Is this the bible verse that should put tanning beds out of business!
Living in the tropics for the most part, I now sort of hate the sun's effects on our skin.
Does Song of Solomon 1:5 give me biblical indication to view a state of deep sun-tan as less beautiful and deficient when compared to a paler or a more light-skinned state?
I am black, but comely, O you daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me:
Loveliness is contrasted with a dark complexion. Beauty is equated with being paler and not tanned by the sun. The woman is ashamed because of her sun-burned state. The woman is us, in peasant garb and poor and sun-spotted, but beloved of God.
Though this book is about Christ and His Church, can it tell us about beauty as well? Or merely that ancient near east audience's ideals of beauty? And are we free to possess different ideals of beauty from this book if it is Scripture?
This view of beauty held by the "Daughters of Jerusalem" for women seems to be one of feminine beauty not marred by being darkly tanned by working outside. Can we universalize this? Can we say that the bible has given us a glimpse into the nature of true feminine beauty here (say, to use against folks who go and try to get very tanned at tanning beds, etc). Does this explain the Asian fascination with whitening creams?
Here is Clarke's curious commentary on the Bible for this verse:
I am black, but comely - This is literally true of many of the Asiatic women; though black or brown, they are exquisitely beautiful. Many of the Egyptian women are still fine; but their complexion is much inferior to that of the Palestine females. Though black or swarthy in my complexion, yet am I comely - well proportioned in every part.
Furthermore, if Song of Solomon 1:5 puts forth biblical ideals of what true physical beauty is, must we accept the description of the woman in Song of Solomon 7 as the ideal of biblical physical beauty? Long necks as opposed to short necks? Rounder bellies like heaps of wheat as opposed to skinny women? Navels like goblets as opposed to...I don't know what? Taller women over short women? A nice royal head of hair on top of a head like Carmel...
I am not so sure about the "your nose is like a tower" thing...does that merely designate a sharper nose as opposed to a pug nose? But....anyway, are we allowed to universalize these descriptions and say, "This is what the bible says is the standard of preferred beauty?"
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.