SOURCE: "Commentary: Prologue," in "The Song of Songs": Commentary and Homilies, translated by R. P. Lawson, The Newman Press, 1957, pp. 21-57.

In the following prologue to his commentary, written in 240, Origen ascribes the Song of Songs to Solomon, noting the importance of a cautious distinction between "passionate love" and "charity" to an interpretation of the dramatic poem's "secret metaphors."

1. the Song of Songs a Drama of Mystical Meaning

It seems to me that this little book is an epithalamium, that is to say, a marriage-song, which Solomon wrote in the form of a drama and sang under the figure of the Bride, about to wed and burning with heavenly love towards her Bridegroom, who is the Word of God. And deeply indeed did she love Him, whether we take her as the soul made in His image, or as the Church. But this same Scripture also teaches us...