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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The aim of this paper is to contribute, if possible, a little towards the understanding of the Book of Ecclesiastes, or The Preacher, and to illuminate something of the contemporary significance of its contents. The paper is prompted too by a feeling of dissatisfaction at the negativity with which much of modern writing on Ecclesiastes is tinged, and by the conviction that if Koheleth, the Preacher, is once granted a sympathy of interpretation, and the forcefulness and novelty of his expression are recognised, his message can be seen to be apposite and telling.1
page 210 note 1 For the more positive appreciation of Ecclesiastes, cf., e.g., Zimmerli, W., ‘The Place and Limit of the Wisdom in the Framework of the OT Theology’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 17, 1964, pp. 146ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 210 note 2 Interpreter's Bible (New York, 1956), Vol. V, p. 4.
page 211 note 1 For an occasion where the Hebrew Text as it stands might be rendered differently from the RSV, cf. 5.3 (EVV) (Hebrew 5.2), where RSV translates, ‘For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words’, taking it as an isolated statement. But if it were connected with the previous verse, and so dealt like it with the need for reticence before God, it might run, ‘For as a dream follows after a lengthy undertaking, so does foolishness in speech, if you use many words.’
For an example of where the RSV emends the text, cf. 4.15f, where RSV renders, ‘I saw all the living who move about under the sun, as well as that youth, who was to stand in his place; there was no end of all the people; he was over all of them. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him.’ This connects the verses with what precedes, but yields only a tolerable sense. But a better sense is elicited if these verses are treated as a new section dealing with Koheleth's observation on the impermanence of youth, and the oblivion to which it is doomed, rendering, without modification of the text, ‘I considered all the living, who move about under the sun. With the youth, there is a second who shall supplant him. There is no end to all the people, whether to all who preceded (the two of) them, or whether to those coming after—they shall not take pleasure in him.’
Both of these examples underline the importance of recognising the ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ formulae (see below in the text), so that independent sections are not fused, nor coherent passages broken up.
page 212 note 1 For a review of such attempts, see Loretz, O., Qohelet undder Alte Orient (Herder, Freiburg, 1964), pp. 247ff.Google Scholar
page 212 note 2 For a similar treatment of these verses, though his general interpretation is somewhat different, cf. Scott, R. B. Y., Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Anchor Bible, Vol. 18, Doubleday, New York, 1965), pp. 194, 242.Google Scholar
page 214 note 1 Cf., e.g., the views of Podechard, E., L'Ecclésiaste (Librairie Victor Lecoffre, Paris, 1912), pp. 142ffGoogle Scholar, who suggests the later hand not only of the writer of the Epilogue, but also of a 
and a 
.
page 214 note 2 Hiob und Weisheit (Die Schriften des Alten Testaments, 3. Abt. 2. Band, Göttingen, 1921), p. 235.Google Scholar Thus Volz omits 3.15b, 17, 5.6b (H), 18 (H), 7.18b, 29, 9.7b, 11.9b, among other verses.
page 215 note 1 Volz, op. cit.; Scott, op. cit.; Zimmerli, , Prediger (Das Alte Testament Deutsch, Vol. 16, Göttingen, 1962)Google Scholar; Rankin, op. cit.; Gordis, R., Koheleth, the Man and his World (Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 1955).Google Scholar
page 216 note 1 The 31 sections are identified as follows: 1.3–11, 1.12–15, 1.16–18, 2.1–11, 2.12–17, 2.18–21, 2.22–23, 2.24–3.15, 3.16–17, 3.18–22, 4.1–3, 4.4–6, 4.7–8, 4.9–12, 4.13–14, 4.15–16, 4.17–5.6 (H), 5.7–8 (H), 5.9–11 (H), 5.12–16 (H), 5.17–19 (H), 6.1–7.14, 7.15–22, 7.23–25, 7.26–8.1, 8.2–9, 8.10–17, 9.1–10, 9.11–12, 9.13–10.4, 10.5–12.7.
page 217 note 1 For a similar conclusion in other sections, enjoining contentment with the gifts allotted by an inscrutable God to a man, and exploitation of them to the full, cf. 2.24, 3.17, 22, 5.6 (H), 5.17f (H), 7.18, 26, 8.15, 9.1, 7, 9.
page 220 note 1 Reason and Emotion (Faber and Faber, London, 1962), p. 172.Google Scholar
page 221 note 1 Religion, Art and Science (Liverpool University Press, 1961), pp. 7ff.Google Scholar
page 221 note 2 op. cit., p. 23.