How long ago was ecclesiastes written

Beyond genre identifications there are a number of literary works known from the ancient Near East that address situations in which conventional wisdom is viewed as inconsistent with reality or experience. Certainly this was the case in Job and its ancient Near Eastern counterparts.

While this literature does not reject wisdom, it shows its limitations and insufficiency. In Mesopotamian literature an example would be the work known as the Dialogue of Pessimism.

In each case the man then changes his mind and decides not to pursue the stated course of action. This decision is likewise affirmed in each case by the slave with a wisdom-style observation. The conclusion one would draw is that wisdom sayings can be used to rationalize any given course of action. In Egyptian literature there is a piece in which a man considering suicide discusses various frustrations of life and his failure to find satisfaction.

In this respect it has some similarity to Ecclesiastes. These, however, seem to suggest a life of pleasure that is rejected by Qoheleth :. Even if some level of fulfillment or self-satisfaction were achieved, death is waiting at the end. Frustration and adversity are unavoidable, and answers to the hard questions of life are not forthcoming. On these terms the book confronts the crookedness and uncertainty of life and shows, probably unconsciously, the need for a concept of resurrection to bring harmony out of the discord of reality.

The message of Ecclesiastes is that the course of life to be pursued is a God-centered life. The pleasures of life are not intrinsically fulfilling and cannot offer lasting satisfaction, but they can be enjoyed as gifts from God.

Life offers good times and bad and follows no pattern such as that proposed by the retribution principle.

But all comes from the hand of God:. When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. This is a matter of some controversy among the interpreters of Ecclesiastes, because many scholars have found in its pages only pessimism or cynicism. As we look at the colophon, however, the summary offered in verses 13—14 is simply a restatement of what Qoheleth is saying all through the book.

We should not look for principles of organization such as might be found in philosophical treatises of Western civilization. Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Once Qoheleth has considered the potential sources of fulfillment and has rejected them, he offers an alternate perspective on life. In —15 he advises a moderate course of action:.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. A wonderful resource! Scholars are agreed that Ecclesiastes was not written by Solomon, but by a later writer. In later chapters, Qoheleth takes the viewpoint of a subject rather than a king ; ; ; ,20 noting conditions of oppression , injustice ;5. The language of Ecclesiastes is a late form of biblical Hebrew, coming closest of any OT book to postbiblical Mishnaic Hebrew.

Fragments of the book found among the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Qumran community date to the mid-second century B. This is a place for gracious dialogue about science and faith. When was Ecclesiastes written? Open Forum Biblical Interpretation. For the author, that meant the same as to have a right relationship with God Ecclesiastes If people have a right relationship with God, then God considers them wise. But even the most intelligent person is foolish if he does not have a right relationship with God.

That is not, of course, an unusual message for the Bible. We expect the Bible to teach such things. Unlike a prophet holy man , the author does not declare that God has spoken to him. And the author does not include reports of wonderful things that God has done in this world. Instead, the author does something that is quite extraordinary. He shows how weak people really are. He emphasises certain facts that people usually deny.

And he uses these things to prove that people must trust God. The result is a book of the most beautiful poetry, but its contents are very severe. Perhaps the author was dealing with people who opposed God strongly. That may explain why the author warns people in such a severe manner. He emphasises that people will suffer trouble during their lives.

In the end, they must die and then God will be their judge. He tells people that they are not ready for the judgement of God. And he urges people to begin a right relationship with God. They should do that without delay. This is clearly not the same as the ideas that belonged to ancient Greece.