SPIKENARD AND SAFFRON -

A STUDY in the POETIC LANGUAGE of the SONG OF SONGS (front cover title) / THE IMAGERY OF THE SONG OF SONGS (title-page title). By Jill M. Munro.

Published by Sheffield Academic Press, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series #203, England, 1995. ISBN 10: 1850755620 ISBN 13: 9781850755623.

Hardcovers, no dustjacket as issued, green cloth covered boards, gilt embossed titling and design on the front cover and spine, 6x9.5 inches (15x25 cm), 166 pages.

NEAR FINE condition, light push to the bottom of the spine, otherwise tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

Hard-to-Find in the hardcover edition.

From the Publisher:

******This study focuses upon the language of the Song of Songs in an attempt to see how individual images work together in the constitution of a poetic unity. The perception of certain imaginative fields, each of which organizes a range of related imagery, is helpful to an appreciation of the symbolic density which certain images acquire in the course of the Song's movement and to an acknowledgment of their capacity for narrativity.******

About the SONG OF SONGS (from Wikipedia):

******The Song of Songs, also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is an erotic poem, one of the five megillot (scrolls) in the Ketuvim (writings), the last section of the Tanakh. It is unique within the Hebrew Bible: it shows no interest in Law or Covenant or the God of Israel, nor does it teach or explore wisdom like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (although it does have some affinities to wisdom literature, as the ascription to the 10th century BCE King of Israel Solomon indicates); instead, it celebrates sexual love, giving "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".

The two lovers are in harmony, each desiring the other and rejoicing in sexual intimacy. The women of Jerusalem form a chorus to the lovers, functioning as an audience whose participation in the lovers' erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader.

Scholars differ in assessing when it was written, with estimates ranging from the 10th to 2nd century BCE, with linguistic analysis suggesting the 3rd century.******