The Bible Gets Sexy!

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

New year, new me, cute. But how about new year, new money? With Experian, you can actually take control of your finances. Check your FICO score, find ways to save, and get matched with credit card offers. Giving you time to power through those New Year's goals, you know you're going to crush. Start the year off right. Download the Experian app. Based on FICO score model, offers and approval not guaranteed, eligibility requirements and terms apply. Subject to credit check which may impact your credit scores. Offers not available in all states. See experian.com for details.

SPEAKER_2 (0:28)

Experian. Kayak gets my flight, hotel and rental car right. So I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong.

SPEAKER_3 (0:37)

Bro, Skycoin.

SPEAKER_1 (0:39)

Way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon.

SPEAKER_2 (0:44)

Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with Kayak, and get your trip right. Kayak. Got that right.

Dan Beecher (0:59)

To me, this was just an erotic dream.

SPEAKER_2 (1:02)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (1:03)

Maybe there's a reason that things were dripping all over the place.

Dan Beecher (1:06)

But yeah, literally, yeah. When he thrust his hand into the opening, it's just like, okay, all right.

Dan McClellan (1:13)

Okay, I get it.

Dan Beecher (1:14)

Bible, calm down, Bible.

Dan McClellan (1:23)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:24)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:25)

And this is Data Over Dogma, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:37)

Things are good. I'm glad to have you back.

You were just off and away in faraway lands, magical worlds.

Dan McClellan (1:47)

Yes, a magical kingdom, if you will. Yes, the happiest place on earth with my family.

A little retreat from the cold of a Utah winter, although this winter has been mild at best.

Dan Beecher (2:04)

While you were gone, you missed a day that was over 60 degrees. So I don't know that it was a retreat from the cold so much as it was just-

Dan McClellan (2:13)

A retreat from a mild winter. Well, I was in the sunshine where it was 72 degrees, and yeah, I had a wonderful time. We got back late last night, and here we are.

Dan Beecher (2:27)

Here we are.

Dan McClellan (2:29)

And yeah, we're set to increase some public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion from what I'm told.

Dan Beecher (2:35)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're gonna do a couple things. We're gonna do, well, first, we're going to do a chapter and verse, and we're finally doing it, folks. It's the Song of Something. I've heard two different titles, so we'll figure out what it is when we get to the segment. And then also later on, we're going to talk, we're going to do an It's the Law, and we're going to talk about a law that seems to break another law in the Bible, or at very least might kill you. So yeah, we got to figure that out. So let's dive in to chapter and verse.

And as I said, Dan, it's the song, look, I grew up with hearing about the song of Solomon, and I have heard you many times call it the song of songs, and I don't know what's going on. So talk to me.

Dan McClellan (3:38)

Well, the very first verse of this song is Shir HaSherim, which just means Song of the Songs. And this is a construction that is used hyperbolically, superlatively. So King of Kings, God of Gods, Song of Songs. It's not just the, it's the song among songs.

Dan Beecher (4:00)

It's the best of all of the songs.

Dan McClellan (4:01)

Yes, yes. And then the next two words are HaSher Lishlomo, which means which belongs to, or is for, or is about Solomon.

Dan Beecher (4:15)

Oh, okay.

Dan McClellan (4:16)

So it is sometimes called the Song of Songs, sometimes called the Song of Solomon. It is traditionally people have attributed it to Solomon, like they have the Proverbs, like they have other stuff, the wisdom of Solomon.

And there's a tradition that says that Solomon wrote 1,000 songs and all this kind of stuff. So it might have been preserved precisely because, hey, this is one that has Solomon's name on it. Maybe this is it. But this is definitely not written by Solomon. This is coming many centuries after the life of any historical Solomon who may have existed.