Ecclesiastes

Believers Church Bible Commentary

Douglas B. Miller

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780836198034
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In this 23rd volume of the Believers Church Bible Commentary Series, Doug Miller respects the pastoral and theological contribution of Ecclesiastes, without muting its critique of simplistic and comfortable approaches to the life of faith. It is particularly useful for Christians who need a fresh look at the insights of this ancient sage in an era of uncertain identity, the flux of worldviews, and the elusiveness of truth.

The Believers Church Bible Commentary series is a readable series of commentaries for all who seek more fully to understand the original message of Scripture and its meaning for today—Sunday school teachers, members of Bible study groups, students, pastors, and other seekers. The Believers Church Commentary Series is a cooperative project of Brethren in Christ Church, Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Brethren Church, Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada.

Ecclesiastes 1:1

Introduction of Qohelet

A third-person voice introduces the words of Qohelet, who will speak in the first person nearly continuously until concluding at 12:8. Ancient wisdom texts were often introduced as “the instructions/words of” a certain person, even including the statement he says, as we find it interrupting the Teacher’s words in verse 2. A similar biblical example is Proverbs 1:1, “The proverbs of Solomon.” The Egyptian wisdom text The Instructions of Amenemhet starts, “Beginning of the instruction made by the majesty of King Sehetepibre, son of Re, Amenemhet, the justified, as he spoke in a revelation of truth, to his son the All-Lord. He said …” (AEL 1:136).

The author, Qohelet, is introduced in verse 1 as a king, a guise he will wear overtly until the end of the book’s second chapter. He never directly cancels this persona, but it fits less and less well as the book proceeds (see “Author and Audience” in the Introduction). Verse 1 describes him as David’s son (i.e., descendant) and king in Jerusalem, a description that would fit Solomon but also any of the kings of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. It is not until verse 12 that we establish for certain that Solomon is in mind.

We find a puzzle already in the book’s first verse. Here we have a hint, confirmed in 1:12, that Solomon is being referenced. But if Solomon is the author, or if Solomon is being invoked to heighten the authority of the book, why not use his name? And if Solomon is not the author, why allude to him?

The introduction to this commentary gives reasons for concluding that this book is from a time much later than Solomon (see “Author and Audience” in the Introduction). The sage Qohelet speaks under the mantle of Solomon, but not so much to heighten his own authority. Rather, it is to help convince his audience that what he has to say applies to everyone, even the most wise and the most wealthy. Further, he is making the case that the conclusions he reaches about life should not be challenged because of any personal limitations.

In addition, it is important to realize that by this time in Israel’s history, King Solomon had become a symbol of both wisdom and wealth. On the one hand, his name recalls the golden age of Israel’s past and symbolizes God’s blessing of prosperity. For those who remember this, it is a powerful message that such a wise and successful king would conceivably call all this “success” into question.

On the other hand, there are those who more quickly remember the other side of Solomon’s regime: the oppression of Israelites by Israelites; the heavy taxation; the religious apostasy; and the result that the nation was forever split into two independent groups, north and south. Readers for whom this legacy of Solomon is primary would take satisfaction in the coming acknowledgment that all his apparent wisdom and wealth were not an unmixed indicator of blessing and wholeness.

Part 1

Human Effort

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

All Is Vapor

PREVIEW

A Peanuts comic shows Linus working diligently on the beach, constructing a large and elaborate sand castle. A few frames later, it begins to rain, eventually pouring down so heavily that the castle is completely washed out. Linus remarks, “There is a lesson to be learned here, but I don’t know what it is. …” The theme of futile toil is found in ANE wisdom writings as well. For example, the Egyptian text Satire of the Trades recounts profession after profession, highlighting especially the weariness they cause (all except the wonderful trade of the scribe whose glory is celebrated in the book). Qohelet is one who knows the monotony of life’s feverish activity and the futility of human toil. He establishes his credibility as he identifies aspects of human experience that yield frustration and confusion, especially for people of faith.

OUTLINE

Major Theme: All Is Vapor! 1:2

Restless Activity, 1:3-11

1:3	Introduction to Part 1: Human Effort
• Focus Question: What Gain from Toil? (1:3)
1:4-11	Poem of a Toiling Creation

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The book’s opening verses briefly introduce the author, Qohelet, then turn immediately to the book’s central theme and symbol: All is vapor! Next, the Teacher offers a poem, just as he will conclude his work with a poem in 12:1-7. The introduction and poem in 1:2-11 are a meditation on ceaseless futile activity and introduce human effort as the primary concern of the book’s first half (1:2–6:9). Similarly, 6:10–7:14 will launch the second half of the book (6:10–12:8) which is especially concerned with discerning what is “good.”

Major Theme: All Is Vapor! 1:2

Qohelet searched for a symbol by which he could represent life [Qohelet, p. 245]. He did not choose the tree, an important image in Isaiah and Psalm 1, nor did he adopt such symbols of the sages as “Lady Wisdom” or the “way,” as are found in Proverbs (e.g., Prov 1:20-33; 2:8, 12, 20; 4:11; 9). Rather, he chose the term hebel, literally meaning vapor, air containing a suspension of diffused matter that keeps it from being completely transparent. It is a term that can be used to describe steam, breath, smoke, or various fumes. The Teacher uses vapor (hebel) thirty-eight times in Ecclesiastes. It is crucial to determine the proper meaning of this word if we are to understand the book correctly.

The book begins with this announcement: “Vapor of vapors,” says Qohelet. “Vapor of vapors. All is vapor!” (AT). A similar statement will also conclude Qohelet’s teaching at 12:8. The grammatical construction in 1:2 may indicate the superlative, “the greatest of vapors,” or more likely (since all cannot be “greatest”) indicates thoroughness: “completely vapor.” This is similar to the phrases “song of songs” (the greatest song, Song of Sol 1:1), “king of kings” (the supreme king, Dan 2:37), and “rebel of rebels” (thoroughly rebellious, Jer 6:28; cf. Isa 34:10). We may set aside the literal use of the term: the Teacher is not saying that life is literally a cloud of gas or fog. He thus presents his readers with a puzzle—the second in two verses!—that he invites us to solve: How are the various aspects and experiences of life vapor? And how can all be vapor?

Important sources are available to the reader for resolving this puzzle: (1) the way the word hebel is used elsewhere, and (2) the contexts in which Qohelet uses hebel in his book. The puzzle’s challenge is to reconcile both of these with (3) the thematic phrases in 1:2 and 12:8 that all is vapor. Scholars have handled this last point in various ways, some concluding that a later editor added the phrases in 1:2 and 12:8. Notice that a third-person voice quotes Qohelet in these verses. These scholars reason that if these quotations were added later, perhaps they are not completely consistent with the rest of the book.

But regardless whether 1:2 and 12:8 originated with the Teacher, they give an effective summary of his teaching. Repeatedly Qohelet points to this and that experience and situation and labels them hebel. Likewise the word all is used in the book ninety-one times—more than any other besides particles and prepositions—reflecting that the Teacher regularly casts his net wide in his discussions. As Fox rightly insists, “The book’s motto is a thesis that the reader can expect to see validated in the following monologue” (1999: 163) [Special Terms: All, p. 252].

We catch only a few hints of the literal meaning of hebel in the OT, as a breath or a vapor (see Ps 62:10 and Isa 57:13). In postbiblical texts such as the Talmud, the term hebel is used of breath, vaporous perspiration, poisonous vapor, heat/steam, and vapor within a living being.

Hebel is used metaphorically in a variety of ways both within and outside of the Bible. In the OT it is used, among other things, of effort that is futile, help that is unreliable, words that fail in their intent, God’s ability to bring life to an end quickly, and many times as a stock metaphor for false gods. In postbiblical texts, it is also used of the frailty of human life, consolation that is unreliable, the human body that exists only briefly, and as stock metaphors for pagan nations as well as false deities [Vapor, p. 258; Metaphor, Simile, and Symbol, p. 237].

This writer is convinced that Qohelet uses hebel in Ecclesiastes as a tensive symbol. A tensive symbol is one such as the kingdom of God (esp. in Matt, Mark, and Luke) or Lady Wisdom (Prov 1–9), an image that cannot be explained in a few words because it represents multiple meanings at the same time. Qohelet has seen the complexities of the world and the distresses of those among his audience. He declares that some aspects of human existence, even humans themselves, are

1. insubstantial (a vapor has little substance), while other things are
2. transient (a vapor quickly dissipates), and others are
3. foul or destructive (vapor can be poisonous).

The term hebel may be used to represent specific examples of these things individually, and it can also symbolize them collectively, as here in 1:2 and again in 12:8. The word is a “live” metaphor (here and most other places in the OT) so that its meaning is not set or certain. The reader must be alert for clues to the word’s meaning in each context.

All is vapor. The Hebrew term all is a small one that encompasses much. Probably the best way to determine what all means in 1:2 is to explore the book to find the kinds of things the Teacher investigates. When we do so, we find that he is chiefly concerned with the experiences, efforts, intentions, and prospects of human beings. He includes God in his discussion because God’s actions are significant for human experience. The rest of the cosmos also comes into his purview only as it relates to people. Thus the statement All is vapor is inclusive of the human realm but is not intended to be cosmic or to embrace everything regarding the Deity. By the understanding of hebel embraced in this commentary, Qohelet uses vapor to symbolize human experience (All is vapor) and then shows how in one way or another each matter he describes can be called vapor (insubstantial, transient, or foul).

Restless Activity 1:3-11

1:3 Introduction to Part 1: Human Effort

In 1:3, the Teacher cries the lament of the frustrated toiler: All this work, and what do I have to show for it? This is not an obvious matter; it is the cry of the disillusioned who did not get what they expected. Qohelet presents the cry in the form of a question, and his use of questions in the book makes a fascinating study (see Johnson). In nearly every case the questions seem, at least initially, to be making a statement—a “rhetorical” question. Yet the Teacher gives at least partial answers to some of these questions later in his book. This question (what gain?) will recur several more times, with slightly different vocabulary (2:22; 3:9; 5:11, 16; 6:8, 11). Here, after declaring that all is vapor (1:2), Qohelet cites a specific example: human exertion.

In the book, toil occurs twenty-one times as a noun, with fourteen related verb occurrences; it is a word that has negative connotations virtually every time it is used [Special Terms: Toil, p. 255]. It refers to the drudgery and unpleasant aspects of work (cf. Jer 20:18; Ps 10:14). Life is full of such toil, says the Teacher, and what good ever comes of it? Despite all the hard labor that humans exert, there is nothing “gained.” Elsewhere, specific declarations that toil is vapor are found at Ecclesiastes 1:12-15; 2:1-11; 4:4-6; 6:7-11 (cf. 3:1-13; contrast 2:18-23).

The word gain (yitron ten times in the book [Special Terms: Gain, p. 253]) is an economic term, so the KJV translation, profit, is quite apt: there appears to be no gain, no advantage, nothing left over for humans. The word serves as a contrary term to enable us to understand what aspect of vapor is in view. For something to be vapor means there is no gain: whatever is being discussed is insubstantial.

Perhaps 1:3 is hyperbole (cf. 1:11), an overstatement to emphasize that there is nothing really satisfying left over even though the person may have money. Certainly Qohelet acknowledges that some people have wealth right up until they die (cf. 5:19; 8:10). Yet, because 1:3 comes in the form of a question, there could be an answer. Will Qohelet tell us what real advantage there is to toil? Or is the Teacher alluding to profit gained elsewhere than under the sun?

The phrase under the sun refers to existence in this world in contrast to the realm of God (heaven) and the realm of the dead (Sheol). The phrase occurs twenty-nine times in Ecclesiastes and nowhere else in the OT. However, it has been found in the writings of several ANE cultures at least as early as the twelfth century BC and perhaps earlier. A related phrase, under heaven, occurs both in Ecclesiastes and elsewhere in the Bible (Eccl 1:13; 2:3; 3:1; also, e.g., in Gen 6:17; 7:19; Exod 17:14; Deut 2:25; Acts 4:12). Because Qohelet uses these phrases so often, some interpreters have suggested that he is emphasizing the impossibility of finding meaning and hope in the present life. He is hinting, they say, that satisfaction can only be found in eternity.

But we must be cautious concerning such a judgment. Qohelet remains dubious about what can be known about life after death (see esp. 3:19-21) and wishes to argue without recourse to that possibility. Qohelet, like other wisdom teachers, wants his audience to make the most of life right here and now; he offers a positive plan for living (see the Introduction, “The Theme, Rhetoric, and Message of Ecclesiastes”) [Death, p. 229].

1:4-11 Poem of a Toiling Creation

To explain his point about human toil, the Teacher presents a poem (cf. 3:2-8; 12:1-7). In 1:4-7 he uses participles to indicate ongoing motion and to highlight various aspects of repetition in human experience: the passing of generations, the journeys of the sun and wind, the cycle of rive...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Abbreviations
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction to Ecclesiastes
• Ecclesiastes 1:1: Introduction of Qohelet
• Part 1: Human Effort
• Part 2: Human Limits
• Ecclesiastes 12:9-14: Epilogue
• Outline of Ecclesiastes
• Essays
• Map of Palestine for Ecclesiastes
• Map of the Ancient Near East for Ecclesiastes
• Bibliography of Works Cited
• Selected Resources
• Index of Ancient Sources
• The Author