Why is this book in the Bible?

“What is this book doing in the Bible?” Puzzled, a man had come to his pastor to ask him this question. “Which book?” asked the pastor. “The Song of Songs, why is it in the Bible?” Why was the man upset? What had he found in the Song of Songs that so frustrated him? Perhaps it is what he didn’t find: mention of Israel’s history; mention of worship, prayer, or faith; mention of God or Messiah.

What is mentioned is the verb “love” 35 times; “beloved” 29 times; adjectives “beautiful,” “fair,” “lovely” 16 times; “bride” six times; and “kiss” four times. Does this give us an idea of what the book is about? The book is about passionate, romantic love.

How did Song of Songs get into the Bible!? By the skin of its teeth. In the year 90, the Council of Jamnia decided once and for all which books belonged in the Bible. Many wanted Song of Songs in the Bible because of its popularity. Many wanted it excluded because of its content. The book was voted into the Bible by a slim margin and by some clever reasoning: that it was an allegory of God’s love. The irony is that Bible scholars were able to accept Song of Songs only by holding that it did not mean what it said.

According to tradition, Valentine was a Christian bishop near Rome around 270 A.D. At that time, Emperor Claudius II, desperate for fighting men for his army, outlawed marriage for young men. Single men, he assumed, would be better soldiers. Valentine took pity on the young lovers who came to him for help. He began secretly marrying them, thus keeping their love pure and within the covenant of marriage. Claudius eventually found out and had Valentine arrested. Imprisoned, he kept his faith. As the story goes, God healed his jailer’s blind daughter because of Valentine’s faith. Just before his execution, the bishop penned a goodbye to the girl and signed it, “from your Valentine.” The origins of Valentine’s Day lie in a man martyred for his defense of the marriage covenant.

A couple had come to their priest. They had been married three years. They had little hope for their future, no interest in counseling, and were only there to inform him of their decision to separate. The priest said he would not grant them the annulment they were seeking. Not just yet. He sternly instructed them to read a part of the Bible to each other every evening—a particular part that he would show them.

A year later, the couple was still married. On an evening like many others before it, the husband came to their room. There was his wife sitting comfortably in bed. With a loving smile on her face she asks, “Can we read from the Bible again tonight?”

He moves in beside her, takes the Bible from the bed stand, and opens it to where its pages are most worn. He begins to read: “Ah, you are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among the brambles, so is my love among maidens.”

Then, beginning from where he left off, she reads as he holds her between his arms: “As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention toward me was love…”