Smoodock's Blog

The first few lines of one of my favorite poems are: “When thing go wrong, as they sometimes will; when the road your trudging seems uphill; when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile, but you have to sigh…” When bad things happen to us, we may be tempted to ask: “Why did that have to happen?” Well, actually, it didn’t have to happen; it just did. Normally, no one is out to ruin anyone’s parade, so when things go awry, they’re simply out of kilter, because that’s what things in motion do; they happen, sometimes for a pleasing outcome, but often for one that is not so pleasing. Who’s at fault? Who’s in control? Or, perhaps, more to the point: Is there anyone in control?

Ecclesiastes is called qoheleth (H6953) in the Hebrew and means preacher. The Septuagint translates preacher into ekklesiastes (G1577.2), from which we receive the name of the book, Ecclesiastes, in our Bible. The Greek name of the book comes from the word assembly (ekklesia; G1577), the same word used in the New Covenant scriptures for church. So, the qoheleth (H6953) could be understood as the one who calls the ekklesia (G1577), or is responsible for the people gathering together. Of the translations of the Bible I have, the qoheleth (H6953) is rendered variously as preacher (KJV), Congregationer (ECB); Philosopher (GNB); Teacher (ISV); Speaker (NEB); Leader of the assembly (margin). Some scholars believe the better rendering would be Teacher or Professor or perhaps even Debater.

The book’s author never gives his name, so his identity has been the subject of some debate among scholars. Nevertheless, the plain reading of the text tells us he was the son of David, the king in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:1), and the author of this work was also king over all Israel and reigned in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:12), which seems to point to the traditional understanding that the Teacher/Professor was King Solomon. Both he and the author of Ecclesiastes had great wisdom (1Kings 3:12; 10:23-24; Ecclesiastes 1:16), tremendous wealth (2Chronicles 9:22; Ecclesiastes 2:7-9), and were builders of a great many projects (1Kings 7:1-12; 2Chronicles 9:1-6; Ecclesiastes 2:4-6).

The main theme of Solomon’s book[1] is that all things are meaningless. He expresses this idea by saying: “Vanity of vanities… vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Five times in one verse he uses the word hable (H1892), which according to the Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew lexicon, means breath, vapor and figuratively vanity. It alludes to the idea of something being transitory or brief. It has the same meaning as the name Able (hable – H1893) who was slain by Cain (Genesis 4:2, 8). The Teacher means to say that everything in the world and all that is done therein are so brief and so elusive that they can only be described as unprofitable and meaningless overall.

Thus, he posits the question: “What does it profit a man of all his labor, which he does under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Since Solomon was acclaimed to be the wisest man on earth, and undertook many building projects, who but he would be qualified to answer this question? It is a question that is asked by many even today: ‘What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Where am I going? What real worth is there in anything I do or in anything that is done through the nation or people I assist? Does anything have a lasting meaning or purpose?’ These are the questions, which the Teacher, Solomon, tells us he hopes to answer. We are told that he had used all his wisdom and his great wealth to experiment in many facets of life, in an effort to discover the meaning of life. Now, with pen in hand, he offers us his conclusion, which I hope to elucidate in this study.

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[1] I trust the traditional understanding of the identity of the author is Solomon, so this will appear so in my study from time to time.