Texts in Conversation
In Song of Solomon, a lover praises a woman one feature at a time, from her eyes and hair to her breasts. In the Genesis Apocryphon from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Pharaoh’s courtiers praise Sarai the same way, listing her face, hair, eyes, nose and breasts.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Song of Solomon 4:1
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
1 The Lover to His Beloved: Oh, you are beautiful, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending from Mount Gilead. 2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing place; each of them has a twin, and not one of them is missing. 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread; your mouth is lovely. Your forehead behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate. 4 Your neck is like the tower of David built with courses of stones; one thousand shields are hung on it—all shields of valiant warriors. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of the gazelle grazing among the lilies.
1QapGen 20:3
Genesis Apocryphon
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
2 … […] how … and beautiful is the form of her face, and how 3 lovely and how fine is the hair of her head. How fair are her eyes, and how pleasing is her nose, and all the radiance of 4 her face … How lovely is her breast, and how beautiful is all her whiteness. Her arms, how beautiful! And her hands, how 5 perfect! And how desirable is the whole appearance of her hands. How fair are her palms, and how long and slender are all the fingers of her hands. Her feet, 6 how beautiful! And how perfect are her legs. No virgins or brides who enter the bridal chamber are more beautiful than she. Above all 7 women her beauty is beautiful, and her beauty is high above them all. And with all this beauty there is much wisdom in her, and the work of her hands 8 is lovely.” And when the king heard the words of Hyrcanus and the words of his two companions, for the three of them spoke with one mouth, he desired her greatly, and he sent
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Notes and References
“... The Apocryphon also features a few passages which appear to be modelled more extensively on secondary scriptural material. Daniel Falk raises the possibility that the song of Hirqanos and the Egyptians extolling Sarai’s beauty (1QapGen 20:2-8) is ‘a midrash on the ideal Israelite wife from Prov. 31.10-31 combined with Song of Songs, inspired by Gen. 12.11 (“I know well that you are a beautiful woman”)’. As in Canticles, Hirqanos’ song praises Sarai’s face (1QapGen 20:2, 4; cf. Song 2:14), hair (1QapGen 20:3; cf. Song 4:1; 6:5), eyes (1QapGen 20:3; cf. Song 4:1; 6:5), nose (1QapGen 20:3; cf. Song 7:4), breasts (1QapGen 20:4; cf. Song 4:5; 7:3, 7-8) and thighs (1QapGen 20:6; cf. Song 7:1). ...”
Vette, Nathanel
Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark
(p. 68) T&T Clark, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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