Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: The Gospel of Luke, the Song of Solomon, Ezekiel’s Vines, and Hosea’s Curse.

Like Jesus’ actions, Jesus’ statements are packed with allusions to the story of Scripture.

As we’ll see, his statements in Luke 23.28–31 are no exception.

In Luke 23.28–31, as he is led away to be crucified, Jesus addresses the people around him. In particular, he speaks to the women present.

Jesus’ speech consists of a mere 62 words, yet, in it, Jesus combines allusions to (at least) the Song of Solomon, Ezek. 17, and Hos, 9–10.

These allusions are tied together by a common image—that of a vineyard, which is in some cases green and well-kept, and in other cases not.

More on that in a bit.

First, however, let’s take a brief step back.

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THE SHAPE OF LUKE’S GOSPEL

That the bookends of Luke’s Gospel resonate with one another is well known.

Featured in both bookends is, for instance, a Messiah who disappears for three days at the time of the Passover,

a surprised couple on the road who suddenly (and unexpectedly) become aware of their Messiah’s presence/absence,

and a priestly figure who lifts his hands heavenwards, blesses those present, and afterwards departs in peace (cp. 2.27–29, 24.50ff. w. 2.38).

These resonances have caused some people, like a certain Shulamite woman, to run around Luke’s Gospel in search of a chiasmus, if possible with the Mount of Transfiguration at its centre.

But while such people have sought, they have not (to my knowledge) found.

What *can* be found, I submit, are further contact-points with the aforementioned Shulamite’s story.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON

Certain features of the bookends discussed above are curiously Song-of-Solomon-esque. We have:

🔹 a kiss (a particular interest of Luke’s: cp. 7.38–45, 15.20, 22.47–48),

🔹 incense (1.8–11),

🔹 an array of spices and fragrances (23.56ff.), borne not by a Shulamite woman (שולמית), but by a woman named ‘Salome’ (Σαλώμη: Mark 16.1),

🔹 a song sung by a virgin (1.47–55), whom we later find amidst shepherds (2.1–10 w. SoS. 1.8),

🔹 an unkept vineyard (another particular interest of Luke’s: 13.6–7), possessed by a beloved (20.13 w. SoS 1.6),

🔹 a woman who loses the one she loves (and rushes around Jerusalem in search of him: 2.44ff. w. SoS. 5.6–8),

🔹 and a forgotten king who (re)gathers his friends and eats honeycomb in their midst (24.42 w. SoS. 5.1).

Note: To appreciate the last allusion we first need to catch the textual foxes/critics who have spoilt our Biblical vineyards.

These and other images related to the Song of Solomon flicker in the background of Luke’s narrative as Jesus slowly closes in on Jerusalem.

But, in 23.28, Jesus brings these images to the foreground of the narrative by his reference to the women around him as ‘daughters of Jerusalem’—a phrase found only in the OT in the Song of Solomon (where it occurs 7 times) and only in the NT in Luke.

As we’ll see, Jesus’ words specifically have in mind the Song of Solomon’s central ref. to the daughters of Jerusalem in 3.6–11. Jesus wants to see what is about to occur in light of Solomon’s entrance into Jerusalem on the day of his marriage ceremony.

Why? Because Jesus wants us to appreciate the deeper and divine significance of what is about to befall him.

The text of Luke 23 describes, as a matter of historical fact, how Jesus is treated in Jerusalem,

...while the backdrop of the Song of Solomon depicts how Jesus *should* have been treated and the divine significance of what unfolds there, not least of which is the unison of a man and his bride.

Beneath and beyond the immediate shame and isolation associated with the cross lies glory, reconciliation, and life immortal.

As such, the texts of Luke and the Song of Solomon exhibit both disanalogies and analogies—vivid historical contrasts, yet at the same time a deep symbolic concord.

Similarity #1: Both Solomon and Jesus arrive in Jerusalem (their intended destination) at the end of a long journey.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon approaches the city from the wilderness, surrounded by skilled men (מְלֻמְּדִּים), Jesus travels from the city *to* the wilderness, abandoned by his disciples (תלמידים).

Similarity #2: Both Solomon and Jesus’s female onlookers initially fail to recognise them.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon’s bride-to-be fails to recognise him because she first meets him as a shepherd and doesn’t expect to see him in the midst of a royal entourage,...

…Jesus’ onlookers fail to appreciate the nature of Luke 23’s events (and hence weep) because they expect their Messiah to come as a king rather than lay his life down as a ‘good shepherd’.

Similarity #3: Both Solomon and Jesus are surrounded by ‘clouds’.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon is surrounded by clouds of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, Jesus is surrounded by a ‘cloud’ of false witnesses (whose thoughts are far from sweet),...

…and the ‘fragrance’ he wears concern his burial (24.1). His life will be offered up like frankincense, mixed with the bitterness of myrrh.

Similarity #4: Both Solomon and Jesus’ journeys involve a wooden structure studded with metal, on which each man is borne up.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon’s wooden structure is a sedan chair borne by many men, on which Solomon travels in luxury, Jesus’ is a cruel cross, carried by a lone individual, and it is later studded not with gold and silver, but with nails of iron.

Similarity #5: Both Solomon and Jesus are surrounded by an armed guard.

Contrast: Yet, while the purpose of Solomon’s guard is to protect him from ‘the terrors of the night’, the purpose of Jesus’ is to nail him to the cross,...

...where he will be *exposed* to the terrors of the night (22.53 w. 23.44–45, Isa. 13.10).

Similarity #6: Both Solomon and Jesus are associated with purple fabric.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon’s chariot is lined with purple fabric in recognition of his royalty, Jesus is clothed in purple in *mockery* of his, and is awarded the title ‘king of the Jews’ in jest.

Similarity #7: And both Solomon and Jesus are surrounded by ‘daughters of Jerusalem’.

Contrast: Yet, while Solomon’s daughters are invited to share in his ‘gladness’, Jesus invites the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ to weep in light of what will soon come to pass there (23.28).

The events of Solomon’s arrival in Jerusalem (SoS. 3.6–11) and Jesus’ exit from Jerusalem (Luke 23.27–31) are hence tightly coupled together,

not only thematically, but by Jesus’ own words.

Jesus wants us to view his crucifixion in light of SoS. 3.6–11.

Beyond the shame of the cross is glory and honour;

beyond the isolation of the cross is the unison/marriage of a man and his bride;

and beyond the death of the cross is life immortal.

Jesus’ departure from the earthly Jerusalem is his arrival in the heavenly Jerusalem, precisely as is depicted in Daniel’s night visions:

For that reason, Jesus tells the women around him not to weep on his behalf, but to weep at the thought of what will befall their children (i.e., the generation to come),

which Jesus goes on to describe in more detail in 23.29–30.

HOSEA’S CURSE

In 23.29–30, Jesus quotes from Hosea 10.8.

Just as Jesus’ mention of the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ alludes not just to an isolated verse, but to a whole scene together with its wider context, so too does his reference to Hos. 10.8.

Consider Hosea’s portrayal of Israel’s state and its parallels with both the events of Luke 23 and those of the Song of Solomon.

🔹 Israel is likened to a fruitful vine, which has since dried up (9.10, 16, 10.1)—an image we’ll later consider in relation to Luke 23.31 (‘What will happen when the green tree is dry?’).

🔹 Israel’s mothers will soon be bereaved; indeed, the days to come will be more bearable for those who are barren (9.12, 14, 16 w. 23.29)

🔹 Israel will be cast out of her land and left to wander the nations (9.17).

🔹 Israel will say she ‘has no king’ (10.3)—a phrase which is explicitly attributed to the Jewish leaders in John 19, yet which is implicit in Luke 23, where the Jews deliver God’s Messiah over to Rome’s representative (Pilate) on the basis he does not obey Caesar (23.2)!

🔹 And Israel will thus perish. She will seek death and not find it, and call out to the hills, ‘Cover us!’. Yet judgment will ineluctably come. And, at dawn, Israel’s king (Jesus) will be cut off (10.15).

These details stand in the backdrop of Hosea 10.15, and are suddenly brought to the foreground of Luke’s narrative by Jesus’ quotation of Hosea.

Judgement is at hand.

What the Assyrians did in Hosea’s day, the Romans will soon do in Jesus’ day—or, more precisely, in the days of the children of Jesus’ day (23.28).

And the judgment they dispense will be severe (23.29–30).

No longer the bride of Solomon, Israel will be scattered among the nations (Hos. 9–10), and will become like the faithless bride of Hosea 2,

all of which brings us to Jesus’ statement in 23.31:

EZEKIEL’S VINES

Trawls of classical literature don’t appear to have shed a great deal of light on Jesus’ statement in 23.31.

The text of Ezekiel 17, however, strikes me as highly relevant both to the context of 23.31...

...as well as to the texts we’ve considered above from Hosea and the Song of Solomon.

Consider the scene described by Ezekiel 17.

Israel is again likened to a fruitful vine.

Yet she is a vine who has turned her attention to the wrong eagle/superpower (17.7, 11ff.).

While God has set Babylon over Israel, Israel seems to prefer her former overlord—Egypt—and seeks to return to her.

Courtesy of Babylon, then, Israel will be uprooted and left to die (17.9). The tall tree will be brought low, and the green tree will dry up (17.24), like the vine of Hosea 9–10.

As before, Jesus brings all these details (and more) to the foreground of Luke 23 by his allusion to Ezekiel 17.

What the Babylonians did in Ezekiel’s day, the Romans will do in the days of the generation to come.

As the virgin of Luke 1 has sung (1.52), and as Jesus himself has stated (14.11, 18.14), those who raise themselves up will be brought low.

And, in light of what the Romans are about to do to Jesus when ‘the wood is green’—i.e., before God has plucked Israel up—, what they will do in the days to come (when Israel is dry) will not be pretty (23.31).

A dried out vine, Israel will be fit only to be burnt (Ezek. 15),

...and burnt she will be.

As such, in Jesus’ days, the three elements of SoS. 8.6’s description of love come together in a single historical moment:

a love as strong as death,

a jealousy as merciless as the grave,

and the very flame of YHWH.

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For all the horror of what is described above, the picture painted in Hosea and in Ezekiel 17 is not one of unmitigated judgment and disaster.

Yes, Israel will be scattered among the nations. And, yes, the tall tree will be brought low and the green tree made to dry up.

Yet Hosea and Ezekiel have more to tell us.

Even as the tall tree is brought low, the ‘low tree’ will be made tall and the dry tree made to flourish (Ezek. 17.22–24), just as Mary is (1.52 w. 14.11, 18.14),

...and Israel’s vineyard, like the Shulamite’s, will be restored (Hos. 2.15, 14.7 w. SoS. 7.12–13).

From a tender twig will grow forth a tree with great branches, in which the birds of the air will shelter (Ezek. 17.23).

By means of Jesus’ death, the kingdom described in Luke 13.19 will take root in the earth.

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FINAL REFLECTIONS

Jesus’ allusions to the texts we’ve discussed above are the product of a mind saturated in Scripture, not to mention a literary genius.

But they are a lot more than that.

In the days and person of Jesus, a whole mass of OT prophecies rush together and come to a head,

which Jesus reveals by a trio of brilliantly chosen allusions.

Those allusions hint at Jesus’ true identity and describe the judgment soon to come on Israel,

by virtue of which they also depict the judgment Jesus must bear on behalf of Israel.

Jesus is the true Israel—the true and fruitful vine. And he is hence delivered over to the nation which will administer God’s judgment on Israel (namely Rome) and sentenced to death by its representative of justice.

On the cross, Jesus becomes thirsty. Hosea’s ‘thorns and thistles’ take hold of him.

He is the king of Hosea 10.15, cut off at dawn, and the dry and tender tree of Ezekiel 17.

Yet he is also the Solomonic king who will soon come in glory for his bride,

a sword at his side,

a bloodstained robe on his shoulders,

and clouds of saints in his train,

and none will stand before him (Rev. 19).

THE END.

Note: The Song of Solomon is traditionally read in synagogues after the Passover Seder. If that tradition stretches back to the 1st cent. AD, then the text of SoS. 3.6–11 would have been read in synagogues only a few hours after Jesus spoke to the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’.

Note also: The significance of Jesus’ reference to the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ was first pointed out to me in a sermon by @PastorSteveJeff, which can be found here:

northlondonchurch.org/ministers-blog….

Pdf version: academia.edu/44226005/