The book of Ecclesiastes
(tl,h,qo) remains a source of
confusion to both Jews and Christians. The
source of difficulty for both groups has always been the repeated jump between
total despair and hedonism, between orthodox and heterodox theological
concepts. One approach of Jewish sages
is to assert that Solomon wrote the book at the end of his life after he had
become disillusioned, and he had come to despair over the emptiness in his
life. One conservative Christian approach was
popularized by M. R. DeHaan and his Radio Bible Class. According to this approach, Ecclesiastes identified
life difficulties all of which were answered in Christ. A liberal Christian approach to the book
asserts that it was not written by Solomon but rather reflects difficulties and
frustrations experienced by the Jews sometime during the middle of the second
temple period. In general, none of these
approaches present the book as having a single unifying theme and purpose but
more as a collection, like the book of Proverbs.
Now, I agree with the
Jewish sages that the book was originally written by Solomon near the end of
his life, but I disagree that he had succumbed to despair and disillusionment. I also disagree with the approach of DeHaan
and his successors, because all of the problems identified by Koheleth are just
as current as today's news, and they are just as prevalent among 'born again'
believers in Jesus as anyone else. In my
opinion, Solomon used his experiences from 40 years as King over Israel as his
primary source. He had not given in to despair,
but he had learned by personal experience and observation that no human
activity under the sun has any benefit for the individual that can endure
beyond this present life. However, a
person can pursue a manner of life capable of giving enjoyment that transcends his
particular circumstances. Although
nobody is immune from calamities (loss, sickness, death), a person can live in
such a way that he does not become the cause for the calamities that do enter his
life. The key to this understanding is
found in chapter 1, particularly verses 3 and 15.
.μIl;v;WryBi Ël,m, dwiD;AˆB, tl,h,qo yreb]Di 1
The
words of Koheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem.
.lb,h; lKoh' μylib;h} lb,h} tl,h,q1o rm'a;
μylib;h} lb,h} 2
Koheleth
says: Most illusory, most illusory, everything is illusory.
lb,h, This
noun occurs a total of 73 times in the bible but 38 times in Ecclesiastes. Its basic meaning according to BDB is ‘breath’
or ‘vapor,’ but this usage is found just two times (Is 57:13, Prov
21:6). Most commonly it is used
figuratively to describe something insubstantial. The translation of ‘vanity’ or ‘futility’
comes from the LXX rendering of lb,h, by ματαιότης. The term lb,h, signifies something having the
appearance of substance but little or no concrete reality – like a frosty breath,
fog bank, or mirage. For this reason, I
have rendered it by ‘illusory’ in most cases.
.vm,V;h' tj'T' lmo[}Y'v, /lm;[}Alk;B] μd;a;l;
ˆ/rt]YIAhm' 3
What
benefit is there for a man in all of his toil that he does under the sun?
This rhetorical question introduces the subject
that will be the primary focus of the entire book. What is the ultimate benefit that a man
derives from all his toil during this life on earth under the sun, and how can
he keep his life from becoming completely meaningless while he yet lives? The next seven verses present the problem
that concerns Koheleth by means of an overview of natural occurrences.
.td,m;[o μl;/[l] 6r,a;h;w“ aB; r/dw] Ëleho r/D 4
A
generation goes and a generation comes, but the world remains forever.
td,m;[ … aB; …] Ëleho The
three verb forms are all singular qal participles, and each of them expresses
continuous action. The first of the
three literally means 'walk', but it is used to express 'come, go,
depart' or the act of traveling from any place to any other place. The second verb is also used to express 'come,
go'. Here the sense clearly is 'one
generation departs (i.e., dies off) and another generation arrives', and this cycle is going
on continually. However, the material
creation -- 6r,a;h; --
remains standing μl;/[l]. The noun
μl;/[ has a very broad range of meaning. Here it signifies that for any particular
generation – say a period of 70 to 100 years – the earth as a whole exhibits no
significant observable change.
From the standpoint of the biblical narrative, Genesis
1 states that this creation had a beginning, and the curse presented in Genesis
3:14 – 3:19 implies that it will have both a climax and a conclusion. However, by examining the genealogical
records of the scriptures or by merely examining human records in general, one
finds that one generation follows another and that the overall state of the
world changes little, if any at all. No
meaningful progression or development is evident. This unending sameness is summarized by the
next three verses.
.μv; aWh j're/z 5ae/v /m/qm]Ala,w“ vm,V,h' ab;W
vm,V,h' jr"z:w“ 5
The sun rises, and the
sun sets, and it rushes to its place for rising there (again).
wyt;boybis]Al['w“ j'Wrh; Ële/h bbe/s bbe/s
ˆ/px;Ala, bbe/sw“ μ/rD;Ala, Ële/h 6
.j'Wrh; bv;
Turning
to the south and turning to the north, turning, turning goes the wind, and upon
its circuit the wind returns.
alem; WNn,yae μY:h'w“ μY:h'Ala, μykil]ho
μylij;N“h'AlK; 7
.tk,l;l; μybiv; μhe μv; μykil]ho
μylij;N“h'v, μ/qm]Ala,
All of the
rivers go to the sea, but the sea is not filled. To the place where the rivers run, there they
return to run (again).
The natural world presents exactly this same
picture. The sun rises and sets, the winds blow round about, and the rivers
flow continuously from the mountains to the seas. There is no obvious sign of progression or
development and no advancement toward any conclusion.
rBed'l] vyai lk'WyAalo μy[ig´y“ μyrIb;D]h'AlK; 8
.['moV]mi
ˆz,ao aleM;tiAalow“ t/ar“li ˆyi[' [B'c]tiAalo
Everything is so
wearisome that a person cannot speak (of it).
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not filled with
hearing.
The patterns that have
existed in the past continue to be present now.
If a person is inclined to go sight seeing, there will never be enough:
there will always be something else to see.
If a person is inclined to listen to stories, music, or the like, there
will never be the last song to sing
or story to hear (or book to read, movie to see, or CD to play, etc.).
.vm,V;h' tj'T' vd:j;AlK; ˆyaew“ hc,[;Yev, aWh
hc;[}N"v,Ahm'W hy,h]Yiv, aWh hy;h;V,Ahm' 9
What
has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun.
As far back as we can
assess from human records, these patterns have bound human life. As far forward as we can imagine (apart from
divine intervention), they will continue to do so. From this perspective, no
aspect of our lives and no experience that might enter our lives have changed
from the beginning of time under the sun.
(This observation is also confirmed within the Bible. God’s oath to Noah in Gen 8:22 following the
flood stated that these patterns would not cease so long as the earth
remains. Yet, these very words imply a
conclusion will come at some time.)
.WnnEp;L]mi hy;h; rv,a} μymil;[ol] hy;h; rb;K]
aWh vd;j; hz<Ahaer“ rm'aYov, rb;D; vye 10
Is
there a message saying, ‘Look! This is new!’
It has already existed in the times that were before us.
There is a story
(apparently apocryphal) about a bureaucrat in Washington in the late 1800’s who
asserted that the patent office was of no further value, because there was
nothing left to be invented. Today many
of the gadgets that we deem to be essential did not exist even 10 years ago,
and the pace at which ‘new stuff’ appears on the scene only increases year by
year. However at the most fundamental
level, all of these ‘new gadgets’ consist merely of the rearrangement or repackaging
of material or concepts that have been present from the time of Adam and
Eve. Consider music, for example. Every generation or culture has had its own
favored style of music. But whether that
music is based on the octave scale, 12-tone scale, or chromatic scale, it is
all based on sound waves ranging from 40 Hz to 1200 Hz. Both popular and classical music employ the
same range of frequencies with varying rhythm and beat patterns. The same can be said of art, literature,
science, and mathematics. More than once
the newest great discovery was merely a rediscovery of something that was once
known and later forgotten. (For example,
the ancient Greeks knew that the earth was round and calculated its
circumference to a high degree of accuracy.)
Much of the renaissance was merely the rediscovery of what the Greeks
had known 1500 years earlier. From this
perspective, nothing is really new but merely a rearrangement of what has
previously existed.
Wyh]Yiv, μyniroj}a'l; μg"w“ μynivoaril;
ˆ/rk]zi ˆyae 11
.hn:roj}a'l; Wyh]Yiv, μ[i ˆ/rK;zi
μh,l; hy<h]yIAalo
There
is no remembrance of the former things, and also the latter things that will be
will have no remembrance with those who will live in later times.
More than one writer has noted that any generation
who fails to learn from the errors of prior history will be doomed to repeat
those errors. Here the author asserts
that this fault is characteristic both of people as individuals and of entire
societies. Read today’s newspaper (or
internet news bulletin) and then read one from 50 years, 100 years ago, or 2500
years ago. Details will be different,
but many of the problems being addressed will be essentially the same. The human creature has not changed from the
day that God judged Adam and Eve and cursed the ground (Gen 3:17); the problems
that the earliest human cultures have experienced remain with us still in
essentially the same form. We tend to be
so wrapped up in our own circumstances that we forget that no problem we face
is new: it may be new to us, but it has all happened before.
.μIl;v;WryBi laer:c]yiAl[' Ël,m, ytiyyih; tl,h,qo
ynia} 12
I, Koheleth, have
been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
There were just three kings who reigned over all
Israel from Jerusalem: David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, though Rehoboam's tenure
lasted just a few months at most. Verse
1 states that Koheleth was the son of David, much of the book stresses the
great wisdom possessed by Koheleth, and chapter 2 describes some of the great
building projects and wealth attributed to Solomon. Without a doubt, the author is claiming to be
Solomon. The internal evidence of the
text presents this as the work of Solomon.
The state of the Masoretic Text shows numerous textual corruptions,
indicating that this book was among the less carefully preserved of the Hebrew texts,
and these same corruptions are often contained word-by-word in the LXX and
other early translations. This suggests
that the book was already ancient by the time that the Greek and Aramaic translations
were made.
μyim;V;h'
tj'T' hc,[}n' rv,a}AlK; l[' hm;k]j;B' rWtl;w“ v/rd]li yBiliAta, yTit'n:w“ 13
./B t/n[}l' μd:a;h; yneb]li μyhi/la‘
ˆt'n; [r: ˆyn}[i aWh
And I
applied my heart to examine intently with wisdom all that is done under heaven: God has given a profoundly unpleasant task to
mankind to be occupied with.
yBiliAta, yTit'n:w“ This
is the primary clause of the verse. yTit'n:w“
is a 1cs qal perfect of ˆtn and has
the basic meaning of ‘give.’ In
the present context, it describes concentrated application to a particular
task. yBiliAta,
is the direct object of the transitive verb.
In classical Hebrew, the term ‘heart’ often refers to the seat of
reason and conscious determination, not the seat of emotion or passion.
hm;k]j;B' rWtl;w“ v/rd]li This
phrase consists of two qal infinitive constructs followed by an adverbial
prepositional phrase. The two
infinitives are predicate compliments to the finite verb and describe the task
that Koheleth intends to undertake. The
basic root meaning of vrd is ‘seek,’
and its range of usage includes ‘investigate, study, practice.’ The root meaning of rWt is ‘seek out, explore.’ The combination is a hendiadys (two words
used to express a single idea) to describe a determined, concerted examination
of a particular subject. The adverbial
prepositional phrase hm;k]j;B'
identifies the tool to be used for this examination: ‘with the wisdom.’ In classical Hebrew, hm;k]j; refers primarily to the practice of practical skills
in life, not the accumulation of information or the speculative knowledge that
characterized Greek thought. English
does not have any single word that has an equivalent semantic content.
μyim;V;h' tj'T' hc,[}n" rv,a}AlK; l[' This phrase presents the object of this
examination: concerning everything that is being done under the sun. The verb form hc,[}n'
is an ms niphal (passive) participle from the root hc[ expressing continual action. The prepositional phrase μyim;V;h' tj'T' focuses attention on
events that currently were taking place on the earth and could be investigated
by direct observation. This expression has essentially the same force as vm,V;h' tj'T' 'under the sun'.
/B t/n[}l' μd:a;h; yneb]li μyhi/la‘ ˆt'n; [r: ˆyn}[i aWh This clause presents the conclusion of
his study concerning all that is done under heaven (essentially chapters 2
through 5) before he begins describing the details of that study. The grammatical core of the clause μd:a;h; yneb]li μyhi/la‘ ˆt'n; [r: ˆyn}[i aWh:
‘God has given an unpleasant task to the sons of Adam.’ The remainder is merely amplification. In the Hebrew text [r: ˆyn}[i aWh is
an independent clause that precedes the main clause, but it identifies what God
has given to mankind. /B t/n[}l' is
an infinitive phrase describing the nature of the problem: habitual occupation
with an unpleasant task. This unpleasant
task that God has inflicted on the sons of Adam is the core of the curse in Gen
3:19: ‘With the sweat of your face (lit. nose) you shall eat your
bread until you return to the ground.’
[r: This adjective
is almost always translated as ‘evil,’ and readers of the English translations often assume that the term ‘evil’
always describes moral evil or something sinful. In reality, the classical Hebrew usage of [r: is similar to that of the English term
‘evil,’ i.e. something that is bad, unpleasant, or undesirable. All moral evil and all sin certainly are bad
and always have ultimately undesirable consequences, but not all bad
(unpleasant or undesirable) things or deeds are sinful. In this book the term [r: usually does not
refer to moral evil but to something that is unpleasant or undesirable.
μd:a;h; yneb]li Grammatically,
this phrase constitutes the indirect object of the transitive verb. μd:a;h; yneb] is a construct chain that is
ordinarily translated ‘the sons of Adam.’ The peculiar thing is that μd:a;h; has the definite article attached
even though it is often taken as a personal name. Since personal names in Hebrew are always
definite, use of the article is not appropriate. Consequently, the author appears to be using
this term as a generic expression for human or mankind and not as the personal
name ‘Adam.’ This usage is
confirmed by the expressions in 2:18, 21, 22, 24, 26, 3:11, 12, 20, etc.
.j"Wr tW[r]W lb,h, lKoh' hNEhiw“ vm,V;h'
tj'T' Wc[}N"v, μyci[}M'h'AlK;Ata, ytiyair: 14
I have
seen all of the deeds that are done under the sun, and everything is an
illusion and striving after wind.
j"Wr tW[r]W lb,h, lKoh' hNEhiw“ This clause and its variants are structurally significant
literary markers. They are repeated
throughout the book at the end of each major segment of text like the refrain
in a song or poem. Semantically, this
refrain means: what has just been presented is as futile as trying to find
substance in a mirage or trying to catch the wind. The term tW[r]
is an fs noun derived from the root h[r
III signifying ‘striving, longing;’ ˆ/y[]r" is a ms noun from the same
root having the same meaning. (LXX
translation for both terms is προαίρεσης, a choosing.) Just try to be a
close companion with the wind!
.t/nM;hil] lk'WyAal ˆ/rs]j,w“ ˆqot]li lk'WyAal
tW:[um] 15
This is the first of many obvious proverbs
presented throughout the text of this book.
It is intended as the explanation for the assertion that 'God has given
humans an extremely unpleasant task'.
Understanding the content of this particular proverb couplet is
essential for gaining an accurate understanding of the message that the author
is trying to convey. Formally, tW:[um] is a pual (passive form) participle
of tw[ (be bent, twisted, crooked); ˆqot] is a qal infinitive construct
(become straight); ˆ/rs]j, is an ms
noun from rsj (deficiency, thing
lacking); t/nM;hi is a niphal (passive
form) infinitive construct of hnm
(count, number, reckon). A strictly
literal translation of the forms would be: One is not able to straighten a
bent thing, and one is not able to count a missing thing.
What is bent? The creation is bent by the curse of God, and
that curse cannot be undone by anything we can do: ‘Cursed is the land because of you’
(Gen 3:17). Yeshua bore the judicial
curse of the law (c.f., Deut 27:15 – 26) for those who believe in him, but he
has not yet eliminated the curse on this creation (see Rom 8:19-21). That will not happen until the creation is
made new after the end of his 1000-year reign following his bodily return to
the earth (Rev 21:1).
What is missing? Innocence and the original direct fellowship
with God. This cannot be restored
completely even by the new birth: ‘I heard your voice in the garden, and I
was afraid because I was naked’ (Gen 3:10).
Restoration of innocence will not occur for those under the sun until they
who have been redeemed possess glorified material bodies. The redeemed will be confirmed in sinlessness
following their physical death, but they will not again live under
the sun on earth until after their resurrection.
Now, if we accept the
rhetorical question of verse 3 as a general statement of purpose for the entire
book, then verse 15 constitutes the fundamental problem that confronts every
human throughout the duration of his life on planet earth. Given the fact that we all live in a world
that is not the original creation that God intended – or as stated by Rav Shaul
in Rom 8:20, For the creation was subjected to futility (ματαιότης), not of its own will, but
because of him who subjected it… – how can a person find something of value
in his pursuits? The remaining verses of chapter 1 assert that he, Koheleth, will undertake an investigation of all that is done on earth to discover what is beneficial for a person to do, and this investigation constitutes the body of the book. Chapters 2 through 5 describe
the various ways that people have attempted – and still attempt – to find value and
satisfaction in life:
·
Pleasure – material,
culinary, sexual
·
Knowledge, especially the attempt
to understand ultimate purposes of God
·
Rivalries and strife
between people
·
Personal mastery by means
of deceit, wealth, or position
All of these offer no
ultimate benefit because they are all transitory. The futility of pursuing any or all of these
as life objectives is summarized in chapter 6.
Chapters 7 through 11 have
a somewhat different focus and employ a more directly proverbial approach. If the most common methods for seeking
satisfaction in life are ultimately futile, how can a person find enjoyment in
life that transcends circumstances? The
author's answer is the fear of God coupled with the practice of wisdom hm;k]j;. No human under the sun is immune from chance
calamity, but through the practice of hm;k]j;
a person can avoid being the source of his own calamities. In addition, such a person receives as a gift
from God the capacity to enjoy the time of life he has been granted under the
sun, whether he has little or much.
Chapter 12 is then the
conclusion to the book and summarizes the entire investigation with the words Fear
God and keep the commandments.
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