Gregory of Elvira

In his own words on Song of Solomon

• Song of Solomon 1:1

  For thus is it called the Canticle of Canticles, inasmuch as it is above every canticle that Moses and Mary in Exodus and Isaiah and Habakkuk and others sang. These are better canticles because they give praise to the Lord with joyful mind and soul for the liberation of the people, or for their conversion, or in gratitude for the divine works. Here they are superior also because the voice of the singing church and of God is heard. Because the divine and human are united with one another, therefore, it is called the Canticle of Canticles, that is, the best of the best.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 1:2

• Song of Solomon 1:4

  "The king introduced me to his chambers." This is the church speaking, who confesses Christ the Son of God to be King. But what is the chamber to which Christ the King introduced his queen, the church, if not the mystery of the heavenly kingdom? For who does not know that Christ introduced his church, that is, his own flesh, to that place from which he had descended without flesh, that is, the gates of heaven? We learn that the church is the flesh of Christ from the authority of the apostle, who said "the flesh of Christ, which is the church."

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 1:20

• Song of Solomon 1:5

  It adds, "I was dark and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." I have to confess that I am astonished at how the church is here called dark and beautiful, since it is not possible for what is dark to be beautiful. How can something dark be so beautiful, or something beautiful be so dark? But pay attention to the mystery of the Word and see how elevated is the sense with which the Holy Spirit speaks. The church called herself dark on account of those from the Gentiles who would become believers, all of whom were seen to be blackened with the filthy smoke of idolatry and sepulcher of sacrifices. But they were made beautiful through faith in Christ and the holiness of the Spirit, whom they received. Hence she said, "I was dark" because she had not yet seen herself as the sun.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 1:23-24

• Song of Solomon 1:6

  "Do not look at me," it says, "because the sun has not regarded me." The prophet Ezekiel proved that the sun is Christ when he said, "upon you who fear the Lord, the sun of righteousness will rise," who is Christ. For, as I have often said, before the advent of the Son of God, the church of the Gentiles was dark because it had not yet believed in him. But when it was illuminated by Christ the true sun, it was made extremely lovely and decorous, such that the Holy Spirit would say to it through David: "the king desired your beauty."

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 1:25

• Song of Solomon 1:9

  "My horses are with Pharaoh's chariots," it says. The horses of the Lord, that is, the people of the Gentiles, were formerly with Pharaoh's chariots, that is, in the power of the devil, since they had not yet believed in Christ. He forewarns them, therefore, not to submit themselves again to that yoke through contempt of the faith. For, as I have already said, the people of the Gentiles who required horses were held under the Pharaoh's yoke, that is, with the chariots of the devil, before the Lord's advent, even though the Lord already foreknew them to be his own. But there is no doubt that the Pharaoh is the devil, for the devil tyrannizes the world like the Pharaoh did Egypt. Moreover, just as the Pharaoh persecuted the sons of Israel, so does the devil persecute the saints in this world.… Yet, now liberated by the grace of Christ from the yoke of tyrannical servitude, having been made sons of God through faith, and destined for celestial glory with a pure heart and true devotion in all holiness and righteousness, let us hold firmly to the same faith through which we live and are saved.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 2:24-27

• Song of Solomon 1:17

  Kedar, from the Hebrew, is translated by the Latin word for dark (accordingly, Kedar among the city of the Gentiles at that time seethed with idolatry), for nothing is more forbidding than serving demons. Thus the Lord scolded the people of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah for abandoning the Lord and for worshiping idols made by Gentiles.… And Christ spoke in a prophetic way from the voice of the church that was to be gathered from the Gentiles, saying, "I am dark like the tents of Kedar," that is, like the gathering of Gentiles.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 1:28

• Song of Solomon 2:6

  These two hands are the two covenants of the old law and the gospel. When it refers to his left hand, it indicates the old covenant, but the right hand is the preaching of the gospel. The old covenant is inferior because it is placed beneath the head of the church, who is Christ, whereas the right hand embraced the church, meaning that old sins were covered by the sacraments of the gospel. Whoever goes forth in faith, therefore, and serves Christ with devotion, leaves the old person beneath himself and embraces anew the body of Christ, which is the church.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 3:29

• Song of Solomon 2:8

  The mountains are patriarchs, vast with holiness, robust in faith, founded upon a mass of charity, but the hills are prophets, established for seeing. He is said therefore to be raised higher than every mountain, or patriarch, and to leap over every hill, or prophet, because he is Lord over all, with all things being put under his feet.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 4:4

• Song of Solomon 2:11-12

  There is thus no doubt that winter has a double meaning, either that harshness and severity belong to it, or that it is a time for sowing with the coming of the rain. When it says winter, therefore, it refers to the present world, where the Word of God is sowed in this age like a seed of righteousness by prophets and apostles, or priests, and is fertilized by assiduous preaching, as though by rains from heaven.…But with the passing of winter, that is, the tribulations of this world, and the cessation of the rains, that is, the preaching of the Word of God, and the subsequent arrival of the joy of Spring (which designates the coming of Christ's vernal kingdom in great peace), then the bodies of the saints everywhere will emerge from the graves of the earth like flowers—lilies or roses—pure white with holiness and red with passion.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 4:13, 15

• Song of Solomon 2:15

  It calls these foxes "little" because there are also greater ones. Indeed, the ruling powers of the world are greater at raging than the fallacies of the heretics are at seducing. They are both equally evil, but their respective powers to punish are unequal, for the heretic coaxes to destroy, but the Gentile rages to conquer, the former being peacefully deceptive and the latter being cruel in persecution. But the Lord commands that both receive appropriate dispositions from the keepers of the vineyards, that is, from the leaders of the churches.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 4:25

• Song of Solomon 3:1

  To what does this bed refer, upon which the church seeks the one whom its soul loves, if not to the bed of its heart in which wisdom rests, where it seeks our Lord and Savior through continuous meditation? If the bed is the secrecy of the heart, then what is the night in which the church sought the Lord but was unable to find him? Surely it means that the God of light was not easily found in darkness.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 5:2

• Song of Solomon 3:4

  "In my mother's house and in the chamber where she conceived me." This is the voice of the church speaking. If the church is a mother to all, we must ask for the identity of the mother of the church, in whose house and in whose chamber she is said to have been conceived. I have already shown above what is the church, namely, the body of Christ that consists of his gathering members. The mother of the church, therefore, is the holy heavenly Jerusalem.

  EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 5:12