, that his love might always be multiplied and increased, B until it brings to fulfillment the will of him who desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Nilus. — By the left hand he hints at the things of the present life, as is usual—the good things of which it already possesses the enjoyment; but by the right, the expectation of future things in the promises, the use of which he says is set forth in hopes. And it is rightly said that he embraces with his right hand, while the head rests upon the left. For it behooves the goods of the present life, even if they seem very useful and conspicuous, to be subjected or placed under the head of the perfect soul, granting only the necessary use to the body, just as a bolster does to the head; but the goods of the world to come, since they are divine and stand above human nature, he has suggested by the eminence of the embrace. Perhaps, since hands are a symbol of actions, and the works of the left hand signify those of the body, but those of the right signify those of the soul, he declares by this C speech that the soul, having obtained a better lot with the right hand, embraces corporeal necessities: for just as the hand that embraces is both above and holds what is embraced within its arms, so the actions directed toward the mark of the life to come, encircling the irrational motion of the body, preserve life well-ordered and closely-bound, so that no one can circumvent the soul which the Bridegroom embraces.
Verse 7. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the host and by the powers of the field, if you should rouse and awaken love until it wills.
Philo. — He adjures the souls of the saints by the divine signs which Christ showed during his life, that by their intercessions they might rouse his desire toward her. But Aquila and Symmachus D and the fifth edition have it thus: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field." And perhaps they are called perspicacious gazelles from the power of seeing and beholding; but those who are noble combatants against wickedness, and who harmlessly destroy its progeny, are called hinds, since the animal also is a destroyer of serpents, and is not harmed by their venom; against whom it is sufficient to rouse love, until the voice of the Bridegroom shall suffice to answer them. [index: entries preserved]
A
**Gregory.** The soul that has ascended to the heights, leading the souls that are being taught towards the progress that is towards what is perfect, guides them to a life of virtue through adjuration, saying: "If you, O disciple-souls, make progress in the virtues until you arouse and cause to awake charity—which is already elevated and always increased towards what is greater through added progress, until His good will arrives at its end—so that, living in the flesh, you no longer live according to the flesh, and while dwelling in the field of this world, you may look upon the angelic powers, imitating angelic purity through freedom from passion. For the virtues and forces of the 'field,' that is, of the world, are angelic powers; I affirm that you will possess an angelic state in the regeneration." Now, 'force' signifies power; if it is said in the singular, the sense of such an expression is referred back to the divine numen; but if in the plural, it exhibits the angelic nature. And the word 'I adjure' is used in place of 'I adjure you.' Moreover, an oath is a discourse confirming the truth by itself, and it is called an oath whether one swears it or is adjured.
**Nilus.** That saying 'to arouse' is evidently addressed to the daughters of Jerusalem; but in whom that charity is—whether in themselves, or in the Bridegroom, or in the speaker herself—is not clear. If, therefore, she wishes charity to be aroused in them, she can say something of this sort: "O slow and senseless ones to what is profitable, how much profit you overlook through ignorance, which accrues to those who love the Bridegroom through that very love! I adjure you by the virtues of the field, which govern the things of the world, and by their forces, through which they enervate adversaries, to arouse the charity that is asleep in you and to wake it up towards the Bridegroom, and to know the pleasure that I derive from the experience of it." She exhorts them, observing their profit and considering their advantage. But if she wishes the Bridegroom's charity to be aroused, she says this: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, to approach my beloved and to announce my passion to Him, for I am not able to remain at home loving Him, as longing drives me out and forces me to traverse all paths, lest perhaps by chance I may meet my Beloved; for she perhaps doubts B C whether she is truly loved. And she already appears to have met Him and heard a word from the Bridegroom disclosing His love; for the Bridegroom often withdraws, to arouse her love more intensely and to rekindle the fading fire of desire. In some copies, however, it is written: 'Do not arouse, nor cause to awake.' D If towards Himself, it means: 'Because I have no need of a mediator; for I know that, having been rendered worthy of Him, I arouse His will towards my love. For heavenly love does not solicit; but He Himself approaches, drawn by the beauty of the soul and made certain by the works of the virtues, not persuaded by rumors of deeds.' But if you arouse their charity towards Him, it means: 'For you have not yet attained the stable state of those who love, and you have need at this time to serve Him in fear, lest perhaps, by causing a delay out of season, you become wanton, inasmuch as you have not yet been taught to use His charity rightly.'"
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VERS. 8. *Vox fratruelis mei: ecce hic venit saliens supra montes, transiliens supra colles.* A
*Gregorii.*—The soul, having been purified and lifted up by charity through so many ascents to the participation of good things, does not seem even yet to have comprehended that which is sought. For she calls all those ascents, not a contemplation and comprehension of the truth, but the voice of Him who is desired, which is expressed to the hearing in its particular traits, but is not recognized and gladdened by the mind’s comprehension. A voice, she says, not a form, not a face, not a figure showing His nature expressly, but a voice bringing a conjecture rather than a firm knowledge of who it is that speaks. And the diversity of the vision proves this. B For "Ecce," she says, "hic venit"—"Behold, He comes"—not standing or remaining, so that He might be recognized by one gazing fixedly upon Him through a long sojourn, but snatching Himself away from the eyes by leaping and springing, and at one moment likening Himself to a goat, and at another to a fawn. Perhaps, therefore, she foresees the dispensation of the Word of God through the flesh, preached from afar and afterwards manifested. For the divine voice is testified to by works, and the outcome is joined to the word of promise, as David says: "As we have heard, so have we seen" (Ps. XLVII, 9). *Vox fratruelis mei*—that is, what we have heard; *Ecce hic venit*—that is, what we have received with our eyes. The voice of the Bridegroom, then, came through the prophets in whom God spoke; and after the voice came the Word, leaping upon the opposing mountains C and springing over the hills, that is, trampling upon and dissolving the perverse heights of the wickedness of demons.
*Nili.*—Since God was the beloved, proven not by bodily proofs, but attending to the disposition and penetrating the thoughts, He appears immediately, comforting the desire of love, so that she, having perceived the trait peculiar to His voice, should say out of great joy: "Vox fratruelis mei, ecce hic venit." For seeing John the precursor, who was the voice, she also imagines the Word and says demonstratively: "Behold, He comes." For the voice signifies the presence of the Word; and turning the hearing to sight, she shows what was heard. But the "leaping upon the mountains, springing over the hills," is of this kind: I have heard His voice from afar, D but now I also discern Him Himself leaping upon the mountains and springing over the hills, which was fulfilled in the incarnation of Christ. For the outcomes of the prophecies concerning Him were leaps and bounds, and the mountains and hills are the prophets who spoke of Him; upon whom leaping, and jumping from others to others, He made each one's prophecy appropriate to the next, making one body out of diverse prophecies, and connecting by the leaps of intellection the mountains which seemed to stand apart in their wording. Mountains
moreover, may be called those prophets who speak of His divinity; hills, those who speak of the economy: for hills, even if they rise above the rest of the earth, nevertheless possess something earthly, whereas mountains are rugged cliffs, devoid of earthly substance. A
Origen. — Some have appended this to what precedes.
Cyril. — These things [are said] to clarify what is introduced dramatically, up to the point of: *Thy voice is sweet, and thy countenance is comely.* And it is clear that the soul, the Bride of the Word, or rather the Church of Christ, perceives the divine voice even before understanding it, which is something we believers experience—before grasping the legal and prophetic words as being full of divine grace, we are struck with wonder. Such is the *voice of my kinsman*, ordered for the distant manifestation of the Word, upon seeing which—having occupied herself with great contemplations after having not neglected the lesser ones—she says: *Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.* Throughout the whole discourse, some things are said as if to the Spouse who is present, and some as if by the Bride who is seeking Him; for even in matters of investigation, sometimes we seek certain things, being ignorant of the solution, and at other times we enjoy the solution, the Word, the Spouse, illuminating our hearts. Then again we doubt in other things, and again He appears to us; and this happens frequently, until, being perfected, we obtain the Spouse, not only coming to us, but also making His dwelling. And the Church indeed feels longing when abandoned to temptations, but He appears to her through graces. Therefore she says: *Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains;* but He comes also upon the nets that have been spread by the evil one C near the Church, which He breaks and teaches her to trample underfoot with contempt. Moreover, for the Church that has overcome every winter of temptation, He shows the signs of spring and the approach of summer, concerning which it is said in the Psalms: *Summer and spring.* For flowers have appeared to her, and the final purification has drawn near, called the time of pruning.
Verse 9. *My kinsman is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel.*
Gregory. — By this He signifies the sharpness of sight and the perspicacity of Him who looks upon all things. But he is likened to a young hart because, by the speed of his running and the property of his color, he escapes the operation of venomous things, D which He called mountains and hills—the lower ones and the ones that go before. For this distinction between hills and mountains implies as much; for likewise the lion and the dragon—the things that are eminent—are trampled, as are the serpent and the scorpion, which are seen to be lower. And He makes the disciples perfect in the nature of harts, saying: *Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions,* so that by the altitude of virtue they become the mountains of Bethel, which is what the meaning of the name
A of God signifies. B
Nili.—Bethel is, and is interpreted as, house of God. The mountains of this place are those who, because of the magnitude of virtue, are called mountains; for just as mountains by their height surpass and by their strength excel the rest of the land, so also among men do the saints excel, being aroused by a sublime manner of life. In these, therefore, the Bride sees her kinsman dwelling, assimilated to a gazelle because of his contemplative power and his ability to discern human thoughts and intentions, but to a fawn of the deer because of his practical power and his antipathy toward opposing forces; for the deer is destructive to venomous serpents. But why did he say "fawn of the deer" and not "deer"? Because most men, or almost all, in their infantile age—if not to base things—have at least succumbed to certain passions, and only late and with difficulty do they take up a prudent and sober frame of mind. But the Lordly Man, before he knew to call [anyone] father or mother, did not obey malice, but trampled upon youthful desires with the resolve of a mature mind. Perhaps he was a gazelle when, with the sharpness of his gaze, he spoke of seeing the thoughts of men: *Why do you think evil in your hearts?* And [he was] a fawn of the deer when he said to the legion of demons: *Come out of the man, you unclean spirit,* as if dragging out from the crevices of human bodies the systems of demons gathered together within.
Philonis and Origenis.—Or perhaps he calls the prophets mountains, as those who are mature in understanding and contemplators of true things—and I think the apostles as well; since wisdom passes into souls according to generation, and they are mountains because, when the sun rises, they are the first to be illuminated. He calls hills those who receive less of the manifestation of the Spirit. You might also say that the mountains are the signs in the Law, and the hills the [words] of the other prophets. Or, having contemplated the Word in the New Testament, he sees the mountains leaping, and for the hills skipping, as is [prescribed] in the old letter. The Bridegroom is likened to a fawn of the deer, not only as one who consumes serpents, but because *a child is born to us, a son is given to us,* and because *he humbled himself*; for otherwise the deer would be perfect. C
*Behold, he stands behind our wall, looking forth through the windows, gleaming through the lattices.*
Cyrilli.—Perhaps he also revealed the apostles through the art of fishing. The Church, therefore, hears these words of the Word through the prophetic windows and the legal nets, receiving the splendor of the truth; while the wall of the teaching of the type—I mean the Law—still stands, which makes a shadow of the good things to come, and does not show the very image of the realities, behind which the truth stands, holding to that place and shining forth later. D
Gregorii.—According to the letter: When the Bride...
Bridegroom discourses to the Bride through the windows, and the wall in the middle keeping both apart, the communion of the Word becomes unimpeded—the head leaning out through the windows, and the eye looking inward through the nets that are in the windows. And by a path and sequence of training, the Word reconciles human nature to God: first, by illuminating it through the prophets as if through windows, and by the weaving of the legal precepts as if through nets. For thus we understand the windows to be the prophets, who introduce the light, and the nets to be the weaving of the legal precepts; through both of which the radiance of the true light slips into the interior. After these things, however, a perfect illumination of light occurs when the true light itself appears through the commingling with our nature.
B Nilus.—He calls the wall the body of the Lord’s man, hiding the incarnation of the Word of God. He sees Him also peering through the windows of the prophetic words, and appearing through the nets of the apostolic preaching. For the prophetic words show Him peering in part, as if through a window, but the apostolic teaching reveals Him whole and clearly. Therefore, this alone has been able, from the things prophesied about Him and from the pre-announced signs, to pierce through the thickness of the wall with the eye of the soul and to see what is hidden in the body. Again, the law is a wall, behind which the Bridegroom stands hidden, having ordained the law but not being known to those to whom the law was being brought. But the Bride sees Him standing behind the law, incomprehensible to the many, because in it the things concerning Him were spoken obscurely and in shadows. Thus the rock signified Christ, and the sea baptism. C But one could also call the windows the senses of the Bride, which, when she kept them pure, she received the sun and life through them, though through the same they admit death to sinners, according to the verse: “Death has climbed through your windows.” And the nets are the temptations set against Him by Satan in the desert, when the tempter thought to catch Him as if with nets by the temptations; appearing higher than which, the Lord, having crushed the snares and the nets, and having bypassed them with ready-witted concealments, leaned out through the nets, showing the power of His divinity to the discerning soul. Whence, thereafter, the Bride discourses to the daughters of Jerusalem; the Bridegroom was speaking in their presence, but no one save her heard what followed. Indeed, the senses may be called windows, through which death passes to sinners. But to the soul endowed with love for the Word, the Word looks forth, when it adopts those things which the ten senses utilize, and has latticed windows in the upper part of the house, at which the Bridegroom, arriving, looks through them, calling the Bride to Himself from the extreme senses to the invisible and
incorporeal—this perhaps signifying also the text that follows: "Arise, come."
13. "My kinsman answers and says to me: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove; for behold, the winter has passed; the rain has gone, has departed for itself. The flowers have appeared on the earth; the time of pruning has arrived; the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land; the fig tree has brought forth its green figs; the vines are in blossom, they have given their fragrance."
Gregory.—The human race, mobile by nature, had perished, frozen by the frost of idolatry. But upon this harsh winter, the Sun of righteousness arose, so that He might warm those things that had hardened into stone by the cold; and man, warmed again by the ray of the Word, might become water leaping up into eternal life. B Therefore, through the light-bearing windows—that is, the prophetic words—the Bridegroom, the Word who raises up those who are bowed down, shouts to the Church: "Arise," that is, from the fall in which, hampered, you fell to the ground through the serpent. Nor is it enough for you only to be raised from the fall, but also proceed through the progress of good things, finishing the course in virtue. She, as soon as she received the power of the Word, rises and stands by the light; and she draws near and becomes beautiful, and is called a dove; and she is conformed to that which she gazes upon, having become entirely spiritual. For by approaching the light, she becomes light; and in the light, the beautiful form of the dove is imaged—I speak of that dove whose form signified the arrival of the Holy Spirit. C When, therefore, the Word had thus addressed her, and had named her beautiful because of her proximity, and a dove because of her beauty, He continues with what follows, saying that the gloom of winter no longer dominates the souls. "For behold," He says, "the winter has passed, the rain has gone and departed." He gives many names to evil, according to the differences of its operations; and it is called winter because of the manifold significance of evils; for all things in it imitate the gloom of death—both plants dried up, and animals ceasing from song and activity; indeed, the sea itself becomes wild. But by the word "departed," He indicates that the rain is in a way animated and endowed with free will. D By these things, therefore, He shows how human nature had sprouted at the beginning in paradise; but when the winter of disobedience had dried up the root of immortality, from which it was germinating fruit while adorning the nature, the flower was shaken off and dissolved into the earth, and man was stripped of the beauty of incorruptibility; and the grass of virtues was dried up, and the love toward God; whence various afflictions were excited in us by opposing powers, through which the evil shipwrecks of the soul occur. But when He came who produced the spring in our souls, and rebuked the spirits and the sea, all things became full of calm, and nature begins again to sprout, and is decorated with its own flowers, that is, with virtues, which now indeed blossom, but its fruit
in its own time will provide. We must therefore, having entered into this varied winter, pluck from these flowers, and prepare crowns for ourselves; for the time of their pruning has arrived. This is testified to you by the voice of the turtledove, that is to say, the voice of one crying in the desert. For John is the turtledove, the forerunner of this brilliant spring, who points out the flower from the root of Jesse, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and teaches repentance for evil and a life lived in virtue. B "For there was heard," he says, "the voice of the turtledove in our land"; perhaps naming as "land" those who are condemned in wickedness, whom the Gospel calls harlots and tax collectors, by whom the word of John was heard, while the others had not at all received the preaching. And as for what is said about the fig tree, that it has put forth its green figs, let us understand it in this way by reason: the fig tree, on account of its heat, is endowed with a remarkable power of drawing moisture from the depths. When, however, much moisture gathers in its pith, nature necessarily, through the decoction of humors taking place in the plant, expels from the branches the useless and earthy humor. And it does this often until it produces, at the proper time, a humor that is sincere and fit for nourishment, purged of useless quality. Therefore, what is produced by the fig tree before the sweet, perfect, and mature fruit—in the manner of a fruit—is called a green fig, and it is a prelude to the fruit, not the fruit itself. He who has seen these things, therefore, expects the fruit also to arrive shortly. C Since, therefore, the Word describes the spiritual spring to the Bride, and this time is a boundary between the sorrow of winter and the participation in the fruits that are gathered in summer, for this reason it declares clearly that the evils have passed away, but does not yet openly show the perfect fruits of virtue; but it stores these for the opportune time, when summer shall arrive, which is the consummation of the age. Now, however, it shows the blossoming hopes of virtues, whose fruit appears in its own time. Therefore, since human nature, according to the fig tree mentioned here, has gathered much evil humor through the winter we have understood, and as we accomplish the spiritual spring, it first expels from nature everything that is earthy and useless, casting out the excrement through confession in place of the branches, and then, in this way, by casting some character of the hoped-for blessedness through a more honorable manner of living, D as if by certain green figs, it announces the future sweetness of the figs. Understand the blossoming vine in the same way, whose wine, gladdening the heart, will one day fill the chalice of wisdom and be set before the guests for their enjoyment; for now indeed the vine blossoms with its flower. These are the marks of the good spring of the souls that the Word shows to the Bride, and he urges her toward the enjoyment of those things which are set before her, rousing her with his word, and says:
Nilus. — This "Arise" is that of one calling and rousing; for he calls her, rousing her from the lowly precepts of the law to the higher teachings of the evangelical mysteries. "Leave," he says, the law...
A the juvenile operation that prohibits sins, and come to the grace that even roots out the wicked thought; arise from earthly things, advance toward heavenly things; arise from the first figures, approach the truth; arise from the elementary law, proceed toward perfection. Moreover, he calls the time of the Passion winter, in which all were constricted by the spirit of unbelief as if by ice; for indeed there was also a perceptible winter at that time. And the prophetic rain and the legal discourse had poured forth; for when the voice of the turtledove was heard, saying: "Come, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you," (Mt. 11:28) there was no longer need for the legal discourse falling like cold rain. And when the flowers, that is, the holy men, appeared in the land of Christianity, the time of pruning B arrived, that is, of the rejection of the Jews; and the fig tree, which the householder had ordered to be cut down because it bore no fruit, brought forth the unripe figs of repentance after the arrival of Christ, receiving the fertilizers of private doctrine. Nay, even the vines, transplanted from the true vine, gave forth fragrance while blossoming, those who say: "We are the good odor of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing" (II Cor. 2:15). For even those who do not believe in the Gospel marveled at the discourse of the preaching, and were astonished at the signs.
Cyrill. — Or he also calls the time of pruning the time of the spiritual harvest, of which the Savior says: "The harvest indeed is great" (Luke 10:2).
Origen. — "Arise," he says, etc.
Otherwise. — He also speaks of the turtledove of the secret and unknown wisdom; for it is an animal that loves solitude, whose voice is heard by those who are still clothed in a terrestrial body. The time of pruning is the time of the deposition of superfluous things; this, however, is the time of His very presence, in which, of course, the corporal things of the law, and the histories in the prophets that had grown onto the spiritual things, must be pruned away, so that the better things may remain. And the time, moreover, for the excision of sins and for remission through the laver of regeneration. And do not wonder if the Bridegroom speaks as if about another turtledove, C for this usage of Scripture is frequent.
Ver. 14. "Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove; and come, you my dove, in the shelter of the rock, beside the bulwark; show me your face, and let me hear your voice: for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely." D
Cyrill. — The rock is Christ; for He Himself becomes for us, the faithful, a wall and a shelter, and all security, which is designated by the bulwark; wherefore, being present there, he says, you will obtain every aid.
Apollinarius. — He also calls the inner man a wall, and the outer man an antemurale [outer wall or bulwark], which Aquila published in his *Arcana*, in which Christ also commands that prayers be made. A
Gregorius. — There is no end to such a resurrection, nor to such a course; for one must always be rising, and those who approach God must never cease. Therefore, as often as He says, "Arise and come," so often does He give the power of rising to what is better, so that the beautiful may become more beautiful; and according to the Apostle, may be transformed from glory to glory into His same image. So, therefore, since she was a dove in the things she had previously done rightly, He nonetheless bids her again to become a dove, through transformation into that which is better; for He says: "Come, you yourself, my dove," no longer looking to the zeal of those who draw (you), but having your own desire as a guide to that which is better. For "Come," He says, "confirming in yourself by your own thoughts the longing for that which is honest, not by necessity leading you." For virtue lacks a master and is voluntary, and free from all necessity; and if you were exercised, O soul, in the law, and have seen the splendors through the prophetic windows, do not remain any longer under the shadow of the legal wall, but pass from this to the rock, which is the Gospel. For the rock B is near the antemurale, since the law was an antemurale of the evangelical faith, and the dogmas cohere with one another as those which are near in virtue; except that the rock is spiritual, but the wall is earthly. Moreover, the evangelical rock does not have the carnal mud of opinions, and according to the Apostle, the law is spiritual; for he who receives the law thus, spiritually, is received under the covering of the evangelical rock, which is close to the corporeal bulwark. When the Word had thus called out to her through the windows, the dove, illuminated by the splendor of the intelligences and understanding the rock, which is Christ, answers and says: "Show me your face," no longer speaking through ancient enigmas; but as I am able to see, so show Yourself to me openly, that I may be within You, the evangelical rock, having left behind the antemurale of the law; for if the voice which is emitted through the windows is so lovely, how much more so is that which happens face to face? C
Nilus. — In what preceded, although when He roused her He did not signify the place to which He commanded her to come, now He calls her again, also declaring the place. For when she asked the Bridegroom: "Where do you feed, where do you lie down?" He did not answer then; now He makes known to her the place of pasture, so that what she said might not come to pass as if she were surrounded by the flocks of companions; saying, "Come, in the covering of the rock," which signifies Christ, in which the serpent cannot make a trace of malice, so that, protected in the covering of this rock, she may receive in her mind no trace of the malice of the opposing powers; but He also calls her near the antemurale, wishing to hear her sweet voice there. D
A For wishing to hear her there, He desires, through her sweet voice, to perceive her beautiful face.
The voice is sweet, morally speaking, in serious discourses which provide grace to those who hear; dogmatically, it is the voice of the thief crying out on the cross: "Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom." Therefore, to the Church He says: "Your voice is sweet," crying out through the first-fruits of the thief the "Remember me." But to the Synagogue, which says "Crucify," and which He also hates, He says through the prophet: "Late, her voice wailed, and she gave her voice against me, therefore I hated her." The face is beautiful, which emerges from a peaceful and calm state. "Show me, therefore," He says, "your face, and let me hear your voice," both in B character and in speech, being adorned for my pleasure, and displaying a beauty of works and a care for doctrines that is harmonious.
If anyone calls the law a wall, he will call the natural law an antemurale, near to which is the rock. For the natural law is closer to the law of Christ than the written law is, in whom the saints, having lived their lives, pleased God, recognizing by natural instincts what is just, and becoming themselves teachers of what was fitting for them. Indeed, Paul also says: "But the law entered," having intercepted the ancient and final way of living, which is one.
*Origen.* — He wishes the soul, etc. C
15. "Catch for us the little foxes that demolish the vineyards; and our vines are blooming."
*Gregory.* — These things have been stated with the Bride speaking and her prayer being directed to the Bridegroom. He, about to manifest Himself, first urges on the hunters—whether they are certain angelic powers or even the apostles—to the hunting of the foxes (which are the apostate powers, so named because of their deceit; they are small regarding the virtue of the grace of Christ, but they demolish the vineyards), so that the vine—human nature—may no longer be hindered by them from blooming and bearing clusters, or from ordering its life according to virtue. For when this happens, the two pass into one another; for God comes to be in the soul, and in turn the soul migrates into God. The Bride, therefore, having seen D herself in the power of Him who commanded her to be purged from the harm of these beasts, being like an abundant vine, immediately delivers herself to the Husbandman who has broken down the partition wall of the fence; for she is no longer kept away by the wall of the law, that she might not be joined to the Desired One.
*Nilus.* — Furthermore, he gives this command to the foster-children of the Church, who are still displaying the flower of virtue and who can easily be harmed by the passions; for an adult vine is not harmed in the same way as one that is surrounded in its very first beginnings; just as, indeed, a blooming
A grape, if it is shaken, lets fall the berries hanging from the stems, so too, virtue, when it is shaken by the passions before it is ripe, does not reach the peak of perfection; for the pursuits that ought to have ripened slip away before the stable and established condition is reached. For vainglory is wont to feed upon the flower of virtue, and arrogance becomes an obstacle to progress for those who are beginning to fear God, shaking off the improvements [they have made] through pride, and manifesting the fruit as fading while it is still in the flower. Reason therefore advises to "seize the little foxes"—that is, to master the passions while they are still soft and weak, before evil becomes a habit that is difficult to change. Or this is what is meant according to the stated distinction; or [it is to be read by those who distinguish it thus]: it is necessary to subdue and seize the foxes that destroy the small vines, while the vines are still small; for foxes cannot destroy great vines, since the habit of good has already been established; for it is characteristic of the small to be scandalized. B And just as if intensifying the distress arising from fear, he says: *And our vines are in blossom*. For he seems not only to have been afraid because the vines are delicate and recently planted and still small, but also because they are prepared to blossom, and are exposed to foxes that shake off the flower. The Scripture knows such a shaking; concerning them it says, "So are the sons of those shaken off," whom Paul calls branches of the olive tree broken off, and David calls "grass of the housetops," and the Lord, a branch cast out of the vine and unfruitful, indicating their rejection as well.
Origen
. — The Bridegroom says these things to his friends, etc. (41).VER. 16, 17. *My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feeds among the lilies, until the day breaths and the shadows are moved.*
C
Gregory
. — "I saw him," he says, "face to face, him who indeed always exists, but who for my sake, from my sister the Synagogue, arose in human nature; and I rest in him, and I become his dwelling place, who does not feed the flock with grass, but feeds the sheep with pure lilies, that is, with divine oracles; so that those who have fattened their soul with this pure and fragrant food, having withdrawn themselves from every fallacious and shadowy imagination of those things that are pursued in this life—which this discourse has called 'shadows'—might look toward the true essence of things, having become sons of light and of day." The soul which the Word feeds says these things, not among certain thorns or grass, but in the fragrance of the lilies of pure conduct, and it urges the Word to quickly bring the hope of good things into D action.Nilus
. — (42). She dedicates herself solely to the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom in turn [dedicates himself to her].A For since she had not given her body to fornication, but to the Lord, for this reason the Lord also, having been made man, has become partaker of her body; and by saying that He is feeding B in the lilies, she signifies that souls free from care are fed by Him, as those distracted by bodily business are outside His feeding. He feeds "in the lilies" not always, but until the coming day breathes C forth, and the shadows of present things are moved away. Symmachus, however, having rendered it "feeding on the flowers," has shown that He is not in a place of lilies, but is feeding the lilies themselves, namely those souls that are free from care and do not concern themselves with earthly things, as has been explained. We said above that the saints D who have flourished in Christianity are called flowers; here, therefore, He feeds these flowers; and the phrase "let the shadows be moved" signifies the removal of legal works, which are often called "shadows" by Paul.
Origen. — The Bride says to the companions of the Bridegroom, etc. (43). "Revert, be made like, my kinsman, to a roe or a young deer upon the mountains of the hollows."
Gregory. — "Revert" the incursion of evils: see as a roe, you who behold the thoughts of men. Wipe out the generation of sin as a young deer consumes the race of serpents. You see the hollow mountains of human life: for whatever is raised up against the truth is a chasm and not a mountain, a concavity and not an upright height. If, therefore, He says, you run to these, "every valley shall be filled and [every] such mountain shall be humbled."
Nilus. — How, having already said that "My kinsman is like a roe," and the rest, does she now again say, "Revert," not to the mountains of Bethel, but to the mountains of the hollows? The former she speaks of as having already happened, the latter she uses in commanding him to take it up. But perhaps the difference in the naming of the mountains in which this occurs solves the doubt. For there she said "on the mountains of Bethel," but here "upon the mountains of the hollows." Perhaps, therefore, the former signifies the earthly place, but the latter [signifies] Hades, by reason of the hollowness. Thus what is said is such as this: "Already indeed by nature you were made like, O Bridegroom, to a roe and a young deer upon the mountains of Bethel, having benefited those here and subdued the opposing powers. It remains, however, that those also held in the subterranean place, owing to death which reigned over all, should enjoy your benefit, and that you should also destroy the powers ruling there by scent, as a deer breathlessly pursues them."
Origen. — The former things the Bride had said to the maidens, etc. (44). Philo. — Or also "revert" from the Jews to the gen- [note: original-script column: see facsimile]
... the mountains they call just, on account of their loftiness; the hollows, however, on account of their humility.
Cyril. — He asks the Bridegroom to leave the unfruitful Synagogue and come to those who, from a soul once hollow and humiliated and given to idolatry, have ascended to the heavenly height.
CHAPTER III
VERS. 1-4. In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, and I found him not; I called him, and he did not hear me. I will arise now and go about in the city, in the streets and in the broad ways, and I will seek him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, and I found him not; I called him, and he did not answer me. The watchmen that go about the city found me: Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, until I found him whom my soul B loveth. I held him, and I did not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
Gregory. — The narration of the Bride is philosophical: by those things which she recounts concerning herself, she establishes and teaches how the lovers of supreme beauty ought to conduct themselves toward the divine majesty. For the nature of created things is twofold according to the highest division. For one kind is perceptible to the senses and material; another, however, is that which is perceived by the intellect and is devoid of matter. Again, since the nature that is perceived by the intellect is split in two, one part is uncreated and creative, always existing in the same way; but the other is created and is preserved in the good by participation in that which is transcendent, and is increased in it, and is changed for the better, C extending itself always toward that which is better and never ceasing from desire. Therefore, after the Bride, having been exalted by such great ascents and having progressed from virtue to virtue, seemed to have attained the summit of her hope of good things, she nevertheless saw that she was still in need of the Good; deservedly she laments, and, as one who does not yet possess the object of her diligence, she is troubled and perplexed, and she brings this perplexity of soul into the public view by her narration. And where she finds him whom she was seeking, she describes it in her discourse: she calls the more perfect participation in the good a "bed," and she calls the time of lying down "night." By the name of "night," however, she indicates the contemplation of those things which do not fall under human sight, according to Moses, who walked in the obscurity in which God was, who D "placed darkness as his secret place," and as the Prophet sings, "Round about him." In which, when one has been, then one is taught that one is as far from having ascended to perfection as those who have not even attained the beginning. For now, she says, as if deemed worthy of those things which are perfect, and as if resting in a certain bed of the comprehension of things known—when I was within those things which do not fall under sight, having left behind the senses, when I was contained by the divine night, seeking [the thing] that was...
hidden under darkness; then indeed I had love for Him who was desired; but that which was loved flew away so that my thoughts could not grasp it. For I sought Him in my bed by night that I might know what His essence is, whence He begins, where He ends, in what He has His essence; but I did not find [it]. Then, A I called, she says, Him who cannot be named, naming Him as far as it was possible, and He did not heed me; for there was no signification of a name that could reach unto that which was sought. Then, therefore, I knew that the magnificence of the glory of His holiness has no end. Whence she rouses herself and traverses in thought the supramundane nature, which she called a city, in which are B principalities and dominions, and thrones assigned to powers, and the assembly of the celestials, which she signifies by the name of "the street." Not finding the beloved there, she pondered with herself: Is that which is loved by me perhaps contained even in these? But since by their silence they indicated that He exceeds all comprehension, having left behind everything that was found, she scarcely knew what was sought, as if it were known in the fact that it was not found, as to what it is. Therefore she says, "When little by little I passed by all creation," having left behind every graspable approach, by faith I found the beloved, through whom I shall also hold Him, until He is within C my inner chamber, or heart, which then becomes capable of His divine indwelling, when it shall have returned to that state in which it was from the beginning, when it was fashioned by the mother who conceived, which is the first cause of our constitution.
Nilus
— The Bride commemorates her own states in which she dwelt while seeking the Word, and perfection, and the dwelling that follows in perfection; and she says these things for the benefit of others, teaching that it is not possible for one seeking the desired object to find it amidst repose. For sloth is an enemy to the practice of virtues. For that [saying], "On my bed at night I sought Him whom my soul loved," is of this sort, as if the Bride were saying to the maidens: I thought the possession of virtue and the D familiarity of wisdom to be light and easy, and I sought not with labor, but remissly, and as if resting in bodily things, like a bed. But when that search had failed in comprehension, I turned to the operation of virtue; wherefore I said, "I will arise now," etc., leaving the bed so that I might institute the inquiry through works; but not even this led me to the finding. For it was fitting that one performing the things which are of virtue should hide the labor; but I, displaying this, published it in the streets and in the markets, hunting for the praise of men. Wherefore not even thus have I been able to find [Him]; for labor done with ostentation contributes nothing to the possession of goods. But when the watchmen who went about in the city found her—now these are the ministering spirits who subserve the salvation of men, or who preside over the governance of life; and being asked about the beloved, they passed her by in silence as one unworthy of a reply; from this turning away, she conjectured that such a [way] was by no means pleasing to them; she pondered opportunely lest she should labor in vain, and me the harshness of virtuethus falling short of progress through the search for praise from those who see her. And thus she found what she was seeking: for the sake of no other thing, but for the sake of the Good itself, performing the good and justly pursuing what is just. Whence also, not long after, but immediately, she says that she found Him: "For a little while as I passed by them, I found Him whom my soul loved." For to one who passes through the aforementioned states and reaches perfection, God is found without delay, truth being received as light, co-operating for the grasping of what is sought. For what light is to the eyes, this truth is to the mind. A great encomium of the Bride is stated in what follows: "I took hold of Him," and so forth; for to acquire the good with labor is perhaps the task of many, but to preserve perseverance is the task of few. For many, when they reach what they were B studiously seeking—either because they have gained a profit from it over time, or because they have diverted their zeal toward other things—depart; and if they are negligent for a little while, they fall away from the best state, rendering much labor useless. But she, having experienced the goodness of the labors, did not turn backward, but maintained an equal readiness until she truly made the desired One familiar to herself, leading virtue up to the innermost repositories. For she introduced Him not into the vestibules or outer courts, but into the storehouse or bedchamber of the house.
Origin. — Having spoken about the mysteries preceding the marriage, etc.
Cyril. — He signifies the women who came on the first day of the week, early in the morning, to the tomb of Jesus, and did not find Him. What, therefore, he calls "on the bed" or "from the bed," he calls the Lord’s tomb his own bed, according to which we are buried together with Him. But she did not find Him, hearing, "He is not here; for He has risen." And the angels who were guarding Him found her, whom she also asks, "Where have you placed the Lord?" But to her, passing by those who had been questioned, He met her, saying, "Hail!" Therefore she says, "As a little while I passed by C them until I found Him, and I will not let Him go." For she took hold of His feet, and heard, "Do not touch Me." He calls the house of the mother the gathering of the apostles, to which, going away, she announced the resurrection of Christ.
v. 5. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the forces of the field, if you should rouse and awaken love, until it wishes.
Gregory. — Again, out of love for one another, He also addresses the souls being instructed, whom the discourse had previously called thorns, in comparison with the beauty of the Bride which had been likened to a lily; and through an adjuration of the powers in the world, He raises them up to an equal measure of love, so that the will of the Bridegroom might be strong in them as well. The rest has been declared in the preceding discourse.
Nilus. — He adjures the daughters of Jerusalem a second time.
A Jerusalem, "the Bride," to awaken love that is utterly asleep; but the meaning has been made clear. B "Who is this that comes up from the desert like a stalk of incense-smoked smoke, [like] myrrh and frankincense of all the powders of the perfumer?" B Gregory. — In the advances of virtue, those who are transformed from glory to glory through the desire for higher things do not always remain in the same character; but according to the measure of the perfection of the goods in which each has always exercised himself, a certain special character shines forth in his life, one having become and appearing as another through the increase of goods. Wherefore the friends of the Bridegroom seem to me to be astonished at what appears; for whereas they had formerly known her to be beautiful, but beautiful as among women, afterwards they adorned her beauty with the likeness of gold and with markings of silver. But now, beholding none of the previous signs upon her, but rather observing the character of the higher things, they marvel not only at the ascent, but also at the place from which she ran up; for this is what brings about a greater degree of astonishment, and this is the greatest encomium for the Bride, bearing witness to her change and transition towards the better. For she who seemed black to us before, he says, is this one rising from the desert; and how did she shed her dark form? How does her beauty glisten like snow? Is the desert, as it seems, the cause of these things, having made her to sprout upward like a shoot and having transformed her into such beauty? For she acquired this beauty from her own toils through self-control and diligence; for this is what "rising from the desert" means for her. Thus also was the soul of the prophet once thirsty for the divine spring, since his flesh had become impassable, desert, and waterless, and he received into himself the divine thirst. By many examples, therefore, they interpret her beauty, since it could not be contained by one. For first, they liken her beauty to stalks/shoots, and not even this to one [only]; but through their multitude they depict the manifold and varied [nature] of her virtues; then, smoke from incense is taken as the image of her beauty; and not even this is simple, but [it is] mixed with myrrh and frankincense, so that the grace of the vapors might be one. He, therefore, who intends to dedicate himself to the service of God will not otherwise be frankincense offered to God — for this is what is consecrated to the honor of God — unless he first kills the members which are upon the earth; for myrrh is suited for the burial of bodies. When these things have been done, every kind of perfume [arising] from virtue in the cycle of life, as if ground in some mortar into fine particles, makes that sweet powder which, when one has taken it into his breath, he becomes fragrant, being filled with the spirit that smells of ointment. D Origen. — Very beautiful is the soul that ascends by life and reason, etc.
A Nilus. — The Bride caused amazement to those who saw her, because she ascended even from the desert, and was fragrant like stalks of smoke; and because she was not made fragrant from elsewhere, but from myrrh and frankincense, and from the dust of an apothecary. But all these things signify the departure from earthly business. For the soul that abstains from evil, and ceases from base actions, and has renounced the sower of tares, is in the desert; and, making progress in good works, it begins to ascend from the desert like stalks of smoke. B For just as smoke, beginning from the earth, forms a stalk indeed, but in the air it holds as it were a root, having the flame blended with it in the wood; but when the material from below has failed, it separates entirely from the earth, and departs to its own place, mingling with and being reconstituted into itself: so the soul that departs from earthly things, even if it makes progress toward heavenly things, does not shift itself entirely toward them before it has completely abandoned earthly things. And that myrrh and frankincense is the fragrance blended with the stalk of smoke, signifies the mortification of the body, and the subjection [of the passions] through continence; with these, making progress, it made those who fell in with it fragrant. C And the dust of aromatics also is in harmony with the meaning of the preaching; for this too, from the grinding of the thick earth, becomes fine and hovers upon its surface; but once moved by the feet of those passing by, it is lifted up on high, traveling toward the heights. But if it happens to be a heretical soul, or [one that] does good for some reason or for its own sake, it is the dust of the earth, lifted up a little, and again easily carried down to its own place, because of its inclination toward the things below; but if, with ecclesiastical faith and with the goal of pleasing God, it has the plant from above, it is the dust of an apothecary, having the fragrance of dogmas mixed in by its high way of life. It can also be said dogmatically concerning the Church. For she ascended from the desert that has no husband, breathing myrrh and frankincense because she has been buried with Christ; and because, by the reasonable use of worldly things, she has been able to make them the dust of an apothecary; and because, through this reasonable use, she has changed what is dusty into the fragrance of Christ. D For he who does not make stable[ly held goods], but those [goods] borne along by the winds of worldly breezes, precious through almsgiving, makes the dust of the earth the dust of an apothecary, by the praiseworthy use of the needy, changing their dusty and dissipated nature into an aromatic fragrance, sweet and truly friendly to God.
Cyril. — Myrrh, when she is buried with Christ; but frankincense, when, having risen again with Him, she has partaken of His divinity. And not with these alone has the ecclesiastical soul been made fragrant, but also with various contemplations of knowledge; for he who distinguishes precisely, and searches into even the most obvious matters minutely, might be said to be in some way an apothecary, finely grinding and bringing into the dust of sweet fragrance all the oracles that the Bride is now said to have made fragrant. Perhaps, too, he who lives not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, in no way having thickened his heart, preserves the varied and all-embracing fragrance of the sweet smell from all [the oracles].
A Someone might also say how the holy and ecclesiastical soul, the daughter of what was once the desert of God, from the gathering of nations ascends out of the desert; leaving behind, indeed, dogmas and arguments and deeds, the things desert of God, but ascending toward the things of God. He makes the dust, as it is now called, [the powder] of the perfumer.
Verses 7, 8. *Behold the bed of Solomon: sixty mighty ones are around it, of the mighty ones of Israel; all holding a sword, being instructed in war; each man with his sword upon his thigh because of terror in the nights.*
B *Philo.* He calls the bed the monument of Christ. The sixty mighty ones are the fullness of perfection, those who guard the tomb, who also, when the earthquake occurred, were terrified on that night in which Christ rose. Those who are of Christ have two swords: one, which is upon the thigh, warding off the seminal [passions] through the temperance of continence; the other, cutting off false dogmas. And the sword is present so that one might not fear the darkness.
*Gregory.* C After the testimony concerning the beauty, the friends of the Bridegroom, and the preparers of the holy bridal chamber, and the groomsmen for the pure Bride, show her the beauty of the royal bed, so that they may kindle the Bride with a greater desire for the divine and immaculate life of communion with Him. Now, that this discourse about the bed is not from history is evident from those things which were historically recorded about Solomon in a bodily way, of whom the Book of Kings accurately described the royal palace, and the table, and the rest; but it said nothing new or different about the bed. Thus, it is necessary not to cling to the letter, but through accurate understanding to transfer this discourse to spiritual contemplation, withdrawing the mind from material signification; it is D consistent that divine beauty should be shown to have something of lovableness in terror, out of those things which are contrary to bodily beauty. For since the passionate desire of bodies, dwelling in the members of the flesh, lies in ambush for the mind like a certain band of robbers and carries it off captive, snatching it away to its own will, therefore it is consequent that divine love should be born from those things that are contrary to bodily desire. Wherefore it happens that if the leader of the latter is dissolution, and soft and enervated slackness, then there the vehement and unshakable greatness of soul is the material of divine love; for when the strong and manly spirit has terrified the troops of lurking pleasure, and turned them to flight, then the pure beauty of the soul is revealed, defiled by no motion of bodily desire. Necessarily, therefore, the nuptial bed of the King is surrounded by armed men; whose experience in warfare, and the readiness to have the sword upon the thigh, brings terror and astonishment to the dark thoughts, to those [who work] in nights and in the shadow of darkness, to those who are righteous in [index: entries preserved]
A heart, and shoot [their arrows]. For that the arming of those who are drawn up around the couch is intended for the destruction of filthy and pleasure-seeking thoughts, becomes clear through the description of the Word: "All of them skilled in war, every man with his sword upon his thigh." For it is truly for those who know how it behooves them to do battle against flesh and blood, [that they have] the sword fitted to [their] thigh. He therefore who is girded with the sword of temperance is the one who is beloved of the incorruptible couch; he is one of the mighty ones of Israel, and worthy of the count of sixty. Since Israel becomes everyone who is saved, that is, a mind that sees God—for all those who see God through [His] activity are, in the strict sense, designated by this title. It is a property of such a one, moreover, to look in no way toward sin with any of the senses. For this reason, everything that is saved is said to be one couch of the king; for there being twelve tribes of Israel, with one being taken from each part of the fullness of the nobles, and this one being divided into five armed men according to the [number of the] senses, the twelve tribes of Israel make sixty. These are one battle line, and one army, and one couch—that is, one Church, and one people, and one Bride—all shall become [one] under one commander, instructor, and Bridegroom, being joined together into the fellowship of one body, having the sword girded upon their thighs; or rather, stretching forth to each sense the sword appropriate to it for the striking down of opposing thoughts. So many, then, are they who have put on the divine panoply in their senses, surrounding the king’s own heart, in which the Bridegroom rests; for by the couch he signifies the rest which armed men guard in passionlessness and purity, so as to strike terror into the demons who lie in wait in darkness and night. A couch, moreover, is otherwise the knowledge of God, in which he who approaches Him finds rest.
C **Nilus.** He called the Lord’s body the couch, and the sixty mighty ones—whether one says [they are] the angelic powers *in the circuit of the Lord’s man, according to that: "They came and ministered to Him," and: "He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee"*—or whether one says [they are] the souls of the saints, named thus because they have been taught the war against the enemy, one will not miss the mark—are those who hold the sword upon the thigh. For those who have adorned their practical life with reason and have mortified the passions through reason, justly and deservedly surround the king. They are called by the number sixty, having become perfect in all things, and having progressed steadily and firmly; for sixty is a cubic and squared number, equal to all its parts on every side, and unshakable, consisting of four fifteens, and six tens, and twelve fives, and twenty threes, and having from these its own firmness and density. For this reason, those who are such were chosen also from the mighty ones of Israel, as being mightier than the mighty. Perhaps, indeed, those who now defend the Church, both by word and by works, struggling for the body of Christ [in the circuit]
of the bed of Solomon, are so because, in opposing the heretics with the word, they hold a sword in their hand; and because they live temperately and continently, they carry that sword upon their thigh against the terrors of the night. For, he says, "His sword is upon his thigh against the fear in the nights" (Ps. xxv, 5). For they not only cast out manifest enemies by the proofs of truth, but also, fearing clandestine assaults, because of those who shoot arrows in the dark, they remained armed even in the night, suspecting the attacks of those who lay in wait.
Vers. 9, 10. A ferculum did King Solomon make for himself of the woods of Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver and its reclinatorium of gold; its ascent of purple, its interior paved with stones, for the sake of love from the daughters of Jerusalem.
Theophilus.
The wood of Lebanon is Ruth the Moabitess, who bore Obed and Jesse. The ferculum, therefore, is the Lord’s body.Gregory.
That in many respects King Solomon is taken into the type of the true King is manifest, and the mystery of the Lord is written out in his person. Therefore, by the construction of the ferculum, the dispensation of the Lord concerning us is signified. For God exists in many ways in those who are worthy of Him, as it comes to pass according to the capacity and dignity of each, so is He in each one. For one becomes a place for God, another a house, another a seat, and another a footstool. There is also one who has been made a chariot, or a horse that is easily guided by the reins, receiving its good rider. So, therefore, he also who bears God within himself may justly and deservedly be named the ferculum of the peaceful King. B In many places, again, Lebanon in Scripture indicates the adversary power, as in this: "The Lord will crush the cedars of Lebanon, and will grind them small" (Ps. XXVIII, 5), and so forth. By this the Word signifies that not only will the evils which have sprung from the opposing power, but the very mountain itself—the first root of evil which secretly fosters such a forest of cedars—be reduced to nothing. We, therefore, were once trees of Lebanon, while we were rooted in it through an evil life and the deception of the demons; but after we were cut down from there by the rational axe and came into the hands of the Artificer, He made us His C own ferculum, having transmuted the nature of the wood through regeneration into silver and gold, and into flowering purple, and into the distributions of graces. For to one, according to the Apostle, is given the word of wisdom; to another, the gift of prophecy; and to another, some other of the operations, according as each is naturally fit and able to receive the grace (1 Cor. XII, 8); whether having become an eye of the body of the Church, or being assigned to the hands, or supporting in place of the foot. So also in the construction of the ferculum, one part becomes the pillar, another the ascent, another is the part that is at the head, which he calls the reclinatorium. There are, therefore, the pillars of the ferculum, which are of silver; and their bases, which are of purple; and from gold is the reclinatorium, DA in which the Bridegroom reclines his head; and everything within is decorated with precious stones. B Therefore, one must not think of them as the pillars of the Church, for the word of the kingdom, which has ascended to the heights of the conduct of life, is exactly pure and fire-tried silver. For purple is considered the preeminent mark of kingship; and the royal seat in which he who constructed the ferculum reclines his head is the gold of pure doctrines. Whatever is hidden and not apparent is adorned by the pure conscience of the precious stones; by all of which, love from the daughters of Jerusalem is constituted. If, however, anyone wishes to call the entire Church the ferculum, and to divide the parts of the ferculum into certain persons according to the differences of their operations—in this way, too, it is very easy to adapt the parts of the ferculum to each rank of those who are set in the Church: "For God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets," etc. Thus, through these names that pertain to the construction of the ferculum, one may understand priests and teachers, and the venerable virginity which, within the ferculum, shines with the purity of its beams, as if with the rays of certain precious stones; and through this purity of life, the daughters of the Jerusalem above are revealed, in whom the love of God becomes active.
Nilus C — The ferculum is a carriage similar to a seat that receives the one sitting; and this is perhaps Paul, the "vessel of election." For Wisdom also calls it a throne elsewhere, saying: "I was present when He established His throne upon the winds." And it was established upon the winds due to the multitude of temptations and tribulations, or also because he traversed the whole world on swift feet with the zeal of preaching. This, therefore, is the ferculum; having for its reclinatorium the mind, of gold, upon which the Bridegroom rests; and for its pillars, silver, representing the word. For by the apostolic word the ecclesiastical preaching is supported. The pillars are therefore the words, on account of their firmness and immutability; and silver, on account of the proof and unfailing character of the Apostle. D Moreover, there is a purple ascent to this: for those who advance through his words attain to the kingdom of heaven, walking as if adorned in purple by reason of their dignity, and saying with Paul: "For our conversation is in heaven." And that which is paved with stones within it is the precious and equal affection of the virtues in the secret heart, which, since Christ is the foundation, he builds upon it like precious stones. When, however, there is a step, he prepares this as a varied and most florid ascent for the royal feet on the pavement of the ferculum, and brings about an easy and smooth progress for those living according to the apostolic tradition. Or perhaps it also signifies that which is unmanifest and not proclaimed; for he desires the life of the virtuous man to be hidden. Whence also by the fact that he says "within," he expresses the unpublicized
[nature] of virtue, and he says that charity is to be built up together with the structure of the palanquin, for without this there is no benefit from the remaining virtues. The palanquin is made from the woods of Lebanon, from those of his kin according to the flesh, the Israelites; for Lebanon signifies these.
A Philonis. — The palanquin of Solomon denotes the saints in whom Christ finds rest; the woods of Lebanon denote those from Israel, by way of figure. But whenever [it is said], "The Lord shall crush the cedars of Lebanon, and shall grind them small like the calf of Lebanon," he speaks of those who did not preserve the religion in which they had been planted. Concerning whom Isaiah also says: "And Lebanon shall fall with the lofty cedars." But when, on account of the building of the temple, Solomon says to Hiram, "And now command that they cut for me woods from Lebanon," the discourse is about those who are referred to the spiritual building [composed] of living stones, woods proportional to the living stones; and as they are adorned by the Word, they are called silver. And they are also a reclinatorium for the Word who finds rest, and who has where to lay his head; and the gold is the mind. B Whenever, perhaps, Paul, lest he be overcome by the heat of his trials, as if imbued with a certain dye, procures for himself a purple [robe] suitable for the King, the Word, who delights in the patience of the apostles in their trials. And the inward part of the palanquin is paved with stones, from which each one gathers for himself gold, silver, and precious stones to build upon.
Cyrilli. — The spiritual union is to be understood as gold, as being precious and divine. For even in the desert, the ark was encased within and without with gold, for the manifestation of the divine union. And purple comes upon the multitude of those who have been called to the kingdom. C Whenever someone believes, he receives in his heart Christ, who is the precious pearl. But [the Scripture] also says the palanquin was made from the daughters of Jerusalem for the sake of love alone; for God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
11. "Go forth and look, O daughters of Sion, on King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart."
Cyrilli. — The Church which is from the nations says this: "Go forth and look." And he calls the day of espousals the day of the passion, in which he espoused the Church to himself by his D own blood.
Philonis. — "Go forth," he says, "from the malice of the law; look upon Christ and the crown of thorns which the Synagogue, from which [he is] according to the flesh, placed upon him."
A Christ: "The day of joy is the Pasch, in which he said: 'With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you.'"
Gregory. — This discourse contains an exhortation from the Bride to the daughters of Sion, that they should go forth from carnal things, which may be understood as the souls of those being saved. "How long, tell me," she says, "will you be shut up within the cave of this life? Go forth from the veils of nature, and look upon this wondrous spectacle, becoming daughters of Sion, that from a high watchtower (for thus is Sion interpreted) you may be able to behold the Bridegroom wearing a crown." The Church becomes a crown to him, encircling his head on every side with living and animate stones. And love has woven this crown, which, whether one calls it affection or mother, one will not err. "For God is love," as John says. B There is no distinction said to be in God; for the Divine is neither male nor female; for how could it be, since even in us humans this will not remain forever? But when we all become one in Christ, we shall cast off the signs of this distinction together with the whole of the old man. And in the Gospel, a certain father is said to hold a marriage feast for his son; and the prophet says, "For you have placed a crown upon his head"; yet here he says, concerning his mother, that she placed the crown upon the Bridegroom. Since, therefore, there is only one marriage and one Bride, and the crown is placed upon the Bridegroom by one C person, it makes no difference whether one calls him the only-begotten God, the Son of God, or the Son of his love, since by either name the same power, which adorns him as a Bridegroom for our cohabitation, is signified. The Bride says that he finds joy in this crown, rejoicing in that bridal adornment; for, by grace, truly making the Church his spouse, and adapting her to himself, and being crowned with the virtues that shine forth in her, he is joyful.
Nilus. — Who might be saying these things is unclear, but perhaps they are the friends of the Bridegroom. However, whoever he may be, he calls those from the Gentiles: for Sion is their mother, who brought forth the law of Christ. For the former law is from Sinai, but the latter from D Sion. Since, therefore, the Gentiles were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, perhaps he who uttered these things, the prophet, invites them, saying: "The people that sat in darkness." "Go forth and see." What? He adds, marveling at the audacious deed, "in the crown with which his mother crowned him in the day of his betrothal." The day of Christ's betrothal and the day of the joy of his heart was the day of the cross, in which he received the Church from the Gentiles as a Bride betrothed to him through the prophets. The prophet, therefore, seeing the Synagogue, having been affected by most frequent benefits, not rendering just returns to Christ, but placing a crown of thorns upon his head, astonished at such a crime, says: "Go forth and see, in King Solomon, in the crown with which his mother crowned him." He calls the mother of Christ...
with the crown with which his mother crowned him; for he calls her the mother of Christ, since from her is derived both his genealogy and the dispensation according to the flesh.
CAPUT IV
Vers. 1. Behold thou art fair, my neighbor, behold thou art fair: thine eyes are doves, besides thy taciturnity.
A Gregorii. — Receiving the word through the exhortation of the aforementioned Bride concerning her philanthropy—in that, in imitation of the Master, she herself also desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth—[the Word] celebrates her completely and admires her beauty, lingering over the word for each of her members; and, by way of comparison and likeness, he bestows a particular encomium upon each member. “Thou art fair, therefore,” says the Word to her, after you have approached the fair one with a good purpose of mind. B He calls her “neighbor” because she imitates his love for mankind, and because she has urged other souls to abandon temporal things and, having departed, to behold the Bridegroom wearing the crown. Yet through the repetition of the praise, the truthfulness of the testimony is demonstrated; for the divine Word declares that the truth is confirmed by a double witness. And since the Church is one body, and there are many members in this one body that do not have the same function, for this reason the accurate examiner of beauty, out of all the members of the body that pleased him, assigns to each a peculiar and fitting praise. He begins from the eyes; these would be, for example, Samuel, for he was called “the Seer” (and his name signifies this); and Ezekiel, who was appointed by God as a watchman for the salvation of those who were guarded by him; and Micah the Seer; and Moses the Spectator, C and for this reason called God; all those who were appointed for the guidance of the people were eyes, and were called “seers.” And even now, the prelates of the Church, who hold the same place as they did, lead the rest of the body toward the light of the truth. “Doves,” says he, that is to say, spiritual and looking to nothing material; or he indicated innocence through this. The pair of eyes is praised so that the whole man—both he who appears and he who is perceived by the mind—might share in the praise. For this reason he says, “besides thy taciturnity.” For of a good life, one part is manifest to men, but the other to God alone; for he who sees hidden things testifies D that that which is kept silent is more than that which is seen.
Nili. — He added “besides thy taciturnity.” For one who contemplates spiritual things would be more beautiful even if she were speaking them. But “thou art fair,” he says, “in part,” insofar as you are silent about things that are useful to many, even if you do this for the sake of modesty. For it is indeed a good work of virtue to hide [it] when the intention verges upon vainglory; but speech that is able to edify those who listen should not be kept silent, even if the intention of the speaker might look toward praise in a manner other than is fitting.
A
Cyril. — Her silence signifies obedience in all things, according to the saying: “Keep silent and hear, O Israel.” “Your hair is like flocks of goats, which have come up from Mount Gilead.”
Gregory. — B By these words, a life consistent with virtue is praised. For by the hairs, which are devoid of all vital sense, he implies those who devote themselves to spiritual things, and are moved by no sense of worldly concerns, nor do they admire vainglory, nor riches, nor anything else that is astonishing in this life. For hair, given as a covering to women according to the Apostle, is understood as representing modesty and chastity along with the mortification that is in the world; for hair is without sensation. But that, because of the excellence of the hair, it is compared with flocks of goats revealed from Gilead, is to be decided by conjecture. Indeed, just as the king fashioned a litter for himself from the wood of Lebanon, changed into gold, silver, and purple, so the good shepherd knows how to take the flocks of goats and change the goat-pens of Mount Gilead into sheepfolds. And this name of a foreign mountain reveals such grace, so that those who have followed that good shepherd from among the nations/gentiles may be counted in the adornment of the Bride under the name of hair, through which modesty, shame, and continence of body are understood. C Perhaps also Elijah contributes something to this consideration of goats, he who, having spent a long time on Mount Gilead, provided illustrious examples of a continent life: squalid in form, shaggy in hair, covered with a goat-skin. Therefore, all who order their life according to the example of that prophet become an ornament of the Church, according to the manner of philosophizing that now prevails, practicing virtue in mutual conversation. But that such flocks are revealed from Gilead increases the miracle, specifically that the transition to the true philosophy of God has happened to us from an ethnic life. For it was not from Sion, the holy mountain, that the beginning of such a life was made, but a nation addicted to idols changed its life to such a degree that it adorns the head of the Bride with excellent virtues.
Nilus. — D As pertains to the letter, this comparison contains nothing in common. For what is there similar between hair and flocks of goats? But as regards the understanding, there is great agreement. For whether it is a perfect soul to whom these things are said, or the glorious Church, the contemplation of the text holds a certain order. For the things that are, as it were, the discards and superfluities of a perfect soul, which are the necessary things performed through the body, when these are done decently and with becoming adornment, they are likened to a flock of goats—composed and well-defended, having nothing gaping or cut apart, because they cohere to the nature of right reason, by which they are also decently governed. For when the unrestrained luxury of delights is directed to the use of necessity
A and becomes necessary, it will be similar to the flock of goats. For bodily things are, in indifferent matters, indifferent, but in more diligent matters, they are earnest and useful. If, however, it is the Church to whom these things are said, her hair are those who repent for their sins; wherefore they are compared to a flock of goats, and not of sheep. And they have been revealed from Galaad, which by the word migrated from the Jews to the nations, for Galaad signifies the migration of testimony. For when He spoke to the Jewish nation: "You are my people and the sheep of my inheritance," the testimony was theirs. But when He chose the nations for Himself as a people, the testimony passed from them to these.
B VERSE 2. *Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the wash, all of them bearing twins, and there is one barren among them.*
Gregorius. — First, he speaks of the teeth, having passed over the praises of the mouth and the lips; and thus, subsequently, of the lips. For first, one consumes spiritual teachings and, as it were, grinds them down no differently than food with bodily teeth; and then he speaks of them, which some psychic power attenuates and renders suitable, preparing them to be sent down, so to speak, to the bowels. Therefore, the Word called those teachers "teeth" who deliver and distribute doctrines with judgment, and who, through a clearer exposition, grind down C the divine mysteries so that this spiritual food may be easily receivable by the body of the Church—those whom He also wills to be stripped of every material burden. For this is what it means to be "shorn" and to be, by the wash of conscience, pure from all defilement of flesh and spirit; and, in addition to this, to be always ascending through progress and never to be dragged backward into the pit; and to bear twins, generating for the soul *apatheia* (impassibility), and for the bodily life, decorum, and in general not to be sluggish in any kind of virtuous practice.
Nilus. — Similarly, this also contains a meaning hidden regarding the letter, but as for the understanding, it is written concerning teeth worthy of reproach: "You have broken the teeth of sinners," and "There shall be the gnashing of teeth." But regarding the praiseworthy ones: "His teeth are D like milk," and the present saying. Perhaps they may be the faculties of the soul by which it is itself nourished by the Word, to which the discrimination of the Word has been entrusted, and which grind down, and as it were ruminate, the Word that was received through the hearing as if it were thick wine. But these teeth are "broken" when they eat the sour grapes of heretical teaching; for having become numb, they become useless for grinding the true food. Therefore, He likens the teeth of the Bride to a flock of shorn ewes, because they have nothing of what the aforementioned teeth of the impious possessed, but rather they have all filth washed away by the laver.
And they bear twins when, both for the present life and the future, they look to what is useful, adding fertility to their works by the producing of twins for the intentions of the mind; for there is not in them one that is barren—that is, there is not one that is sterile and childless of good actions. And those who in the Church labor in word and in doctrine, and distribute nourishment to the whole body for the sake of concord and the agreement of souls, are likened to a flock. Because of the lightness and freedom from care of their lack of possessions, having sheared away all the matter of wealth, they are called shorn. And from the ascent of the font, they are twin-bearing, having a womb of virtuous works that is not barren but fruitful, bringing forth twins in meditations suitable for each age, I say, both the present and the future. Perhaps the teeth, like a flock of shorn ewes, bear twins because there no longer remain any hairs, the burden of sins having been shorn off. A
Origen. — They bear twins in another way, because of the duality of the understanding, both literal and spiritual. B
Philo. — Or even because, when they have descended alone into the mystical water, they ascend with the Holy Spirit.
VERS. 3. Sicut funiculus coccineus labia tua et eloquium tuum decorum.
Verse 3. Thy lips are as a scarlet thread, and thy speech is comely.
Gregory. — A scarlet thread is faith perfected by charity. The Church therefore praises the connection and the agreement—and at the same time the confession—by which she confesses Him who was crucified for her, according to which the Church, being in agreement, becomes one lip and one voice, woven together from diverse words into the manner of a chain of the same meaning. But by saying "scarlet," he teaches that the confession of Him who redeemed us by His own blood must be brought forth with the mouth; for it is by both of these that the comeliness of the Church’s lips consists, when faith shines forth in confession and charity is woven with faith. C Therefore, by the thread he indicated charity, but by the scarlet, faith; and thus the speech of the Bride becomes comely through the word of faith which we preach, as the divine Apostle says: "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. x, 8). D
Nilus. — Scripture frequently calls speech "lips," according to that: "May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips" (Ps. xi, 3), and "Grace is diffused upon thy lips" (Ps. xliv, 3). Whether it be the perfect soul, then, or those who are teachers in the Church, when they have living speech and one that is able to bind the hearer so that, having heard once, he can no longer depart, his lips
hold a scarlet thread; a thread, indeed, because they bind, but scarlet on account of their quickening and fiery power. A For such, too, is living flesh, which bears the redness of life as a witness; by which the Lord, signifying this, said, "My words are spirit and life." By the spirit, he designates the bond of the thread; by life, the scarlet. Moreover, their discourse is beautiful, containing delight along with what is useful.
Origen. — That is, let the preparation of the word be fiery, etc. (50).
*As the rind of the pomegranate is thy cheek, without thy silence.*
Gregory (51). — The Bridegroom is pleased with the beauty of the mouth, with that blush of virginity which custom calls a "cheek" and likens to the rind of a pomegranate. For it flushes out of modesty and temperance. B For just as the fruit of the pomegranate is protected by the sourness and bitterness of its rind, so also a grave, continent, and strict manner of life becomes a guardian of the goods of temperance. He praises, moreover, both the outward and the inner purity. For the praise here is twofold: both for those things which are plainly seen in a decorous life, and for those which are rightly accomplished in the apathy of the soul, which is seen only by Him who looks upon secret things. For this reason he says, "Without thy silence."
Nilus. — Regarding the soul, the austerity of life, which is inaccessible to the passions, is like the rind of a pomegranate on the cheek on account of its sourness; for by this part, the state of the mind is most judged—in the temperate person, showing a somber countenance, and to incontinent eyes, a grim demeanor, signifying the distastefulness of the sight; C but in the dissipated person, as if smiling and relaxed, inviting wanton eyes from afar, and announcing to them by its brightness the passion of pleasure. In the Church, however, there is the order of those who practice virginity and who exercise gravity, showing the Bride’s face as more stark and inaccessible to heretical lovers, and having nothing edible for their taste. For the rind of a pomegranate drives away those who are on the outside, having a quality contrary to their taste, but it safely guards the inner fruit.
Regarding the popular and festive gathering D of the multitude, the fruit of the pomegranate is not unlike it, bound together by charity, not only guarded by the firm wall of the outer rind, but also divided into various systems by thin membranes. And it imitates the ranks of the ecclesiastical order, thus divided so that the decorum befitting the Church may not be confounded and the state appropriate to the people of God may be preserved; governed by dignities of virtue and priestly ministries, divided in a distributive manner, yet not separated in disposition, but bound together by charity. Furthermore, even outside of this silence, such is the habit of the Bride, which, along with austerity, possesses much majesty.
NOTÆ. (50) Loc. cit. col. 269-272. (51) This scholion involves the name of Procopius.
A Origen. — He adds to the praise of temperance, etc. (52).
VERS. 4. *Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built in Thalpioth, a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the darts of the mighty.*
Gregory. — From this we learn that the things done by the saints have existed as a certain type and instruction of those things that are rightly accomplished by virtue; for instance, weddings, through which he proposes to us by enigmas the cohabitation of the virtues; migration, for it suggests the establishment of a virtuous life; the construction of buildings, for it commands us to expend study and diligence upon the structure of virtue; the war against foreigners, which teaches us to be brave against iniquities. Thus, then, even that renowned tower of David, in which he hung the rich spoils, looks to the progress of the Church, intimating through it that there are certain divine teachers in the people B who occupy the place of the neck, and carry the true head, Christ, in themselves, being endowed with the power of nourishing, namely through the doctrine by which the strength of the body of the Church is conserved; and since they are capable of the Spirit who renders the heart fiery and warms it, and through a resonant voice they serve the Word, and in the people effect the harmonious position of the vertebrae through the bond of peace, and incline themselves by condescending to the humble, and again raise themselves by setting their minds on the things that are above, and easily turning themselves to the sides in declining and avoiding the various snares of the devil, they show what the blessed Paul likewise was, who bore the name of Christ when he was a vessel of election, and as a resonant artery preached the Gospel, and had Christ speaking and reasoning within him. Such a neck, therefore, was truly built by David. Understand, moreover, by David, the Father of the King, in a conspicuous and lofty place (for this is what Thalpioth means), who from the beginning established man that he should be a tower and not fall by force, and by his grace again rebuilt him, fortified with many bucklers and C the spears of the mighty, not lying upon the earth, but suspended in the air, which were angelic guards, so that it could not easily be invaded any longer by the insults of enemies, but would even strike terror into them, so that they would not dare to invade the tower at all. The number of a thousand, moreover, is taken to indicate a multitude. By the shoulders, however, to which this neck is joined, understand the pursuits of acting and working through which our arms effect their own salvation. When, therefore, you have become a tower of the King, and have ascended to a sublime manner of living, then that which is said by the Lord is fulfilled: *A city set on a hill cannot be hid*, but understand the tower for the city.
Nilus. — In what precedes indeed the neck of the bride, D as...
A a necklace, was so called on account of its curvature; but now as the tower of David, on account of its uprightness and erectness. Yet uprightness is contrary to curvature; but the state of being a necklace, while different from that of a tower, is not however contrary to it. For when the discourse wishes to manifest her condescension toward the weaker ones and her humility in virtues, it calls her neck a necklace, bent with moderate spirit; but when it wishes to manifest that which is exalted and erect against the passions and opposing powers, it calls it the tower of David, which is to say, inaccessible to the enemies. *A thousand shields hang upon it, and all the darts of the mighty ones*—that is, of the powers that contend against her. Having subdued these and rendered them unarmed, she suspended them from her own neck, as a sign of the multitude conquered by her, leaving no weapon to the enemies with which they might again be able to strike against her; for she does not have a set number of darts, but has received all of them into her own possession. Thus also her Bridegroom emptied the power of the enemy who was fighting. And it is possible to call the shields the precepts of faith; but the word *Thalpioth* is interpreted as "in the bulwarks," and so he says the tower is built upon the temptations.
Origen. — Aquila rendered *Thalpioth* as "bulwarks," etc.
Vv. 5, 6. *Thy two breasts are as two twin fawns of a gazelle, which feed in the lilies, until the day breathes and the shadows are moved.*
Gregory. — Man is twin, that is, exterior and B appearing, and interior and hidden, accompanying one another simultaneously in life. For neither does the soul pre-exist the body, nor is the body prepared before the soul, but they come into life at the same time. Their food, according to nature, is indeed purity and the good odor of which the virtues are fertile; but there are some who sometimes strive for poison instead of nourishment, who do not feed on the flowers of the virtues, but delight in thorns and thistles. Since, therefore, there is need of discerning eyes, capable of accurately distinguishing the lily from the thorn, and of choosing that which is salutary, and casting away that which is destructive, for this reason the one who, in the likeness of Paul, becomes a nurse to the infants and feeds with milk those who are newly born to the Church, is called by this discourse "two breasts" born together, and assimilated to the fawns of the gazelle; testifying in all things to the excellence of such a member of the Church, that through both it is rightly led to the pasture of pure lilies, accurately discerning the thorn from the nourishment, and that it revolves around the principal part of the soul, the symbol of which is the heart, which of itself nourishes the breasts; and in addition to these things, that it does not lock up the grace in itself, but offers the nipple of the word to those in need, *until*, he says, the shadows no longer prevail over those things which relate to life.
A Nilus. He calls those infants in Christ who are still nourished with milk "breasts like the fawns of gazelles"; for even when they begin to worship God, because of the nobility of their faith, they obtain the keen sight of fawns, becoming far-sighted, seeing in hope the things to come and those laid up in promises as though they were present. Moreover, the fawns graze among the lilies, being nourished by the flowering bounty of the Church, free from all anxiety; for desiring to reach a similar zeal, they are nourished by the delight of what is longed for, as if frisking in a meadow in the conduct of those who profit them. This they do B until the present things, which are called shadows, are moved, with the day that arises from the intelligible sun beginning to breathe and to shine forth. And the fawns are rightly called twins, being of one womb and birth, brought into the light at the same time; for the infants of the Church were brought forth by one birth through grace.
Origen. The leading faculty, etc. (55).
Cyril. Or perhaps the two fawns are moral and dogmatic teaching, the two breasts of the Bride; those who are nourished by them look with keenness toward God; and by lilies he designates the sweetness of the apostolic and evangelical words, by which we are fed until the end of the age.
I will go for myself to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.
Gregory. When he had praised the Bride limb by limb, and was about to proceed to the praises of the whole body and to compose an encomium for the entirety at once, he inserted the reason why she was such, saying: *I will go for myself*, etc.; by myrrh indeed insinuating the passion, but by incense the glory of the divinity; and when he said *for myself*, he showed that C no one takes his soul from him, but he has power to lay it down, and power to take it again; and by the mountain he declares the greatness and height of the mystery.
Nilus. Then he added: Since he saw the Bride to be so beautiful, whether it be the soul or also the Church, he hastens thereafter to death, so that he might present her to himself not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and that he might cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. But he proceeds not unwillingly, but willingly; D for the mountain declared death, but the hill the resurrection and the ascension to the heavens: the mountain indeed death, because of its terror; but the hill the resurrection, because it lightens the weight of death through the hope of it. And when he had praised the members of the Bride bit by bit, through that which follows, he celebrates the whole of her with encomia, calling her immaculate and entirely beautiful.
A Ver. 7. Tota pulchra es, proxima mea, et macula non est in te.
Gregorii.—For human nature could not otherwise be purged of the stain than if the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world had by himself obliterated all vice, and by his death had abolished him who holds the empire of death, and had again led himself back to the proper glory of his divinity, which he had from the beginning, before the world was. Therefore, he says, "I shall undergo death, so that I may purify her." He, therefore, who has shared in the myrrh, that is to say, death, shall certainly share also in the frankincense; for he who suffers together shall also be glorified together. And one who has once become partaker in the divine glory becomes wholly beautiful, having become removed from the opposing stain.
Ver. 8. Veni a Libano, Sponsa, veni a Libano: venies et transibis a principio fidei, a capite Sanir et Ermon, a latibulis leonum, a montibus pardorum.
Cyrilli.—He teaches us whence the Bride comes, and that she arrives out of idolatry; for Libanus is an idolatrous mountain. Whence, he says, "You shall come"; and you shall pass through the Law; for as you were ignorant of it, you were instructed in the mystery of Christ. B
Gregorii.—For when he had said, "You are beautiful and there is no stain in you," so that she might not, being elated by this testimony and rendered more insolent, be hindered from ascending to greater things, she is admonished through this word of exhortation to ascend toward the desire of supernal things. "Rightly," he says, "did you follow in the preceding; you came with me to the mountain of myrrh; for you were buried together with me through baptism into death; together with me you also ascended to the hill of frankincense; for you have risen again and have been lifted on high in communion with the divinity; ascend also from these to other mountains, C progressing and being raised on high through active knowledge." For this Libanus, in which you shared through the resurrection, has become for you the beginning of faith and of the journey toward the heights, since you are no longer a betrothed but a Bride becoming [such]. From this beginning, therefore, which is faith, "you shall come and shall pass through"; that is, both now you shall come, and you shall never cease to pass through by such ascensions from the head of Sanir and Ermon. By this, however, he indicates the mystery of the supernal D birth; for they say that the fountains of the Jordan, over which this mountain is situated, flow from here; this mountain is divided into two summits upon which these names are imposed: from lions and leopards, from diabolical prisons and various sins by which the soul is suffocated. He mentions the mournful things, however, through these wild beasts, so that he might render those things that give delight more sweet, and so that in the present goods she might take greater pleasure, learning through comparison which things she has exchanged for which; and at the same time so that through aversion from those things which are worse, she might obtain stability and immutability in the good.
Nili.—Again, someone calls the Bride, but the caller is silent; whether it is the Bridegroom himself, or the friends of the Bridegroom who call her away from a profane place...
A from the earthly region, or from the ethnic mode of life; for knowing Lebanon to be the habitation of lions and leopards, they persuade her to abandon it. And seeing her likely to have begun to depart, and advancing with all diligence, suspecting her progress from her eagerness, they say: "Verily you shall come and shall pass through." For the beginning of faith, and the diligence in the preludes, signifies the swiftness of the future crossing, providing much hope for attaining the sought-after goal. "You shall come, therefore, from Lebanon, the place of beasts; but you shall pass through those beasts unharmed." For having begun to journey from the head of faith, and from the head of Sanir, which is interpreted as the way of a lamp, and Hermon, which translated is cedar or dew, she reasonably passes over every temptation, and escapes the snares B of the opposing powers, being illuminated by the way of the lamp, and making the machines of the conspirators ineffective, while being comforted against the fatigue of the journey by the dew. Wherefore also, by passing through the folds of the lions which conspire against the practical life, and the mountains of the leopards which are contrary to contemplation, she caused astonishment to those calling her in the swiftness. Perhaps also he calls the lions and leopards the former customs of the Gentiles; the mountains, their erroneous worship of idolatry in the high places; and the folds, the innate law of nature, from which, being naturally moved, they recognized the good; for a fold is a courtyard of pastured sheep, not a dwelling for beasts. But lions and leopards, being solitary and of the same kind C of animals, by them he designates the nations who frequented an impious worship through error, but had a manner of living, if not entirely conformable to reason, yet like that of sheep, easily directed, and convenient not to the Jewish, but to the Christian mode of life. The Bride, therefore, having begun her journey toward the Bridegroom from faith, and having traveled through the aforementioned, set many with herself before the one to whom she was betrothed, bringing her bridal gifts and dowry to Christ.
VERS. 9. You have heartened us, my sister, Bride; you have heartened us with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
Cyril.—That is, you have brought us into a desire for yourself by one word of confession, which you possessed, rightly seeing with your inner eyes. For having been subjected D to the chain of your neck, you made the confession.
Gregory.—These words are spoken to the Bride by the friends of the Bridegroom, that is, the angelic powers. For since the operation of sight is twofold, and one sees the truth, while the other is deceived by vain things, because the pure eye of the Bride is opened only toward the nature of the Good, while the other is idle: for this reason the friends offer the praise to one of her eyes; calling her a sister, because of the kinship of dispassion; and a Bride, because of
A her union with the Word. Since, therefore, they say, your eye is one, in that it looks toward the One, and your soul is one, in that it is not divided toward diverse affections; and the position of your neck has perfection, in that it has taken up the divine yoke upon itself (for this is what is meant by, "In the band of your neck,"—that is to say, the yoke of the Lord): for this reason we confess that you have captivated our hearts with your miracles; which means that you have produced in us a certain soul and intellect for the reception of light through yourself; for indeed, in you, as in a mirror of justice, we discern the Sun. And by the repetition they provide trustworthiness to what is said.
B Nilus. — The Bridegroom says these things on behalf of the entire choir; bringing amazement indeed to all, but reserving the intimacy of the Bride for Himself alone, as He says: "My sister, [my] Bride," and not "our." For although angels excel the soul in essence, they are inferior in dignity to that which has been fitted to Christ, and has brought the first fruits of our mass, and has received a seat of honor above every principality and power and virtue; and for this reason she is named sister of the Bridegroom, and having become blood-kin to Him according to the dispensation of the flesh, and of the same womb. He captivated their hearts with one of her eyes, as one that discerns divine things. For of the eyes of the soul, the left one attends to bodily things, rightly ordering them; but the other gazes toward spiritual things, and clings to the things that are to come, which also captivated the companions of the Bridegroom; having passed by the leopards that hinder contemplation with circumspection and great sobriety, C she has preserved her own beauty. And they were captivated by one band of the neck of the Bride; which the rest have rendered as, "Your neck is like a necklace." Perhaps, indeed, saying above, "Your neck is like necklaces," he praised humility in all the virtues; now, at the one necklace of the neck, he is amazed that even having been made the Bride of the King, she maintains the same tenor of humility.
Origen. — D "Band" is so called because it is put upon and inserted onto the neck of the Bride, etc.
VERS. 10. How beautiful have your breasts become, my sister [my] Bride! how beautiful have your breasts become from wine! And the odor of your garments [is] above all aromatics.
Gregory. — The Bridegroom signs the encomium given by the friends of the Bride, praising her as one who in the fountains of good teachings pours forth wine, but no longer milk, from which joy arises for more perfect hearts. And the good odor of the virtues is every aroma, he says, which has conquered the legal [aroma], being perfumed with the evangelical commandments. But the words of the Bridegroom are similar to those which in the beginning were said by the Bride to Him: "For your breasts are good above wine, and the odor of your ointments above all aromatics." For such is the divine work, if we show ourselves to be similar to Him through the choice of our free will. How
A much more now does the Bride receive a similar response, having been changed for the better; whence she also calls Him brother, because she produces wine in the same manner as He.
Nilus.—He explains the improvement and progress of the Bride’s breasts. Formerly, when they were in the lilies, two twin fawns of a gazelle were grazing—doubtless those pastured by the Lord and camping in a place of green grass, having the status of sheep. But now, when they have received beauty from wine, they have arrived at the stage of enjoying the table prepared for rational beings and the cup that inebriates. For milk and wine are not one and the same; the former is the nourishment of infants, the latter of the perfect. Since, therefore, milk is assimilated to the mother’s food and nourishes those being reared with the appropriate richness, then the Bride’s breasts become beautiful from the wine, when they instruct those being discipled by the Word with perfect teaching for spiritual joy, strengthening the senses of those who are familiar with it by the mystical blood, toward the knowledge of things beneficial. And the "odor of your garments," O Bride, are those who are practical and fragrant with the works of the virtues. For garments are moral virtues, B just as Paul also says: "Put on kindness, humility." For action is more suitable for salvation than contemplation.
VER. 11. Your lips, O Bride, distill honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue.
Philo.—Honey is the Gospel; milk, indeed, is the Law.
Gregory.—Your heart, he says, has become full of honeycomb of all kinds of learning; whence you bring forth from the good treasure of the heart the honeyed drops of words, so that your speech is honey mixed with milk. For you do not offer utility of a single kind to your hearers, but that which is congruent to the capacities of those who receive it, so that it is suitable both for the more perfect and for infants: being honey to the perfect, but milk to the infants. C
Nilus.—Since useful teaching for the preservation of every state is inherent in the Bride, it is named honey and milk; or, from its effect, it is called honeycomb; for this distills meanings to all in the prolation of speech. But it lies hidden under the tongue from all others except the Bridegroom, who communicates with her. For the quality of the mouth of one who licks honey under the tongue is discerned in a kiss through the communion of the other’s tongue; and the affections of the heart are known by Him who explores the secrets. Since, however, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," from the honeycomb distilling from the Bride’s lips, it is possible to form a conjecture of the beauty of her thoughts. But the "odor of her garments," a little before indeed "above all aromatics," is now said not "above incense," but "as the odor of incense," signifying it by a comparative name instead of the superlative. And again, he likened the virtue of practical things, in that it is directed toward God, to the odor of incense; D again, the virtue of practical things, in that it is directed toward God, he likened to the odor of incense;
and having called the fragrance of works the odor of frankincense, he adds:
*And the odor of thy garments is as the odor of frankincense.* A
*Gregorii.* — That is, you are adorned with garments that breathe of theology; since the life that is lived according to virtue is not of one form or one manner, but just as the art of weaving produces a garment through many threads in the construction of textiles, so too in a life of virtue many things must concur, through which a noble life is woven—things which the divine Apostle also enumerates: joy, peace, longsuffering, and such like. For this reason, he accepts the ornament of the Bride in her garments, as being likened to frankincense in its odor; and he says: To you, O Bride, the cloak of virtues imitates divine blessedness, through purity and freedom from passion becoming B likened to the inaccessible nature; for such is the odor of your garments, that it bears a resemblance to frankincense, which is offered for the honor of God.
12. *A garden enclosed, my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.*
*Apollinarii.* — The Bride is a garden closed in another way, because she has more in her mind than what appears.
*Cyrilli.* — She is closed to the world, but open to the heavenly Bridegroom; and the fountain is sealed by the Holy Spirit, with whom we are anointed after baptism.
*Gregorii.* — Through these things we learn again how one may become a sister and spouse of the Lord; for one becomes a spouse by being joined to the Lord, C but a sister by doing His will; and one who is such should be a garden flourishing, having within itself the beauty and fruit of all the plants, producing the fruit of the Spirit; and let it be enclosed to the enemies by the barrier of the commandments, so as not to provide even one passage for the thief and the beasts against it; but this garden also has need of a fountain, so that its beauty may remain flourishing, watered by perennial water; for this reason he conjoined the fountain to the garden in the praises. This, however, would be the faculty of our soul for thinking, which causes all kinds of reasonings to bubble up and spring forth in us; and our fountain becomes ours, according to that, *«Let the fountain of water be thine own,»* D that is, the movement of our mind when it is moved toward those things which are profitable to us, providing every cooperation toward the possession of goods, and not flowing out toward alien and wicked thoughts, from which thorns grow; and since the seal also signifies that which is inviolate, it seems to bear witness to the Bride concerning the highest virtue, that her mind remains untouched by the enemies, kept in purity and freedom from passion for her own Master, or else it also exhorts us not to be busy with bodily things, but to apply the diligence of the soul to virtue.
Nilus. — Vegetables are often to be preferred to meat, especially when these are consistent with ecclesiastical condescension; they are a useful exhortation for the infirm, whereas meat represents the raw and undigested teachings of heretics. Since the Bride is a garden producing every kind of fruit of virtue, she is also a garden of these vegetables, and serves as a consolation for the infirm; indeed, they are set forth also for the sake of friendship and grace. For the Bride’s garden had to contain vegetables as well, so that while the infants have milk, and the perfect are fed and delighted by bread and wine and the speeches of divine understandings that sweeten the throat with a sensible honey, the infirm alone might not be deprived of their suitable nourishment. This garden B is enclosed on account of those passing by and on account of the wild boar from the forest that ravages things not protected by a fence. And it is a sealed fountain, so that it may not be readily accessible to those who are unworthy and attempt to draw from it; for since the Bridegroom wishes the Bride to be untouched by the eyes of heretics and by opposing powers, He calls her a sealed fountain, signifying by the seal that she is in no way exposed to treachery.
Origen. — Secondly, that verse, “an enclosed garden,” etc., is repeated.
VERS. 13-15. Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with the fruit of nuts. Cypress with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of Lebanon: myrrh and aloe, with all the chief ointments. A fountain of gardens, a well of living water, and that flows with a sound from Lebanon.
Gregory. — Observe the ascent; for she has been raised to such a greater degree of growth, that even from her mouth a paradise puts forth its shoots. For so the Hebrew has it instead of: “Thy shoots, from thy mouth, are a paradise of pomegranates.” He says, therefore, that Thy word, which is sent forth through thy mouth, is a paradise of pomegranates. Now pomegranates produce every kind of fruit; and all the trees are fruits, such as cypress and D nard, etc. And what is this word, if not that of faith, which becomes a paradise in those who receive it, being grafted into the heart through hearing? He says that it is full of pomegranates, because the righteous person, in the bitter perils of this life, brings forth fruit most of all, and has in them sweetness and nourishment, just as the pomegranate has edible fruit within its bitterness. Therefore, the word that is sent forth by the Bride into the minds of the hearers is seen to make a paradise of pomegranates, so that we may learn from these things that are said, not to be softened and enervated by any dissoluteness and luxury in the present life, but to choose a hard and rugged life through continence. For thus the way to the fruit of virtue will not be open to thieves, as it is protected by the austere enclosure of continence. Furthermore, the garden of the soul ought to bear every good scent through the manifold nature of the aromatics which are found in these fruits; and first of all, cypress with nard, which contain heat along with a good odor, so that one may become fervent in the Holy Spirit.
fervent with the Holy Spirit. A Then there is the crocus, which alleviates pains, since it occupies a middle place between cold and heat; for so also do the virtues hold a middle position between excess and deficiency. Or, by this, he indicates the doctrine of faith, namely, the confession in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because of the triplicity found in these flowers, and that the three are one, according to the excellence of their color and their fragrance. Then come the calamus and the cinnamon, the fruits which are brought forth from the pomegranates B of the Bride's paradise. But the calamus excels so much in good scent that it is taken up by the Law for the sacerdotal incense. The cinnamon, however, promises a varied operation through a certain natural faculty; for, when it is cast into warm things, it cools them. The text indicates that when someone is burning with desire or is inflamed with anger, he ought to extinguish such passions by reason. Moreover, it is also, in another way, the measure of the anointing oil. Whoever has reached this measure of life shows the divine characters in himself; this is what the expression "from all the trees of Libanus" implies. For the wood of Libanus, from which incense flows, is not uniform; but there is a certain difference in the woods, which varies the figure of the aromatic along with the form of the wood. Therefore, whoever exhibits the beauty of the woods of Libanus in what he does, he is the one in whom the divine form is expressed. But no one becomes a participant of the divine glory who has not first been made conformed to the likeness of His death. Therefore, myrrh and aloes are added, which designate burial. He calls it "first" an ointment, indicating that which is free from all adulterous mixture and is pure in its dogmas. The "fountain" is ready for drinking to everyone who asks for the Word; the "well" signifies the depth of riches. And as for where the fountain and the vital well come from Libanus, this means that from God it flows down into itself with a rapid stream.
Cyril.
— The virtues are signified by the aromatics; but by the woods of Libanus, he means the prophets. By the myrrh and the aloes, C he means that when Christ was buried, He communicated with the saints who had preceded Him; for having descended into Hades, He brought them up.Nilus.
— Christ calls the gifts of the Bride a paradise, because it has all things that are held in value among men. This paradise has pomegranates, namely, those who hide the food of virtue in a more austere life, D perhaps those who maintain a solitary and continent way of living. It has the fruits of every kind of tree, those who are adorned with the fruit of the Spirit—charity, joy, peace—endowed with gentleness along with virtue. For those who are likened to the pomegranate display austerity and bitterness with a grim severity; but those who represent the fruit of every kind of tree are affable to all, since charity and joy and peace are their fruits, than which nothing is sweeter, as they receive all whom they meet with a serene countenance. It has also, moreover, cypri with nards, namely, those who possess in the vigor of piety the warmth and the burning heat of that woodA which makes the holy incense in the Law, are those who persevere in prayer. The first unguents are those who have received the knowledge concerning the Trinity; myrrh and aloe, moreover, are those who have mortified their members and have been buried with Christ. The fountain of the gardens is the Word which gives drink to the infirm, and the well of living water is that which imparts the deeper mysteries, invisible to the many. She called this fountain or well—flowing with a rustling sound from Lebanon—because the teachers of the Church originated from the Jewish race; for Lebanon signifies these, and the rustling of the fountain is shown by Paul when he preached to the Athenians B and sent forth rivers of words with the proper flow of his speech. This the Word called a paradise, being the Bride’s own; which she offered or sent to him before the wedding, observing the solemn custom of the state of virginity even in this: for the "emissions" signify that, remaining at home and keeping herself in her chamber, she offered gifts worthy of the Bridegroom.
VERS. 16. Exsurge, aquilo, et veni, auster, et perfla hortum meum, et fluant aromata mea.
Gregorii.—Also the Bride imitates the Bridegroom who was awakened and rebuked the winds. Indeed, she does not command C it to be quiet, but orders it to withdraw and flee, so that the south wind may blow without hindrance, with no opposing breath retarding its force. But whom should one say is the north wind, if not the prince of the power of darkness, the worker of the sadness of the spiritual winter, who in the Proverbs is called "hard," because he makes the soft nature of souls, like water, to freeze, and renders it hard like a stone? Why, however, is he expressed by this name? Because that place is devoid of light and remains eternally cold, as one that is neither illuminated nor warmed by the solar rays, because the movement of the sun makes its course from the southern part to the west. She, therefore, who has obtained power against the passions and the opposing force, by the authority D of her own sovereignty, repels the cold spirit, but summons the southern and warm wind, which she calls "auster," through which the torrent of delights flows, so that with a violent spirit, just as we heard happened to the disciples in the upper room, it falls upon the living plants, moves the plantation of God and the production of aromatics, and causes odorous prophecy and the saving dogmas of the faith to flow through the mouth. Such a river of aromatics, flowing from the garden of the Church through the Spirit, was the great Paul, whose stream was the good odor of Christ. Another such was John, Luke, and the rest.
Nili.—Wishing to show the nobility and trustworthiness of the aforementioned plants, the Bride summons the spirits of temptations; and she sends away the north wind, since it has been defeated, but summons the south wind to a contest. Or perhaps she calls them all at once, trusting in the virtue which was present to her from exercise and the cooperation of God.
in its power; for the approved quality of the virtues does not otherwise appear, unless the multitude of temptations, falling upon steadfastness, brings forth the fruits of patience in a torrent into the open, like a stream, so that it may show them clearly to all and render them worthy of song. After this, she invites the Bridegroom to descend into the garden, that He may perceive the fragrance of the aromatics and eat the fruit of the orchard trees. For the true food of the Bridegroom is love, joy, and peace; and those who feed the poor prepare food for Christ, whereas those who neglect the poor are like a fig tree that is fruitless and dry. A
*Origen.* — The Bride seems to rebuke the north wind, etc.
CHAPTER V
1. Let my kinsman descend into his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his orchard trees.
*Gregory.* — O word proclaimed with confidence by a free soul to Him who makes life flow unto all things that exist from His own fountain! Hence, the Bride sets forth a table, namely, the garden planted with living trees. Now we are the trees, since we too are those who place before Him the food of our own salvation, according to that word: "My food is to do the will of My Father." Our fruit is the choice of free will. But since it is impossible for us to be taken up to the Most High unless He who takes us up, the Lord, yields to humility and C lowliness—for He takes to Himself the meek—she says in her prayer, "Let him descend," showing to God the fertility of the orchard trees of virtue.
I have entered into my garden, my sister, my Bride; I have harvested my myrrh with my aromatics; I have eaten my bread with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be inebriated, my brethren.
*Gregory.* — Here, too, that word is fitting: "While you are still speaking, I will say: Behold, I am here." For as soon as He was present in the garden, it was filled with the fruits of virtue, and the narrative becomes a banquet. And if there be anything beautiful, He makes D those blessed gardens bring forth such plants from Himself. For to Him to whom a good odor is a delight, it becomes myrrh with aromatics, through the mortification of earthly members, blending a life pure and benevolent, like an ointment, out of various and diverse aromatics of virtue. But to one seeking a more perfect nourishment, it becomes bread, no longer eaten with bitter herbs, but its relish is made to be honey itself, when in its own time the fruit of virtue affects the senses of the soul with sweetness. To the thirsty, it becomes a cup full of wine and milk. We are by no means ignorant how Paul was a tree bearing myrrh, daily mortifying his members and, through the vanity of sufferings, perfuming those who are saved with the odor of life. In a certain way,
A however, the plants of the garden make bread for God, according to that word: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat" (Matt. xxv, 35). But the bread of gladness is the beneficence of the commandment, sweetened with honey. Again, in a certain manner, the flowering plants of the garden pour out wine, to whom He says this: "I was thirsty and you gave me to drink," by mixing wine with milk—that is, with the food of human nature, which is pure and simple, and truly infantile and guileless, and purged of every evil cause. It is the way of hucksters to mix water with wine. But what He here commended to His friends by word, this He accomplished in the works of the Gospel, through that divine food and drink. He says, therefore, to those who have become neighbors through virtue, setting before them the mysteries of the Gospel: "Eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be inebriated" (Cant. v, 1), speaking of such food and drink; through the inebriation of which a person departs from himself toward more divine things. He calls them brothers, because whoever does His will is known as brother, and sister, and mother (Matt. xii, 50).
Nilus. B The Bridegroom had heard the invitation; for the one who invited was of such a kind that it was not possible for Him not to comply, and He says: "I have entered into my garden," and what follows. For she had invited Him to descend, taking care for modesty, or rather paying attention to the dignity of the one invited, and calling the arrival a "descent" because of the loftiness of the Bridegroom. He, however, says that He has not descended, but has "entered," honoring the descent with a name indicating equality, because of His affection and love toward her. And out of modesty she calls her garden a paradise. For it would not have had fruit of every kind of apple had it been a garden, for this belongs to a paradise and not to a garden. But the Bridegroom, being God, deservedly calls it a garden, judging those things which appeared great to the bride to be humble in comparison with Himself; and He rightly said not "into thy garden," but "into my garden," making her own paradise His garden. For human affairs, C even if they shine when measured among themselves, are nevertheless obscured when compared with divine and spiritual things. By the myrrh and the aromatics, He describes the passion, the death, and the resurrection. For myrrh is death, but the aromatics are the effectiveness of the divinity, which wrought the resurrection and the sweetness of the odor. And the phrase, "I have eaten my bread," and what follows, declares the willingness of the passion and the infantile gentleness with which He endured the scourges and the reproaches when He was mocked. For "With desire," He says, "I have desired to eat this Passover" (Luke xxii, 15) through the cross: this is what is signified by, "I have eaten my bread with my honey." But the phrase, "I have drunk my wine with my milk," signifies that He endured being buffeted, mocked, and struck with a reed with a tranquil and calm mind. "Eat, neighbors," etc., He perhaps says to the disciples, when He invited them to the communion of the sacraments, saying: "Eat my body, and drink my blood."
v. 2. *I sleep, and my heart watcheth.* Gregory. D Sleep follows in consequence of inebriation, so that through the process of digestion it may be given to the guests to
A cultivate good habits. Therefore, after that feast, the Spouse is held by sleep. Yet this is a strange sleep, remote from natural habit; for in it the mind, delighting only in the contemplation of Him who is, and being in no way disturbed by the senses, holds the nature of the body as if in a kind of sleep, with every carnal motion lulled to rest. For since there is in us a twofold pleasure—the one in the soul through freedom from passion, the other through affection in the body—whichever one the free will chooses, that one holds dominion over the other. Therefore, when the soul delights only in the contemplation of Him who is, it is awake to none of the things that occur through the pleasure of the senses; but, having lulled every bodily motion to sleep, with a naked and pure mind it receives the manifestation of God through divine wakefulness.
(61) He speaks of "sleeping," for just as one who is immersed in sleep cannot have a heart that is awake, so one who has become deeply involved in bodily preoccupations does not take in the sensation of the Bridegroom's voice. For the voice of God does not reach a soul burdened with many cares; but she slept in such a way that she could perceive the voice of the Bridegroom. For she portrays her bodily occupation as merely perfunctory and dictated by necessity; for the memory of God makes one sober, as does a moderate concern for necessary things. The Word speaks when, like some inarticulate echo, a thought strikes the soul; He knocks at the door when doubt announces its solution; but He enters when what was doubtful has been clearly perceived and the mind has received the clear form of its meaning. B
Cyril and Philo. — He says that He, on the cross, took upon Himself the death for mankind; yet His heart watches, in that, as God, He despoiled Hades.
*The voice of my brother knocketh at the door.*
Gregory. — She who had been granted such great testimonies, as the discourse suggested in the preceding part, and who had already often recognized the Bridegroom, now conducts herself as if He were appearing to her for the first time. For even if she has recognized how much she has grasped, yet the ungrasped is infinite. For just as if someone were near a spring, he would indeed gaze in wonder at the infinite water, yet he would not say that he had seen all the water—for how could he see what is hidden in the depths of the earth?—so that even if he remains for a long time by the gushing water, he is always at the beginning of the contemplation of the water. For the water does not cease, and it is always flowing and always beginning to gush forth. D Thus, he who gazes upon that divine and invisible beauty, since what is found at any moment is seen to be altogether newer and more marvelous than what has already been grasped, gazes in wonder at what is always appearing; yet he never ceases from the desire to see, because that which is expected is always more magnificent than that which is seen.
When, therefore, he calls and knocks, she rises to obey, as the Word sounds through the voice, when He stood having risen to the disciples while the doors were shut. A *Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.*
Philo. B Being indulgent to the sense of hearing, he hears the Word resounding through the voice, when rising [from the dead] he stood among the disciples while the doors were locked.
Gregory. To the great Moses, God appeared first through light in the bush; then He speaks to him through a cloud; then, having become already more exalted, he sees God in the darkness. What we learn through this is of such a kind as this: The first departure from false and erroneous opinions about God is the transition from darkness to light. But a closer contemplation of hidden things, which leads the soul by means of things that appear to the unobservable nature, is like a certain cloud overshadowing indeed whatever is seen, but leading the soul to see that which is hidden. And the soul that travels through these things toward the heights, as far as it is possible for human nature, having left behind the lower things, finds itself within the inner sanctum of the knowledge of God, surrounded on all sides by the divine darkness; in which, everything that is seen and grasped being left outside, there remains for the contemplation of the soul only that which is unobservable and incomprehensible, in which God is. The Bride, therefore, was once also black, darkened by obscure dogmas, but desiring to move her mouth toward the fountain of light through the mystical kiss, she becomes beautiful and washes away the blackness of ignorance with water. Then, like a horse running, and like a dove flying, she first indeed rests with desire under the shadow of the apple tree—calling the apple, instead of a cloud, that which overshadows. But now she is already surrounded by the divine night; in which the Bridegroom indeed draws near, but does not appear; yet He provides the soul with a certain sense of His presence. For the Word touches the conjectural thought of the mysteries, for this is the door through which that which is sought is introduced; but it escapes evident comprehension of the mind, being hidden by the unobservability of nature. Standing, therefore, outside our nature, the truth, through knowledge in part, as the Apostle says, in certain figurative expressions and riddles, knocks at the door of the mind, D saying: *Open*; and with the exhortation suggests the manner in which it is fitting to open the door, as if offering certain keys—namely, these beautiful names through which that which is closed is opened. For the keys are clearly the significations of these names, which open the hidden things. Namely, *sister* and *neighbor* and *dove* and *perfect one*. For if you wish, He says, for the door to be opened, and the gates of your soul to be raised up so that the King of
A glory may enter, you must become my sister by doing my will. And you must also approach and become a neighbor, and in the nature of the dove possess perfection: and this is to be lacking in nothing and to be filled with all innocence and purity. And having accomplished these things, it will be to your gain that you have received me and brought me in; you will gain the dew from my head, with which I am full (for it is a healing according to the prophet) and the drops of the night; because it is not possible for one who has entered within the sanctuaries to meet with a downpour of knowledge; but it is a desirable thing if the truth of the rational drop B flowing down sprinkles knowledge upon him in some slight and dim thoughts. For He says that the curls hanging from his head are the prophets, the apostles, the evangelists; who, having drawn as much as they could from the dark and hidden and invisible treasures, become for us rivers full of water, but in relation to the Truth itself they are dewy drops.
*Nilus.* He perhaps calls these drops of the night those which come upon Him from Jewish ignorance. For even if dew is praised in Scripture, it is still with the addition of the "heavens," and because the Bridegroom has His head C filled with this, He seeks to wipe it off while present in the house of the Bride. Now the house of the Bride is either the ruling faculty of each of the faithful, or the Church itself. But if someone wishes to see how the Bride wipes the drops of Jewish harm from the head of the Bridegroom, let him look at the thief, how after the reproaches of the chief priests and scribes, he cries out that "Remember me." For this very glory healed that infamy.
*Origen.* The addition of "*my*" is necessary, etc. (64).
3. *I have taken off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?*
*Gregory.* She rightly obeyed D the One who commanded her to become a sister, and a neighbor, and perfect, and a dove, so that through these things the Truth might be introduced into the soul. For she did what she heard, having stripped off the skin tunic which she had put on after the sin; and having washed from her feet the earthly matter in which she was wrapped, having returned to the earth from the life she had lived in paradise, she thereby opened an entrance into the soul for the Word. Therefore, he who has stripped off the old man, which is sin and death, and through baptism has removed the veil from the heart, and has washed away the filth from the feet of the soul, has opened an entrance for the Word, whom he clothes himself with, being already within. For Jesus is the garment. Furthermore, that profession of the Bride as to the tunic having been cast off and not to be taken up again, or that she would not return to her former ways, opens the door to the Bridegroom for the entrance of holiness; and that she should not have two tunics, but be content with one, fittingly according to the law given to the disciples, which she, being renewed through the rebirth from above, has put on, and by no means the tunic of sin.
For what fellowship has the light and shining garment with that which is dark A and murky? And having washed her feet, she does not again admit the filth from the earth in her walk. For neither is Moses, upon entering the holy land when he had cast off the dead skin covering from his feet, reported to have taken it up again; nor yet, after he had skillfully crafted the sacred garment according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain, did he contrive any ornament for his feet. Rather, the ornament of the priestly foot was its nakedness. For it behooves the priest to walk always upon holy ground, upon which it is not lawful to tread with dead skins. For this reason, the Lord also forbids shoes to the disciples, since he commands them not to journey into the way of the Gentiles, but to proceed along the holy way. You certainly are not ignorant of the holy way along which the disciples are commanded to run, having learned it from Him who says, “I am the way,” which it is not permitted for one who has not loosened the covering of the dead man to touch. B Since, then, the Bride has entered upon this way, in which the Lord washes with water the feet of those walking upon it, and wipes them with the towel with which he was girded—and the Lord’s girdle is a certain cleansing power—for this reason, having washed her feet, she keeps herself upon the royal way, not turning aside to the right or to the left, so that, by stepping outside the way in either direction, she might not soil her foot with mud. You understand, then, what is signified by this: namely, the soul that has once, through baptism, loosened her shoes. For it is the proper work of one baptizing to loosen the thong of the shoes, which John protested he was unable to do even for the Lord alone. For how could he have loosened Him who had not even from the beginning been bound by the thong of sin? Therefore, she washed her feet, and casting away all earthly filth along with the shoes, she keeps her feet unpolluted on the wandering way.
Nilus. — She does not refuse to be loosened, according to the moral understanding, but she considers the labor which she endured in order to loosen her tunic from worldly anxieties; and C that she might put off the filth of the soul generated by the course of reasoning arising from earthly things, and she hesitates to be soiled again; desiring indeed to be loosened, but not enduring that those feet which have departed from the earth should be soiled. However, hesitation in being loosened is not without its own perils, as what follows declares; for even when a good deed is done, if it is done sluggishly, it is not free from blame, assigning the sluggishness to condemnation for one who does not act diligently.
VERS. 4. My beloved sent his hand through the hole: and my belly was moved at his touch.
Philo. — He says “through the hole,” inasmuch as he said to Thomas, “Put your fingers into the print of the nails.” Moreover, the fingers full of myrrh knew D that the same body which had been buried had also risen.
A
Gregory. — The purified soul again attains a higher grade of ascent; no longer does a voice knock at the door of the heart, but the divine hand itself penetrates to the interior through the opening. For it opens the door by removing the covering of the heart, it breaks through the door, that is, the veil of the flesh, and the whole gate of the soul was opened, so that the King of glory might enter. But the openness of the gate was shown to be a small opening, through which not the Bridegroom himself, but his hand with difficulty passed, so that it might enter through it and touch the desire of one wanting to see the Bridegroom; it gained only this much, to know that it was the hand of the desired one.
Let us consider, however, what this hand is. Since the human soul is on the boundary of two natures, of which one is incorporeal and intelligent, but the other is corporeal, material, and without reason, when it has first been purified from that habit which is toward the thick and earthly life, and has looked up through virtue to that which is related B and divine, it does not cease to search out and inquire into the principle of things that are. But as it has laboriously sought in order to enjoy that which is sought, it makes that operation which descends to us, and which we perceive through our life, the limit of its comprehension of God; for example, it sees the beauty of the heavens, the variety of the stars, the multiform natures of animals, the species of plants, and all other things, so that I need not recount them one by one, through which the operation of God is shown. Looking, therefore, at these through the miracle of the things that appear, it ponders in its mind Him who is understood from the works; for perhaps in the age to come we shall know the nature of the Good in another way, and more clearly perceive the form of incorruptible blessedness.
In the meantime, that operation which appears in things—which we interpret tropically as the hand which He sent in through the opening—is accepted by the soul. For human fragility could not receive into itself the invisible and incomprehensible nature. Moreover, its entire faculty of understanding, which is the womb, was moved by the miracle of those things which are done through the divine hand, the consideration of which—surpassing human capacity—interprets by itself that the nature of Him who operates cannot be comprehended or contained. For the whole creation of things that are is the work of His hand, according to that saying: “My hand has made all these things.” C If, therefore, it is not strong enough to comprehend the works of that operation, how will it comprehend the nature that is superior to these?
Perhaps indeed this also declares that the hand which is the maker of all things, appearing to us through the flesh, caused agitation and wonder in souls: how is God in the flesh? How is the Word flesh? How is there birth in virginity? And the rest. For at the time when the Lord was seen upon the earth and walked among men, we then knew the pure and immaterial beauty of the Bridegroom through the hand of His operations, that is, through the power of His miracles. D
A His words show that even this is of great value in the eyes of God, when, in seeking remission and having fallen away, one is despised and undergoes a trial of punishment. "He sent," he says, "the hand that corrects the disobedient, and it burned within me, so that from the anguish my belly was troubled." Wherefore, also, after the feeling of discipline, I rose more diligently to open; and because I did this not out of free choice but out of necessity, my hands dropped myrrh—that is, a dead operation, so to speak. For whatever is done involuntarily is dead and void of a life-giving will. However, it can happen that one who is faring well might neglect the commandments; but when one begins to experience discipline, he immediately seeks God. But He who attends not to things done, but to the disposition of the one acting, passed by and departed out of repentance, being present in purpose B to the Word, so that it might be shown that even that which is precious to God... He received her, therefore, as one who had gone through everything; both because she had been wounded by the guards of the city and was abandoned, and because she had lost the veil of virginal modesty, which she calls a mantle.
VERS. 5. *I rose up to open to my beloved; my hands dropped myrrh, and my fingers were full of flowing myrrh.*
Gregory.—I received, he says, the power of the resurrection from the fact that I have mortified my members which are upon this earth, and I have instituted this mortification of my members of my own free will. For my hands dropped myrrh, which are the effective impulses of the soul, dropping myrrh from themselves and not receiving it from elsewhere, but from my own free choice: so that in all my C strivings consistent with virtue, which he called "fingers," this unceasing disposition of the soul may be observed. So that one may not, for instance, be dead to intemperance while living to pride, or anger, or avarice, or anything of that sort. He who lives badly cannot show his fingers full of myrrh. For the extinction of evil does not shine forth in all pursuits and actions; for since there is in us one life—hollow, material, and heavy—and another that is spiritual and light, our free choice stands in the middle; to whichever side it attaches itself, it grants victory over the other, and in whichever it lives, it entirely dies to the other.
*Upon the handles of the lock [VERS. 6.], I opened to my beloved.*
Gregory.—Raised to such greatness, she does not yet know as she ought to know; nor does she judge herself to have apprehended, but she still runs toward the things that are before, stretching herself to the things that lie ahead. For she who has become full of myrrh, indicating in herself the mortification of evil in all the pursuits of life and demonstrating by that very fact the spontaneous cultivation of virtue—because her hands distill myrrh from their own source—says that her hands have reached the lock, or that her works have drawn near to that narrow and confined way, the key of which the Word Himself entrusts to those who are like Peter. She therefore opens to herself the door of the kingdom, through...
the hands by which works are signified, and through the bolt of faith; for through both of these the key of the kingdom of the, Word A is prepared within us.
*My beloved passed by; my soul went forth in His word.*
Gregory.— (66) When she hoped, after the example of Moses, to see the Desired One clearly, then He who was sought passed by her perception; but He passed by not in order to desert the soul that followed Him, but rather to draw it on further. For the going forth from the state in which we are, is an entry into the goods that are placed above us. The soul, therefore, went forth in this departure, using as her guide the Word who said: *“I am the door and the way; and if anyone enters by me, he shall pass in and shall pass out.”*
Origen.— When the Bride reaches the bolt, etc. (67)
*I sought him, and I did not find him; I called him, and he did not listen to me.*
Origen.— The soul is perpetually seeking the word of the Bridegroom, etc. (68)
Gregory.— When He rose through death, when she was filled with myrrh, when she applied her hands through her works to the bolt and hoped that the Desired One would be brought within, then indeed He passes by, but she goes forth, no longer remaining in those things in which she was. For the magnitude of the divine nature is not recognized by grasping it, but by passing beyond every imagination and B faculty of comprehension. For the soul that has already gone forth beyond her own nature, so that she might not be hindered in the knowledge of things not falling under sight by any customary thing, neither ceases to search for that which she was not finding, nor ceases to call upon that which cannot be expressed by any human voice. For how could He be found, whom nothing of those things which are discovered points out? There is no place, no form, no color, no quantity, no circumscription, but He is beyond every path and mode of comprehension. I sought Him, therefore, through those faculties of the soul which are endowed with the power of discovery, by reasonings and thoughts. But He was placed outside all these, escaping the closer approach of the mind; and I called out as much as I could, by devising words by which that ineffable blessedness might be pointed out, but it was greater than every indication of signs.
7. *The keepers that go about the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.*
Gregory (69).— These things might perhaps to some seem to be the words of one lamenting rather than of one rejoicing; but they are not, but rather [they are the words of one] who is boasting gloriously. For if the dangers of hell had found her, or if she said that she had been discovered by robbers, it would indeed be a grievous thing for her to be found by such as these. But if the keepers who go about in the city C find her, she ought to be proclaimed blessed for such a discovery. For the soul that has been found by the keepers—who are ministering spirits D...
cannot be stolen by robbers; and that divine rod which effectively brings about healing through its striking, is the Spirit, whose fruit and instruction is a temperament consistent with a virtuous life. For Paul, also boasting in such stripes, said: "I bear in my body the stigmata of Christ," B indicating his own infirmity in every evil; whence he also said: "For my power according to Christ is perfected in infirmity." By such a wound, the veil was taken from him, by which is understood every doubtful, ambiguous, and wavering thought, so that the beauty of the soul is now unveiled, the mantle no longer casting a shadow upon it, but it perceives the truth purely. But whence the veil for her who had already once cast off the old tunic before those who watch the paths of the human soul? It is manifest that it is from advancement. For she had advanced so much that she seemed not yet to have put off the old tunic before this; for to him who is always ascending, that which preceded seems coarser. Now the veil is a bridal mantle, which covers her head and face together; for this has also been narrated concerning Rebecca. And Paul declared the good that arises from its removal, saying: "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." Moreover, it is a good thing to be found by the keepers of the city, just as the sheep was found by that good shepherd, and the drachma by the lamp, over which all friends and neighbors rejoice. But you could also say this: that she who seeks Him whom she has not found, and calls upon the ineffable One, is taught by the keepers that she is loved by Him whom she cannot attain, by whom she is wounded and beaten C with the desperation of the desired One. But this veil of sadness is taken from her when she learns that the true fruition of the desired One is to be always advancing in searching, and never to cease in one's progress. After the veil of desperation was in this way taken away, and she saw the infinite beauty of the Beloved, described by no limits, which throughout the whole eternity of ages is discovered to be always greater and greater, she is inflamed with a more vehement desire and indicates the affection of her heart to her Beloved through the daughters of Jerusalem, and says:
VERS. 8. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the forces of the field, if you find my Beloved, what will you tell Him? That I am wounded by love.
— Gregory. That these words are not different from those warned of in the Gospels, "Do not swear at all, but let your speech be, Yea, yea, and Nay, nay," D is evident from the following; for in another edition it is found: "I adjure you by the gazelles and the hinds." And through these we are taught in what consist the strength and power of this world, which are taken as an oath for the confirmation of truth. Two things, therefore, join us familiarly with God: right faith and a manner of life. For the gazelle indeed sees without error,
and it is the nature of the stag to destroy poisonous beasts. The Bride therefore proposes to the young women purification and truth; for thus that unchangeable state is confirmed in us, the oath which establishes faith in the truth, in which everyone who swears is praised according to the voice of the prophet. For truly he who secures steadiness for himself in these two things—namely, in the word of faith, when he looks without error toward the truth, and in the manner of life, when he is pure from every stain of wickedness—this man swears to the Lord that he will not go up into the bed of his couch nor give sleep to his eyes until he finds a place for the Lord, becoming a tabernacle for the One dwelling within him. Let us also learn from the Bride, if we are children of Jerusalem, how it is possible to see the Desired One; for if we bind ourselves with this oath both to the active and to the contemplative life, we shall see clearly the Bridegroom of love, the archer, who into the depths inserts His own arrow, I mean the communion of His divinity, which is brought about in the soul through the point of faith. B — Nilus. She recognized her error and understood the displeasure of the Beloved from her great turning away, and she seeks by any means possible to be known by Him, longing for Him and not bearing the pain of separation; whence, having taken hold of them, she begs them to intercede with the Bridegroom and to signify to Him what concerns her; to them, a little before, being proud of her dignity, she said: "The king brought me into his chamber," showing how great a thing is a conscience that has boldness, and how greatly the removal of that boldness humbles. C — Philo. The holy Church acts with boldness in her own children, the martyrs, in whom she has been wounded; and she says these things to the apostles and prophets.
9. What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? D — Nilus. The adjured young women ask who and of what sort the Beloved is, because they have been forced by such an oath; whence the Bride, seeing them thus winged [with desire], describes the One sought, separating His beauty from the communion of others, so that He might not be counted as one of many saints, declaring the difference of her own beloved from the other beloveds and young women. — Cyril. That is, What has your beloved done, or what do you have from your beloved? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you have adjured us so? — Gregory. The adjured daughters of Jerusalem inquire what is the distinctive sign of the Bridegroom, so that if they should encounter Him, they might be able to attain to the knowledge of Him from the signs given about Him. Wherefore she also delivers a sign, not that which He was in the beginning—for this is ineffable, nor can it be manifested by the power of words—but she leads the virgins toward the manifestation in the flesh, just as John also did, passing over in silence "What was from the beginning," but diligently commemorating that which
we have heard, and our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life.
Verse 10. My kinsman is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands.
APhilo. — White, indeed, on account of his sinlessness; ruddy, however, on account of the blood shed for the Church.
Origen. — Or white because God is true; ruddy, however, on account of the incarnation.
Gregory. — The perfect soul describes the signs of the one desired and sought to the virginal souls through those things which were manifested to us for our salvation; and making the whole Church, as it were, one body of the Bridegroom, it shows a certain peculiar sense concerning every member in the description of beauty, by which each, when considered individually, the elegance of the whole body is shaped and completed. Therefore, he begins the instruction from the body, just as Matthew also did. But lest anyone, hearing of a birth according to the flesh, should fall in thought into the affections of nature, for this reason he says that he who has shared with us in flesh and blood is white and ruddy, insinuating through both the nature of the body, yet not that he was brought into the light in the same manner by which men are commonly begotten. For he has this distinction, that he was not born of intercourse, and is therefore "chosen"; and "out of thousands" out of which men have arisen, and as far as nature will proceed by the flowing of those succeeding one another through birth. For the term "childbirth" cannot properly be used concerning her who has not experienced marriage, whose conception indeed did not proceed from the conjunction of two, but whose delivery was in no way defiled, the labor was without pain, the bridal chamber was the power of the Highest, like a cloud overshadowing virginity; the nuptial torch was the splendor of the Holy Spirit, the couch was impassibility, and the marriage was incorruption; the generation of this one is without childbirth, just as is the subsistence without marriage. To which nature did not cooperate for the sake of being born, but served it. Furthermore, neither did the generation from water receive the passion of childbirth, nor that regeneration from the dead, nor the primogeniture of this divine creation, but in all these things the birth is pure from the childbirth. B C
Nilus. — Earlier he described the members of the Bride, which correspond to the different orders of the Church; now, however, he outlines those of the Bridegroom, which have no obscurity, since God the Word is described in them. Divine virtues will altogether be delineated in these members; for that which is incorporeal is not figured by the composition of members, but, as it were, "embodied" by intellectual actions, because human sense is not able to grasp divine things in any other way. For who would think the eyes of God to be anything other than the power of seeing; and his hands, anything other than the power of creating and effecting D
A power; and the belly, which he speaks of as bearing, the sincerity of his labor; and the feet and the eminent gait, the providential operation, as clearly seen in the footprints of those things which occur for each person according to the dispensation of the One who is better? Similarly also with the rest. But if the Lord’s humanity were signified, the head would be the Cephas likened to gold, which is interpreted as a rock, Peter, the prince of the apostles, who is also called Cephas, and who prepared the building of the Church to be built upon the confession of faith. The belly is Paul, who was in labor with those being formed in Christ; the marble pillars, of which Paul says, "Those who seemed to be pillars," B and each one according to the difference of the remaining gifts; one holds the place of the jaws producing the perfumed ointments, while others, whose lips are likened to lilies, drip full myrrh, who, of course, urge their listeners toward that which is useful and containing, and to mortify the members which are upon the earth. And there would be the curls, those who bear the reproach of the sufferings of Christ; and again the eyes, those who guard the gift of baptism, and sit watchfully over the fullness of the waters; and they are in the age of infancy and childhood. For they are washed in milk and sit over the fullness of the waters; and they possess the integrity of the dove and the innocence of an age nourished on milk. He is white on account of C the God-Word who was in the beginning, who is called the light of the world; and ruddy, in so much as he took up man, formed from the red earth; and revealing the appearance and showing the fragrance of knowledge manifest to the apostles in the tokens of the nails and the opening of the spear. And he is chosen like the cedars, concerning which he said, "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall be multiplied like the cedar that is in Lebanon." For he has a throat which has sweetness, not as something sweetened, but as something sweetening; for it is not affected, but is itself a quality. And above all, he is entirely desirable, not sharing in a state, but himself existing as the state itself. The Bride says these things in order to show that she loves with justice, setting forth the beauty of the beloved as an excuse for her affection.
Ver. 11. His head is fine gold, his curls are like palm branches, black as a raven.
Gregory. — The head of the body of the Church, the first-fruits of our whole nature, Christ, D is gold, pure and untainted by any malice. For this is that Cephas. And the curls, once gloomy like ravens, whose work it is to pluck out eyes, as the Proverb says, these have become *elatæ* (palm branches), that is, lofty and sky-reaching trees, called such because they go from the earth to the height of heaven. They increase the beauty of the Bridegroom by a certain addition, while they adapt themselves to his divine head, and are driven about by the breeze of the Spirit, by whom I think the apostles are signified, some of whom were gloomy because of their former lives, such as the publican, the thief, the persecutor, and the like.
And to the black and flesh-eating one, and the destroyer of the eyes, the prince of the power of darkness.
Origen.—The locks because of their density, etc.
VERS. 12. *His eyes are as doves upon the A plenitudes of waters, washed in milk, sitting upon the plenitudes.*
Gregory.—The eyes are to be understood as the leaders of the Church. The beauty and praise of such eyes is a simplicity devoid of malice, which falls upon those who are not yet polluted by a carnal life, but live and walk in the Spirit. For the spiritual and immaterial life is characterized by the form of the dove, because the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove in the Jordan. Therefore, he who is ordained by God to serve in place of the eyes for the body of the Church, if he wishes to fulfill the duty of a pure scout and overseer, must wash away every husk of vice with water. He says, moreover, that there are many plenitudes of waters by which such filth is purged. For as many virtues as there are, so many are the fountains of cleansing waters, which always render the eyes purer; for example, temperance is a certain fountain of lustral water: another fountain is humility, and truth, and justice, and fortitude, and such like waters, which, although they flow from that one single source, as if from diverse streams collected into one, form a certain plenitude through which the eyes are purged of every vicious lippitude. But those eyes, which on account of their simplicity and innocence are compared to doves, are above the plenitudes of the waters: but he says that their B wash is milk, because this alone among moist things does not admit any phantom or likeness. For the Church does not represent in herself anything vain and erroneous and which does not at all subsist beyond the truth. But what is subjoined is as it were a law for the hearers as to what things they ought to have their eyes fixed upon. Truly, that phrase "Sitting upon the plenitudes of waters" denotes a perpetual, as it were, assiduousness of attention regarding the disciplines; according to the likeness of the tree that "is planted by the rivers of waters" (Ps. 1, 3). For thus, when the fruit is produced in its own time, the branch also will be preserved as always budding. The discourse wishes such ones to be the inspectors and scouts, who ought indeed to be fortified by the certainty of divine dogmas; but to cover, with humility, as if with a certain wall, the purity and splendor of their life, lest the beam of arrogance, having fallen into the purity of the pupil, should be an impediment to C the vision.
Philo.—If Christ's body is the Church, then every member of it will be any order that is in the Church. And first, indeed, the patriarchs, from whom Christ is according to the flesh, are likened, on account of the strength of their faith, to certain strong gold D
A assimilated. For Cephas is interpreted as "rock." Then he calls the apostles "lofty and black," signifying their affliction. Furthermore, the seven-eyed power B of the Holy Spirit, looking upon the Church, is called his eyes; and the "fulnesses of waters" are their love: or it is to show the fulness of the laver of regeneration, and in the whiteness of innocence, the priests sitting over the fulness of the Churches.
Vers. 13. His jawbones are as bowls of aromatics, producing ointment-making herbs.
Gregorius. — Consequently, after the eyes, the jawbones are praised, whose office it is to prepare wholesome divine Scripture, through which the strength of the body of the Church is preserved, so that all things may be pellucid and manifest to the simple, without any deceitful concavity. For this is what a bowl insinuates, when its shape is neither too deep, C nor does it flatten itself out in a straight line, lest it appear precisely hollow, or flat. If, therefore, the bowls of the Word are of this kind, they will by no means consist of earthly matter, but their nature will be of that aroma which excels all aromas, as the Bride says at the beginning.
Origenes. — The jawbones of Christ are to be understood as those who minister through the Word of God and spiritual food, etc.
His lips are lilies dropping full myrrh.
Gregorius. — After the jawbones, the lips are praised, through which the aromatizing Word is brought forth. He confers two virtues upon the Word at once by a double example: one of which is truth, which is seen in his sayings as both splendid and illustrious, like a lily; the other, indeed, is that only the intelligible and immaterial life D is explained by doctrine through the contemplation of things that are understood by the mind, with this lower life—whose strength exerts itself in flesh and blood—having been extinguished. For the myrrh distilling from the mouth, which fills the soul that receives it, clearly denotes the mortification of the flesh. Therefore, the perfect and pure eye, which makes the bowl from the jawbone, causing ointments to well up from it, brings forth these lilies of discourse through the mouth of those who are adorned with divine splendor. For thus he calls those who, by virtue, breathe forth a certain fragrance, and who distill myrrh which, without defect, fills the minds of those who receive it; and this is the contempt of this bodily life on account of the desire for higher goods.
Apollinarius. — He calls the lips dropping myrrh those that confess death: he himself, indeed, flourishes like the lilies, but for us he brings about the translation through death to life.
Vers. 14. His hands are turned, golden, full of Tharsis.
A Philonis. — Turned and perforated hands are golden on account of their impeccability, and are filled with the conversion of the nations; for Tharsis is the conversion of joy.
Gregorii. — That the grace of the eye is imperfect in the body of the Church if the ministration of the hands is separated from it, we have clearly learned from the Apostle who says: *The eye cannot say to the hand: I have no need of thee.* [1 Cor. XII, 21] For the power of the eyes is shown most when their works bear witness to the keenness of the eyes, marking out their guidance through zeal for noble things; and just as the form of the head is praised, so is it praised through those very same hands. We have understood the head to be Christ, named "gold" by the sacred Word because He is outside of all sin. Therefore, He speaks of golden hands, through which He indicates purity and impeccability and alienation and removal from every vice. We understand the "hand" to be, absolutely, that which administers the common goods of the Church according to the use of the commandments; the particular praise of which is that it should become similar to the nature of the head, according to its purity and freedom from sin. For then the hand becomes pure, when by turning it has scraped away all that which is an impediment to elegance: for example, the desire to please men, inordinate self-love, avarice, and similar things. But since the word Tharsis is sometimes taken in a bad sense, according to that which says: *He shall shatter the ships of Tharsis* [Ps. XLVII, 8], and sometimes in a sense pertaining to that which is blessed and good, as in Ezekiel: *And his appearance was as the appearance of Tharsis* [Ezech. I, 16], it is used in a better signification, with that word indicating that which is devoid of colors and of body, and which is perceived by the intelligence of the mind. Thus, therefore, do the hands become golden and full of Tharsis, when, having voluntarily polished away from themselves—as if by turning—everything B superfluous and corporeal, they pass over to a divine and spiritual lot, having shaken off all crassa and heavy affection regarding the things of this life.
*Venter eius pyxis eburnea super lapidem sapphirum.* C
Gregorii. — The belly is the cogitative and rational power of the soul, in which—being as it is pure, smooth, and shining—it is stored as if in an ivory pyxis, so that the clear and in no way confused Scripture of the divine oracles may be impressed upon it. Furthermore, the sky-blue sapphire is a symbol of our heart receiving these disciplines, so that it may perceive those things which are above, and where the treasure is stored, there also it may delight its eyes with the hope of rest, so that it may not grow weary in attending to the divine commandments; for the celestial hope refreshes that faculty of seeing which resides in the eyes of the mind. Just as they relate that this stone, through its sky-blue color, refreshes the tired eye.
Origenis. — The belly are those who are capable of the mysteries of the Word, etc. D
Cyrill. — These would truly be the bases; for those who are built up, are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
*Vers. 15. His legs are marble columns, grounded upon bases of gold.* A He praises what he calls marble columns, grounded upon bases of gold. The columns of the Church are, for instance, Peter and John, who had Christ—called gold—as their foundation. They are marble, as Paul called them a "firmament," on account of their steadfastness and immovability. By their bright life and sound doctrine, they both support the common body of the Church and keep that command: to love God with all one’s heart, and one’s neighbor as oneself. Thus, as if by marble columns, they support the common body of the Church. For he who is perfected in these two commandments is established as a column and firmament of the Church; so that upon these two accomplishments, the whole body of the Church, as if upon certain legs, rests with support, and he gives to the minds of the faithful a steadiness and immutability, and a firmness in every good work, through the foundation of the gold which is faith.
*Vers. 16. His form is as Lebanon, chosen as the cedars; his throat is sweetnesses, and he is altogether desire. This is my kinsman, and this is my neighbor, O daughters of Jerusalem.* B
Gregorius. — After the particular praises, as if returning to the head, he declares these things, summing up the whole beauty of the Bridegroom. He signifies, as I think, that this encomium of his is concerned with that beauty of the Bridegroom which falls under the gaze. I understand "that which falls under the eyes" as that from which the Apostle constitutes, as it were, a certain body, gathering together the individual members that complete the whole Church. For he says that one form of him is those myriads of cedars by which Lebanon is surrounded on all sides; C signifying by these words that nothing humble or abject contributes to the beauty of that body, unless it be sublime like the cedar and tends upward with its top. But Mount Lebanon is illustrious and dense; and since the devil is often called Lebanon, and the demons are called cedars, as in the passage: *And the Lord shall crush the cedars of Lebanon*; now the Bride has compared the form of the Bridegroom to the chosen Lebanon, taking the name in a better sense, as in the passage: *The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall be multiplied like the cedar that is in Lebanon.* Why is it, however, that Lebanon is sometimes taken in a good sense along with the cedars, and at other times in the contrary sense? Because it is natural for vice to be placed beside virtue, and to be assimilated to it. D Whence he also says, "as chosen Lebanon," for election is always made through the comparison of the contrary. Thus, the name of "good" is homonymous, signifying both that which is truly good, and that which, while it exists, is feigned through deceit and seems to be that which it is not.
not [is it truly good], but by fraud feigns itself to be good; and thus it appears to be what it is not. He who is not deceived in the judgment of the good, prefers that which is excellently and choicely good to the erroneous and fallacious. A Wherefore, since the body of Christ is made whole through individual members, and the many members are one body, according to the Apostle, for this very reason she called the entire beauty of the Bridegroom the elect Lebanon, establishing a distinction between this and that which is restored by the voice of the elect. But since good discourses are a honeycomb, and the origin of the voice is from the throat in which the spirit sounds, by this she seems to signify the ministers and interpreters of the Word, in whom God speaks, pouring forth the divine honey from his throat as if from a certain fountain. Moreover, designating the one for whom she cherished desire, she then says demonstratively: This is he who, because he was made our brother, springing for us from Judah, became our neighbor.
VERS. 17. Whither is thy kinsman gone, O thou beautiful among women? Whither hath thy kinsman turned his eyes? and we will seek him with thee.
C In the first place, these virgin souls inquire into what the discourses concern, that which they learned from the indications by which she had described him. Therefore, they immediately ask where he is, so that, once they know where he is, they may adore in the place where his feet have stood; and where he has looked, they may so station themselves that his glory might be seen by them also, whose appearance brings salvation to those who behold him. He offers himself, therefore, as a guide to them, that they may attain what they were seeking, just as Philip once said to Nathanael: "Come and see," for by this he pointed out the place in which he who is sought abides, and where he looks.
Nilus. — The Bride persuaded them, explaining the beauty of the Bridegroom, and she disposed them as she wished; whence they also gave their assent to the word of the Bride’s love and confirm the desire by their very deeds, and sympathize with the one who loves, and are moved by a certain amatory motion toward him from her narration. For such true beauties, once seen, snatch one into desire, and once heard, draw one into affection; wherefore, they now strive to seek him together with her.
Apollinaris. — The Bridegroom Word is present everywhere, but he puts forth his powers and works in that which is prepared, as formerly in Israel, so now in the Church, [where] he renders the whole [presence] of the Savior, though excellently in the saints. Here, therefore, through symbols, he shows him abiding, hinting at the time when he said he would be beaten and wounded and stripped of his garment.
CHAP. VI
1. My kinsman is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
Certainly, these things, as if [concerning] certain corporeal and external [matters]
are a leading of the young maidens, from which they understand both where He is and to whom He looks. Through these things, moreover, we learn the Gospel mystery. For he is named by her a "kinsman," A because the people from the nations and those from the Jews are brethren. And "he went down" signifies Him who descended from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. For He descended from ineffable beatitude when He appeared in the flesh, so as to make the desert a garden again, adorned with the planting of virtues. For the true husbandman replants His own field, namely [us] men. For we are His field. The vials of spices, while indeed in the description of the beauty of the Bridegroom they were taken for the eulogy of the cheeks, here, however, are indicated by the Word to be a place in which the Bridegroom dwells; we learning from this that the Bridegroom Word does not dwell in a soul that is a desert of virtues; but if anyone becomes a vial of perfume producing aromatic [virtues], such a one, having become a cup of wisdom, receives into himself the divine and incorrupt wine, by which he who has received it is gladdened. B Furthermore, the flock feeds on the pasture of the Bridegroom, not in deserts among thorns, nor on grassy herbage, but from the gardens [it gathers] spices and lilies, which are whatever things are honest, whatever are just, whatever are lovely, whatever are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise; these the good shepherd gathers for its food. For the lilies become a riddle of the bright and pure mind, and the fragrance of the spices [signifies] being clean from the stench of every sin. C — Nilus. As far as the letter of the text is concerned, it contains zeal; for it repels those who wish to seek with Him, saying that He has gone away to where to descend is difficult or impossible for them. But the sense signifies that the Bridegroom has descended into a garden of garden-herbs, which are the food of the weak and the nourishment of those of little faith; perhaps He would not have descended if the garden happened to be a paradise. For He enters into those things that are more perfect, moving on the level with equals as if on a plane; but He descends to lower things, calling his descent the economy of condescension. And to feed in the gardens denotes the condescension toward those being fed, inasmuch as they are not able, through weakness, to proceed to the mountains of the natural and ancient easy-path pasture, before the Shepherd descends to them, being there through love for humanity, where they themselves had fallen through negligence. D And while feeding the weaker ones in the gardens of condescension, if anywhere He finds lilies—those who are beginning to produce the flower of trust in God—and who have cast the worry of bodily necessity upon Him, He gathers these, transplanting them, by all means, into a more suitable place and order. For, judging the dwelling in gardens to be suitable for them, [He does this] so that, as the nation is drawing them toward its ancient state, and the great communion with such people is provoking them to a zeal for imitation, they might not be carried down to their old habit.
A Cyrillus. — He descended into hell to the souls of the just: for these are vials of aromatic, since the patriarchs were the first to breathe faith in Christ; and after the resurrection He feeds individual churches; but He gathers lilies, namely upright men, or the word of their confession.
VERS. 2. *I to my beloved, and my beloved to me who feeds among the lilies.*
B Gregory. — This is the canon and boundary of perfection in virtue. For we learn from these things that we ought to possess nothing apart from God, nor should a purified soul look to anything else, but it ought so to purge itself of every material matter and thought, that, having been wholly transformed toward the spiritual and immaterial image of primordial beauty, it might render itself as an exact likeness thereof. The Bride therefore utters this word, like a mirror endowed with the power of choice and animate, as if to say: When I gaze upon the face of my beloved with my whole being, through this very act the entire beauty of his form is beheld in me. Such was Paul when he said: *To me, to live is Christ.* For truly, nothing of material and human affections lived in him; not sadness, not anger, not fear, not trepidation, not pride, not audacity, not vain glory, nor any other of those things which stain the soul with some affection toward themselves; but He alone remains to me who is none of these things, but sanctification and purity, and incorruption, and light, and truth, and other things of this kind which feed my soul, not in grasses or bushes, C but in the splendors of the saints. And just as in a glass vessel, whatever is poured into it becomes transparent; so the soul is nourished by lilies, that is to say, by the virtues, with which he who is sated by the right rule of living makes himself conspicuous through his life, while he expresses the appearance of every virtue through his manner of life.
Nilus. — The text is framed here with jealousy; for lest they might think Him common to all, even to those who are not yet worthy of such love, she attributes Him alone to herself alone. How, however, does He now feed among the lilies, He who previously fed in the gardens, if not for the fact that those who were being fed had already made full progress?
*As the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord*; so also the Bride is for the Bridegroom. And conversely, if there is any D beautiful flower in the souls of men, gathering that as worthy of his pastoral care, He feeds it.
Philo. — That is, I to Him, my works, and He to me, my reward.
Apollinaris. — Lest anyone should think her garden differs from the Bridegroom's in its manner of life, she shows herself to be she who is fed by Him, and to be herself the lilies. When she had said these things, the Bridegroom
A appears, recounting her praises and saying that He is pleased with her, according to the saying: "I love those who love me."
Cyril. — "I give Him my faith, and He to me His kingdom." And He pastures her in the purity of the Scriptures and of the holy dogmas.
Verse 3. — "You are beautiful, my neighbor, as a delight; lovely as Jerusalem; terrible as armies set in array."
Gregory. — A Having surrendered herself to the Brother, and having received the beauty of the Beloved in her own form, what things is she deemed worthy of by Him? And what is it that He says? The discourse indicates that the soul, through the upward journey achieved, has been lifted to such a height that it strains even toward the miracles of the Lord. For if He who is in the bosom of the Father became man for the sake of our good pleasure, that there might be peace on earth, it is plain that she who has conformed her own beauty to His good pleasure by noble works, by imitating Christ, becomes for others what Christ has become for human nature. And she is called Jerusalem, the city of the great God, for dwelling and walking about; having contained the Uncontainable, and being adorned by the beauty of the One dwelling within, and doing all things decently and according to order in imitation of the heavenly powers, which are ordered under God, with no wickedness overturning their good order—as being a thing of common wonder and astonishment for her own self. For this is what "terrible" interprets: such as is in those who are ordered. B Origen. — The closer she becomes to the Bridegroom, etc.
Verse 4. — "Turn away your eyes from before me, for they have caused me to fly away."
Gregory. — Some say that these things were spoken by the Lord to the pure soul, but I think that this was said by the Bride. For since, in a mystical sense, wings are attributed by Scripture to the divine nature according to the saying: "In the shadow of your wings you will protect me," and: "Spreading His wings, He took them up," and since man was made according to the image and likeness of God, it happens that human nature is also said to be winged, in which that which is according to the image was preserved. But wickedness stripped him of such wings—of power, I say, and blessedness and incorruptibility, these being understood C as such; but Christ appeared so that through holiness and righteousness we might again be fledged. For at once, when God looked upon us with benevolent eyes, we were fledged according to our ancient nature. When, therefore, your eyes look upon me, they are turned away from the contrary; for they will not see in me any of those things that are opposed to me, inasmuch as I have taken up the wings of a dove through the virtues, and I fly away and rest. D
A Origen: "The Church in her beauty," etc. (84).
Nilus: He declares the great confidence and liberty of the Bride, from the fact that she looks intrepidly upon the Bridegroom (85). But if the Word is the Bridegroom, she puts on wings, and so she ascends the more into the height of contemplation, proceeding where she finds a soul given to contemplation, able by its intellect to follow Him, and, so to speak, to look fixedly and without shame at all things that are contemplated. But He exhorts her with fatherly care not to have such an eye fixed always; and that sometimes she should turn it away and close it, so that, by being excessively winged in what she gazes upon, she may not fail in the ascent nor, in desiring things beyond nature, become duller toward the remaining doctrines.
Philo: That is, let the eyes that turn away my paths be guarded; for this excites in me the desire for You.
Cyril: Turn your eyes away from those who do not obey you, and incline them toward me; for those, he says, have excited the love of you.
Verse 5. Your hair is like the flocks of goats, which have appeared from Galaad. Your teeth are like flocks of shorn sheep, which have ascended from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is no barren one among them.
Gregory (86): Only the hairs of the body are devoid of sensation; those which Paul said were an ornament to women, bringing comeliness to the head. He teaches, therefore, that those who are understood to be on the head of the Bride—by whom the Church is glorified—must be superior to the senses; hiding sensation through wisdom, according to that saying of the Proverbs: "For the wise hide their perception," B for whom sight does not become the criterion of the good, nor is the good tested by taste, nor by smell, nor by touch, nor does the mind entrust its estimation of the good to the organ of any other sense; but, having mortified the senses, as he says, they embrace and seek the goods offered to the mind through the soul alone; and in this way they adorn that woman who is the Church, neither swelling with honors, nor being constrained by faint-heartedness toward sad things, but, in adverse circumstances, declaring themselves to be like hair, devoid of sensation. He brought forward goats as an example, either because they are naturally hairy, or because this D animal, climbing to the highest summits, does not stumble on the rocks—a thing which fitsly suits those who successfully complete the rough way of the virtues; or because this animal was taken for many legal sacrifices, and contributes to the praise of the head. But in the Proverbs also, among those four things that walk well, the he-goat leading the flock of goats is numbered. It must be said, therefore, that just as some practice of life, invented by someone, is then propagated by many, it is referred back to the inventor; as the art of smithing to Tubal, and the pastoral life to Abel, and agriculture to Cain, and the cultivation of vines to Noah; thus
since Elias in divine zeal shone forth excellently as a leader for others, whoever after him followed his footsteps by the imitation of his life became, as it were, a flock of goats belonging to him who was the author and leader of such a life. These are the glory and praise of the Church, selected that they might be an ornament of hair, since the life of the senses has no place in them. Therefore he also praises the teeth, which naturally nourish the body of the Church. He wishes these to be always pure as if from a bath, and not to have superfluous hair as if freshly shorn, and meanwhile, through the fecundity of the virtues, to be distinguished by twin offspring and to become parents of a double purity, which is seen both in the soul and in the body; and that they should have nothing sterile in the fruitfulness of good.
B Origenis. Second, these things are said to the Bride herself, etc.
VERS. 6. Sicut funiculus coccineus labia tua, et eloquium tuum decorum: sicut cortex mali punici gena tua, extra taciturnitatem tuam.
Gregory. The cord is a name for a measure; it signifies, therefore, the measured ministry of the word, which the Psalmist called a guard and a door of restraint. But the word most especially obtains its measure when it has been dyed in the blood of the Savior. He, therefore, who has Christ speaking within himself, he himself has that geometric cord in his mouth, adorned with the blood of the Redeemer. He calls the red cord a beautiful speech, by which C he again signifies what is pure and measured; for that which is truly beautiful, when offered at its own proper time of maturity, is neither untimely nor unseasonable. And by beautifying the cheek with the rind of the pomegranate, he witnesses a certain great perfection in the Bride regarding good things; for he signifies that her treasure is not stored for her in anything else, but that she herself is her own treasure, since she contains within herself the store of every good. For as that which is edible in a pomegranate is contained by the rind, so it is shown that her inner treasure is contained by that beauty of life which falls under our sight. This, therefore, is that hidden treasure of hope, the proper fruit of the soul, which is contained by a virtuous life as if by some rind of a pomegranate. But that which is added, "extra taciturnitatem tuam" [beyond your silence], is of this sort, namely, that this praise is not to be estimated so much D from those things which appear, which are indicated by speech, as from those things which are covered by silence, which cannot be indicated by words. For just as that which is outside of speech is understood to be silence, so that which is outside of silence you will understand to be speech. For we are silenced regarding that which we are unable to announce in words. He says, therefore, that those things which are fair and great, which can be indicated by speech, are outside of silence; but those things which are outside of speech, covered by silence, and are ineffable, are in all ways greater and more admirable than those which are brought forth in speech.
A VERS. 7, 8. *Sixty are the queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one to her mother, she is the choice one to her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and they will call her blessed; the queens and the concubines, and they will praise her.*
A certain doctrine of a more refined philosophy is proposed in these words through the praises of the Bride, namely, that things are not created and recreated by the same reason and order. For when the creature was produced from the beginning by divine power, in every thing the end and perfection of the thing was conjoined with its beginning without delay, since all things produced from nothing attained their perfection together with their beginning. Human nature, too, was fashioned to perfection in its first existence. For man was made to the image and likeness of God, by which words that which is highest and most perfect is signified. For what is more perfect than the likeness of B God? Therefore, in the first creation, the end appeared together with the beginning without any interval of time, and nature began its existence from perfection. But after it was delivered to death on account of vice, it does not suddenly recover its perfection again, but proceeds by a certain way and order toward what is greater, gradually extinguishing the inclination prone to contrary things, through a more honorable manner of life, paring away the depravity that has grown with it. Whence we have learned that there are also many mansions with the Father, while for everyone a reward is prepared in proportion to their inclination toward the good and their withdrawal from evil. For one person is still at the first beginning of a better life, as one who has recently emerged from the deep of a vicious life to the enjoyment of truth: another has already been increased by the studious effort of some addition and growth of good; another has traversed as it were the middle of the way of ascent to those sublime things: another has even passed beyond this middle course. Some have even surpassed these, whom others in turn have passed by. And while others still contend, there are some above these also reaching for higher things. In short, God receives each one in his own order according to the variety of the industry of individuals, rendering returns to each. We think that a philosophy is handed down in the proposed words which designates the difference among the souls who look upon the Bridegroom. For those who are not long since, as if from a womb of error situated in the deep, have come forth, and are as it were newborn and not yet capable of articulated speech, are seen in an infinite number on account of the expansion of faith, C not yet sufficiently confirmed by reason: who have indeed believed the salutary word of the holy mystery to be true, yet do not have within themselves the truth resting upon a solid foundation through any knowledge and certainty from that same word. And these are the aforementioned maidens, because D
they still lead a young spiritual life; they who have been born by the word of faith, but have not yet, through suitable growth, become such that they arrive at the maturity of marriage and attained to a perfect man, to the measure of marriageable age, so that through the fear of the Lord they are able to conceive and bring forth a spirit of salvation. Nevertheless, these too are of the number of the saved, according to the word: “Men and beasts you will save, O Lord,” calling those who are saved in part “beasts” for approaching somewhat more closely to the brute animals. But as for those in whom the mind has been increased by suitable study, and who have already left infancy behind, we learn here a twofold distinction. For those souls are indeed incorporated into the Word, both these and those; yet some are joined to him by a certain loving affection, and because they are tempered by the purity of God through this more perfect affection, they are named queens, on account of their fellowship in the kingdom; such was the soul of David saying: “But for me, to cling to God is good,” and that of Paul: “No one shall separate us from the love of Christ.” But others avoid the temptations of adultery through fear of punishment, and they themselves remain in incorruption and sanctification; yet, being moved more by fear than by desire, they are named concubines in this discourse; for none of them can become a mother of the king and a participant in that dignity, because she has not yet attained to this, that she is subject to no one’s dominion. Nor do they possess sovereignty, being endowed with virtue. This difference of the distinction of the two orders according to the number seems to me to have such a meaning: C
Gregory. There are six commandments by which the kingdom is promised to those who are placed on the right. Let us estimate each of these to be that master’s talent, which it is fitting for the good and faithful servant to increase tenfold through his labor. If, therefore, through these six commandments the soul becomes a participant in the kingdom, and in each of these the gain and labor is perfect—to increase the commandment tenfold, just as that good servant says, that he who had one of his master’s talents acquired a gain of ten other talents—we find by a corresponding reasoning that that one queen increases into sixty, having come into fellowship with the kingdom through the decupling of the six commandments; so that the many are the one, divided through the manifold character of the commandments, and in each excellent work uniquely as if expressed. Similarly, we also say that the mystery of the eighth is signified through the eighty, D to which those look who, led by fear, are kept back from the company of the wicked. For we have learned this in the psalms, to which the word “eighth” is prefixed in the inscription. For the voices are entirely those of them who, as if lashed by the fear of future evils, turn their ears toward compassion. For he who looks toward the eighth says to the Judge: “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath; have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.” There will be, therefore, also in these, according to the reason of the commandment,
A tenfold increase, until they are eighty concubines, holding the second rank after the queen, who approach the Good with servile fear and not with bridal love. B Yet if love truly casts out fear in the end, and fear, being transformed, becomes love, then unity is found, which is what achieves salvation, with all being united to one another in an adhesion with the one and only Good, through that perfection which is in the dove, just as He says in the Gospel: "That they may be one, as we are one." The nexus of this unity, moreover, is the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, he who has grown from a child into a perfect man through progress, and has reached the measure of spiritual age, and has become a partaker of royal dignity from being a slave and concubine—finally having become capable of the glory of the Spirit through impassibility and purity—he is the perfect dove. He says that the mother of this one is that dove which flew down from heaven to the Jordan. For in the Son the nature of the Begetter is altogether perceived. This soul, therefore, the maidens pronounce blessed; this the concubines and queens praise. For such a course is proposed as common to all living beings towards beatitude. For all of them are fashioned by nature so that they strive with the desire of their soul towards that which is blessed and praiseworthy. Wherefore, if the daughters pronounce this dove blessed, they altogether desire to become doves themselves. Likewise, the fact that the dove is praised by the concubines and queens is a proof that they too are studious of that which is praised, until at last, all of them having become one, looking toward the same goal of desire, and with no vice remaining in any of them, God becomes all in all who are united through unity in the fellowship of the Good. C
Nilus. — By the sixty queens, perhaps he signifies those who are in Judaism. For they were once a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And by the eighty concubines, he signifies those heresies which are indeed numbered by the denary [number] through the mystery of the eighth-day resurrection, but, having no legitimate marriage with Him, are signified in a spiritual sense by the name of concubines. Moreover, he calls the maidens—whom he did not even deem worthy of counting—the nations estranged from God and strangers to the covenants of the Father; for He who numbers the multitude of the stars did not fail to count them because of a multitude, but because they were not worthy of being numbered. D For He deems those worthy of being numbered who possess an excellent and fide-worthy order. But he calls the Church the one dove, which, when it has slept among the lots, has become a perfect dove, having its wings tipped with silver and its back in the paleness of gold, because of the perfection of the habit of virtue, made like to the perfect Father who is in heaven, and chosen by its mother, the Wisdom which gave birth to it in the doctrines of truth, which the queen's daughters and the concubines now indeed saw, but they did not understand, nor did they comprehend the mystery concerning it.
A At the time of recompense, they shall glorify the union with Christ to which she has been judged worthy. For the former refers to the past, but the statement "they shall bless her and praise her" refers to the future.
Philo. — He also understands the "sixty queens" as the souls purified by the five senses from the twelve tribes. But the "pure dove" is the Church of Christ, who is one to her mother, the heavenly wisdom, existing as the elect of Christ's flesh in her regeneration, whom the daughters shall bless. "For many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it." (Luke 10:24)
Apollinaris. — It is also declared in another way, namely that which is most perfect in her familiarity with God, while the perfection of the Church is compared to those who were most eminent in the former calling, and to those who are now second as being after it. For that calling of the former people was worldly, and corresponds to the sixth day on which this world was created; it is primary, and is placed in the kingdom. But the royal dignity is preserved for the Israelite race in Christ according to the prophecies that promise the throne of David and its director, Christ, according to the Gospels and the books of Kings: "He shall reign over the house of Jacob unto the ages." B And the number eighty indicates the covenants of the New Testament.
Isidore. — Hear what it means: "There are sixty queens," and what follows. Let the immaculate and virgin Church indeed hold the primacy, which also has the correct faith concerning the divine nature, and she herself is called the perfect dove, surpassing the dignity of all orders. But if one must also understand this in reference to actions, let these things be said: The sixty queens are the souls who act well for the sake of the kingdom; and the eighty concubines are those who abstain from evil out of fear of punishment; and the young maidens, of whom there is no number, are those who practice self-restraint and pursue righteousness because of certain worldly pretexts, C by whom what is proper is done not out of desire for the kingdom nor out of fear of judgment, but so that they might not be deprived of wealth or glory or something else. There is one perfect dove who does what is good, the assembly of the highest saints, who does what is good not because of reward, nor because of punishment, nor because of any worldly pretext, D but because it pleases God.
Origen. — "The young maidens have no number," etc. Become, therefore, the cause of exultation; become the occasion for his encounter with you: for he wishes to draw you, he wishes to take you up.
A
VER. 9. Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?
Origen. Consider the Bride, who, having revered the many praises of the Bridegroom, has withdrawn; but the Bridegroom, comparing with her the souls of the others who have approached, admires the perfection of the one who is absent. Because of this, the daughters who were contemplating her beauty pronounce her blessed, and the concubines and queens praise her as more divine. In these, the Bride appears as if existing under a most splendid tabernacle, and the Bridegroom speaks what is here set forth to the others concerning her. For the soul sparkling forth from the darkness is first compared to the dawn, because then the day newly begins to shine. But when she has emerged from the world and from worldly things, she becomes like the elect moon, that is, the full moon, having in herself no part that is not illuminated by the Sun of justice. But since the moon is set under the power of the night, while those who are a perfect soul, or the Church, spotless and without wrinkle, are by no means contained by the example of the moon; therefore, according to Isaiah, the moon shall be as the sun, and its light shall strike B in such a way that even those of lower rank are cast into amazement, as if the multitude of its spectacles and the operations arising from them were equal to the whole multitude of those things which are arranged in this universe. Perhaps, indeed, from the fact that the Word is understood, holding from the discourses the order of all things, the figures of ordered things implanted in her make her to be like the forces arranged in this universe.
Nilus. The friends of the Bridegroom, struck with wonder at her heavenly manner of life, were amazed and confess their astonishment, seeing the light of her actions shining before men; so that, doing all things decently and according to order, her array is composed, containing in itself nothing of error nor of confusion. She is fair as the moon and elect as the sun, C inasmuch as she illuminates those dwelling both in day and in night, usefully adapting herself to each state as is convenient. But just as the dawn also proceeds from its own state through condescension, not showing herself entirely to those who could not see her whole, but shining forth by parts according to the capacity of those observing, and as the dawn progressing, not as the midday nor as the diurnal splendor, since they could not yet enjoy the solar ray, but having left the gloomy state, they were using the morning and gentler light, lest the sudden brilliance of the solar ray should harm an eye that had been D dwelling in darkness, being thus suddenly illuminated.
Apollinaris. Who also, because of diverse faculties, is likened to diverse things. For she has indeed the mildness of the moon, but the purity of the sun.
Philo. Since, indeed, having been seen for a little while by...
as if she were deficient, like the moon, and is renewed at the resurrection like the sun, due to the splendor of her virtue she is worthy of admiration, as she has become a companion to the angels. B
VERS. 10, 11. *I went down into the garden of the nut-tree to see the fruits of the torrent; to see if the vine has blossomed, if the pomegranates have flowered. There I will give my breasts to you; my soul did not know; he set me as the chariots of Aminadab.*
*Origen.* — Perhaps, according to a certain resemblance, the just are as nuts, etc.
*Nilus.* — The Bride recounts how she went down to the garden of the nut-tree toward those who were being chastised for sins, not with any random rod, but a nut-tree rod, which possesses much bitterness and painfulness, to see the fruit of discipline. B Such is the germ, surely, that they cultivate who, having been left in the torrent of temptations, endure the burdens of discipline with thanksgiving; or who bear insults with an inequitable mind—what sort of fruits, I say, they render to Him who chastises in the manner of a physician, and not of an avenger. "To see if the vine has blossomed, and the pomegranate": those who, having performed great and noble deeds, are easily caught in sin because of slight negligence; and if those who have passed through the intolerable water of the torrent have blossomed, not having been dragged away toward blasphemous thought. Then she says, "There I will give my breasts to you": to those who still have the milk of infancy, so that they may be improved by the wine of your teaching. And since they were improved quickly, wishing to show the speed of the transformation: "My soul did not know," she says, "how I became the chariots of Aminadab," which is interpreted as "ruler of my people." C For the infantile state, having been dissolved, flowed away and passed; and I became a figure of the ruler of my people, who is Christ, henceforth running the path of truth by chariot and by horse; being marked by the chariot-wheels of a good way of life, and leaving behind tracks for those who walk their life, wishing to live in a manner befitting the worship of God.
*Philo.* — He says that the Synagogue is called a garden of the nut-tree by the Bridegroom; where is the rod of Aaron, the nut-tree rod; and "I went down" at the time of the passion, to see if the vine of the Jews has blossomed, if the pomegranates have flowered, which are the disciplines variously delivered to it, through the outward constriction and the inward, peaceful, and well-ordered fruit. D
*Of the same.* — Then the Bride says, "There I will give my breasts to you": the two Testaments perfected in deed and word I will offer to you. "My soul did not know": in ignorance, she says, I was before, until the good pleasure of the Father set me as the chariots. For thus Aminadab is interpreted; for it says to Habakkuk: "For you shall mount upon your horses, and your riding shall be salvation."
VERS. 12. *Turn, turn, O Shulamite; turn, turn, and we will look upon you.*
CHAPTER VII
VERS. 1. What will you see in the Shulamite, who comes as the choirs of the camps? For she ascended from the bath, like the angelic hosts.
Philo. — Another reading has *Odolamitis*, that is, celestial: and we shall see Christ saying: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them." Aquila and the fifth edition, etc.
How beautiful have your steps been made in your sandals, daughter of Aminadab?
The progress of the Bride he approves, which he calls steps, but in the evangelical sandals, he says, in the oracles. However, the returns which he had called steps, the Apostle calls helps, governments. But descending to those who are lower, she is said to bind her steps while she appears to them in a more bodily way. But Aminadab is interpreted as prince or leader, or "offering spontaneously," whose daughter is the Bride. There was, however, the prince who says: "Hear, O daughter," and the same one is "offering spontaneously," if indeed all things are spontaneous to God.
Nilus. — They remind her of the gain that resulted from the condescension toward those who stood in need of her work, and at the same time they hint at her sloth, when she said: "I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?" By no means would her steps have been made beautiful in their sandals, if she had not resolved that unseasonable sloth with a suitable conclusion, and for the sake of the utility of those in need, had departed from her own state. For what is said to her is of this kind: Since, he says, standing in a holy place and with sandal unloosed for the sake of those in need of your help, you wore it again, enduring that pure feet be soiled; but now you return, appearing to progress at the same time with those who are progressing, for this reason your steps were made beautiful, as of those who evangelize peace.
VERS. 5. The movements of your thighs are like chains, the work of an artist's hands. Your navel is a turned crater, not lacking mixture. Your belly is a heap of wheat fenced about with lilies. Your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a doe. Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like pools in Heshbon in the gates of the daughter of many. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, looking out towards the face of Damascus. Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the braiding of your head is like purple, the King bound in the corridors.
Nilus. — He calls the movements of the thighs the well-ordered motion of those who are progressing: and they are like chains, the work of an artist's hands. For she was not present to those who are progressing with a haughty mind, but humble and bent down like a chain; because, indeed, she did this knowledgeably...
[as a work] of an artist. And the faculty of understanding was always filled with perfect thoughts, tempered to the capacity of those who are learning; A every thought that is turned and polished is a navel, not lacking in mixture. And the belly, capable of divine foods, containing along with nourishment a sweetness, is called "a heap of wheat hedged about with lilies." Perhaps, too, the mind that is free from cares, and seeks the royal form, is a "heap of wheat hedged about with lilies." As for the neck, when it was praised for humility, it was called a chain; but when it was inaccessible to enemies, the tower of David; now, however, an ivory tower, because it is smooth and has no handle for grasping, and is inaccessible to all birds and serpents, passable only to the sun. Such is the pious mind, not bent by passions, nor yielding to heretical dogmas, but devoted to Christ alone. And the faculty of meditating, improved by much learning, is compared to the pools of Heshbon, overflowing with the waters of approved thoughts; for Heshbon is interpreted as "thoughts in the gates of the daughter of many." B For as many as are the prophets and apostles, so many is the Bride the daughter. And her nose is "as the tower of Lebanon that looketh toward the face of Damascus," which is translated as "drinking blood." Therefore, he who is sublime in his manner of life, and excellent in collected doctrines, has also known beforehand the assaults of the passions and the onsets of the opposing powers, and easily perceives their stench; he himself is the nose of the Bride, looking upon the face of Damascus, and observing the incursion like the head of a serpent, while being guarded as the head of the serpent. And he likens her head to Carmel, since the head of the Church is Christ. C And Carmel was the lodging-place of the prophets, bearing witness concerning the Head, and binding with a plait of royal words those who are eager to run past. For when someone, mocking the sufferings of Christ, passes by this dogma as foolish and worthy of laughter, then, finding each individual thing that He suffered testified to by prophetic notice, he remains bound as by a cord with the divine word, not holding the rank of an uneducated person, but having obtained the eternal kingdom of the King of heavens and the impregnable city of the Jerusalem above; and the words of Christ, teaching heavenly things, entangle and bind like a fastening the one who is running past. D
Origen. — The Scripture often places the thighs in Genesis, etc.
Cyril. — He calls the Creator the Artist, Christ: for as He Himself became obedient, so also does the Church.
Philo. — He declares the orderly arrangement and fitness, and the indefectibility of virginity, in which the Artist Himself built a temple for Himself.
Cyril. — He speaks also of her temperance and...
the subjection of her soul, as subject to the faith, and her body to temperance.
A Origenis. — To the navel, or the mixing-bowl, Wisdom invites, saying, etc.
Cyrilli. — He declares also her priesthood, saying: Not lacking in mixture, namely with the blood of Christ; for this is in the hands of the priests.
Philonis. — But also the congregation of the multitude, which is fortified by the concord of souls, is assimilated to lilies, the sweet-smelling oracles of God.
Origenis. — Lilies, too, would be the flowers of the grace of God, which He gathered from the midst of the thorns of this life.
Cyrilli. — By her neck He denotes the deacons of Christ, who carry Christ, the head of the Church. For they carry His holy body in a pure conscience, confessing His B mysteries; for this reason He called it ivory, such as those deacons whom Paul describes: "Chaste, not given to much wine."
Origenis. — But they are called towers, etc.
Philonis. — Moreover, the power of her understanding is filled, he says, with pious thoughts; for Heshbon is interpreted "thoughts."
Cyrilli. — He assimilates the intellectual eyes to pools; for rivers flow from the bellies of those who receive the Word.
Origenis. — But he who has a pure expiration, etc.
VER. 6, 7. — How beautiful and how sweet you have become, O love, in your delights! This stature of yours is likened to a palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of grapes.
Philonis. — The plaited hair of the head designates the flowering multitude of the Church, plaited by love for the adornment of the Bride. Furthermore, this plait is called purple because that multitude is dyed in the blood of Christ; and just as if clothed in a royal garment on every side, the ornament of the multitude is dyed in sacred blood, just as a king in processions is clothed in purple. For, having been crowned, he triumphed, despoiling the powers by the victory of death.
C Cyrilli. — Or even otherwise, he says that the bond of the love of the peoples leads to a royal priesthood.
Origenis. — That the Bridegroom says these things, admiring her change for the better, etc.
Nili. — Perhaps He imposes the name "Love" upon her, because she has been made beautiful, saying that she herself has also been made sweet in her delights; for in divine discourses, the delights and beauty show the brightness, and make the conversation sweeter. Perhaps, indeed, He admires her blessed beauty. D
A In her delights, he asserts that her charity is increased. By the preposition "in," he declares that the height of her virtues is established in the words of her body. Furthermore, her breasts are necessarily likened to clusters of grapes, bound together by the charity of God. Finally, he says that her breast is changed from a milky quality into a honeyed sweetness. For in a little while, she will bear witness to something greater; for from this state, they have progressed to something greater.
Cyril. — Or even "in thy delights," meaning in thy charity, because he himself is also considered to be one of the just. Moreover, the breasts are likened to clusters of grapes, as they contain spiritual joy.
Origen. — That is to say, thy perceptions, he says, are nutritious and drinkable, and in no way sour.
Philo. — Or they are likened to the clusters of palm trees for their fragrance and multiplication.
B VERSE 8, 9. I said: I will ascend into the palm tree, I will take hold of the fruits thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: and the odor of thy nose as apples: and thy throat like good wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, fitting for my lips and teeth.
Philo. — Those things, however, which are understood as being from the person of the Bridegroom, signify that just as if the Lord holds the just, their summits remain unshaken; and as grapes, when crushed, pour forth the wine of joy, so in tribulations do the just make Christ joyful. And her nose is the Apostle, who has become an odor of sweetness to Christ, just as an apple, offering also the food and drink of the mysteries of Christ.
Origen (6*). — Having been likened to a palm tree, etc. (7). How beautiful and how sweet thou art made! And thy magnitude is made like to the palm tree. He states the reason for which she has extended herself on high: "For because," he says, "thou, O Bridegroom, art a palm tree, and I have been planted together with thee in the palm tree, ascending by thy height, I am deservedly exalted, desiring to approach thy height, so that I may take hold of thy sublimity and imitate in thee that which thou art by the dignity of thy nature. For thou didst descend so that I might ascend, and see C thy breasts as the clusters of the true vine, which, when crushed, provide a drink of joy to those who have trained senses." For to this they have arrived from childhood, progressing little by little, and they have perceived the odor of thy nostrils as a sweet apple, perceiving the odor of divinity hidden in man through the nose, emitting the breath of the Old and New Scripture. And thy throat, he says, is like good wine; the Word that directs toward thee those who have departed from thee; providing sufficiency in lips and teeth, not in taste alone, but also in use. D For to this [index: entries preserved]
A extent, when the Bridegroom says these things to the Bride, most of them he will have said similarly; but that word: "I will ascend," etc., is of such a kind as that of Christ our Lord overcoming all human exertion by His graces, not in the sense of holding, touching, and grasping, but in the sense of ascending, towering over, and being understood to be pre-eminent in height. For however much human power strives to equal the magnificence of God by its requitals, and to pay back the preceding graces through the labors of virtuous actions, it will altogether be overcome and succumb, vanquished by the surpassing benefits of God.
VERS. 10. *I to my kinsman, and his turning is toward me.*
Nilus. — Therefore, for a third time, she speaks to him, adding this: *His turning is toward me*, as if to say: "Since I have dedicated myself to him, I am persuaded that even if he has been drawn away for a little while to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he will turn again to me."
Cyril. — Or because I offer him confession, his turning is also toward me at the second coming, or from the people of the Jews.
Philo. — Or he also calls this world the field, the villages the Churches, and the vines the fruitful souls. And as for *let us rise early*, it means we have driven away ignorance; and for the vine to flourish means the preaching; he calls those whitened in baptism the sprout. He speaks, however, to the Churches or to the faithful B souls, and he seems to trust in his own abundance, but does not allow judgment to himself.
Origen. — The speech is now that of one perfect, since she will find total rest nowhere, wherever she may turn, as she does with me.
VERS. 11, 12. *Come, my kinsman, let us go out into the field, let us lodge in the villages. Let us rise early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine hath flourished, if the sprout hath flourished, if the pomegranates have blossomed.*
Origen. — The Bride intercedes for those who are inferior, etc.
Nilus. — From a corporeal appearance he describes the spiritual, proposing to the Bridegroom the field and the villages and the morning going forth to the vineyards. He calls this world the field, therefore; villages or C castles may be called the Churches, or souls capable of the Word. For these are called vines, and blossoming pomegranates, which are the diverse virtues of this same soul, of which some, through tribulations, have been made the wine of the vine; others, the pomegranates, fortifying hope through patience. And there again he promises that he will give breasts, which provide passage to perfection and from suckling to the abundance of wine. Nay, he also says that the mandrakes have given their odor, perhaps meaning those who, by the imitation of Christ, breathe forth the sweetness of good works. For the mandrake indeed mimics the
A the form and scent of the apple: such was Paul, who, like a mandrake, imitated Christ in both respects. You might also say that those who rise again with Christ are mandrakes, since they possess a root in the likeness of a man, by which mortification is signified. And since all the tree’s fruits are at the doors, he quite reasonably and consistently declares that he has kept the new alongside the old; for when he says "at the doors," it means that the benefits of the fruits of the evangelical way of life were indeed close at hand and in his grasp. Therefore he says: "Along with the keeping of the new commandments, I have also kept the old."
"There I will give you my breasts." For to the faithful, the depths of the two Testaments are revealed. Thus, he promises to offer the meanings found within them to the Bridegroom. B
VERS. 13. "The mandrakes have given [their] odor." Mandrakes have roots beneath the earth in the shape of a man. Those, therefore, who mortify themselves for Christ’s sake have given forth the sweet odor of good works; or, as those who are dead, sensing the advent of Christ, have given forth the odor of the resurrection.
"And at our doors are all the fruits; new together with old, my brother, I have kept for you." He says that those already bringing forth fruit are at the doors; he signifies those who flourish in both the Old and the New Law.
*Philo.* — Indeed, he asserts that virtues and vices reside in our senses, and that the New Testament sets its seal upon the Old. C
CAP. VIII.
VERS. 1. "Who will give you to me, my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother?"
*(10) Origen.* — He speaks of the Jerusalem above, of which this earthly one, situated on the earth and flowing with milk and honey, is a symbol, and in which she wishes to feast with the Bridegroom; for milk, in this context, is the guileless and delightful food.
*Cyril.* — The food of the Bride is therefore sanctified, with Christ feasting together; the Church indeed prays that the advent of the Savior into Judea might come to pass, according to the providence of Him who gives Him to men, so that He might suckle the Theotokos. D
*Philo.* — For Christ, being formed by the Spirit in those newly born, sucks wisdom through them.
*Nilus.* — The Bride appears to desire His presence in the flesh, in which, by condescending through His human-like affections, He will be easily grasped by her; and having been found outside His proper state, while remaining what He was, He will with confidence cause her to enjoy true words that stir up divine pleasure. For because of these kisses, which are given not to vice but to praise, He is not in the least despised; rather, she herself will receive Him, since His own did not receive Him. She will also lead Him into the house of her mother and into the chamber of her who conceived her, that is, of human wisdom; for it was necessary for Him, being man...
become man, to partake of all things with her, and to give back the things of grace and take the things of nature. For to enter into the house of her mother signifies the taking up of human passions without sin; but "I will take" signifies the promptness of faith and the discernment of pure contemplation in mystery. And by "spiced wine" and "the juice of my pomegranates," he means moral and natural external discourses, not possessing fragrance by nature, but prepared by artificial artifice; from which she promises to give Him to drink, [a drink] made sweet by human ingenuity as if by an ointment-maker. For the wine of the Bridegroom has joy through natural use and not from something else imported.
"Finding thee without, I will kiss thee; and indeed they will not despise me." [VERS. 2.] I will take thee, I will bring thee into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I will give thee to drink of spiced wine, from the juice of my pomegranates.
Origen. — For finding Him having departed from the supernal watch-tower, she embraced Him.
Cyril. — That is, outside Jerusalem, where He was crucified.
Philo. — And that [saying], "They will not despise me," refers to those who know that spiritual friendship is not to be despised: either because I shall not be as before, easily captured by enemies; but she will introduce Him into the house of the mother, the earth and the flesh consisting of this. Her chamber, however, is Hades, where the souls of the saints were deposited. But the spiced wine is the cup tempered with the Spirit, which He drinks through the believers. B
VERS. 3. His left hand [is] under my head, and His right hand will embrace me.
Cyril. — Either he speaks of the burial which Joseph and Nicodemus bestowed upon Him; but by "pomegranates" he speaks of the saints.
Origen. — Or spiced wine is the word of spiritual joy depending on all kinds of meanings in the Holy Scriptures; but "of the juice of the pomegranates" [means] of works ordered and perfected in their own time. The law indeed supports the principal part, but the Gospel contains the whole; or the left [hand] is the first advent, the right indeed the second; or the left is the present age, and having taken her in the future, He introduces her into the upper mansions. C
VERS. 4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, that you do not rouse nor awaken love until it wills.
Origen. — He has already adjured [them] for the second time, etc. He adjures the souls of the saints to pray for sinners until God receives us.
VERS. 5. Who is this who comes up whitened, leaning upon her brother? D
A The saints say these things, admiring the purity of the Bride.
Nilus. — Those of the synagogue are struck with astonishment, seeing her ascending from the nuptial bath; and comparing her present whiteness with her former blackness, they marvel all the more that she ascends leaning upon the brother. For truly the journey of a soul becomes infallible, and its progress sure, when it uses the Word as its guide. The ascent of the Bride to the blessed mansions is foretold, having completely laid aside the darkness of wickedness and assumed the splendor of virtue, following and leaning upon the Word; whence the heavenly powers marvel at such a great transformation of men.
*Under the apple tree I awakened thee.* B This plant itself, by its scent, sight, taste, and touch, being smooth, is lovely; and so he who is well nurtured through the senses might be called an apple. Beside this tree the Jerusalem above is in labor, and brings forth the children of freedom; wherefore Joel says, "The pomegranate and the palm, and the apple and all the trees of the field, shall give their fruit."
Philo. — Raising [thee] under the mystical table, I have placed thee, for it provides both food and drink.
Nilus. — We spoke of the apple as the incarnation, as it contains the Divinity under humanity. By this mystery, he awakened the Bride, whether she was sleeping or sitting, rousing her mind from earthly to heavenly things. He says she was born and brought forth to birth there by her mother, C existing under the apple, indicating the regeneration through baptism. He calls the Spirit the mother, who begets those who are baptized. As to why he says she is begotten twice: I think one birth is spoken of, according to which that which is according to the image is formed in the soul by the word of instruction, generated by such a birth; the other, however, is that according to which, through the action of a virtuous life, that which is according to the likeness is formed in her; for "mother" designates the habit, but "the one who brought forth" designates the operation of the habit.
*There thy mother was in labor with thee; there she was in labor who brought thee forth.*
The flesh of Christ in the labors of the cross brought forth the Church, with the blood and water flowing from it.
*VERS. 6. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell.*
Origen. — The Bridegroom exhorts her, etc. D
Nilus. — Christ wishes the soul beloved by baptism to be sealed by Himself both in its thoughts and in its actions, and to have the memory of Him alone, and of no other; the fervor of His charity and [zeal]
A of her heart, declaring the warmth and the hardness of that zeal, and its burning nature. “For,” he says, “I am loved with great intensity, and I seek [that which is] more intensely sought; for my zeal is hotter than fire and harder than the underworld; and charity is stronger than death, having the impulses of flames of fire.”
“Its wings are wings of fire, its coals are coals of fire, its flames are its flames.” [Vers. 7.] “Many waters shall not be able to quench charity, and the rivers shall not overwhelm it.”
The structures of it are the most subtle and purest element of all, so that just as God makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire—of such a kind as was also He who appeared to Moses from the bush in a flame of fire—so the one who loves will make the flame of fire like to His own ministers, and His saints partakers of His own divinity, in so much as He is a consuming fire; for thus everything that is in them will be consumed.
Philo. — Or let the wings of the Church be the Old and the New Testament; here indeed they are fiery tongues, but there [in the Old] indeed, a bush of fire.
Cyril. — And otherwise: The walls, he says, of the Church are fire, according to that: “I will be for her a wall of fire round about, says the Lord.” Therefore, temptations shall not overwhelm the flames of charity: such is also that which says: “Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ?” B
The charity which God has toward us, there is nothing that can extinguish it; not the very great water of the opposing power, nor the rivers of temptations carried along by a swelling channel. Wherefore, even if someone were to spend his whole life upon charity, it would be reckoned as nothing, since he could display nothing worthy of the Lord’s charity.
Origen. — Again, since our God is a consuming fire, and since, according to John, He is charity; charity is a consuming fire, which also has the impulses of the flames of a fire, the power of which those who are fervent in spirit perceive. But the waters are now the operations of those opposing them who have received it, in that they wish to extinguish it, but find it stronger. For it endures all things and never fails. Concerning the rivers overflowing it, it was said: “I am sure that neither death,” C etc.
“If a man should give his whole life in charity, they shall treat it with contempt.” D Who others, if not those who are alien to charity? Therefore, Paul, who had delivered himself over to charity, says: “We are reviled and we bless, we are slandered and we entreat,” etc. But every life [is] more simply [understood as] whatever someone has left behind so that he might gain Christ and follow Him perfectly. But more profoundly
all rational life—which he who has done away with the things of infancy, doing all things in love, dedicates its life [to God]—is such, since nothing worthy of love is performed among men; and even if someone has spent his whole life in love, he will be regarded as having done nothing as if he had performed nothing worthy.
A Ver. 8. *Our sister is little, and she has no breasts.*
Showing their own promptitude and affection regarding the Bride, the maidens amplify their own zeal in their speech; but being ignorant of her state, and thinking her not yet ripe for marriage with the man, they are at a loss as to what should be done. Seeing the eagerness of the Bridegroom pressing for the marriage, they look also at the Bride's perceived infancy; and they say such things to one another: "Nothing of that which the Bride lacks depends upon our zeal and cooperation, for to add to her a growth of age is not in our power. For if she were a wall lacking battlements, nothing would prevent us from exceeding what is necessary in our zeal, and placing silver battlements upon the wall instead of stone ones; for the extravagance of zeal would become a proof, and the concern, an indisputable evidence through the disposition. But to add perfection to infancy, and to raise breasts to fullness [an inflation], which nature has not yet moved toward this, is greater than human power." For they did not know her hidden perfection, being maidens themselves and paying attention to the sequence of nature. For the state of the soul escapes every human eye, especially those who know how to hide their achievements.
C Philonis. — This is said to those who indeed have faith, but not yet the knowledge of the two Testaments, because they are newly established and are not able to nourish others.
Origenis. — That the soul of a man is small, etc.
*What shall we do for our sister, in the day when she shall be spoken of? If it is a wall, let us build upon it battlements of silver; and if it is a door, let us draw upon it a cedar board.*
When the words of the betrothal are ratified, they wish to do for the sister the things she lacks for perfection. For if the Church is a wall, they say, as a pillar and foundation of truth, let us fill up for her the rational perfections, which they have called battlements. But a door of firmness [is] described, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; and as upon a door they speak of a board, shaped for the perfect completion of the door. And the cedar [board] signifies the incorruptible covering of the Spirit; for this constricts human weakness. The saints, therefore, ask concerning the newly-illumined, and D they receive an answer. If she became a solid rock and firm in faith, let us set before her the divine oracles; but if she is a door, easily turned, and she believed out of the synagogue, let us subscribe to her the...
A polity of the patriarchs, and let us fortify it with the ramparts of towers. VERS. 10. *I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; I was in their eyes as one finding peace.* You indeed think that I have no breasts, and so on; but I, perceiving the great grace of the Bridegroom towards me, and in my own betrothal for the magnitude of it, needing to provide security and a multitude of contemplations for others also, was likened to two towers, which signify the discourse concerning sensible things and the knowledge concerning intelligible things. And since I sought peace and pursued it, such was I in the eyes of the Bridegroom; having learned this also from the Spirit, that they who have rightly sought him have found peace, which is Christ. Nilus.—He solves the ambiguity, by no means suffering it to be thought as they suspected. Truly, he says, the spiritual riches escape you. But I am perfect in the eyes of my Bridegroom, since in his eyes I have found peace: but they who rightly seek him, find peace. I am a wall difficult to assault, because of which peace I do not fear the incursion of war. But when the wall hears, and the door, that indeed it received; but that it should be called a door through silence, it accomplished, reserving such an appellation for the Bridegroom; for he alone is the entrance to the paternal knowledge. VERS. 11. *A vineyard was made for Solomon in Beelamon: he gave his vineyard to those who guard; a man shall bring forth in its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.* Nilus.—The vineyard B was also made in a horn for the beloved, who is Christ. But in Beelamon means: in the multitudes, and the vineyard in the multitudes is the all-fruitful assembly of the Church. He gave, therefore, this vineyard to those who guard it, to the leaders of the Church, whom he also called husbandmen and innkeepers. Whoever, then, is found a man among these, shall bring forth to him a thousand pieces of silver, the perfect progress of the subjects in the fruits of piety. Cyril.—To the spiritual Solomon a vineyard was made; he says this of the Church; but that which is in Beelamon is interpreted as being in the believers. For who have believed, except those who have received his commandments? Christ is called Solomon, who, by dissolving the middle wall of the partition, making peace in his flesh. Let no one, therefore, seek outside of Beelamon, that is, of the assembly of C the multitude gathered in the name of Jesus Christ, the fruit-bearing vineyard of the Word and Christ, which he also delivered to be guarded, that the boar from the woods might not destroy it, and the solitary wild beast might not graze upon it, nor they who pass by the way harvest it. And such is the vineyard which brings forth its fruit
A by means of the man who has done away with the things of the child; and it is worthy of a thousand pieces of silver. For the fruit worthy of the vineyard is the Word, precious and of great value and admirable, which is called silver; and the number of a thousand possesses an affinity with the unit, and for this reason it has been adopted. The guardians of the vineyard are the angels.
Ver. 12. Vinea mihi mea in conspectu meo; mille Salomoni et ducenti servantibus fructum ejus.
These things, whether they refer to the Church or to the soul which is the Bride of the Word, are understood in both as a fruit-bearing vineyard and as wine rejoicing the heart of man; and indeed, they refer to the Savior who is truly peaceful. Therefore, in the book of Judges, the vine says to the trees: B "Shall I abandon my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to rule over the trees?" It is therefore consistent that Christ should receive [fruit] from the fruit of such a vine, which is what is signified by "A thousand for Solomon." It is also likely that the guardian angels partake of the Bride’s vineyard when he is present, through the [words], "and two hundred for those who keep its fruit." For who does not both plant and keep a vineyard, and eat of its fruit? The doctrines concerning God, therefore—the thousand—are those that have an affinity with the monad, assigned to Solomon. But those things that concern matter and sensible objects—the two hundred—belong to those who minister in matter, having a kinship with the dyad, concerning which it is said: "For the creation was subjected to emptiness, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it" (Rom. viii, 20). For matter C and bodily things are emptiness; but the fruits of the vineyard, from which the thousand and the two hundred are given, are the psalms of the winepresses, when the fruits of the vineyard are pressed, which will produce wine that rejoices God and men, and those who keep them.
Apollinarius.—Thus, in the beginning he said, "Our vines are in blossom" (Cant. ii, 15); but at the end of the book he introduced the perfect fruit, and attributes much of the wine of honor to the king and to the guardians, inasmuch as the Lord, when He arrives, is honored, according to Paul: "When He comes to be glorified in His saints" (II Thess. i, 10); and again he says to the guardians of the vineyard, "We are our boasting in the day of Christ" D (Phil. ii, 16). But since everything is brought to completion by the grace of Christ, the full perfection belongs to Him; and indeed to the ministers, as He said through the parables concerning the one who had doubled the mina, and the one who, with the same doubling, was made ruler over five cities. Generally, however, Matthew says the good and faithful servant will be set over all His goods. But if there is no difference between the two, the distribution of the thousands is made among the ministers, since those who receive the things of the Lord [are divided] by two hundreds, divided fivefold, whence the Lord also likens the things that are of the saints unto the five virgins who meet Him. My vineyard, therefore, having been considered, and its fruitfulness being distributed according to my participation, through
five orders—apostles, prophets, teachers, the taught, and martyrs—even though they are the same people, being [also] branches and laborers and overseers; for in many ways the same persons are signified.
A Veri Salomonis vox est—The voice of the true Solomon [is this], claiming for Himself the entire care of the vineyard. For the human race is rendered safe in Him against slippery inflation, especially [the race] of leaders, who, on account of the dignity of their primacy, are easily inflated, lest they arrogate to themselves in arrogance and vanity the superiorities of God, attributing the care of the vineyard to their own diligence. For when He says, "The vineyard is before my eyes, and my eyes observe it always," from this the diligence of those serving obtains its strength, and those who lie in wait fearfully turn away from the vineyard, seeing my eye always intent upon it. And the phrase "two hundred for those who keep it" does not mean that the vineyard is divided up, but that they received rewards greater than what they had contributed.
VERS. 13, 14. *Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken to thy voice: make me hear it. Flee, my beloved, and be thou like to a hart or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.*
A Nili.—This is the voice of one calling: "Who dwellest in the gardens," and signifying ease to the one dwelling. For what is said is of this kind: "Not," he says, "does he who sits in gardens and lingers over the herbs, the food of the infirm, guard the vineyard." For the friends are those who attend to it, who themselves also stand always with intent zeal, guarding not gardens or herbs, but the perfect fruit of the vine. For "sitting" designates the negligence of the keeper. Now, the "garden" signifies the weakness of those who are being guarded. Perhaps, indeed, by reason of the keeper's sitting, those who were being kept became a "garden." C Furthermore, "Make me hear thy voice" is said by the Bridegroom to the Bride, because He wished to know the mind of the soul, whether it might also be able to know the mystery of the resurrection, since it had previously learned that from the prophetic scriptures. Wherefore it responds readily, saying: "Flee," and the rest. For you were first likened to these animals on the mountains of Bethel, having become man, leaping upon the mountains of the house of God. Then you were likened to the very souls that are in hell, descending to preach liberty there upon the mountains of [the] deep. Now, because it is time for your magnificence to be raised above the heavens, and to be seated at the right hand of majesty on high, "Flee," and be likened again to such ones upon the mountains of spices. He calls "mountains of spices" those saints who are in the Jerusalem above, who, because they are in safety, possess the D fragrance of [their] accomplishments, which they acquired in this life while fighting against the passions, and…