Biblical Wisdom Texts in a Nutshell

Ecclesiastes:

–A letter from father to son, enclosing the words of Qohelet, in which the father states and evaluates Qohelet’s words.

-In summary, Ecclesiastes contains a wise father’s words to his son (12:8–14) after he introduces him to the thought of a person who calls himself Qohelet (1:12–12:7). The father provides an introduction to Qohelet’s words (1:1–11), and thus his voice frames that of Qohelet (leading Fox to call him the frame narrator). I will also use that term to identify this speaker as well as the rather clumsy “second wise man.” Ecclesiastes contains a father’s interaction with his son as he presents and then critically interacts with Qohelet’s ideas. Thus, to understand the book of Ecclesiastes one must ask two questions. First, what is the message of Qohelet? Answering this question is necessary but not sufficient for proper interpretation of the book. We must then press on to the second question, which is, what is the message of the frame narrator? Since the latter’s message frames the words of Qohelet and then concludes the book, his perspective is the message of the book.(29-30)

-Under the sun= Earthly wisdom. Not including God or the afterlife. Nontheological. (which is why, in the end, it’s all meaningless and Qohelet concludes to eat, drink, and be merry.

-There are three reasons why meaning is not found “under the sun”: death, injustice, and the inability to discern the proper time. (30)

-Though  there is no contradiction between Proverbs, on the one hand, and Ecclesiastes and Job, on the other, we will see that there is a definite and clear difference in emphasis and tone. In the final analysis, a view of wisdom that rings true to the Bible (and to life) may be gained only by attention to all three, or—to put it another way—we must ultimately read any one of these books in the light of the others. A canonical approach to interpretation insists on such an understanding.(26)

-the Hebrew word Qohelet means neither “preacher” nor “teacher.” It is a feminine active participle of the common Hebrew verb qhl, which means “to assemble” or “to gather together.” Feminine active participles can be used for occupations, and thus a translation more in keeping with the Hebrew is “Assembler” or “Gatherer.”(28)

-However, I think the name is intended not to identify the speaker’s role but to further an association (not identification) with the historical Solomon, the purpose of which I will explicate shortly below. After all, the verb qhl plays an important role in the Solomon narrative in Kings, particularly 1 Kings 8 (particularly vv. 1, 2, 14, 22, 55, 65) that describes the dedication of the newly built temple where Solomon addresses an assembly (qāhāl). Whatever the exact significance of the name or of its connection to the historical Solomon, Qohelet is a pseudonym. It is not the speaker’s real name.(28)

-Seeing that Qohelet speaks in the first person, we take note of the second voice in the concluding section of the book (12:8–14), when the speaker refers to Qohelet in the third person: “Qohelet, he.” This is a voice other than Qohelet’s since it is obviously talking about Qohelet, and, as we see in 12:12 (“Furthermore, of these, my son, be warned”), this second speaker is talking about Qohelet to his son.

-The pseudonym associates but does not identify Qohelet with Solomon. Further, as we read beyond the first four chapters of the book, the association between Qohelet and Solomon ends, so that when Qohelet speaks about the king, he is speaking not about himself but about a third party (see 4:1–3; 5:8–9; 10:20). In addition, we should point out that we have no good reason to think, as we turn to the historical tradition about Solomon, that he turned back to the Lord after turning away from him at the end of his life (see 1 Kings 11). Finally, there are clear signs that Ecclesiastes was written not at the time of Solomon but at a much later time, during the postexilic period. (35-36)

-According to Qohelet, everything is meaningless because of death, injustice, and time

On death:

–Ecc. 12:1-5Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, “I have no delight in them,” before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain, on the day when the house guards tremble and the landowners bend, and the women grinders cease because they are few, and those women who look through the window grow dim; the doors to the street are shut, when the sound of the mill decreases, and one rises at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low. Moreover, they are afraid of heights and the terrors in the path. The almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and the caperberry is useless. For humans go to their eternal home and mourners go about in the street. (Eccles. 12:1–5)

               -What interests us in these verses is Qohelet’s reflection on growing old and dying. He sets a somber tone by comparing our aging bodies to a house and its languishing inhabitants. Just as the house guards tremble (like our hands), the landowners bend (like our backs), the women grinders cease because they are few (like our teeth), and the women looking through the window grow dim (like our eyes), so do our bodies grow weaker and weaker. Other details of the text also imply the effects of aging on the body. The doors represent bodily orifices that start to shut down, and the caperberry (an aphrodisiac) doesn’t work anymore. One loses hearing but is still startled by sudden noises. Hair turns grey like the blossoms of the almond tree, and so forth. In the end, humans go to the grave (their “eternal home”).(30-31)

– Finally, Qohelet describes death as a reversal of the process that brought life into existence at the very beginning when God created Adam by breathing into the dust. One should not be tempted to read any sense of eternal life into this statement. Qohelet firmly believes that death ends life and renders everything meaningless. (31)

-On Injustice:

                injustice renders life meaningless for Qohelet. After all, if there are no rewards in the afterlife for those who do the right thing or punishments for those who do not, then any benefits and liabilities for good and bad behavior must happen in the present life. However, as Qohelet has examined the world, he concludes that there is no justice in the world: “Both I have observed in my meaningless life: There is a righteous person perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wicked person living long in his evil” (7:15). According to Qohelet, it is not right that the righteous die before the wicked. He therefore advises that people should be neither too righteous nor too wicked (see 7:16).(31)

               -We need to pay attention to the change from “I observed” in v. 10 to “I know” in v. 12. This signals a change from his experience to his theology. What he sees in the world is injustice, but his theology teaches him that the righteous are rewarded while the wicked are punished. As we read on, his experience trumps his theology. We see this when he follows up his statement of theology with an anecdotal experience. “There is another example of meaninglessness that is done on the earth: There are righteous people who are treated as if they did wicked deeds, and there are wicked people who are treated as if they did righteous deeds.” He thus concludes that “this too is meaningless.” (32)

On timing:

               -“What profit do people have from their toils?” (3:9). He goes on to say, “I observed the task that God has given to the human race to keep them occupied. He makes everything appropriate in its time. He also places eternity in their hearts. But still, no one can discover what God is doing from the beginning to the end” (3:10–11). Yes, God makes everything appropriate for its time, and he has given humanity awareness of this truth, but even so, God has not allowed humans to know when the right time occurs. This leads Qohelet to great frustration. As we consider the impact of Qohelet’s conclusions on this subject, we need to remember from our earlier study of Proverbs just how important it was for the wise person to know the right time to apply the appropriate proverb. Thus, for Qohelet, life is ultimately meaningless because of death, injustice, and the inability to read the time. (33)

Qohelet’s conclusion:

Life is meaningless because death is the end of the story and injustice and frustration characterize one’s earthly existence. But what is a person to do since life is meaningless? According to Qohelet, one should live life with a carpe diem—“seize the day”—attitude (34)

-Qohelet kept acknowledging that he was trying to find meaning “under the sun.” It is not easy to pin down exactly what Qohelet means by this phrase, but it does seem fair to say that, though he certainly is no atheist, he does not allow himself to find meaning by appealing to God or his revelation. As we saw in our analysis of Eccles. 8:10–15 above, Qohelet is intent on finding meaning by “observation” rather than by given knowledge, and he comes up short. (39)

The other writer of Ecclesiastes: the father to son, the Godly wise man evaluating Qohelet’s words or “frame narrator”:

               -As described above, the second wise man’s words (1:2–11; 12:8–14) frame the speech of Qohelet (1:12–12:7). The prologue simply sets the stage for Qohelet’s speech. We hear the frame narrator’s perspective in the epilogue, and so we now turn to the epilogue. In the epilogue, the second wise man speaks to his son (12:12). He uses Qohelet’s speech to give his son a lesson on life and in particular where to find the meaning of life (38)

Qohelet as a wise man: The father then evaluates Qohelet as a wise man. He begins with “Qohelet was a wise man” (12:9a). If someone is called wise (ḥākām) in the book of Proverbs, this is high praise. Outside of Proverbs, though, calling someone a ḥākām does not put an imprimatur on everything that person says. Perhaps ḥākām here functions almost like a professional designation. In the David story, for instance, Jonadab, who advises Amnon how to lure his sister Tamar into his bed (2 Sam. 13:3; see also Ahitophel in 2 Sam. 16:15–17:29), is called a ḥākām. My point is not that Qohelet is evil like Jonadab but rather that to call someone a ḥākām does not mean that everything that person says is right. The father goes on to compliment Qohelet by saying that “he taught many people knowledge. He heard, investigated, and put in good order many proverbs” (12:9b). He describes Qohelet with respect, but he is not over-the-top in his description of Qohelet as a ḥākām. As Fox puts it, he is a good workman. (39)

-In short, the frame narrator is saying to his son, “Qohelet is exactly right. Life is hard and then you die, if you stay ‘under the sun’ in your thinking.” In other words, the frame narrator exposes his son to Qohelet in order to show the failure of such “under the sun” thinking. He will direct his son to a different (what we might call “above the sun”) perspective in the concluding two verses of the book. (39-40)

               -Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of humanity. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil. (12:13–14) Thus, the father instructs the son to adopt what we might call an “above the sun” perspective on life.

               -He packs a lot of instruction into a verse and a half. His admonition to “fear God” teaches us to establish a right relationship with God characterized by fear. The son/we (the readers) are to “keep his [God’s] commands” and so are to maintain that relationship through obedience. Finally, the reader is to live in light of the future judgment. If we were to use anachronistic theological categories, we would say that we have justification, sanctification, and eschatology in a verse and a half. (40)

Ecclesiastes Conclusion:

-First, we can conclude that the frame narrator believes that the type of wisdom represented by Qohelet has some utility but is in the final analysis severely limited. In 12:8–12 he acknowledges that Qohelet exposes the true but painful reality that life “under the sun” is meaningless. He is wise, but since his wisdom restricts itself to observation, it leads ultimately to frustration. But, second, the frame narrator himself does not stay “under the sun” but gives his son an “above the sun” perspective that begins with the admonition to “fear God.” The admonition to “fear God” evokes Proverbs’s statement that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (41)

-Thus, in spite of Qohelet’s message, the book of Ecclesiastes presents the same type of wisdom that is based on the fear of God that we discovered in the book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes makes clear that human wisdom has its limitations. Wise and righteous people do not have a guarantee of living long and prospering, but the goal of the frame narrator is nonetheless to bring his son to an “above the sun” perspective in which he will submit to God, obey him, and live in light of the coming judgment. (42)