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ECCLESIASTES) Editorial Consultants Athalya Brenner-Idan Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza QOHELETH (ECCLESIASTES) Editorial Consultants Athalya Brenner-Idan Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Editorial Board Mary Ann Beavis Carol J. Dempsey Gina Hens-Piazza Amy-Jill Levine Linda M. Maloney Ahida Pilarski Sarah Tanzer Lauress Wilkins Lawrence WISDOM COMMENTARY Volume 24 Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) Lisa Michele Wolfe Athalya Brenner-Idan Volume Editor Barbara E. Reid, OP General Editor A Michael Glazier Book LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2020 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, except brief quotations in reviews, without written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, MN 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wolfe, Lisa M. (Lisa Michele), author. | Brenner-Idan, Athalya, editor, writer of foreword. | Reid, Barbara E., editor, writer of introduction. Title: Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) / Lisa Michele Wolfe ; Athalya Brenner-Idan, volume editor ; Barbara E. Reid, OP, general editor. Description: Collegeville, Minnesota : Liturgical Press, [2020] | Series: Wisdom commentary ; volume 24 | “A Michael Glazier Book.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This commentary on Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) provides a feminist interpretation of Scripture in serious, scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women. It addresses not only issues of gender but also those of power, authority, ethnicity, racism, and classism” —Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019029635 (print) | LCCN 2019029636 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814681237 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780814681480 (epub) | ISBN 9780814681480 (mobi) | ISBN 9780814681480 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Ecclesiastes—Feminist criticism. | Bible. Ecclesiastes— Commentaries. | Women in the Bible. Classification: LCC BS1475.52 .W65 2020 (print) | LCC BS1475.52 (ebook) | DDC 223/.806082—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029635 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029636 Dedicated to Mom, the first one to teach me the power of feminism Contents Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi List of Contributors xv Foreword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]” xvii Athalya Brenner-Idan Editor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25) xxi Barbara E. Reid, OP Author’s Introduction: A Feminist Toolbox for Interpreting Qoheleth xli Qoheleth 1:1-18 Learning Qoheleth’s Language 1 Qoheleth 2:1-26 A Test: Is Pleasure Hevel? 17 Qoheleth 3:1-22 What Time? 37 Qoheleth 4:1–5:20 [19] From Hevel to Carpe Diem and Much in Between 63 Qoheleth 6:1–7:14 Good, Better, Wise 83 Qoheleth 7:15-29 On Wisdom and Women (or Woman Wisdom) 99 Qoheleth 8:1–9:6 From Wisdom to Death 127 vii viii Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) Qoheleth 9:7-18 Carpe Diem and Related Imperatives 141 Qoheleth 10:1–12:14 Closing Advice and Epilogue 151 Afterword: Qoheleth as a Model for Feminist Hermeneutics 167 Works Cited 173 Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings 185 Index of Subjects 197 Acknowledgments hanks to: HaroldT Washington, my long-time colleague and friend, for all your conversations with me over the years about Qoheleth, often in front of a class. I am eternally grateful to you for getting me started on this project. Fred Mischler, my dear husband, as it was no small thing to support me over the years on this project. Thank you especially for enduring the fact that I found Qoheleth-isms in absolutely everything. Thank you for helping me prioritize and for helping to clear writing time for me. Bram and Phoebe, for your patience with me during summers and evenings and Saturdays when it seemed like I should not have had to be working. Christina and Jerry Young, Katy Wolfe, Jonah and Amelia Zahn, and Beth Kloker, for all the extra “summer camps” you created for the kids while I was writing. Kathleen R. Farmer, who got me started on this journey with Qoheleth back in 1995. Thanks more than twenty years later for reading part of my manuscript and providing helpful feedback. The remarkable students, faculty, and staff of the Wimberly School of Religion at Oklahoma City University, for support, encouragement, col- legiality, patience, and chocolate. I couldn’t ask for a better community. All the students who have discussed Qoheleth with me in undergradu- ate, seminary, temple, and church classrooms (and even a Sukkah); thank you for providing your insights and for listening to me teach about Qoheleth no matter what topic we were supposed to be learning. ix x Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) Oklahoma City University, for giving me a sabbatical in fall 2015, a grant to fund my research assistants in 2018, and a quiet (in the summer) second-floor office with a view. Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Oklahoma City, for giving me writing space in fall 2015; especially the Rev. Canon Mother Susan Col- ley Joplin and Cathy O’Connor and the Ignatian Retreat in Daily Life Group, for helping me stay grounded while I wrote that fall; thanks to Brian Speers and Gigi, for greeting me so warmly every morning. Catie and Robbie Knight, for child care help and general moral support. The Book Club, for encouragement and cheerleading. Peyton Wagner and Jenny Johnson, for help with the Hebrew and the footnotes, and Blake Bulger, for help on the Scripture index. Athalya Brenner-Idan, for including positive feedback and encourage- ment with your lists of edits. It was a true honor and privilege to work with you. Barbara Reid, for your gentle and calm management of this project and for having the vison to start it in the first place. LMW From the Library overlooking the Cloister at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, OKC, Various coffee shops and libraries all over the country, And the West Wing of the Gold Star Building at Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Abbreviations AB Anchor Bible ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary AOTC Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries BAR Biblical Archaeology Review BCE Before the Common Era BDB Brown Driver Briggs and Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon BH Biblical Hebrew BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia BHQ Biblia Hebraica Quinta BibInt Biblical Interpretation BJS Brown Judaic Studies BLS Bible and Literature Series CE Common Era CEB Common English Bible CTR Criswell Theological Review DSS Dead Sea Scrolls ERV English Revised Version (1885) FCB Feminist Companion to the Bible GBS Guides to Biblical Scholarship HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual xi xii Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) IBC Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching IFT Introductions in Feminist Theology Int Interpretation ITC International Theological Commentary JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JFSR Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion JHebS Journal of Hebrew Scriptures JPS Jewish Publication Society JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series JTS Journal of Theological Studies KJV King James Version LXX Septuagint MH Mishnaic Hebrew MT Masoretic Text NASB New American Standard Bible NEA Near Eastern Archaeology (formerly Biblical Archaeologist) NET New English Translation NIB New Interpreter’s Bible NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament NIDB New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible NIRV New International Reader’s Version NISB New Interpreter’s Study Bible NIV New International Version NJB New Jerusalem Bible NJPS New Jewish Publication Society Translation NLT New Living Translation NRSV New Revised Standard Version OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology Abbreviations xiii OTL Old Testament Library OTM Old Testament Message RSV Revised Standard Version SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series SymS Symposium Series TDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Edited by G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren. Trans- lated by John T. Willis et al. 8 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974–2006. ThTo Theology Today TSAJ Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum USQR Union Seminary Quarterly Review VT Vetus Testamentum WBC Word Biblical Commentary WTJ Westminster Theological Journal ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Contributors Mercedes L. García Bachmann has a PhD in Old Testament from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). She taught for almost twenty years at the ecumenical school of theology in Buenos Aires (Is- edet). Currently she directs the Institute for Contextual Pastoral Studies for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Argentina-Uruguay) and teaches online for her alma mater and for other schools. Dr. Athalya Brenner-Idan is professor emerita of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Chair, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands, formerly at the Bible Department, Tel Aviv University, Israel; and now research associate at the Free State University, South Africa. Ora Brison received her PhD from Tel Aviv University, department of Jewish Studies (2015). Her research interests include gender-critical read- ings of the Bible, contextual readings of biblical texts, and their reception in contemporary
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