Note 18 — INTRODUCTION.

323–246, B.C.18 It has been supposed that the Septuagint, which may be regarded as the oldest Jewish exegetical tradition, contains some intimation that the translators of the Old Testament into Greek and their Jewish brethren of those days must have interpreted the Song of Solomon in an allegorical manner. The only passage adduced in corroboration of this opinion is, Ch. iv. 8, where the Septuagint renders ‏מֵראֹשׁ אֲמָנָה‎ from the top of Amana, by ἀπὸ ἀρχῆς πίστεως, from the top of faith. That this appeal is nugatory is obvious from the rendering of ‏תִּרְצָה‎ Tirzah by εὐδοκία, delight, vi. 4, and of ‏בַּתנָדִיב‎ noble daughter by θύγατερ Ναδάβ, daughter of Nadab, vii. 1; whence it is evident that the Septuagint frequently mistook proper names for appellatives and adjectives, and vice versâ. It appears inconceivable that a profound scholar like Keil, who is well acquainted with the frequent errors of the Septuagint, should quote this as a special and sufficient proof that “the Alexandrian version took this Song in an allegorical sense,”19 especially as he knew that some have drawn from it the very opposite conclusion, who have argued that if the authors of the Septuagint had understood this book in any other than its obvious sense, they would have betrayed it in the translation.20