Does this passage support incest? (cf. 4:10, 5:1)

The man writes, “How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!” (Song 4:10). Did Solomon have a romance with his sister? Later, the woman writes, “If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me” (Song 8:1). Does this describe an incestuous relationship?

This wasn’t a sign of incest. Rather, this was a cultural sign of endearment in a modest culture. Consider two points:

First, this was a cultural way to speak to your spouse. Egyptian love poetry states, “Then will I hurry to my brother! / I will kiss him before his companions, / I would not weep before them” (Papyrus Chester Beatty I).^[1] Elsewhere, we read, “I am your sister, your best one; / I belong to you like this plot of ground/ That I planted with flowers / And sweet-smelling herbs” (Papyrus Harris 500).^[2] Longman writes, “It is now well established that the use of sister as a term of endearment between an intimate couple was common in the Near East, particularly in Egypt.”^[3] Likewise, Murphy writes that “sister” was “a term frequently used of the beloved in Egyptian love poetry.”^[4]

Moreover, in a Ugaritic poem, Anat seduces Aqhat. She says, “Hear, O hero Aqhat, you are my brother and I your sister” (Aqhat 18 1:24). Moreover, in the Apocryphal books, a wife was often referred to as the husband’s “sister” (Esth. 15:9; Tob. 5:20; 7:16; 8:4, 7).

Second, public displays of affection were reserved for family members. In most cultures, men and women do not show romantic or erotic displays of affection. In the ancient Near East, only family members would kiss the opposite sex in public. Garrett writes, “The point is that she wishes she were free to display her affection openly. In the ancient world this would have been impossible for a woman with any man except a father, brother, or other near relative, the kissing of whom would not be construed by the public as a quasisexual act. The freedom to kiss in public would not apply to her husband. Thus the wish expressed here is not sexual but is a desire to be free to show her love for the groom freely and openly.”^[5] Likewise, Carr writes, “She is not wishing that they were literally brother and sister, but that they had the freedom of public expression of their love. What was not in good taste even for husband and wife was perfectly permissible between brother and sister.”^[6] Longman notes that the term “despise” or “shame” is “what shows us that a matter of cultural delicacy is at issue here.”^[7]

^[1] Ancient Egyptian Literature, M. Lichtheim 2:185.

^[2] Ancient Egyptian Literature, M. Lichtheim 2:192.

^[3] Tremper Longman, Song of Songs, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 151.

^[4] Roland E. Murphy, The Song of Songs: A Commentary on the Book of Canticles or the Song of Songs, ed. S. Dean McBride Jr., Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), 160.

^[5] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 14, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 424.

^[6] G. Lloyd Carr, Song of Solomon: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 19 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 181.

^[7] Tremper Longman III, Song of Songs, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 204.