“O that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth”: Problems of interpretation at the beginning of the Canticle of Canticles

Abstract

The biblical book, Canticle of Canticles, is a nuptial poem written in the form of a ‘drama’. This brief description of its form and content brings two difficulties to our attention: the spiritual interpretation of a text, which taken literally, refers to human love and the attribution of the words of the text to the characters, since the biblical text does not inform us who is speaking at each moment. Gregory of Nyssa, following Origen, wrote a series of homilies on the Canticle of Canticles where he had to confront such problems. His answer is moreover settled by the polemical context represented by the figure of Eunomius of Cyzicus, an Arian bishop of the second generation.