The Church Fathers · c. 240; survives in part, in Latin
Commentary on the Song of Songs
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
What it is
Ten books on the Song, prefaced by a warning that no one should read it who is not already past the stirrings of the flesh. The bride is both the church and the individual soul, and the wound she carries is the arrow of love.
Why it lasted
Jerome said that where Origen surpassed everyone else in his other books, in this one he surpassed himself. It founded the mystical tradition of the West — Bernard's eighty-six sermons and John of the Cross both begin here.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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