Ecclesiastes: Koheleth's Quest for Life's Meaning
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ECCLESIASTES: KOHELETH'S QUEST FOR LIFE'S MEANING by Weston W. Fields Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Theology in Grace Theological Seminary May 1975 Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt and Dr. Perry Phillips, Gordon College, 2007. PREFACE It was during a series of lectures given in Grace Theological Seminary by Professor Thomas V. Taylor on the book of Ecclesiastes that the writer's own interest in the book was first stirred. The words of Koheleth are remark- ably suited to the solution of questions and problems which arise for the Christian in the twentieth century. Indeed, the message of the book is so appropriate for the contem- porary world, and the book so cogently analyzes the purpose and value of life, that he who reads it wants to study it; and he who studies it finds himself thoroughly attached to it: one cannot come away from the book unchanged. For the completion of this study the writer is greatly indebted to his advisors, Dr. John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Professor James R. Battenfield, without whose patient help and valuable suggestions this thesis would have been considerably impoverished. To my wife Beverly, who has once again patiently and graciously endured a writing project, I say thank you. TABLE OF CONTENTS GRADE PAGE iii PREFACE iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 1 II. THE TITLE 5 Translation 5 Meaning of tl,h,qo 6 Zimmermann's Interpretation 7 Historical Interpretations 9 Linguistic Analysis 9 What did Solomon collect? 12 Why does Solomon bear this name? 12 The feminine gender 13 Conclusion 15 III. DATE, AUTHORSHIP, AND LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND 16 Introduction 16 Authorship and Linguistic Background 16 The Traditional View 16 Arguments Against Solomonic Authorship 17 A literary device 18 Aramaic background 22 Definition of "Aramaisms" 23 History of Aramaic 26 Late-dating by Aramaisms 30 Limited vocabulary 32 Later documents 33 Reasons for Aramaisms 36 Noun formations 37 Reasons for non-routine terms 38 Conclusion on Aramaisms 40 An Aramaic original 41 Introduction 41 Proofs for an Aramaic original 42 Ecclesiastes 7:12 42 Ecclesiastes 10:15 44 vi Chapter Ecclesiastes 11:1 45 Proofs for a Hebrew original 47 Two Hebrew dialects 47 Paronomasia 48 Canaanite parallels 49 Ben Sira 49 Characteristics of a translation 50 Conclusion on an Aramaic original 52 Ecclesiastes 1:12 52 Ecclesiastes 1:16 54 The Sitz im Leben of the book 55 Arguments for Solomonic Authorship 56 Phoenician background 56 Introduction 56 Linguistic uniqueness 58 A literary genre 59 Dahood's arguments 63 Ecclesiastes 1:10 63 Ecclesiastes 1:16 64 Ecclesiastes 2:2 64 Ecclesiastes 2:24 65 Other examples 65 Use of Ugaritic 71 Evaluation of Dahood 73 Building and commerce 74 Tradition 75 Internal arguments 77 Date 78 Conclusion 80 IV. KOHELETH'S THEME AND DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT 82 Introduction 82 Theme 83 Unsympathetic Interpretations 83 Sympathetic Interpretations 90 A Suggested Theme 91 Development of Thought 94 Conclusion 98 V. SELECTED DIFFICULTIES 100 Introduction 100 Vanity of Vanities 101 Definition 101 Usage of lb,h, 105 Relationship of the Name "Abel" 108 Jewish Interpretations 109 vii Chapter Conclusion on lb,h, 111 Under the Sun 111 Occurrences of the Phrase 112 Definition of the Phrase 114 Significance of the Phrase 115 The Relationship of Inspiration and Revelation 116 Introduction 116 Definition of revelation and inspiration 117 Revelation 117 Inspiration 117 Correlation of inspiration and revelation 118 Koheleth's revelational teachings 120 Conclusion on revelation and inspiration 122 The Meaning and Place of Pleasure 127 Introduction 127 Consideration of the Texts 127 Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 127 Description of the experiment 127 Linguistic analysis 128 Ecclesiastes 2:1 128 Ecclesiastes 2:3 130 Ecclesiastes 2:8 133 Conclusion on 2:1-11 134 Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 135 Description of the passage 135 Linguistic analysis 138 Ecclesiastes 2:24 138 Ecclesiastes 2:25 139 Conclusion on 2:24-26 140 Ecclesiastes 4:8 140 Ecclesiastes 7:15-18 142 Description of the passage 142 Linguistic analysis 142 Oqd;ciB; 142 Ecclesiastes 7:16 143 Ecclesiastes 8:15 147 Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10 149 Conclusion 150 Death and Immortality 152 Introduction 152 Consideration of the Texts 153 Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 153 Ecclesiastes 3:15-22 154 Figures of speech 154 Psychology of man and animals 155 viii Chapter Immortality 162 Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 163 Ecclesiastes 6:3, 12 166 Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 168 Old Testament doctrine of Sheol 169 Interpretation of the passage 173 Word meanings 174 hW,fEma 174 NOBw;H,v; 175 tfadav; 176 hmAk;HA 177 Conclusion on this passage 178 A suggested translation of 9:10 180 Ecclesiastes 12:7, 13, 14 180 VI. A SUMMARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL MESSAGE OF KOHELETH 181 Introduction 181 Consideration of the Topics 181 Insufficiency of Human Endeavor 181 The problem of knowledge 181 The emptiness of things 183 Unthinking materialism 184 Lack of personal importance 185 Conclusion on human endeavor 186 God's Supply of Life's Needs 186 Stability 186 Time 187 Physical requirements 188 Moral requirements 189 Life's values 190 Sovereignty of God 191 Conclusion 192 VII. NEW TESTAMENT PARALLELS 193 Introduction 193 The Parallels 193 Summary 196 VIII. NEAR EASTERN PARALLELS 197 Introduction 197 Some Parallels 197 Mesopotamia 197 Hittite 198 Aramaic 199 Egyptian 200 Ugarit 201 Summary 203 ix Chapter IX. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 204 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED 211 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Few books of the Bible have suffered in recent years from so much neglect as the book of Ecclesiastes. Further- more, a large portion of those who have studied it have unsympathetically criticized and maligned both its author and its message, until it has come to be all but ignored by even those who accept its canonicity and inspiration. The author of this book has been accused of scepticism, of fatalism, and of Epicureanism. His words have been denounced as "not revelation" and human only.1 It is contended that "anyone who essays to explain Coheleth is doomed to failure; it is vanity and a chase after wind."2 Another has called it "the strangest book in the Bible."3 Suspected in days of orthodoxy,4 neglected in periods of optimism, treasured in 1E. Schuyler English, et al., eds., The New Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 696, 702. 2Roland E. Murphy, "The Penseés of Coheleth," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 17 (1955), 314. 3R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs-Ecclesiastes (hereinafter referred to as Ecclesiastes), in The Anchor Bible, ed. by W. F. Albright and David Noel Freedman, et al. (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1965), p. 191. 4Robert Gordis, Poets, Prophets and Sages (Blooming- ton, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1971), p. 327. 2 days of frustration and disillusionment, the writings of Koheleth have always drawn men, yet somehow eluded them. Still, the enigmatic writing of the king of Jerusalem endures, the symbol of the ache of disillusion and of the peace that is possible afterwards. "Whoever has dreamt great dreams in his youth and seen the vision flee, or has loved and lost, or has beaten barehanded at the fortress of injustice and come back bleeding and broken, has passed Kohe- leth's door, and tarried awhile beneath the shadow of his roof."1 The book is unworthy of the abuse it has often received at the hands of commentators, for it consists of, as John Trapp said more than three hundred fifty years ago, golden words, weighty, and worthy of all acceptation; grave and gracious apophthegms, or rather oracles, meet to be well remembered . compiled and composed with such a picked frame of words, with such pithy strength of sentences, with such a thick series of demonstrative arguments, that the sharp wit of all the philosophers, compared with this divine discourse, seems to be utterly cold, and of small account.2 It is not, and probably never will be, among the most popular books in the Bible. Yet, after one has studied this book, it is difficult for him to regard it with indif- ference. It will either be distrusted and minimized, or it lIbid., p. 325. 2John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testa- ments, Vol. III (5 vols.: London: R. D. Dickinson, 1660, reprinted, 1868), p. 155. 3 will be accepted and utilized.1 It is from this book that many Christians, though separated in time from its author by several thousand years, and much richer than its author in available theological knowledge, could gain a very needed message: that a life lived for self and the world is "vanity" and that nothing "under the sun" every really satisfies.2 The book is not, however, without its problems and obscurities, and the problems posed by Koheleth seem to take on increased proportion as they cut across contemporary concepts of thinking. But if the reader will approach the book with an open mind, divest himself of unfavorable presup- positions, and seek to understand the book for what Koheleth meant it to be, he will see what he is being warned against, and how wise that warning is for this age.3 All that is needful is to read Koheleth himself with sympathy and imagi- nation. "Then the dry bones will take on flesh and his lArthur Maltby, "The Book of Ecclesiastes and the After-Life," The Evangelical Quarterly, XXXV:1 (January- March, 1963), 39. 2Ecclesiastes is included among the "Wisdom" litera- ture of the Bible. For an excellent discussion of this classification, see W. O. E. Oesterley, The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, in The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1912), p.