The Song of Songs, or “Song of Solomon,” is among the strangest books of the Bible. It is difficult to translate, hard to understand, and impossible to reconcile with moralistic styles of religious belief. The title of the course, “Locksmithing,” alludes to a famous Jewish saying that sums up both the enigma and attraction of the Song: “the Song is a lock to which the key has been lost.” The first few days of this single week of classes will be devoted to trying to unlock the meaning of the Song with some of the “keys,” that is, interpretive strategies, that have already been fashioned by Jewish and Christian commentators. Then comes the fun part: attempting to unlock the meaning of the Song with new keys that we design together in the workshop of class.
Contact Information about Instructor: Gregory Mobley, [email protected]
Textbooks:
Ariel Bloch and Chana Block, The Song of Songs – A New Translation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1995)
Mobley’s translation (available from instructor)