“Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel …” (Song of Solomon 7:5, NKJV)
Carmel is clearly not just randomly chosen by Elijah – it is a strategic space, and we are currently looking at it as a typological space. In the previous teaching we looked at the word’s meaning in Hebrew, and that it points to a garden (2 Kings 19:23), or a vineyard (Isa. 10:18; Lev. 23:14), both pointing to the Bride of Christ – it is the only space in which you can position yourself against an adversary! Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names refers to it as “Fruitful Field”, which makes no sense if it is read literally as a mountain of hard sandstone and bush (Encyclopedia of The Bible), but it clearly strengthens the presentation thereof as a symbolic space!
In this light the anchoring text above is then an interesting enricher of our concept of the Head: “Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel …”, especially if one realises that the word “Carmel” does not appear once in the entire New Testament. This then means that it has been completely replaced in the new covenant, in typological terms, with the Bride of Christ.
We already know that John the Baptist, as the prototypical figure of the old covenant (Matt. 11:11) had to be beheaded (Mark 6:28) so that Jesus could become the rightful Head of the Body. The following Scriptures affirm, undoubtedly, that Jesus is now the Head:
- “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church …” (Eph. 1:22).
- “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” (Col. 1:18)
- “and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power …” (Col. 2:10)
- “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.” (Col. 2:19).
Yet in these Scriptures the Head is presented as equal to Carmel, which does not represent Jesus, but the Bride of Christ. [Typologically we could say: the Bride is the garden of Eden; Jesus is the Tree of Life WITHIN THE GARDEN – Rev. 2:7; 22:2 & 14. Or: Jesus is the vine, the Bride are the branches – John 15:1-2.]
It thus seems as if we are presented with an incongruent image – as if Carmel should actually be representing Jesus, but we argue it represents the Bride. The possible incongruence is strengthened if one considers that the part from Song of Solomon derives from a passage where the Bridegroom sings to the Bride, and not the other way around. It is very clearly the Bride’s Head that is likened to Carmel.
An easy hermeneutic solution would be to say, yes, but clearly Jesus is the Bride’s Head, but it is also more than this – it is the Bride’s own head which is at issue here. But the million dollar question is this – can she have another head/Head that is not Jesus?
The following four Scriptures also speak of the Head, but each one explicitly spells out – the Head is Christ (not Jesus):
- “But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is” (1 Cor. 11:3)
- “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him” (Eph. 1:10)
- “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— …” (Eph. 4:15).
- “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.” (Eph. 5:23)
Another argument could be: but Jesus is also at times only called his extended or unfolding name, Christ, as we for instance see in these examples from the gospel of Matthew: 2:4, 11:2; 22:42; 27:17. And it could be possible (albeit unlikely), as the Old Testament example we are looking at could perhaps not yet have made the distinction between Jesus and the Christ within this typology. (Shortly before Jesus’ crucifixion we find that He did not want the revelation of Jesus the Christ to precede the manifestation thereof, and therefore He states in Matt. 16:20 that “they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ”). Also – the king (who Jesus typologically represents) is presented as being in relationship with the head of the beloved Shulamite woman (Song of Solomon 6:13), who represents the Bride. This can logically thus not be his head. Thirdly: the phrase “crowns you” renders it pretty clear: “Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel …”
When we return to Song of Solomon 7:5 the complete verse is very insightful: “Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple; a king is held captive by your tresses.” A couple of other translations elucidate this rather mirky image:
- “Your head is like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple, in whose net the king is prisoner.” (BBE)
- “Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels.” (DRB)
- “Your head crowns you like Mt. Carmel. Your flowing locks are like purple, and a king is captured in the dangling tresses.’ (ISV) [“tress”: “A knot or curl of hair; a ringlet. – Webster.]
- “Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.” (KJV) [ “gallery”: “An ornamental walk or apartment in gardens, formed by trees.” – Webster.]
- Of all of these the following translation is perhaps the strangest, but interestingly enough, perhaps the closest to the original: “That head that standeth vpon thee is lyke Carmel: and the heere of thy head is like purple, and like a kyng dwellyng among many water conduites.” (Bishop’s Bible 1568). [“conduit”: 1. A canal or pipe for the conveyance of water; an aqueduct. Conduits are made of lead, stone, cast iron, wood, &c., above or below the surface of the earth. 2. A vessel that conveys the blood or other fluid. 3. A conductor. These organs are the nerves which are the conduits to convey them from without to their audience in the brain.” – Webster.]
What all of this says of Carmel, Elijah and the authority mantle of the Bride, we will discuss in the next teaching.
- Selah: Try to understand the worth of delving into the details of Scripture, in the light of 2 Tim. 3:16.
- Read: John 18-19; Luke 23; Mark 16; Matt. 28.
- Memorise: John 19:34