DonP
Puritan Board Junior
If it is both literal and allegorical, there are going to be all sorts of difficulties when the speech shifts from singular to plural. E.g., draw me, we will run. A purely allegorical approach is the only way of accounting for it.
Why can't it be typological even though it is allegorical?
Are there no types at all in it? What about the church or Israel?
It seems is definitely is two levels. What it is poetically saying, and what meaning it would have or example it would offer us.
It could have two or more levels of meaning and application to us. But I don't think it is strictly a love or sex manual for the church. So this aspect must be seen some other way.
I would only see the whole thing to be an allegory if it had types as well.
But I agree the maiden is more the lesson than Solomon.
We learn from her 1st love, her distraction, her repentance and return to that love and dependence.
1 Cor 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. NKJV
2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. NKJV