Denigration of the Shulamite Bride in Origen’s and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Commentary on Song of Songs 1:5-6

Abstract The self-description of the Shulamite bride in Song 1:5-6, “black but beautiful,” enjoys enduring attention in Christian allegorical interpretation. The exegetical challenges which accompany translation of the conjunction “but,” have drawn much ink through the history of reception. The present-day task of interpretation is further troubled where one attempts to navigate both the premodern and contemporary sociocultural implications of the term “black” and its continuing racial slant. Among the earliest Christian commentaries, the reach of Origen’s influence is unparalleled, meeting and surpassing Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th Century whose own commentary too is masterfully crafted. This article explores their exegetical reflection on the blackness of the bride, and what can be observed about their “theologies of Blackness.” Origen explicates the meaning of the bride’s blackness with an unusual selection of intertextual references. Bernard’s exegesis compels him to reformulate the very meaning of “black.” Bernard’s allegorical commentary both intensifies the darkness of the denigrating gaze and imputes it to Christ such that the reader finds themselves where the denigrated groom is united with his beautiful, denigrated bride. Whereas Origen likens Christ to the colour white, Bernard with an unquestioning certitude proclaims, that “Christ was obviously black.” Bringing contemporary biblical scholarship into conversation with Bernard of Clairvaux’s commentary on Song 1:5-6, one finds in him an attentive and innovative exegete with insight applicable to a time long after his own.