Category Archives: Old Testament

“My Beloved is a sachet of Myrrh”

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Medieval illumination of the royal couple in the Old Testament Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon

“My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.” (Song of Solomon 1:13 ) St. Gregory of Nyssa comments on this, saying: “The Lord Himself, having become a balsam of myrrh (in His death) and taken residence in my heart itself, occupies the center of my awareness.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux also understands the bitter myrrh as an emblem not only of Christ in the Passion but as the personal repentance of each believer. “This perfume of repentance,” he preaches, “reaches to the very abodes of the blessed in heaven…. God will not scorn this crushed and broken spirit. This [myrrh] not only inspires us to amend our lives but even makes the angels dance for joy,” because the angels greatly rejoice over one sinner who repents. “Those who have renounced sinful ways are inevitably gripped by bitterness and confusion… like fresh wounds” but the bitterness of the myrrh gives way to the sweet scent of the oil of gladness described in Psalm 45:8 (which also describes the royal bride preparing to wed her groom).

In modern Judaism the Song is read on the Sabbath during the Passover, which marks the beginning of the grain harvest as well as commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel, while Christian tradition reads it as an allegory of Christ and his “bride”, the Church.

The Church’s interpretation of the Song as evidence of God’s love for his people, both collectively and individually, began with Origen. Over the centuries the emphases of interpretation shifted: first, reading the Song as a depiction of the love between Christ and Church; in the 11th century, it was read as describing the relationship between Christ and each Christian; in the 12th century the Bride was seen as the Virgin Mary, Each of these new readings absorbed rather than simply replaced earlier interpretations, so that the commentary became ever more complex. Reading the Song of Songs as a theological metaphor reveals the two partners–whether understood as Christ and the Church, Christ and each believer, or God and the Blessed Virgin–are eternally bound in a relationship that the idea of “marriage” can only approximate.

“I am Black and Beautiful:” the Queen of the South

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  • The Queen of Sheba, from a 15th-century manuscript now at Staats – und Universitätsbibliothek Gottingen
  • Sanctae Mariae Coronavi by Giacomo di Mino‘s Gothic version. Circa 1340–1350

The Queen of Sheba, whom Jesus refers to as “the Queen of the South” who “came from the uttermost parts of the earth”, i.e. from the extremities of the then known world, to hear the wisdom of Solomon (Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31), has long fascinated us. She is a mysterious figure who appears briefly in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 and then seems to vanish again. Who was she? What do we really know about her? Why should we care?

Sheba, also known as “Saba,” is mentioned in the Psalms. It was a wealthy kingdom that included modern Yemen and Ethiopia and was connected to a vast network of trading routes and business exchanges. When the Queen came to visit King Solomon, it might well have been a trade mission–a sort of G8 meeting!–to make new trade deals and sign new business agreements between the two monarchs. Solomon and the Queen were both known for their wisdom and keen senses; while striking their business deals, they traded riddles. Folklore has suggested many possible riddles that they might have traded, including the famous, “What land has only seen the sun once?” (Answer: the bottom of the Red Sea, which was exposed to sunlight when it parted for Moses and the Hebrews to escape from Egypt.)

Origen, who wrote a voluminous commentary on the Song of Songs, identified the bride of the Song with the “queen of the South” of the Gospels, i.e. the Queen of Sheba, and assumed she was Ethiopian as the bride in the Song says, “I am black and beautiful” (μέλαινα εἰμί καί καλή ). Not only is the bride in the Song identified as the Queen of Sheba, the bride is also understood by Christians to be an allusion to both the Church and the Mother of God. (It is the identification of the Mother of God with the dark and beautiful bride that results in the depictions of the “black Madonna.”) Because of the identification of the bride as Queen, Church, and Mother of God, the Queen of Sheba herself comes to be seen as a type of the Church and the Mother of God: the wonderful gifts of gold and incense that the Queen brings Solomon is seen as a foreshadowing of the adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2) and the Queen of Sheba enthroned represents the coronation of the virgin.

Moses Atop Mt. Tabor and Mt. Sinai

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The Transfiguration of Christ: Part of an iconostasis from Mt. Sinai in the style of Constantinople (mid-12th century). We see the Prophet Elijah as an older man beside Christ and Moses, holding a copy of the Law given to him on Mt. Sinai, on Christ’s other side. St. Peter kneels below Elijah, with St. John the Divine below Christ and St. James below Moses.

Christ took the apostles Peter, James, and John the Divine to the top of Mt. Tabor to pray. The apostles fell asleep. When they awoke, they saw Christ transfigured–more brilliant than the sun–and Moses was there, with the Prophet Elijah, speaking with Christ about the Passion that Christ would soon experience in Jerusalem. (Moses and Elijah–the primary representatives of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament–were also representative of the living and the dead as Elijah was taken alive into heaven by the chariot of fire and Moses died on Mt. Nebo just outside the Promised Land.)

Although seen by the apostles on Mt. Tabor, Moses is more commonly associated with Mt. Sinai. The famous monastery of St. Catherine (a treasure trove of manuscripts and icons) marks the place on Mt. Sinai where Moses is said to have encountered God–his own face shining more brightly than the sun afterwards–and Moses gazes out at the congregation in the monastery church from the Transfiguration mosaic behind the altar-table; the church on Mt. Sinai is dedicated to the Transfiguration, underscoring Moses’ connections with both Sinai and Tabor.

The oldest record of monastic life at Sinai comes from the travel journal written in Latin by a woman named Egeria about 381–384. She visited many places around the Holy Land and Mount Sinai, where, according to the Old Testament, Moses received the Ten Commandments.

The monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as “Saint Helen’s Chapel”) ordered to be built by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush. The living bush on the grounds is purportedly the one seen by Moses. The place where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments is further up the mountain, behind the monastery.

The library at the monastery preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library The large icon collection begins with a few dating to the 5th-6th centuries; these icons are unique as the monastery was untouched by Byzantine iconoclasm, and never sacked.

A view of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai
Apse mosaic of the Transfiguration from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, AD 565–6.