SOURCE: "Interpretation of the Song of Songs," in The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays on the Old Testament, Rev. ed., Basil Blackwell, 1965, pp. 197-245.

In the following essay originally published in 1952, Rowley provides a brief historical survey of scholarship on the Song of Songs, outlining the allegorical, historical, Christian, and dramatic readings of the work, and considering its function and meaning.

There is no book of the Old Testament which has found greater variety of interpretation than the Song of Songs. Nor can it be said that there is any real agreement amongst scholars to-day as to the origin and significance of the work. In the title it is ascribed to Solomon, but no weight can be attached to that tradition, and writers of all schools now recognize it to be without authority. It is generally believed, however, that it was owing to the fact that...