Rashi
Jewish
1040–1105
“behold, the winter has passed There is no difficulty in traveling now. סְתָיו is winter. The Targum of חֹרֶף (Gen. 8:22) is סִתְוָא.”
The interpretation timeline
Song 2:11
How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.
From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Jewish · 1 Catholic · 1 Patristic
Song 2:11 · Douay-Rheims
“For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone.”
Scholastic
c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
744 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation
c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
George Leo Haydock
Catholic
1774–1849
“Winter. The rigour and darkness of the old law give place to that of light and love. (Origen) — After persecution had ceased, pruning became more necessary. (Calmet) — The Israelites and the world were redeemed in spring, and the ceremonies of the law were abolished at the same season. (Menochius)”
Undated
date unknown
Gregory of Elvira
Patristic
c. A.D. 392
“There is thus no doubt that winter has a double meaning, either that harshness and severity belong to it, or that it is a time for sowing with the coming of the rain. When it says winter, therefore, it refers to the present world, where the Word of God is sowed in this age like a seed of righteousness by prophets and apostles, or priests, and is fertilized by assiduous preaching, as though by rains from heaven.…But with the passing of winter, that is, the tribulations of this world, and the cessation of the rains, that is, the preaching of the Word of God, and the subsequent arrival of the joy of Spring (which designates the coming of Christ's vernal kingdom in great peace), then the bodies of the saints everywhere will emerge from the graves of the earth like flowers—lilies or roses—pure white with holiness and red with passion.”
Modern · 1953 →
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.