Why are Song of Songs and Esther in the Bible?

[Wiggle Your Yummy Moist Preggers Cake Ben Shapiro]

Neither of them mention God at all. The Bible could easliy function without them, in fact the Dead Sea Scrolls didn't include Esther.

[DC Al Fine]

Neither of them mention God at all. The Bible could easliy function without them, in fact the Dead Sea Scrolls didn't include Esther.

IIRC, Song of Songs is supposed to include most of God's teachings about marriage and love.

[Tokugawa Sexgod Ieyasu]

Neither of them mention God at all. The Bible could easliy function without them, in fact the Dead Sea Scrolls didn't include Esther.

IIRC, Song of Songs is supposed to include most of God's teachings about marriage and love.

Either that or it's an allegory for the relationship between God and His people (granted, an...unusual one, given some of the content). Plus it's traditionally attributed to Solomon.

[afleitch]

Thank goodness Song of Songs made the cut. It's beautiful.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I am glad they kept Esther. She was a very important part of the history of Israel and Persia.

[The Mikado]

The Septuagint version of Esther the Catholics use involves God.  Any study Bible should have it in the Apocrypha section.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Septuagint version of Esther the Catholics use involves God.  Any study Bible should have it in the Apocrypha section.

Still, that doesn't explain why it would be in the Masoretic text.  It can't simply be that it documents an important part of history, otherwise at least one of the Maccabees should have made the cut.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I actually remember this from one of my college classes.  Back around the first century BC or AD, a group of rabbis met to discuss which books of the Old Testament deserved to be kept.  The only two they considered eliminating were Ruth and Esther.  I can't remember why they kept Esther, but I know they kept Ruth because she was the great-grandmother of King David.  As for Song of Songs, it certainly is beautiful, and it illustrates true love amd sexual intimacy within marriage.  From a Christian perspective, it's also sometimes seen as an allegory of Christ's love for His church.