Wisdom Lecture #8
Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes): What’s It All About, and Is There Hope?
I. Two Driving Questions:
How do we read this book as people of the Church?
How can this book serve God’s mission?
Excursis: Exploring Luther’s
Principles: Sola Scriptura and What
Shows Forth Christ
II. Chapter 1
;leb×fh lÛoKah {yÙilfbAh lÛ"bAh telêehoq
rØamf) ü{yilfbAh lÜ"bAh 1:2
;$em×f<ah taxÛaT lÙomA(áY×e$ wêolfmA(-lfk:B
{Õfdf)×fl }wÙor:téY-ham 1:3
A. Qohelet, the teacher, the
preacher, Solomon
B. leeb×eh (hebel, vanity) and lfmA( (‘amal, toil) and “under the sun”
III. Five Major Themes
A. Wisdom cannot achieve its goal, doesn’t get you anywhere
–
1. Wisdom is better than folly – 7:19; 7:1-3;
B. Death, the great equalizer, cancels everything – 9:3;
C. God is unknowable; we can’t know what God is up to –
3:1-11;
Ecclesiastes 3: 9What gain
have the workers from their toil (l×"mf()? 10I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable (hØepæy) for its time (wÕoTi(:b); moreover
he has put a sense of past and future into their minds ({êfBil:B), yet they
cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy
themselves as long as they live; 13moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and
drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
1. We should fear God – 5:7;
D. World is Crooked -
E. **Carpe Diem “Seize the Day” -
IV. Issues of Structure and
Contradiction
A. Addison Wright; Choon-Leong Seow
B. Different Sources
C. Quotations
1. Robert Gordis ‑ (JQR,1940;
book on Qoheleth)
2. Roland Murphy - sayings affirmed, juxtaposed,
rejected, incorporated
3. Matthew Fox – Qoheleth and His Contradictions, 1989
D. How, finally, are we to read the book? Canonicity and the Epilogue
V. The Skeptical Tradition
A. John Priest, “Humanism, Skepticism, and Pessimism in
B. James Crenshaw, “The Birth of
Skepticism in Ancient
C. Jerome Walsh, “Despair as a
Theological Virtue in the Spirituality of
Ecclesiastes,” Biblical Theological Bullitan, 12, 1982, 46-49.
VII. Exploring the 9th
Sunday after Pentecost - Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14;
**Carpe Deum
– “Seize the Day.”
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that all
should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what
will be after them?
Ecclesiastes 5:18 This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to
eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the
sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better
for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this
will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them
under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine
with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. 9:8 Let your
garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. 9:9 Enjoy
life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given
you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at
which you toil under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:1 Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your
heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart
and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring
you into judgment.