Ecclesiastes
The conclusion which Solomon "the preacher" reaches is that in
such an empty and unsatisfying world where disappointment,
trouble and death cannot be avoided, a quiet enjoyment of
God's gifts is the only real wisdom. The man who is truly wise
will "fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13-14), making
the best of things as he finds them and trusting in the
providence of God. This secret should be understood early in
life. An understanding of this will provide one with great
pleasure in life. The book of Ecclesiastes profoundly
illustrates the idea that a life apart from God is a life
without meaning.
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Solomon had thoroughly experienced all avenues of pleasure,
all avenues of sensuality, all avenues of wealth, honor,
folly, and the pursuit of knowledge. He also sinned in giving
way to every excess of life which his position made possible
and comes to the realization of the uselessness of it all. He
concludes that the result of his efforts have been made him
empty and that there is nothing new under the sun, but all is
part of the endless, frustrating circularity. His attitude was
spoken in the recurring phrase, "vanity of vanities, all is
vanity, saith the preacher." In Ecclesiastes, the world is
convicted of its vanity by one who has drunk of every spring.
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Types and Shadows - In Ecclesiastes Jesus is true fulfillment
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Sermon 1: The vanity of human wisdom, Sermon 2: Appreciate the
divine laws governing life, Sermon 3: There is no fulfillment
in any earthly pleasures or wealth, Sermon 4: God will deal
with the worlds injustices, Conclusion: fear the Lord and to
obey his word.
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Theme - All pursuits in life are empty except fearing God and
obeying His Word
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Greek Name - Ekklesiastes (Greek form of the Hebrew)
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Hebrew Name - Qoheleth "the preacher"
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Author - Solomon (According to the Bible, Jesus, and
Tradition). The book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon
who was the wisest man in the world, and in fact he was the
embodiment of pure wisdom.
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The word Ecclesiastes is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew
word Koheleth, or the preacher. Solomon was the wisest man
in the world, people came from all over the world to hear
his wisdom. He built the Temple in Jerusalem, he was the son
of King David, and he was chosen to impart his wisdom to us
in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Solomon had thoroughly experienced all avenues of pleasure,
all avenues of sensuality, all avenues of wealth, honor,
folly, and the pursuit of knowledge. He also sinned in
giving way to every excess of life which his position made
possible and comes to the realization of the uselessness of
it all. He concludes that the result of his efforts have
been made him empty and that there is nothing new under the
sun, but all is part of the endless, frustrating
circularity. His attitude was spoken in the recurring
phrase, vanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith the
preacher. In Ecclesiastes, the world is convicted of its
vanity by one who has drunk of every spring.
The conclusion which Solomon "the preacher" reaches is that
in such an empty and unsatisfying world where
disappointment, trouble and death cannot be avoided, a quiet
enjoyment of God's gifts is the only real wisdom. The man
who is truly wise will "fear God and keep his commandments"
(12:13-14), making the best of things as he finds them and
trusting in the providence of God. This secret should be
understood early in life. An understanding of this will
provide one with great pleasure in life. The book of
Ecclesiastes profoundly illustrates the idea that a life
apart from God is a life without meaning.
Read More
Quick Overview of Ecclesiastes. – –1:1-2:26 – – the preachers
first sermon: the futility of human wisdom– – 3:1-5:20 – –the
preachers second sermon: life's unfulfilling disappointments –
– 6:1-8:17 – – the preachers third sermon: the futility of
wealth and fame – – 9:1-12:8 – – the preachers fourth sermon:
God is in control of the futility's in life – – 12:9-14 – –
the preachers conclusion: true fulfillment in life comes from
fearing God and obeying His Word.
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Study Bible with information about Ecclesiastes, images, and
notes on many important subjects from the ancient world.
Archaeological notes, geographical notes, ancient documents
and manuscripts, cultural notes, theological notes, articles
from scholars, information about ancient history, ancient
customs, ancient temples, ancient monuments, and a close look
at people, places, and events from the ancient world that are
explained in an easy to understand format.
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Ecclesiastes (often abbreviated Ecc) (Hebrew: קֹהֶלֶת, Kohelet,
variously transliterated as Kohelet, Qoheleth, Koheles,
Koheleth, or Coheleth) is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The
English name derives from the Greek translation of the
Hebrew title.
The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or
title Qohelet, introduces himself as "son of David, and king
in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal or
autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aphorisms and
maxims illuminated in terse paragraphs with reflections on
the meaning of life and the best way of life. The work
emphatically proclaims all the actions of man to be
inherently "vain", "futile", "empty", "meaningless",
"temporary", "transitory", or "fleeting," depending on
translation, as the lives of both wise and foolish men end
in death. While Qohelet clearly endorses wisdom as a means
for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe
eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived
senselessness, he suggests that one should enjoy the simple
pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and
taking enjoyment in one's work, which are gifts from the
hand of God...
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LITERATURE
1. Structure of the Book:
Reading this book one soon becomes aware that it is a
discussion of certain difficult problems of human life. It
begins with a title Eccl (1:1), followed by a preface (1:2-
11). It has a formal conclusion (12:8-13). Between the
preface and the conclusion the body of the book is made up
of materials of two kinds--first a series of "I" sections,
sections uttered in the 1st person singular, a record of a
personal experience; and second, an alternating series of
gnomic sections, sections made up of proverbs (say 4:5,6,9-
12; 5:1-12; 7:1-14,16-22; 8:1-8; 9:7-10; 10:1-4; 10:8
through 12:7). These may be called the "thou" sections, as
most of them have the pronoun of the 2nd person singular.
The idea of the vanity of all things characterizes the
record of experience, but it also appears in the "thou"
sections (e.g. 9:9). On the other hand the proverb element
is not wholly lacking in the "I" sections (e.g. 4:1-3).
2. The Contents:
In the preface the speaker lays down the proposition that
all things are unreal, and that the results of human effort
are illusive Eccl (1:2,3). Human generations, day and night,
the wind, the streams, are alike the repetition of an
unending round (1:4-7). The same holds in regard to all
human study and thinking (1:8-11). The speaker shows
familiarity with the phenomena which we think of as those of
natural law, of the persistence of force, but he thinks of
them in the main as monotonously limiting human experience.
Nothing is new. All effort of Nature or of man is the doing
again of something which has already been done.
After the preface the speaker introduces himself, and
recounts his experiences. At the outset he had a noble
ambition for wisdom and discipline, but all he attained to
was unreality and perplexity of mind (Eccl 1:12-18). This is
equally the meaning of the text, whether we translate
"vanity and vexation of spirit" or "vanity and a striving
after wind," ("emptiness, and struggling for breath"),
though the first of these two translations is the better
grounded.
Finding no adequate satisfaction in the pursuits of the
scholar and thinker, taken by themselves, he seeks to
combine these with the pursuit of agreeable sensations--
alike those which come from luxury and those which come from
activity and enterprise and achievement Eccl (2:1-12). No
one could be in better shape than he for making this
experiment, but again he only attains to unreality and
perplexity of spirit. He says to himself that at least it is
in itself profitable to be a wise man rather than a fool,
but his comfort is impaired by the fact that both alike are
mortal (2:13-17). He finds little reassurance in the idea of
laboring for the benefit of posterity; posterity is often
not worthy (2:18-21). One may toil unremittingly, but what
is the use (2:22,23)?...
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The speaker so entitles himself, Hebrew: Qoheleth, Greek
Ecclesiastes, "the convener of, and preacher to,
assemblies," namely, church assemblies. The feminine form,
and its construction once with a feminine verb (Ecclesiastes
7:27), show that divine Wisdom herself speaks through the
inspired king Solomon. God had especially endowed him with
this wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-14; 1 Kings 6:11-12; 1 Kings 9:1,
etc.; 1 Kings 11:9-11). "The preacher taught the people (and
inquirers) knowledge" in a divan assembled for the purpose
(1 Kings 4:34; 1 Kings 10:2; 1 Kings 10:8; 1 Kings 10:24; 2
Chronicles 9:1; 2 Chronicles 9:7; 2 Chronicles 9:23).
"Spake," thrice in 1 Kings 4:32-33, refers not to written
compositions, but to addresses spoken in assemblies.
Solomon's authorship is supported by Ecclesiastes 1:12;
Ecclesiastes 1:16; Ecclesiastes 2:1-15; Ecclesiastes 12:9.
But in the book are found words:
(1) rarely employed in the earlier, frequently in
the later books of Scripture.
(2) Words never found in Hebrew writings until the
Babylonian captivity; as zimaan, "set time," for moed;
Ecclesiastes 3:1, namely, in Nehemiah 2:6; Esther 9:27;
Esther 9:31. So pithgam, "sentence" (Ecclesiastes 8:11);
"thought," madang; 'illuw "though" (Ecclesiastes 6:6);
bikeen, "so" (Ecclesiastes 8:10): thus, Esther approximates
most to Ecclesiastes in idioms.
(3) Words not found in the late Hebrew, but only in
the Aramaic sections of Daniel and Ezra: yithron, "profit ";
compare yuthran in the Aramaic targums; kibaar, "already,"
"long ago"; taaqam, "make straight" (Ecclesiastes 1:15;
Ecclesiastes 7:13; Daniel 4:33) (Daniel 4:36 "established");
ruwth, "desire," found also in the Aramaic parts of Ezra.
(4) The grammatical constructions agree with the
transition period from Hebrew to Aramaic; frequent
participles, the uses of the relative, Vav ( ? ) or waw-
conversive rare. Probably, since the book...
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the Greek rendering of the Hebrew _Koheleth_, which means
"Preacher." The old and traditional view of the
authorship of
this book attributes it to Solomon. This view can be
satisfactorily maintained, though others date it
from the
Captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly
as Solomon
(1:12). It has been appropriately 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 vigour 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.
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(the preacher). The title of this book is in Hebrew Koheleth,
signifying one who speaks publicly in an assembly. Koheleth is
the name by which Solomon, probably the author, speaks of
himself throughout the book. The book is that which it
professes to be, --the confession of a man of wide experience
looking back upon his past life and looking out upon the
disorders and calamities which surround him. 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.
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