A Critical Edition of Canticles Rabba - Chapter One: Edited on the Basis of Three Manuscripts and Early Editions
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Graduate group
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Comparative Literature
Cultural History
History of Religion
Intellectual History
Islamic World and Near East History
Jewish Studies
Language Interpretation and Translation
Liturgy and Worship
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Abstract
One of the very difficult problems of biblical research is the question of how the Song of Songs, a collection of sensual, non-religious love poetry found a place with the highly religious books of the canon.1) Most scholars would agree with the statement of Jellinsk in a note to Theodor on the relationship of Cant. R. and the Pesitka d'Rab Kahana.2) He wrote that when Canticles found a place in the canon it was already interpreted as an allegory between God and Israel.3) Although this has been the accepted view, it does present not only a difficult problem but one which is unique. No other book entered the canon on the basis of an allegorical interpretation at its justification. There were to be sure other books about which there were doubts but each was justified by some less drastic or extreme method.4)
Advisor
Joseph Reider
Theodor H. Gaster