Song of Songs 5:10

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My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

Verse 9 Read Chapter 5 Verse 11

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397

“My beloved is white and ruddy.” It is fitting, O virgin, that you should fully know him whom you love, and should recognize in him all the mystery of his divine nature and the body which he has assumed. He is white fittingly, for he is the brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for he was born of a Virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows in him. - "Concerning Virgins 1.9.46"

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Aponius

AD 500

He is white because he is the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness “who enlightens everyone entering the world,” according to John the Evangelist and the preaching of the prophets. He is red because he would walk on earth in the fleshly clothing derived from the Virgin Mary, a miracle to be offered through angels by rising to heaven, as was said through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah to those who asked him, “Why is your apparel red?” - "Exposition of Song of Songs 8.34"

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Bede

AD 735

The beloved is white because, when he appeared in the flesh, “he committed no sin, nor was a lie found in his mouth.” And he is red because “he washed away our sins with his blood.” He is rightly called white first, then red, because the holy one first came into the world from blood and later departed from the world through his bloody passion. - "Commentary on the Songs of Songs 3.5.10"

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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849

Ruddy or shining: The divine and human nature, or the conception and sufferings of Christ are thus described. (Calmet) The spouse gives this admirable description of her beloved. (Haydock)

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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394

All flesh implies birth, with marriage as the means for bringing it about. The person, however, who is not subject to a birth of flesh with respect to the mystery of religion does not submit to the actions effected by human nature or to the passions arising from the mind. He understands that the generation of the flesh belongs to all humankind. The bride says that he who partakes of flesh and blood is “white and ruddy.” However, by indicating the body’s nature by these two colors, she does not say that Christ partakes of that birth common to humankind. Rather, God assumed our human nature from the multitude of people he had begotten. From the passage of succeeding generations, Christ alone entered this life by a new form of birth. Nature did not cooperate in this birth but served it. Therefore, the bride says that her spouse is “white and ruddy.” That is, he dwells in this present life through flesh and blood while having been begotten from virginal purity. His conception is virginal. ... Read More

1 min5/8

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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394

All these elements constituting the bridegroom’s beauty are made known for our benefit but do not show his invisible, incomprehensible beauty.… Therefore, whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest by the beauty of creatures can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty, the fountain of beauty whose emanation established all living beings in existence. Similarly, whoever views the world of this new creation in the church sees in it him who is all in all. This person is then led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite. - "Homilies on the Song of Songs 13"

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Jerome

AD 420

“My beloved is white and ruddy”: white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. And because he is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately added, “His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely.” - "Against Jovinianus 1.31"

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Richard Challoner

AD 1781

My beloved: In this and the following verses, the church mystically describes Christ to those who know him not, that is, to infidels in order to convert them to the true faith.

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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20