Introduction to Ecclesiastes
Why Study Ecclesiastes:
I’ve often been asked “why do you like Ecclesiastes?” Ecclesiastes has been known as a pessimistic and depressing book in fact most Christians I’ve met avoid this book like the plague. In our society, and unfortunately in the church, people tend to avoid anything that makes them uncomfortable particularly if what is being expressed could be seen as depressing. However we live in an age that is flooded with depression and people struggling with their place in the world today. People are disconnected from each other and disconnected with God in a way that would have been unbelievable to the author of Ecclesiastes.
The first time I remember reading the book of Ecclesiastes was when I was in college. I had gotten back to my room from a long day at classes and was just starting to think about sitting down and studying when I got a phone call. My dad called me and informed me that aunt Roma had died that day.
Aunt Roma wasn’t actually my aunt. I grew up in a small town and lived on a small country road that actually was named after my family. Aunt Roma lived across the street. When I was in middle school and High School I would go and shovel her drive way in the winter for some extra money or do some yard work that she needed done in the summertime. When I was in elementary school I would go sit and talk with her for hours I had an ulterior motive because she had candy I could eat, but she always took the time to talk and listen to me. My dad still tells stories about how when he worked swing shift and would come home at 12:30 am he would park his motorcycle and look up and see her light go off, because she always stayed up to make sure he got home safe. Roma was always there, she was always a stable presence in my life.
When I got the phone call I sat down and didn’t know what to do, so I picked up my bible opened it up and started reading. And it so happened that I opened my bible to the book of Ecclesiastes. I believe that God directed me there for the wisdom and the comfort that I received from that book.
In our society today we need to understand and realize that we live with neighbors that very rarely understand Christianity. Ecclesiastes gives a perspective outside of the typical flow of the biblical narrative, you don’t have to know salvation history or the salvation story to connect with what Ecclesiastes has to say. At the time I read Ecclesiastes for the first time I didn’t need, or desired to hear the salvation story, I needed to hear another side a different perspective. From that “outside voice” perspective, Ecclesiastes is rich and has much to offer each of us.
Author:
I’ve often encountered questions about why is it important to know who wrote the different books in the bible. This is important for several different reasons. A scholarly reason is that to know who wrote a text gives us clues as to the cultural context in which the book is situated. Historically who wrote the text is important due to the question of what books would be considered scripture and what wouldn’t.
Many people still feel that the issue of who authored the biblical books is extremely important. Some feel that if tradition states who wrote a particular book this must be the case or if scripture makes a claim to who wrote a book this must be true lest scripture be deemed false. The problem with this view is it imposes a view of writing, literature, and tradition that are uniquely modern and often particularly American. In ancient times it was common to write a book in the name of a monarch or famous individual if you were either making a claim to authority, actually writing for them, or writing in the tradition of that individual. This was acceptable practice for most of the ancient world and we shouldn’t deem the text any less sacred by who wrote it.
The position I take on this issue in Ecclesiastes is that the question of who authored the book is interesting but of little importance to the message of the text. By tradition we have been handed the entire cannon in its present form and it is my belief that we are to take all of these books and interpret them as faithfully as possible. Having stated my opinion I do feel we need to take a look at what is being said about who authored the book of Ecclesiastes for greater learning and understanding on our part.
The question of who is the author of the book of Ecclesiastes is one that has scholars completely baffled. If we go by ancient tradition then who the author is explained in the first verse, “The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” This tradition has been upheld by many scholars through the age’s right up through today. The textual evidence is the strongest support for Solomon authorship. A big area in scholarly discussion is also linguistics; the thought is that the usage or presence of certain words in the book reflects influence of the cultures in the area. For example if we see a word that we know is Greek then the book had to be written after a time of Greek interaction. Linguistically there is support for Solomon authorship primarily based on the fact that the book is written in Hebrew.
There are scholars who also believe that someone else wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Their evidence lies in various linguistic portions where there appears to be Aramaic and Persian crossover words. Their argument is that these words could not be present in a book written before the Assyrian empire which occurred after the reign of Solomon.
It is my belief that the author is Solomon. I believe Solomon is the author primarily due to tradition, and the fact that chapter 2:1-11 strongly remind me of Solomon. There is one other issue that I want to address when concerned with who authored Ecclesiastes. It varies greatly in many commentaries how the writer of Ecclesiastes is addressed. Some refer to him as Qohelet, others as Kohelet, the Preacher, and still others refer to him as the Teacher. For the remainder of my comments I will refer to the author as Qohelet, even though I believe in Solomnic authorship I like the ambiguity that the name Qohelet provides. Qohelet is the Hebrew word for teacher, and preacher all rolled into one and as with most titles in Hebrew could be male or female. Since we are so removed from the time of Qohelet I think it is fair to remain gender neutral as much as possible to encourage various streams of thought.
What type of Book is Ecclesiastes?
Every book store I’ve ever gone into clearly breaks its books into sections for easy reference and most importantly easy shopping. I have expectations of the books I find in certain sections. When I get a book on biology I expect that book to contain facts about whatever animals or plants it is written about. If I picked up a book on the Arctic Grey Wolf and that author told me that the Arctic Grey Wolf is commonly found in the Amazon jungle I would put the book back and probably write a letter of complaint to the publishing company. The same holds true to the type of literature, if a story is prose I expect neatly organized paragraphs of varying length on particular topics to progress the story or point of the chapter. If the literary type is poetry I expect the poem to invoke feelings, images, and word plays that transport me to another level of feeling.
The same is true of biblical writings, certain stories are written in poetry or prose and in certain traditions such as historical, prophetic, or wisdom as examples. There are some major problems with determining what type of literature the book of Ecclesiastes is. Generally speaking Ecclesiastes is understood as wisdom literature and is usually put with the books of Proverbs and Song of Songs. The wisdom literature in scripture tends to diverge rather sharply with the rest of scripture and Ecclesiastes is the most notable of the three in this regard.
Wisdom literature is knowledge that is gathered and is often contradictory in nature. All of us are familiar with proverbial sayings of our own day, “birds of a feather flock together,” “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” and “a rolling stone gathers no moss.” The major themes of scripture, creation, salvation and deliverance are by and large missing from the wisdom literature corpus. The nature of a book like Ecclesiastes is complex, particularly as it tries to struggle with the reality of our existence and usually argues this with very little mention of God, however when God is mentioned the usage of God and what God expects is very potent.
Ecclesiastes adds to the confusion by not being clear as to what type of literature it should be, that is whether its prose or poetry. In fact various translations of scripture have it as different percentages of prose and poetry. The NIV says that the text is 60% poetry, NRSV 75% prose, the Good News Bible see only chapter 3:2-8 as poetry and the rest of the book is prose. For the purpose of this study I will be relying on the NRSV in my opinion being the most accurate.
So what do we do with this, if we were in the book store looking to buy Ecclesiastes where would we go? In my opinion we would go to the philosophy section. Ecclesiastes has many twists and turns and it reads more like a philosophers note book with random thoughts here and there than a book with a central plot. Qohelet is calling our attention to the reality of our lives and it is our job to follow him where he goes. Due to the sporadic nature of Ecclesiastes the study will be done in generally broad sections and we will work in each section to see what Qohelet has to say.
Qohelet is often offensive in what he says, particularly to religious sensibilities as Qohelet pushes us with the idea that the only thing we can be certain of in this life is this life. There are no claims to life after death, and there seems to be a taste of disillusionment throughout the whole book. This makes the book of Ecclesiastes unique in its ability to answer questions for the time in which we live. Our postmodern society is very disjointed much the same as this book and our society is also very disillusioned with the promises that modernity has made and failed to deliver on. In the commentary that goes with the bible study we will attempt to see Qohelet on his own terms and as Christians, try to apply Christ at appropriate locations.
When and Where was Ecclesiastes written:
In biblical study it is considered very important to know when a biblical book was written and where it was written. The reason for the importance is that it is believed for us to understand the book better we need to know who it was written to and what was going on around the time the author was writing. The problem with Ecclesiastes in particular is that there is no scholarly certainty or agreement on when and where the book was written. If we take that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes then the book was written between 971-931 BCE, if Solomon didn’t write the book then a date of 450-250 BCE is probable.
My opinion is that it doesn’t really matter when seeking application of the lessons in Ecclesiastes we are listening to what God has to say, where appropriate we will look at historical items that may help us in our understanding of the lessons of Ecclesiastes.
Conclusion:
For our study we will refer to the author of Ecclesiastes as Qohelet and assume a time of writing and date for the book to be around Solomon’s reign of 971-931 BCE. Whenever possible we will look at Ecclesiastes as a story and book on its own, with its own twists and turns. And we will seek to apply the Christian life to each section.
The commentary will follow on sections chapters 1-2; 3:1-15; 3:16-4:8; 4:9-6:12; 7:1-8:17; 9-11:6; 11:7-12 and finally a closing lesson where we will engage in thoughtful reflection on what we have learned.
I’ve often been asked “why do you like Ecclesiastes?” Ecclesiastes has been known as a pessimistic and depressing book in fact most Christians I’ve met avoid this book like the plague. In our society, and unfortunately in the church, people tend to avoid anything that makes them uncomfortable particularly if what is being expressed could be seen as depressing. However we live in an age that is flooded with depression and people struggling with their place in the world today. People are disconnected from each other and disconnected with God in a way that would have been unbelievable to the author of Ecclesiastes.
The first time I remember reading the book of Ecclesiastes was when I was in college. I had gotten back to my room from a long day at classes and was just starting to think about sitting down and studying when I got a phone call. My dad called me and informed me that aunt Roma had died that day.
Aunt Roma wasn’t actually my aunt. I grew up in a small town and lived on a small country road that actually was named after my family. Aunt Roma lived across the street. When I was in middle school and High School I would go and shovel her drive way in the winter for some extra money or do some yard work that she needed done in the summertime. When I was in elementary school I would go sit and talk with her for hours I had an ulterior motive because she had candy I could eat, but she always took the time to talk and listen to me. My dad still tells stories about how when he worked swing shift and would come home at 12:30 am he would park his motorcycle and look up and see her light go off, because she always stayed up to make sure he got home safe. Roma was always there, she was always a stable presence in my life.
When I got the phone call I sat down and didn’t know what to do, so I picked up my bible opened it up and started reading. And it so happened that I opened my bible to the book of Ecclesiastes. I believe that God directed me there for the wisdom and the comfort that I received from that book.
In our society today we need to understand and realize that we live with neighbors that very rarely understand Christianity. Ecclesiastes gives a perspective outside of the typical flow of the biblical narrative, you don’t have to know salvation history or the salvation story to connect with what Ecclesiastes has to say. At the time I read Ecclesiastes for the first time I didn’t need, or desired to hear the salvation story, I needed to hear another side a different perspective. From that “outside voice” perspective, Ecclesiastes is rich and has much to offer each of us.
Author:
I’ve often encountered questions about why is it important to know who wrote the different books in the bible. This is important for several different reasons. A scholarly reason is that to know who wrote a text gives us clues as to the cultural context in which the book is situated. Historically who wrote the text is important due to the question of what books would be considered scripture and what wouldn’t.
Many people still feel that the issue of who authored the biblical books is extremely important. Some feel that if tradition states who wrote a particular book this must be the case or if scripture makes a claim to who wrote a book this must be true lest scripture be deemed false. The problem with this view is it imposes a view of writing, literature, and tradition that are uniquely modern and often particularly American. In ancient times it was common to write a book in the name of a monarch or famous individual if you were either making a claim to authority, actually writing for them, or writing in the tradition of that individual. This was acceptable practice for most of the ancient world and we shouldn’t deem the text any less sacred by who wrote it.
The position I take on this issue in Ecclesiastes is that the question of who authored the book is interesting but of little importance to the message of the text. By tradition we have been handed the entire cannon in its present form and it is my belief that we are to take all of these books and interpret them as faithfully as possible. Having stated my opinion I do feel we need to take a look at what is being said about who authored the book of Ecclesiastes for greater learning and understanding on our part.
The question of who is the author of the book of Ecclesiastes is one that has scholars completely baffled. If we go by ancient tradition then who the author is explained in the first verse, “The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” This tradition has been upheld by many scholars through the age’s right up through today. The textual evidence is the strongest support for Solomon authorship. A big area in scholarly discussion is also linguistics; the thought is that the usage or presence of certain words in the book reflects influence of the cultures in the area. For example if we see a word that we know is Greek then the book had to be written after a time of Greek interaction. Linguistically there is support for Solomon authorship primarily based on the fact that the book is written in Hebrew.
There are scholars who also believe that someone else wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Their evidence lies in various linguistic portions where there appears to be Aramaic and Persian crossover words. Their argument is that these words could not be present in a book written before the Assyrian empire which occurred after the reign of Solomon.
It is my belief that the author is Solomon. I believe Solomon is the author primarily due to tradition, and the fact that chapter 2:1-11 strongly remind me of Solomon. There is one other issue that I want to address when concerned with who authored Ecclesiastes. It varies greatly in many commentaries how the writer of Ecclesiastes is addressed. Some refer to him as Qohelet, others as Kohelet, the Preacher, and still others refer to him as the Teacher. For the remainder of my comments I will refer to the author as Qohelet, even though I believe in Solomnic authorship I like the ambiguity that the name Qohelet provides. Qohelet is the Hebrew word for teacher, and preacher all rolled into one and as with most titles in Hebrew could be male or female. Since we are so removed from the time of Qohelet I think it is fair to remain gender neutral as much as possible to encourage various streams of thought.
What type of Book is Ecclesiastes?
Every book store I’ve ever gone into clearly breaks its books into sections for easy reference and most importantly easy shopping. I have expectations of the books I find in certain sections. When I get a book on biology I expect that book to contain facts about whatever animals or plants it is written about. If I picked up a book on the Arctic Grey Wolf and that author told me that the Arctic Grey Wolf is commonly found in the Amazon jungle I would put the book back and probably write a letter of complaint to the publishing company. The same holds true to the type of literature, if a story is prose I expect neatly organized paragraphs of varying length on particular topics to progress the story or point of the chapter. If the literary type is poetry I expect the poem to invoke feelings, images, and word plays that transport me to another level of feeling.
The same is true of biblical writings, certain stories are written in poetry or prose and in certain traditions such as historical, prophetic, or wisdom as examples. There are some major problems with determining what type of literature the book of Ecclesiastes is. Generally speaking Ecclesiastes is understood as wisdom literature and is usually put with the books of Proverbs and Song of Songs. The wisdom literature in scripture tends to diverge rather sharply with the rest of scripture and Ecclesiastes is the most notable of the three in this regard.
Wisdom literature is knowledge that is gathered and is often contradictory in nature. All of us are familiar with proverbial sayings of our own day, “birds of a feather flock together,” “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” and “a rolling stone gathers no moss.” The major themes of scripture, creation, salvation and deliverance are by and large missing from the wisdom literature corpus. The nature of a book like Ecclesiastes is complex, particularly as it tries to struggle with the reality of our existence and usually argues this with very little mention of God, however when God is mentioned the usage of God and what God expects is very potent.
Ecclesiastes adds to the confusion by not being clear as to what type of literature it should be, that is whether its prose or poetry. In fact various translations of scripture have it as different percentages of prose and poetry. The NIV says that the text is 60% poetry, NRSV 75% prose, the Good News Bible see only chapter 3:2-8 as poetry and the rest of the book is prose. For the purpose of this study I will be relying on the NRSV in my opinion being the most accurate.
So what do we do with this, if we were in the book store looking to buy Ecclesiastes where would we go? In my opinion we would go to the philosophy section. Ecclesiastes has many twists and turns and it reads more like a philosophers note book with random thoughts here and there than a book with a central plot. Qohelet is calling our attention to the reality of our lives and it is our job to follow him where he goes. Due to the sporadic nature of Ecclesiastes the study will be done in generally broad sections and we will work in each section to see what Qohelet has to say.
Qohelet is often offensive in what he says, particularly to religious sensibilities as Qohelet pushes us with the idea that the only thing we can be certain of in this life is this life. There are no claims to life after death, and there seems to be a taste of disillusionment throughout the whole book. This makes the book of Ecclesiastes unique in its ability to answer questions for the time in which we live. Our postmodern society is very disjointed much the same as this book and our society is also very disillusioned with the promises that modernity has made and failed to deliver on. In the commentary that goes with the bible study we will attempt to see Qohelet on his own terms and as Christians, try to apply Christ at appropriate locations.
When and Where was Ecclesiastes written:
In biblical study it is considered very important to know when a biblical book was written and where it was written. The reason for the importance is that it is believed for us to understand the book better we need to know who it was written to and what was going on around the time the author was writing. The problem with Ecclesiastes in particular is that there is no scholarly certainty or agreement on when and where the book was written. If we take that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes then the book was written between 971-931 BCE, if Solomon didn’t write the book then a date of 450-250 BCE is probable.
My opinion is that it doesn’t really matter when seeking application of the lessons in Ecclesiastes we are listening to what God has to say, where appropriate we will look at historical items that may help us in our understanding of the lessons of Ecclesiastes.
Conclusion:
For our study we will refer to the author of Ecclesiastes as Qohelet and assume a time of writing and date for the book to be around Solomon’s reign of 971-931 BCE. Whenever possible we will look at Ecclesiastes as a story and book on its own, with its own twists and turns. And we will seek to apply the Christian life to each section.
The commentary will follow on sections chapters 1-2; 3:1-15; 3:16-4:8; 4:9-6:12; 7:1-8:17; 9-11:6; 11:7-12 and finally a closing lesson where we will engage in thoughtful reflection on what we have learned.
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