Song of Songs1:1 – Bible Study with Poll Questions
Song of Songs 1:1 Bible Study
Song of Songs Bible Study Introduction
The Bible includes a section that celebrates marital love, best exemplified by the Song of Songs. This book serves as wisdom literature. God designed our sexuality as a gift and set it within the confines of marriage. Pam and I recently completed our Intimacy Conversations course at the Christian Leaders Institute.
Inspired by our studies, we are crafting a conversational devotional based on the Song of Songs. At the same time, I volunteered to develop a Weekly Poll. When I mentioned to Missy from MH that we were working on this Bible study, she felt it would be a great asset to the MH community. We eagerly await your discussion on both the Bible Study and the Weekly Poll, with the latter drawing inspiration from one of the topics in our study.
Most weeks, we’ll delve into just one or two verses. Let’s begin our Bible study conversation with an engaging poll about your perceptions of the Song of Songs. After that, we’ll explore Song of Songs 1:1, complemented by study notes and discussion questions. You can undertake this Bible study alone or with your spouse. It’s an excellent study for marriage devotions.
We advocate for non-judgmental and encouraging conversations. Maintain a balance in dialogue, with each participant speaking and listening in equal measure. Remember, discussions of intimacy can touch upon sensitive memories or emotions. Yet, when approached with the guidance of the Word of God and steeped in prayerful curiosity, this Bible study has the potential to bring you closer to your spouse and to fortify the bond of your marriage
Song of Song Poll (You may make two selections)
Loading ...Song of Songs 1:1 Bible Study
Have you ever texted your spouse a flirty message? Maybe you have flirty “code words” that won’t be understood by work associates or your children.
The Song of Songs contains over 117 text-sized messages shared between a woman and a man, a bride and a groom, a lover and a beloved.
Welcome to this Bible study centered on the first chapter of the Song of Songs. This Old Testament gem offers poetic texts that celebrate the beauty of love and desire as designed by God. Each day, open a flirty text given thousands of years ago, and this Text will be decoded for lovers today. These texts will be shared from the King James Version, appreciating the poetic language of this timeless edition. You will also receive a sacred text from another part of the Bible, not the Song of Songs, which will come from the World English Bible. Get ready to heat your marriage through texts from the Word of God.
Song of Songs 1:1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s
The Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a unique book in the Bible that falls under the category of wisdom literature and poetry. Unlike other biblical texts that focus on laws, genealogies, or historical narratives, this book is a poetic exploration of romantic love, specifically within the context of marriage. Traditionally attributed to King Solomon, known for his wisdom, the book is a lyrical dialogue between two main characters: the Shulammite woman and her beloved.
The Text artfully celebrates the emotional, sensual, and even erotic dimensions of love through vivid metaphors, figurative meanings, and intricate poetic language. This has led to various interpretations, including views that see it as an allegory of the love between Christ and the Church or as a representation of God’s love for Israel. However, on a more literal level, it is a beautiful representation of marital love, serving as an inspiration for what can be termed “hot monogamy.”
Song of Songs provides timeless wisdom that will uplift the spirit and body and insight into the complexities and joys of one of life’s most influential and transformative experiences—love.
Our study explores the themes of love and intimacy and their implications in marital relationships today, particularly within what we have termed “submitted sexual agency.” This term encapsulates our commitment to aligning our sexual lives with God’s design for monogamous marriage. Each day will include a sacred text for reflection. Inspired by allegorical or spiritual interpretations, we will incorporate an additional text from the Bible into the daily encouragement.
In our devotion to God and each other as husband and wife, we seek to understand and surrender our sexuality to his Word. Submitted sexual agency is about each spouse willingly surrendering to the other (Ephesians 5:21) to become “one flesh” in marriage (Genesis 2:24). This surrender creates an environment that glorifies God through the profound act of marital intimacy.
Each day will include a sacred text for reflection. We will incorporate an additional text from the Bible into the daily encouragement. Here is the first sacred text. This text is about submitted sexual agency and call us to explore a deep and profoundly spiritual way of sexual intimacy.
Sacred Text – 1 Corinthians 7:4-5: The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise, the husband doesn’t have authority over his body, but the wife does. Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Heat Conversations:
- Erotic Wisdom for Married Intimacy: The Song of Songs is “marriage heat” wisdom literature in the Bible. How do you feel that the Bible deals with sexual intimacy?
- Inspiration for Hot Monogamy: This book serves as an inspiration for “hot monogamy,” or a passionate, committed marital relationship. Why is this perspective so refreshing? What code words for your intimacy do you have? Do you want to make up some new one?
- Allegory and Literalism: The book has been interpreted as an allegory for divine love and a literal celebration of marital love. In your relationship, do you find that your passion serves both a spiritual and a practical purpose? How do these two dimensions of love interact in your experience?
- Mutual Surrender: The concept of “submitted sexual agency” focuses on mutual surrender in a marital relationship. How do you understand “mutual submission” in 1 Corinthians 7:4-5 without losing a sense of individual agency or autonomy? What reservations do you have?
Share any thoughts in the comments. Check out Moral Erotica? What do you think?
Hubbie here: HR, your polls, studies, and thought questions are a good add to the MH offering. Thanks for your posts! Keep ‘em coming! I don’t see any activity or responses in the comments, and I don’t want you to be discouraged. For me, these questions are too big for a snippet response, and MH is not the place for a treatise response. I don’t have a solution, but my lack of response is not due to lack of interest.
Thanks again, and I look forward to more from you both! Blessings and passion!
I tried to vote in the poll but it didn't take for whatever reason. Honestly I've never been sure what to make of the Song of Solomon, I've never done an in-depth study of it so I suppose if you make it it will be beneficial! My feeling has always been that it loses a lot in translation, and what's there is open to interpretation in so many different ways, kind of why the poll answers vary so wildly, I assume.
I applaud your efforts. I have been working on something similar. In doing the research, I came to the conclusion that almost every translation is a watered down version at best, and the ones that attempted to say it is an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Church are way off base. Jesus wasn't even in the picture when the Song of Songs was written. Additionally, the name change to the Song of Solomon doesn't make sense either, because why would he write a poem about one woman out of the thousand or so that he had at his disposal?
In my research I found a more accurate translation that is well researched and documented. There is a book by Arial and Chana Block titled "The Song of Songs" a new translation. The authors are credentialed scholars in Hebrew and poetic form of the time that SOS was written. Together they detail every word and phrase in the Song from original Hebrew text. They explain in detail how they determined the actual meaning and the intent. For example "1:2 – oh that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your LOVEMAKING is sweeter than wine.". In the watered down versions they say "your love is sweeter than wine. One word changes the whole thing.
Additionally, in the beginning they were not married, but they were lovers. The wedding takes place midway through and then the husband expresses his desire to have intercourse. Up to that point they satisfied themselves by having oral sex or masturbating.
Unfortunately, you would never get that idea from reading the watered down, church approved versions. Sadly, the best book on male\female relationships is so misconstrued by religion, and that leaves many Christians confused and ashamed about something that God created to be a great and awesome.
I would encourage you to get a copy of this book. It will help you with your study on the most misunderstood book in the Bible. I'm 70 years old and it has answered a lot of questions I've had all my life about sex and marriage. I only wish I had found it years ago.
Keep up the good work and thanks for starting this thread.
I have read enough commentary to say it is wrong to say that some of their sexual activity was before marriage. Songs is not Chronological from beginning to end, but a collection of stories.
I saw that on one website, it was noted that Songs, did not contain any sexual intercourse, all sex was, oral, manual and self masturbation.
References to roses and lilies was pointed out to me.
What is interesting about that is roses are the symbol of Blessed virgin Mary, our Lord's mother, (hence the Catholic Rosary).
And the Lily is a symbol of purity and of Joseph her husband. I believe the tradition that Mary remained a virgin always, the so called, 'brothers' are close cousins, as Aramaic did not have a separate word for cousin.
That raised a question I heard, is Songs not just a poetic form of Solomon describing his relationship. But also pointing to the (then) future relationship of Mary and Joseph?
I.E Did Mary and Joseph have a non-penetrative sexual relationship?
I'm always looking for good book recommendations so will check out this book! Horndog I hope you don't mind if I correct your spelling but it's written by Chana & Ariel Bloch, not that it was too hard to find regardless. Interesting to think that the Bible may contain hidden descriptions and sexual acts that the translators were too scandalized to include. I've been interested in learning just how accurate and reliable any different translation of Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek can be and how it might inform our understanding of God's Word.
@sarah k
I’m not going to wade in to the debate of whether some sexual activity before marriage is okay or not, except to say that I think it is not… lol
But with that said, I appreciated your comment, “Songs is not Chronological from beginning to end, but a collection of stories.”
I feel that many in Western culture fail to appreciate or understand non-Western forms of storytelling. Many forms of narrative are only loosely bound to chronology, or sometimes not at all.
I personally see it as BOTH a celebration of marital erotic love, as well as a celebration of the love of Christ for His Bride. What a beautiful thought that He is as attracted to those He would redeem, as a man is to the woman he is in love with! Praise the Lord!
“To me, Song of Songs is love, beautiful and innocent. Pure, like it should be.”
—Love, Vanessa ❤️
I was raised in the more conservative side of Wesleyan (Methodist) christianity – Church of Nazarene and Holiness pentecostal. As a youth, they taught that the Song was:
a) not to be taken literally,
b) it was entirely allegorical a description of Christ and the Church,
c) in the original language it was so explicit that no one under the age of 40 was allowed to read it.
After I got older and started studying Judaism, I found out that they did not share those thoughts.
a) that Hebrew scripture and especially poetic texts had 4 levels of meaning; all being true simultaneously: The Plain Meaning, The "Hinted at" meaning, a "Teaching," and the "Mystical" meaning. Clearly the allegorical meaning falls into the last "mystical" classification.
b) An allegory of God and people of Israel. (similar to ours)
c) as to the age of the readers, for millennia the entire book has been read in Hebrew in the synagogues at Passover every year. Apparently that was confused with the readings of certain mystical Chassidic texts like the Zohar and Tanya which are only red after age 40.