Shunammite

A Shulamite (or Shulammite) is a person from Shulem. The Hebrew Bible identifies as a Shulamite the swarthy, female protagonist in the Song of Songs (in the King James Version and in other Bibles called the Song of Solomon or the Canticle of Canticles).

Background

She is most likely called the Shulammite because she came from an unidentified place called Shulem. Many scholars consider ''Shulammite'' to be synonymous with ''Shunammite'' (“person from Shunem”). Shunem was a village in the territory of Issachar, north of Jezreel and south of Mount Gilboa. Other scholars link ''Shulem'' with ''Salem'', believing Solomon's bride was from Jerusalem. Still others believe that the title ''Shulammite'' (“peaceful”) is simply the bride's married name, being the feminine form of ''Solomon'' (“peaceful”) and only used after her marriage to the king.

Solomon uses passionate language to describe his bride and their love (Song 4:1–15). Solomon clearly loved the Shulammite—and he admired her character as well as her beauty (Song 6:9). Everything about the Song of Solomon portrays the fact that this bride and groom were passionately in love and that there was mutual respect and friendship, as well (Song 8:6–7).

Shulamite in culture

Art

Image:Gustave Wappers - The Shulammite.jpg, Gustaf Wappers, ''The Shulammite'', 1870
Image:Franz Pforr - Shulamit and Mary - WGA17402.jpg, Franz Pforr, ''Maria and Shulammite'', 1811
File:Albert Joseph Moore - The Shulamite 1864.jpg, Albert Joseph Moore, ''The Shulamite relating the Glories of King Solomon to her Maidens'', 1894
File:Fountain of the smell-sunamites.JPG, Statue in Bom Jesus do Monte

Fictional entities

Shunammite is a fictional character in Gilead, in Margaret Atwood's sequel to ''The Handmaid's Tale'', titled '' The Testaments'' (2019).

See also

* Shunamitism

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Song of Songs
Women in the Hebrew Bible
Unnamed people of the Bible