The ointment of the female disciple filled the whole house. A bundle of myrrh is my kinsman to me; he shall lie between my breasts. Having said that the nard of the bridegroom has given me its fragrance, I now say that my kinsman breathes of myrrh not poured out, nor breathing outward, but bound up and giving its fragrance more intensely; but the Church from the Gentiles, having the first people as a brother, since Christ according to the flesh was from him, has called him the son of a brother and of the bridegroom; and since Aquila has rendered it as paternal uncle, it must be said that the ancient people is the father of the Church from the Gentiles; since from their law and the prophets came our birth in God and our advancement into piety; Since, therefore, the father of the bride has been thus rendered, the Savior is a brother, having similarly become under the law like them. Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Now it seems the bride has previously perceived more clearly the beauty of the bridegroom, and through her dove's eyes has sensed the excellence in the beauty of the Word; and perhaps she also alludes to the body as the common bed of herself and the bridegroom, in which the soul, while still existing, is deemed worthy of communion with the Word; Therefore Paul says, Our bodies are members of Christ; for by "our" he says the body belongs to the bride; and by "members of Christ," to the bridegroom; and he calls the bridegroom "shady" because of the density of the contemplations in the Word and in wisdom; and if the common bride of both is flourishing, it is not at all surprising that every good action done through the body is also signified for the body. CHAPTER 2. I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys. He calls "flower" that which is on its way to becoming fruit; therefore in the earthly place, called a plain, the bridegroom Word is a flower with respect to things to come; for when that which is perfect comes, the flower will change into becoming fruit; and since they cannot contain more than the flower, he says, upon the earth; For this reason the bridegroom became as a flower of the plain; for he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, so that we might be able to behold his glory after these things; and perhaps for the more noble and level places, called plains, he is a flower, but for those lower and more hollow than these, a lily; having said these things, the bridegroom compares his 17.261 love with other daughters, the remaining souls, who are thorns when compared to her. Such are the souls not near the bridegroom; but his love is a lily shining in their midst. As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons; I delighted to sit under his shadow, and his fruit was in my throat. It was fitting for the bride, having become wholly of the bridegroom's beauty, to say nothing about herself, but in addition to what the bridegroom said about himself, to compare him to an apple tree; and their sons, to the trees of the wood; and by the excess of her desire, she even desires his shadow, and to convey its quality to the depth; and she seems to say these things to the young women, as the bridegroom did at first to his companions; and by "sons," she means either the companions whom she compared alongside the bridegroom to fruitless trees, or those who are alien to him. And under his shadow she both desired and has sat down; And Jeremiah also says in Lamentations: The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's Christ, was taken in our corruptions; of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations; for how could his shadow fail to become a cause of life for us, who have been set free from the shadow of the law? For the law had a shadow of the good things to come, since we are no longer under the law, but under grace, even if now we are under a shadow that is far different; for after the present life, no longer through a mirror and in a riddle, but face to face we shall behold the truth; And the bride will also say, Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away; for our life is as a shadow, and he from the Gentiles sat in the shadow of death, and the unbelieving still sit there. Bring me into the wine house. This she says to the friends of the bridegroom, the holy angels, or

οἰκίαν ὅλην ἐπλήρωσε τῆς μαθητρίας τὸ μῦρον. Ἀπόδεσμος τῆς στακτῆς ἀδελφιδοῦς μου ἐμοὶ, ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν μαστῶν μου αὐλισθήσεται Εἰποῦσα τὴν νάρδον τοῦ νυμφίου δεδωκέναι μοι τὴν ὀσμὴν, νῦν φημι τὸν ἀδελφιδοῦν μου πνέειν στα κτῆς οὐ διαχεομένης, οὐδ' ἔξω πνεούσης· ἀλλ' ἀποδε δεμένης καὶ πυκνότερον τὴν εὐωδίαν διδούσης· ἀδελ φὸν δὲ τὸν πρῶτον ἐσχηκυῖα λαὸν ἡ ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλη σία, ἐπείπερ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ἦν ὁ Χριστὸς, υἱὸν κέκληκεν ἀδελφοῦ καὶ νυμφίου· τοῦ δὲ Ἀκύλα ἐκδεδωκότος πατράδελφον, λεκτέον πατέρα εἶναι τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίας τὸν πάλαι λαόν· ἐπεὶ ἐκ τοῦ παρ' ἐκείνοις νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν ἡ ἐν Θεῷ γένεσις καὶ ἡ ἐξ ἡμῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν ὑπῆρξε προαγωγή· τού του τοίνυν οὕτως ἀποδεδομένου τῆς νύμφης πατρὸς, ἀδελφὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ ὁμοίως ἐκείνοις ὑπὸ νόμον γενό μενος. Ἰδοὺ εἶ καλὴ, ἡ πλησίον μου, ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή· ὀφθαλμοί σου περιστεραί. Νῦν ἔοικε πρότερον ἐνεωρακέναι τρανώτερον τῷ τοῦ νυμφίου κάλλει ἡ νύμφη· καὶ διὰ τῶν περιστε ρῶν αὐτῆς ὀφθαλμῶν αἰσθέσθαι τῆς ἐν τῷ κάλλει τοῦ λόγου καὶ ὑπεροχῆς· τάχα δὲ καὶ κλίνην κοινὴν ἑαυ τῆς καὶ τοῦ νυμφίου τὸ σῶμα αἰνίττεται, ἐν ᾧ ἔτι οὖσα ἡ ψυχὴ ἀξιοῦται τῆς τοῦ λόγου κοινωνίας· λέγει οὖν Παῦλος, Τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν μέλη Χριστοῦ ἐστι· διὰ γὰρ τοῦ ἡμῶν τῆς νύμφης εἶναι λέγει τὸ σῶμα· διὰ δὲ τοῦ μέλη Χριστοῦ, τοῦ νυμφίου· σύσκιον δέ φησι τὸν νυμφίον διὰ τὴν πυκνότητα τῶν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τῇ σοφίᾳ θεωρημάτων· ἐὰν δὲ ᾖ ἡ κοινὴ νύμφη ἀμφοῖν εὐθαλὴς, οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ σῶμα πᾶσαν τὴν διὰ τοῦ σώματος πρᾶξιν ἀγαθὴν δηλοῦσθαι. ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Βʹ. Ἐγὼ ἄνθος τοῦ πεδίου, κρίνον τῶν κοιλάδων. Ἄνθος λέγει τὸ ὁδεῦον ἐπὶ τὸ γενέσθαι καρπός· ἐν οὖν τῷ περιγείῳ τόπῳ πεδίῳ ῥηθέντι, ἄνθος ἐστὶν ὁ νυμφίος λόγος ὡς πρὸς τὰ μέλλοντα· ὅταν γὰρ ἔλθῃ τὸ τέλειον, μεταβαλεῖ τὸ ἄνθος εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι καρ πός· καὶ ἐπεὶ μὴ πλέον χωροῦσι τοῦ ἄνθους, λέγει ἐπὶ γῆς· διὰ τοῦτο γέγονεν ὁ νυμφίος ὡς ἄνθος τοῦ πεδίου· ἑαυτὸν γὰρ ἐκένωσε, μορφὴν δούλου λαβὼν, πρὸς τὸ δυνηθῆναι τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμᾶς θεάσασθαι· μήποτε δὲ τοῖς μὲν εὐγενε στέροις καὶ ὁμαλέσι πεδίοις ὀνομαζομένοις, ἄνθος ἐστὶ, τοῖς δὲ τούτων κατωτέροις καὶ κοιλωτέροις κρίνον· ταῦτα φήσας ὁ νυμφίος παραβάλλει τὴν 17.261 πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἄλλαις θυγατράσι ταῖς λοιπαῖς ψυ χαῖς, αἵτινές εἰσιν ἄκανθαι ταύτῃ παραβαλλόμεναι. Τοιαῦται δὲ αἱ μὴ πλησίον τοῦ νυμφίου ψυχαί· ἡ δὲ πλησίον κρίνον ἐν μέσῳ διαλάμπον αὐτοῦ. Ὡς μῆλον ἐν τοῖς ξύλοις τοῦ δρυμοῦ, οὕτως ἀδελ φιδοῦς μου ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν υἱῶν· ὑπὸ τὴν σκιὰν αὐτοῦ ἐπεθύμησα καὶ ἐκάθισα, καὶ ὁ καρπὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ λάρυγγί μου. Ἔπρεπε τῇ νύμφῃ τοῦ κάλλους ὅλῃ τοῦ νυμφίου γεγενημένῃ, περὶ αὐτῆς μὲν λέγειν οὐδὲν, πρὸς οἷς δὲ ὁ νυμφίος ἔφη περὶ ἑαυτοῦ, μήλῳ παραβάλλειν αὐ τόν· τοὺς παρ' αὐτῶν δὲ υἱοὺς, ξύλοις δρυμοῦ· ὑπερ βολῇ δὲ τοῦ πόθου, τὸ καὶ σκιᾶς ἐπιθυμεῖν τῆς αὐ τοῦ, καὶ παραπέμψαι τῷ βάθει τὴν τούτου ποιότητα· ἔοικε δὲ ταῦτα λέγειν πρὸς τὰς νεάνιδας, ὡς πρὸς τοὺς ἑταίρους ὁ νυμφίος τὰ πρῶτα· υἱοὺς δὲ, ἢ τοὺς ἑταί ρους λέγει οὓς παραθέει τοῦ νυμφίου ξύλοις ἀκάρποις παρείκασεν, ἢ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους αὐτοῦ. Ὑπὸ σκιὰν δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐπεθύμησέ τε καὶ κεκάθικεν· λέγει δὲ καὶ Ἱε ρεμίας ἐν Θρήνοις· Πνεῦμα πρὸ προσώπου ἡμῶν Χριστὸς Κύριος, συνελήφθη ἐν ταῖς διαφθοραῖς ἡμῶν· οὗ εἴπωμεν Ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ αὐτοῦ ζησώμεθα ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι· πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἔμελλε ζωῆς ἡμῖν αἰτία ἡ σκιὰ αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι, γενομένοις ἐλευθέροις τῆς τοῦ νόμου σκιᾶς; Σκιὰν γὰρ εἶχεν ὁ νόμος τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, μηκέτι οὖσιν ὑπὸ νόμον, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ χάριν, εἰ καὶ νῦν ἐσμεν ὑπὸ σκιὰν πολλῷ διαφέρουσαν· μετὰ τὸν παρόντα γὰρ βίον, οὐκ ἔτι δι' ἐσόπτρου καὶ αἰ νίγματι, ἀλλὰ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον τὴν ἀλήθειαν θεωρήσωμεν· λέξει δὲ καὶ ἡ νύμφη, Ἕως οὗ διαυγάσῃ ἡμέρα, καὶ κινηθῶσιν αἱ σκιαί· ἔστι γὰρ ὁ βίος ἡμῶν ὡς σκιὰ, καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου ὁ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐκαθέζετο, καὶ οἱ ἀπιστοῦντες ἔτι καθέζονται. Εἰσαγάγετέ με εἰς οἶκον τοῦ οἴνου. Ταῦτα πρὸς τοὺς φίλους τοῦ νυμφίου φησὶ τοὺς ἁγίους ἀγγέλους ἢ