[Home]Ecclesiastes

HomePage | Recent Changes | Preferences

Ecclesiastes the Greek rendering of the Hebrew Koheleth , which means "Preacher." The traditional view of the authorship of this book attributes it to Solomon. However, modern scholars generally believe that it dates from the later period of the Babylonian captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly as Solomon (1:12), though alternate interpretations are also possible.

It has been styled The Confession of King Solomon. "The writer is a man who has sinned in giving way to selfishness and sensuality, who has paid the penalty of that sin in satiety and weariness of life, but who has through all this been under the discipline of a divine education, and has learned from it the lesson which God meant to teach him." "The writer concludes by pointing out that the secret of a true life is that a man should consecrate the vigor of his youth to God." The key-note of the book is sounded in ch. 1:2,

"Vanity of vanities! saith the Preacher,
Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!"

i.e., all man's efforts to find happiness apart from God are without result.


Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897 -- Slightly updated but this is a complex text, and the above is a very simplistic reading.


See also Bible, Tanach.


HomePage | Recent Changes | Preferences
This page is read-only | View other revisions
Last edited October 8, 2001 11:44 pm by RjLesch (diff)
Search: