Song of Solomon 2: 3: his fruit is sweet to my taste …
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
The botanical problems continue into the next verse. Again, we need to ask whether a precise identification is important or whether the word is simply signifying an idea. Apples are associated in the popular imagination with the Garden of Eden although the text actually refers to the “fruit of the tree of life” and this is the only place in the Old Testament where the word that is translated as “apple” (kə·ṯap·pū·aḥ) occurs. Apple trees are found in the Mediterranean basin but, in my experience, only at higher altitudes. As for the rose, the precise identity of the tree is less important than its purpose. The tree, in this case, is a source of pleasure and delight as well as protection from the harsh Mediterranean sun. The properties of the tree - more specifically, its sweet fruit - means that it stands out from the crowd, which is rather more important than the link to a specific Latin binomial.
The reference to taste introduces another challenge when trying to decode the Song of Songs: that of literal versus metaphorical interpretation of references to the senses. The author refers to each of the five senses on different occasions. In some cases, the intention is clearly literal. 6:4-7 and 7:1-9, for example, are quite clearly the woman describing the physical beauty of her man and vice versa. In other cases, the intention is obviously metaphorical. However, it is not always possible to discern the author’s intent from a modern translation. The word “fruit”, when applied to a human, can only be metaphorical, to modern readers, as we know that only higher plants produce fruit. There are, however, several ways in which ‘fruit’ is used metaphorically in the Bible. It can be the outcome of our activities or lifestyle, as in the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:19-23 - see Psalm 1 and Proverbs 8:1-20 for Old Testament equivalents). It can also refer to offspring (Deuteronomy 28:4). But, because the Song so obviously endorses a sensual and physical approach to the human body, some have also suggested that verses such as this have a more literal meaning. And not just here - 4:16 and 5:1 have similar allusions, with both partners taking active roles.
We are clearly in controversial territory here. Sex has been a largely taboo subject in Western Christianity for so long that the idea that a book in the Bible may celebrate intimate details of lovemaking seems outrageous. It was much safer to treat the Song as allegorical and to avoid close scrutiny as much as possible. The argument in favour of treating these verses as references to oral sex is that the Song is so very sensual and, as all other senses are invoked, why not taste? Even in the liberated times in which we live, direct reference to oral sex in the arts is the exception rather than the rule, so might this be a discrete metaphor? The Song celebrates the whole physical and emotional intertwining of a love affair, but lingering too long on particular moments would risk straying across the boundary from the erotic to the outright pornographic.
On the other hand, the references are so veiled that we will never be sure whether the author is implying these intimate acts or if we are inferring more than was intended originally. The language of food and taste offers many so many opportunities for a poet to celebrate a relationship that it may be a failing on our part to lunge for a literal, rather than a metaphorical, explanation. And, in any case, semen is not sweet to the taste.
The lesson from this is probably not to embrace either explanation too tightly. The author uses ambiguity deliberately but not only is the Song poetry, it is also the poetry of a different place and a different time. Unless you have extensive knowledge of the conventions of sensual and erotic poetry from the Ancient Near East, you will have no definitive sense of whether the Song is typical in its veiled allusions to oral sex or not. The Karma Sutra, for contrast, does refer to both fellatio and cunnilingus but that book was written later and in a place even further away from Israel than Western Europe. So we need to take care about slipping into lazy Orientalist tropes too. The message that emerges as you read the song is simply that both partners derive intense pleasure from their physical encounters and, importantly, take pleasure from giving pleasure.