The Noblest Song of Salomon or The Song of Songs in the translation of Brest Bible

Abstract

“The Noblest Song of Solomon” [“Nazacniejsza Pieśń Salomonowa”], or The Song of Songs [Pieśń nad pieśniami] in the translation of Brest Bible is an attempt to interpret various fragments of the biblical love dialogue with particular focus on the content of margins (comments) written by the editors of the Brest Bible. My analysis leads to the conclusion that for the 16th century Protestant exegetes allegoresis was the dominant method of reading The Song of Songs. Neverthless, in some of their philological intuitions the Brest Bible’s editors surprisingly agree with the findings of the 20th century Biblical Studies, especially in the case of the strictly erotic character of some allusive expressions, or associations with the symbols used in the Pentateuch.