Note 133 — INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

1852. Immediately after the publication of this commentary, containing some of the most cogent arguments against the allegorical interpretation, a new translation appeared with an allegorical exposition by Hahn. Denying that Solomon represents the Messiah, because at that early period the notion of a personal Messiah was not yet developed in the minds of the people, this commentator advances a new theory, that “the bridegroom” represents the kingdom of Israel, and “the bride” Japhetic heathenism, and that the poem describes, allegorically, “the kingdom of Israel as destined, in God’s service, eventually to overcome heathenism with the weapons of justice and love, and to bring the Heathen into a state of fellowship and love with itself, and consequently with God.”133 He takes the Song to be a dramatico-didactic poem, divisible into six sections.