volume 3, issue 2, 2011, pages 148-172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsHXVT1414
Published online: 2011-12-01
Published in print: 2011-12-30

Abstract: Different attitudes and explanations are found regarding the question of the internal division and structure of the Song of Songs. Similarly also, until now, no absolute consensus about the literary unity of this book has been found. If one pays attention to the literary unity of individual parts of the book, this does not necessarily break the unity of the entire song. On the contrary, in the general view the parts are proof of the integrity of the book – song – as a unit. In the case of the biblical poetry it can be said that the beauty of the book can be discovered by revealing the elegance of its individual parts. The goal of this article is, at least partially, to introduce the results of an observation of the aspect of the scent in the book, in order to clarify the literary unity of the passage 4:8–5:1. The author´s assertion that this passage is a single part of the Song of Songs is on the basis of literary, semantic, structural and thematic observations. Additionally, the investigation of the text 4:8–5:1 reveals the richness in the contents of the passage. This part of the observation is more evident when we consider the passage as a whole. In this article, the role of aromatic elements is treated in particular. This aromatic emphasis might be a potential aid to the exegetic research into the poetic text in that it justifies the internal unity of the passage in terms of its literary composition.