The Song of Songs

Murphy’s Hermeneia commentary remains one of the most dependable guides to the Song of Songs. Its great strength is disciplined exegetical judgment: Murphy handles the Hebrew, textual problems, literary forms and ancient parallels carefully, while resisting the temptation either to flatten the poetry into literal anatomical description or to turn every image into theological symbolism. His treatment of the body descriptions is particularly good, recognizing that the imagery can be simultaneously representational and evocative, and his discussion of the Song’s unity is similarly balanced, allowing for constituent poems while taking seriously their deliberate arrangement in the final form. His interpretation of 8:6–7 is a good example of his method: love is as relentless as death, not victorious over it, while the “flame of Yah” permits theological resonance without requiring it. Murphy is less programmatically original than Exum or Berlin, but very few commentaries offer such consistently sound judgment. A superb primary exegetical commentary.

Murphy gives attention to the hermeneutical principles Jewish and Christian interpreters have employed when interpreting the Song throughout history. As Longman observes writes, “Murphy provides an excellent critical reading of the text. He emphasizes its final form and is concerned with theological issues.” [Full Review]

I was surprised to find that the introduction was roughly half of the overall page count. Of course, the history of interpretation of SoS is complicated and worth exploring in depth. The intent of the series is a more technical examination of text, with less emphasis on theological exposition, so this volume is a bit light (but not entirely lacking) with regard to theological meaning of the text.

 

The strength of the commentary is the introduction. It's thorough enough without being tediously exhaustive, and like Exum he is a very good writer. The commentary proper is detailed on grammatical and lexical issues. It's a bit sparse at times on interpretive matters. I wish he would have fleshed out his views a little more fully at times. Like Fox, Murphy is a creative thinker and while that occasionally leads to the adoption of unlikely positions, reading interesting ideas is a boon to ones own thinking. Murphy's commentary is the best technical commentary on the Song. [Full Review]

A thorough commentary with theological as well as exegetical insight. [Full Review]