Why Does Scripture Talk About Physical Beauty?

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Does physical attraction matter in a marriage relationship?

To some Christians, this question sounds bizarre. After all, isn’t internal beauty the only thing that counts? Song of Solomon 4 gives us a different perspective.

As Tom Gledhill writes, “This is the first occurrence in the Song of what is technically called in Arabic a wasf, a poem of praise in which one of the lovers describes metaphorically the other’s bodily parts, in a catalogue moving from head to toe or vice-versa. This type of poem is one of the characteristics of Arabic love-poetry, but the genre occurs in the Old Testament only in the Song of Songs.”^[1] Consider these words in verses 1-7:

¹ How beautiful you are, my darling.
How very beautiful!
Behind your veil,
your eyes are doves.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down Mount Gilead.
² Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep
coming up from washing,
each one bearing twins,
and none has lost its young.
³ Your lips are like a scarlet cord,
and your mouth is lovely.
Behind your veil,
your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.
⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David,
constructed in layers.
A thousand shields are hung on it—
all of them shields of warriors.
⁵ Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
⁶ Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
⁷ You are absolutely beautiful, my darling;
there is no imperfection in you.

This descriptive language is obviously metaphorical. As Tremper Longman writes, “It is important to remind ourselves again that this is poetry and not a narrative. We are not to think that the woman is literally roaming the wilderness crags of the northern mountains. She is not living with the animals. The distant, dangerous location signifies her present distance from the man.”^[2] He wants her to be close to him.