Old Testament Survey - Lesson 41

Dr. Daniel Block 
Old Testament Survey
ot300-41
Ecclesiastes
Lesson Transcript

We've come to the end of this survey of the First Testament, or shall we call it an introduction to the First Testament. Our concern has been as much to give us insight into how to read the Bible as insight into what the Bible is. Well, now we come to the last book in our agenda, Ecclesiastes.

Let's begin with the title of the book, the meaning of the words of Koheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem. This is difficult to understand. First, Koheleth is a feminine participle form of kahal, which means to call an assembly.

Well, is this the word of one who calls an assembly? Literally, that's what we would expect, but who's the woman doing it? But this explains why the word assembly, kahal, assembly, explains why some translations read the words of the preacher, New American Standard, or the words of the teacher, NIV. The feminine form is a riddle. Why is such an enigmatic designation used? To whom does the modifier son of David, king of Israel, refer? Tradition says Solomon, but this is far from clear.

Furthermore, if the author had intended a reference to Solomon, why doesn't he come out and name him? He names David. The name Koheleth seems to be an artificial creation. It provides the author with a literary method, in my view, of critiquing the reign of Solomon, who by the time of the writing of this text had gained a legendary reputation for more than one thing.

Part of it was his wisdom, but there were other parts of his life that also became legendary. When was this book written? Well, it's clearly a wisdom text, and its author was obviously a wise person, a collector of proverbs, a teacher, a writer. But the book is neither a collection of proverbs nor a coherent address by a master to his pupil.

The first-person autobiographical style gives it the appearance of, shall we say, a confessional. This is what I have found to be true in life, but it is extremely difficult to tell when it might have been written. Scholars have appealed to the style and diction of the language, such as archaisms, old words, and Aramaisms, to defend both an early Solomonic and a late, as late as fourth century.

In fact, there's a theory recently espoused that it's probably second century BC. The presence of several Persian words may suggest it's post-exilic, but the possibility of a northern dialectical provenance or Phoenicianizing style remains. The fact is it doesn't fit comfortably in any of the periods involved in the history of the Hebrew language, and so anything we say is in soft lead pencil.

It must remain open. Who wrote this, and when was it written? If the image of Solomon as portrayed in the narrative of kings inspired the characterization of Koheleth, then this book would make the most sense in a time and place where the Israelites, or some portion of the nation, was still governed by a monarchy, which would put it pre-exilic. Could this be a literary caricature of one of Josiah's sons? These were all bad guys, Jehoiakim or Zedekiah.

The conclusion certainly sounds Deuteronomic and may provide a link with a Torah scroll that Josiah's men had discovered in the temple while refurbishing it. This could also be a northern Israelite's spoof on the decadent court in Jerusalem. What can we say about the structure and style of the book? The indiscriminate, erratic structure of the book is evident to anybody who tries to create an outline of Ecclesiastes.

The text jumps from topic to topic without warning. Individual units vary in content from lists of proverbs to highly creative literary pictures as we have it in chapter 12. Many conclude from this that the book is simply a collection of randomly assembled fragments, and there is little point in trying to discover a coherent plot.

Although the overall message of the book appears to be pessimistic, the present form though is punctuated by contradictory, positive affirmations of the value of life, the joy that's to be found in human endeavor, the importance of committing oneself to God. Could the same person have spoken out of both sides of his mouth so blatantly? The book itself is constructed of two parts, the autobiography of Koheleth 112-127, which is filled with pessimism and skepticism, and the orthodox assessment of the frame narrator 11-11 and 12-8-14. So like the book of Job, we've got a frame that we've got sections, short sections that frame the bulk of the book.

The so-called hopeful passages 2-24-26, 3-12-14, 3-22, 5-18-20, 8-15, 9-7-10, 11-7-10. I mean, they're scattered throughout. Could it be that these are statements of resignation, not optimism? Between this frame, the perspective jumps back and forth as the person describes his personal experimentation to find meaning in life.

Hopeful statements interrupt pessimistic and depressing comments. Life seems to be filled with contradictions for Koheleth. Hevel does not mean simply vanity, emptiness, but also absurdity, senselessness.

The word characterizes his reaction to contradictions. First, regarding toil and pleasure, the contradiction, toil is absurd and without advantage, yet it provides wealth and may be a source of pleasure. But why is it absurd, and how is it good? Second, regarding wisdom, the contradiction, the value of wisdom and knowledge is both to be affirmed and denied.

But what is to be affirmed and denied? What can be known, and why should it be known? Third, regarding justice and theodicy, the contradiction, life is unjust, but God is just. But what then is the moral quality of the world? I mean, there are all sorts of contradictions in this book that we have to wrestle with, and that the author is wrestling with. What is the message of the book? In my interpretation, the message of the book is bursting the bubble, finding meaning and joy in every phase of life by adopting a theocentric worldview.

By way of introduction, the search for meaning and profit in life preoccupies middle-class North Americans. Meaning is commonly associated with self-esteem and self-fulfillment. Traditionally, this goal has been pursued by pride in one's work, pride in the products of one's work, materialism, identification with the winner, vicarious pride as in sports, levity and revelry, mood-altering drugs and sexual experimentation, pride in one's intellect, education, living for the moment.

This is how we've tried to find meaning. The growing awareness in our times of the futility of these enterprises is reflected in the prevalence in our own day of despair and rejection, the number of attempted suicides, cynicism, and the drive to experiment in activities that are increasingly bizarre and dangerous. But this problem affects every age.

Pop psychologists speak freely of the crisis of adolescence, the crisis of growing independence, the crisis of marriage, the crisis of middle age, and the crisis of aging. I mean, no matter what phase of life we're in, we're preoccupied with crises, and if we weren't before in COVID times, we certainly have all wrestled with this. All this discussion raises the suspicion that this preoccupation with crises may turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The more we talk about it, the faster it spreads. In fact, living in a constant state of crisis is made to look normal. A person begins to wonder, what's wrong if I do not experience some kind of tension all the time? The contemporary preoccupation with the search for meaning renders the book of Ecclesiastes one of the most relevant in the First Testament.

Kohalath, the autobiographer of the core of this literary work 112-127, wrestles with these problems, but how does he deal with the issue? We may answer that question with a synthetic treatment of the book, focusing on several key issues. Question number one, what was Kohalath's goal in all his experimentation? Well, Kohalath's goal is summed up in the root Y-T-R, Yether, which occurs 18 times in the book. We have variations of the root all over.

Sometimes it appears as a noun, Yithron, which means profit. This is an economic expression. You're keeping a ledger of your expenses and your income, and you're hoping at the end of the week that you've got a profit, and that's what this guy is doing.

He's looking for profit. How can I come out at the end of the week better than I started? Gain. Sometimes it appears as another noun, Yothir, meaning superiority, excess, more than what everybody has, and once it appears as a noun, Mothar, meaning advantage.

What is the advantage in life? Obviously, the key is this root Y-T-R, which is fundamentally an economic term used with reference to a budget surplus. According to the author, his purpose in all his efforts and in human existence itself is to achieve a profit margin when it's all over. That's the aim.

Second, what were Koheleth's assumptions? Well, the underlying assumption of Koheleth is that life is defined specifically in terms of the here and the now. You can count them. Do a statistical study, and you'll find expressions of here and now abound in the book.

The word for time, eighth, occurs 17 times. The word day, 25 times. Under the heavens, you have repeatedly one, three, two, three, upon the earth.

It's the here and now, but most impressively, under the sun, which occurs 30 times scattered throughout the book. Now, there are other expressions for time and this worldly existence. They include references to the boundaries of birth and death, the coming and going of a generation, and the rising and the setting of the sun.

Within this context, all of life must run its course until it is terminated by death. Koheleth's morbid perspective is reflected in the frequency with which he mentions the end of one's life. Death, to die, 2 16 3 2 4 2 7 1 2 17 26 8 8 9 5. Burial, 6 3 8 10.

Return to the dust, 3 20 12 7. Sheol, 9 10. The problem with death is that it shuts off all opportunities for profit. It's over.

It's done. Koheleth's universe was closed, defined temporally by the period between birth and death, and spatially by under the sun, that is, upon the earth. What you see is all you get.

The search for meaning and profit must be conducted within these parameters, indeed within these confines. But what were Koheleth's methods? How did he search for profit under the sun? Koheleth describes for us some of the methods he followed to try to achieve profit. The book opens with a summary statement describing how one may be the keenest observer of natural phenomena, but what does nature accomplish? There is no progress, nothing new under the sun, only a weary cyclical pattern of natural events.

This opening volley declares that the universal natural processes produce no profits. It's all going round and round over and over again. Human history is a part of this profitless existence.

Nothing new is produced as the world turns. It is simply one vicious cycle of activity going round and round but leading nowhere. This doesn't provide much encouragement for the one searching for profit.

Finding no profit in observing the world out there, you can't see it. You get it by seeing it. He attempted to find profit in life by personal experimentation.

In chapters one to two, his personal determination and investment are reflected in first person first person expressions like, I perceived, I said in my heart, I gave my heart to consider. What a narcissist. He pursued profit through several avenues of experimentation.

First, he gave his mind to careful observing and learning, one sixteen to seven. Second, he turned to self-indulgence, levity, laughter, pleasure, and hedonistic excess, two, two to ten. But what were Kohelet's rewards for his efforts? His testimony is dominated by the vocabulary of futility.

First, there is no profit, two eleven. Second, all is hevel, vanity, absurdity, emptiness. That word occurs thirty-three times in the book.

Third, it is all striving after wind which speaks of the elusiveness, the evanescence of profit. A professor of mine used to define hevel as soap bubbles. Soap bubbles of soap bubbles.

It's all soap bubbles. That's what you get. Kohelet's efforts left him totally frustrated and disillusioned.

He hated life, two seventeen, four two, and concluded that all human effort is evil, disastrous. It's a problem. It was part of the futile cosmic system in which he was trapped under the sun.

Many people in our own time have come to this stage in life, having experimented and having tried every means to find happiness and meaning in all phases of life. They conclude that life itself is absurd, meaningless, wasted effort. As the beast dies, so dies the man, three nineteen, with nothing to show for it.

In Shakespearean terms, all the world's a stage, and each one is an actor. It, life, is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. Under the sun, a person is locked into an immutable, closed system.

One cannot break out of it. One cannot profit from it. One can find no happiness from it, nor within it.

The key to life is not found within life itself. Personal experience confirms the lesson of history. Life is nothing but a vicious circle, leading nowhere, accomplishing nothing, bringing no satisfaction or meaning.

Is there then no hope at all for Koheleth, or anyone else for that matter? Many find hope in the series of positive affirmations that punctuate an otherwise, to them, hopelessly pessimistic verdict on human life. The common denominator in all of these, whether it's 2, 24 to 26, 3, 9 to 14, 5, 8 to 20, and the list goes on of these positive statements, the common denominator in all is the challenge to eat, drink, and be merry, and to find some measure of enjoyment in one's work. These are part of the divine order of things, given to us by God to be enjoyed as his gifts, yes, even in a fallen world.

But we must recognize that in the end, when this futile life is over, we face the, shall we bracket, unwelcome prospect of answering, yes, to God. While some interpret these as resigned admissions that life under the sun is hopeless and futile, and they should actually be viewed, I think, as optimistic statements. In and of itself, under the sun, between life, between birth and death, yes, in and of themselves, life has no more meaning for the human than for a creature, a critter, a brute animal, to be sure.

But Qoheleth acknowledges that life need not be experienced only in and of itself. What then is the message? Enter the narrator, the orthodox believer who had in his hands the confessions of Qoheleth. He read this thing that Qoheleth had produced.

He can recognize the truthfulness of much of Qoheleth's conclusions. However, finding the final skeptical and pessimistic verdict intolerable, and fearing that the readers of Qoheleth will miss the glimmers of hope inside, he added his own framework to the text cast in third person. In this framework, he affirmed Qoheleth's experience 1.1 to 11, but he also offered a way out, 12.8 to 14, for the original autobiographer, Qoheleth, and the modern reader.

In his conclusion, the narrator places a new lens in the glasses of the reader, a lens with which we may make sense of life and secure our well-being. In these two little parts taken together, he reaffirms three basic dogmas of the first testament, each of which had been questioned by Qoheleth. First, the fear of God is indeed the first principle of wisdom.

Second, order and meaning are found in obedience to the revealed will of God read the ending. And third, ultimately, all will account to God for every action committed under the sun. This means that under the sun is not a definition of all reality.

Given this perspective, the fundamental and permanent lessons of the book we may affirm. First, in the fear of God, we understand that the vanity of the present world is the result of the fall, 729. It doesn't take faith to recognize the vanity of life, but it takes faith to understand it.

This is the fallen world in which we live. Second, in the fear of God, we find the basis of personal ethics. We do indeed live in the light of God's judgment, 119, and we relate to him in humble submission.

Third, in the fear of God, we find meaning in worship. Chapter 5 verses 1 to 7 is an interesting text. In a rare reference to official religion in a wisdom text, Qoheleth had intimated that worship is not simply empty ritual, but an opportunity for a real encounter with God.

When you go into the presence of the Lord, let your words be few. Listen for God. Fourth, in the fear of God, we may view all work and its products as gifts from God for fallen humankind to be enjoyed.

Work is not actually just a futile enterprise in search of happiness. To be human is to work if we recognize that God is in this picture and that we are his images governing the world for him. Five, in the fear of God, we may experience life, every phase of it to the full.

All of life is indeed a celebration. Every day is a gift. Every breath is a gift.

This is a far cry from the long faces we see in the shopping malls and the grumpy people we encounter on the freeways. If there's anything our world needs today, it is an infusion of the sense of God's presence. It is a theological perspective on life.

Apart from the lens of the narrator, Qoheleth's verdict is totally correct. All is absurdity, soap bubbles of soap bubbles. It's all soap bubbles.

But the final author offers the way out. The solution to the apparent futility of human experience is found in recognizing that under the sun doesn't define everything. Beyond human existence and cosmic existence, there is God to whom we are invited to relate.

Recognizing God in every area of life, that is the source of life, and to him all humans eventually return. We do indeed have the capacity to find meaning in life, but it is discovered by abandoning the search under the sun and casting ourselves on God. In other words, in simpler words, the key to happiness cannot be found by searching for it.

If a person's goal in life is to find happiness, meaning, self-fulfillment, he or she will be deluded, frustrated. This preoccupation with meaning and profit is not only self-defeating, it is Canaanite. The challenge for us as servants of God and as children of the Heavenly Father is to open the windows of this box, this closed system in which men and women without God are trapped.

The search for happiness in life is futile by definition, and if looking out for yourself is all that you are preoccupied with, you will not find joy. As my mother used to teach us, joy, Jesus, others, and you put yourself into the picture last. We are here for God, and we are here for others and not for ourselves.

In the immortal words of Saint Augustine of Hippo, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it comes to rest in you. Therein is fulfillment and satisfaction for all eternity. To God be the glory.