Ecclesiastes/Qohelet
Introduction
Ecclesiastes lived in the third century B.C. Palestine was dominated by Egypt’s rulers whose only interest was to get rich at the expense of their subjects. In Palestine, prominent families were in charge of collecting for the rulers (and for themselves as well) the highest possible amount of taxes, thus burdening the people.
At that time, the Greek language and Hellenism, that is to say, Greek culture, was being imposed everywhere. For a while, Jerusalem was saved from this cultural invasion, but then the weight of politics forced the high priests to agree with the families who were in charge of business.
There had been a real invasion of Greek merchants. People who wanted to move up attended schools where Greek authors were taught. Apparently, no one was able to stand up to Hellenism and the faith in the God of Israel was losing more ground each day.
It was at that time that a teacher of the law accepted the challenge. He was a teacher and a polemist (this is the meaning of the word “Ecclesiastes,” Qoheleth in Hebrew): someone who summoned, appealed, and who questioned the truths of Greek philosophy. He wanted to unveil the secrets of existence, an ambition still found at the heart of our culture.
Qohelet said that human beings were not masters of their destiny: everything is a gift from God. Instead of falling into activism and thinking only about money, young people should learn how to live and to make the most of the joys that God gives us in the course of our lives. Nothing is certain and our reason is always being superseded. Anyone who refuses to look squarely at death, a certainty, only possesses superficial wisdom.
Qohelet may have summarized the essence of his thinking in this sentence: “God made everything fitting in its time, but also set eternity in their hearts, although they are not able to embrace the work of God from the beginning to the end” (Qo 3:11; 8:16). Therefore, human beings are going to have to take charge of their destiny, taking it both as a mission and as an enigma, giving thanks for what each one has received.
Qohelet liked to repeat the same words but each time, he tried to have them express new meanings. And so the enigmatic “Meaningless… All is meaningless,” that we find at the beginning of the book (1:2), revealed all its meaning at the end when the author had shown the limitations of human knowledge and the need to learn to live in the joy of each day (12:8).
The disciples of this unknown person published his work and they attributed it to Solomon, the king who had earned the reputation of being a wise man. They summarized the teachings of their master in this short text that might have been used to teach at the temple’s school. It was probably written around the years 240-220 B.C.
Today the preferred name for Ecclesiastes is Qohelet, according to the Hebrew name, to distinguish it from the book of Ben Sira, traditionally called Ecclesiasticus. This is the reason why we use the abbreviation Qo when quoting from this book.
1.1 All is meaningless! Meaningless (v. 2)! We are used to the ancient translation of this verse: “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!” Actually, the first word of the book designates in Hebrew a wisp of straw. It is without weight and flies away at the slightest breeze, like vanity, a nothing. It is also what escapes our grasp: it is a future that is uncertain and illusory, or something which does not satisfy our spirit, on which we can build nothing; it is “disconcerting,” it “has no sense.”
This expression is repeated in the book like a refrain, but with different meanings according to the context: that is why we have recourse to different translations.
There is nothing new under the sun (v. 9). The prophets had seen the world led by God toward a happy future. Other cultures, however, had the notion that the world only keeps on repeating the same events, with kingdoms, wars, success, and failure. For them, nothing was happening which could give people the fulfillment of their desires.
With such convictions, a person might try to forget what is taking place in a world where all is an illusion, but that is not the case of Ecclesiastes. Like every good Jew, he is firmly rooted in reality; he lives at a time that is without conflict and also without prophets or great hope. In such conditions, it is wisdom to ignore the illusions of activism.
Under the sun: these words will come back as a refrain: humans toil and pass as a shadow while the sun remains. The sun is like an image of God who endures and who alone does things “with a view to eternity” (3:14).
The wiser you are... (v. 18). The pioneers of science were sure that progress would free us from all evils. Our century has lost this assurance: development is not a road to an easy life, one is a slave to one’s own brain and one’s own knowledge, obliged to assume the consequences that become more formidable each day; although one does not know the way, one cannot stop.
2.1 I hated all I had labored for (v. 18). Others would waste what he had slaved to gain. He also understands that he has gained nothing under the sun, nothing that is beyond what dies.
We worry about the future. We shall easily find there a continual evasion of our life: we are always rushing to prepare for a new phase of our life, more stable, more satisfying, and maybe retirement; we are not even able to avoid boredom. How many people die right after retiring because they no longer have a reason to struggle and live!
If the fate of the fool will be mine as well… (v. 15). Here we have the central point of the critique of human existence. Not only the Israelites but people from all countries have counted on a divine justice, and they have always seen the signs of this in events both great and small. That satisfies only for a time. The conscience of the Jewish people was affected by the word of God, but the fruit of this had not yet appeared: the Book of Ecclesiastes, like that of Job, and that of Sirach, is of an age which did not dare and could not yet believe in the resurrection.
3.1 Note verses 11-14 whose commentary is found in the introduction.
In the following chapters, Ecclesiastes looks at all aspects of the human condition, one after the other, beginning with the surest: death.
What is now has already been (v. 15). See what was said with regard to 1:10. So, if all that humans build must be destroyed, what is left to them? That each of us must die, this we can accept, and it is not absurd if the world continues to be. Instead, it is impossible to think that one day all must stop and forever die.
Yet this is the only perspective left to us from a materialist view of the universe. There will not even be someone to remember that humans did exist, suffer and love: no one can face such an eventuality.
18. Both have the same spirit… (v. 20). See Biblical Teaching 83. Let us not forget that God had not yet revealed what human destiny after death would be; when we read this text, we must not conclude that the spirit (since it is the same word as breath) dies with the body. With the New Testament, soul will signify that which does not die (Mt 10:28).
Who knows? (v. 21). Even for believers of our time, faith cannot destroy the natural fear of death. At certain moments at least, the death of our dear ones leaves us disoriented, just as does the certitude of our own death.
7.26-29 cannot fail to shock us. It is time to remember that the Scripture is both word of God and human word, word of a certain time and a certain culture. Almost all the texts of the Scriptures are born of an experience lived by men, in a world which, in most cases, did not know “woman.”
8.10-12 points out the great weakness of all moral preaching in a world where saints are not legion: only the fear of the police is effective. If God does not want to play the role of the policeman, who will be honest (see Is 26:9-11)? In Old Testament times, God accepted to be presented as such, and even, that the religious authorities should punish in his name. Ecclesiastes would say: “There is a time for everything.” In Christian times, the Churches wanted to continue this way, which resulted in the Inquisition and the wars of religion. This is almost unacceptable to us but in our disorientated world certain people look with sympathy towards those religions where the whole community takes charge of punishing and eliminating those who violate the moral and religious code.
We can be almost sure that the phrase we put in parenthesis in verse 12 was added later, since many of the faithful of that time would be shocked by such doubts concerning divine reward and punishment.
11.7 Light is pleasant. Here begin marvelous words in praise of life. Ecclesiastes does not see how to justify the action of God but he discovers him in the order of the world. An order to be respected, without a doubt, but he says that the beauty of nature invites a human to be creative and fulfill his desires. One may wonder to hear some making use of Ecclesiastes to preach: “Think of death and flee the happiness of the world!” Instead, here we have thanksgiving and a call to freedom.
Be mindful of your Creator when you are young (12:1). It will not be the time to turn to God when our strength and pleasures are over: “the beautiful woman has no more lovers, she has entered a convent.” Why remember our Creator? Because this remembering, which little by little will become a presence for us, is one of the conditions of our joy. The bitterness of old age does not affect those who have chosen God in their youth; at the end of their life they can repeat the words of the psalm: Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight (cf. Ps 43:4).
