ECCLESIASTES & THE SONG OF SONGS
By Daniel C. Fredericks & Daniel J. Estes
IVP. 472 pages. £21.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-413-8
The Apollos Old Testament Commentary Series aims to deal with the Old Testament text, but also its connection with the New Testament, the church and the Christian. This is a demanding goal and Ecclesiastes & The Song of Songs presents significant challenges in pursuing it.
Fredericks and Estes were well aware of the difficulties they faced. Each points out that ‘his’ book has suffered either by (i) being regarded as in conflict with the New Testament (Ecclesiastes) or as an allegory of it (The Song of Songs), or (ii) being dealt with in recent scholarly publications (see the considerable bibliographies) without much reference to it at all.