Jellinek thinks that there were several aggadic midrashim to Song of Songs, each of which interpreted the book differently, one referring it to the exodus from Egypt, another to the revelations on Mount Sinai, and a third to the Tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem; and that all these midrashim were then combined into one work, which (with various additions) forms the present Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah. According to Jellinek, this midrash is older than the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, which (he holds) has borrowed entire passages from it. Theodor has shown, however, that it was composed at a later date than the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, from which it has borrowed entire passages. The author of Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, intending to compile a running midrash on Song of Songs, took the comments on the several verses from the sources which he had at hand, and the changes and transpositions which he made are similar to those made by the redactor of the Yalkut Shimoni; in fact the midrash is similar in many ways to a yalkut. This method of redaction explains the great difference in the length and the character of the several comments, and it explains also the fact that the same comments are repeated two or three times for the same or similar verses.