Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
Could Paul's word in Ephesians "This mystery is great but I speak in regards to Christ and the Church" be an oblique parallel since both are using the same metaphor?
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Could be. But it would seem quite oblique since there is not really a parallel of thought or terminology, but only a comparison of topic. In fact, if there is a parallel, it would seem to be in the actual discussion of the relationship of the husband and wife since that is the parallel. There is nothing in the portion you quote that parallels at all. It is the thing that Paul appended it to that parallels.
And you might be able to argue some kind of parallel. But relative to the others mentioned, you probably need something more directly similar. In any case, Paul didn't start talking about husbands and wives to refer to the SofS. Saying "half my kingdom" is directly similar. But the Obadiah to Revelation reference is at least a little less direct.
My first thought would be to consider it a plausible notion. But the lack of such consideration by anyone else before now would make me hesitant.
One of the things that I believe should underscore the level of error in Lee and the LRC is the declaration that they are getting all this new light. I'm convinced that the only thing truly new since the first century is the nature of the culture(s) into which the gospel must reach. Each change is a new challenge. The latest is one of the most difficult. There is a growing belief in spirituality but less belief in anything of substance behind it. There is less inclination to acknowledge that there is wrong or a lack. People just do as they feel and expect it all to work out OK. I recently read an article in which someone with no higher credentials than being a movie critic declared that the randomness of evolution comforted him. He would rather be human than a cat (I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail) so he could contemplate it all, but in the end he just dies and it is over (in so many of his own words).
But there are no lost doctrines. Nothing needing "recovery." And for this reason, I would tend to think that if no one whose life is given to the study and preaching of the word has come up with an "allusion or parallel" between Song of Songs and Ephesians, then I admit that I am not inclined to buy it as something new.
I see what you are seeing. And there
is a parallel — a weak one at best. But it seems too broad to be what they are talking about. Otherwise you could say that any speaking about husband and wife would definitionally be an oblique reference to the Song of Songs no matter how far that was from the writer's thoughts.
And I admit that the Obadiah to Revelation parallel is beginning to stretch it a little (at least to me).