The Meaning of "The Shulammite"

Abstract

In 1934 E. J. Goodspeed contributed to this Journal' a short note on "The Shulammite," in which he criticized the view, common in present-day commentaries, that the word is the equivalent of "the Shunammite," or native of Shunem, and proposed to understand the word as the feminine of Solomon, "just as Judith is the feminine of Judah and Jeanne of Jean." He noted that Erbt had recognized that Shulammith is the feminine of Shelomo, and referred to the efforts of the more recent Tammuz theorists to bring the name into connection with a deity whose name is the feminine counterpart of that which lies behind Solomon. But Goodspeed desired rather to use the connection in the service of the Wetzstein-Budde wedding theory of the Song, and claimed that it provided a striking confirmation of that theory, remarking that "the simplicity and obviousness of this suggestion make one wonder that it has not been dealt with before." Finally, he suggested that it may not be an accident that "the Shulammite" occurs in connection with the sword dance, and in the New Testament the lady who entranced Herod Antipas by her dancing was named Salome, which is the feminine of Solomon.