Megilloth

Pembahasan mengenai buku Song of Songs atau Kidung Agung berakhir sampai di sini. Setelah ini EP membahas kitab Ruth. Mungkin anda belum tahu mengapa EP membahas kitab-kitab tertentu saja dalam buku ini. Begini. Dalam alkitab Ibrani ada yang dikenal dengan nama "Megilloth." Megilloth terdiri dari 5 gulungan kitab, yaitu Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, dan Esther. Menurut EP, the appropriateness of the Megilloth as documents for pastoral work is suggested by their use in Judaism, where we find that they are assigned readings at five of Israel’s annual acts of worship. (p. 14)

Nah oleh orang Ibrani Megilloth dipakai sebagai bacaan dan panduan dalam ibadah. Bagi EP kitab-kitab tersebut juga sangat bermanfaat bagi pastoral work:

Learning how to love and pray in the context of salvation (Song of Songs); developing an identity as a person of faith in the context of God’s covenant (Ruth); dealing with suffering in the context of redemptive judgment (Lamentations); unmasking religious illusion and pious fraud in the context of providential blessing (Ecclesiastes); and becoming a celebrative community of faith in the environment of the world’s hostility (Esther). (p. 17)

Sumber:
Eugene H. Peterson, Five smooth stones for pastoral work (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992).