The Rose

I am a Rose of Sharon…

Song of Solomon 2:1

I really do like to know what I am talking about before I open my mouth to pontificate on any subject.  There is nothing worse than speaking up in a flowing conversation to share your grain of wisdom, only to find that your information is: a) out of context, b) not applicable, or c) simply erroneous!  I would rather never open my mouth at all than to blurt out some little gem that makes me look like a complete idiot.

As I searched for a good text regarding roses (the word is in the Bible!), I immediately thought of Isaiah 35:1:  The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose [KJV].  Perfect, right?  Imagine my surprise when I looked up the verse in my NIV, only to read:  …the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like…the crocus???  The word translated “rose” in the KJV is actually a common Hebrew word for crocus.  The text above from The Song probably does not refer to our roses, either.  Sharon was a fertile coastal plain along the Mediterranean, and most Israelis believe that the flower Solomon was referring to is the coastal hăbasselet, a very pretty white lily-like bloom.

It wasn’t that there were no actual roses in Bible times.  Fossils of roses have been found around the world, including the United States.  The first record of the cultivation of garden roses dates from approximately 900B.C., in China.  In 500 B.C., Confucius wrote about growing roses in the Imperial Gardens.  There were ornamental roses; apparently they did not grow in the deserts of Israel.

In the first verse of the second chapter of The Song, Solomon was writing as the voice of his beloved.  In saying, I am a Rose of Sharon, she was essentially saying, “I am a thing of beauty.”   It appears that she was speaking of her physical attractiveness, but one can hope that she was also referring inwardly to the loveliness of her soul.  God is not concerned about our outward appearance.  He values the depth and beauty of the heart.