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Old 08-20-2011, 05:11 PM   #19
ZNPaaneah
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Default Re: Against LSM's Allegorizing

Quote:
Originally Posted by kisstheson View Post
I was referencing the "Index of Allusions and Verbal Parallels" in the back of the USB4. According to this Index, Song of Songs is the only OT book which is neither alluded to in the NT nor contains any verbal parallels with any passages in the NT. As the example from the book of Obadiah showed, the scholar(s) who complied this index were fairly liberal regarding what constitutes an "allusion or verbal parallel". In spite of this fact, there are no entries for Song of Songs in this index. All that rich, poetic, symbolism and allegory in Song of Songs and neither Jesus nor His apostles ever touched it!
Dear Brother,

I don't think we can come to this conclusion based on allusions or verbal parallels. Jesus said that He was the greater Solomon. This was said in the context of the Queen of Sheba coming to hear the wisdom of Solomon. When we talk of the wisdom of Solomon I see no basis to exclude his writings, particularly his "Song of Songs".

In chapter 5 of Ephesians Paul talks of the walk for both Singles and the married couples and concludes saying "this mystery is great but I speak with regards to Christ and the Church". Therefore, speaking of romantic love and marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and the Church is a NT sanctioned metaphor and something that the Apostle Paul did touch. To apply that same metaphor to Song of Songs is clearly within the boundary of what the Apostles taught.

The Apostle John referred to the church as the Bride of Christ and said that she had made herself ready. So here is another Apostle that touched this figure of speech with regards to Christ and the Church. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone looking for this metaphor in the OT would overlook Song of Songs. Why isn't the phrase "she has made herself ready" a verbal parallel with SofS since it clearly describes this woman making herself ready?

Jesus also used this analogy, saying that He was the bridegroom and talked about the marriage of the Bride and groom.

So that list of verbal allusions and parallelisms may be interesting, but I don't see that it in any way can be used to say that the SofS is not touched on by Jesus or the Apostles.

While thinking on this I was reminded of an experience I had when I was 12 years old that left an indelible mark on my brain. I was on a Pee Wee football team, we were playing the last game of the regular season, we were undefeated and our opponent was undefeated, so this game would decide the conference champion. We had been the conference champion the previous year, but the newspaper was predicting we would lose this year. Their reasoning was simple, they put a side by side comparison up of the score from every game showing that our opponent had done equally well, if not better against every other team in the conference. Also, they pointed out that their linemen were, on average, bigger than our linemen. Pee Wee football is all about the running game, so this also seemed to be a very relevant observation. I read this article and I realized that their facts were accurate, their reasoning was logical, and the article was complete trash. I felt, why didn't this guy take 5 minutes to talk to anyone on the team, I could easily have made it clear that the whole article was complete rubbish.

So we played the game, every single possession our 1st string offense scored a touchdown, and our 1st string defense held them to negative total yards. It was such a blowout that the coach pulled the first string out at the end of the 1st quarter. The final score was something like 45-0 (I think they might have scored a touchdown against our third string, I can't remember).

Here is what the writer missed -- During the entire season our 1st string had never played in the second half, and for most games we hadn't played in the 2nd quarter. Also, as far as their linemen being bigger, I was the smallest lineman on the first string, I weighed 97 pounds and the weight limit was 99. Everyone else on the starting team ran around in sweats all week to make sure they made weight. So because the guy across from me is 2 pounds heavier, that is their advantage? Statistics cannot replace common sense or research.
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