© David Staume 2007

Ecclesiastes is said to be a sermon by Solomon. The author identifies himself as Solomon, but this could be for literary effect. The final paragraphs are undoubtedly later additions. Ecclesiastes reads as a crisis of faith. It is written in the form of poetry and prose.

1-2. Life is meaningless and wearisome, and there is ‘nothing new under the sun’. Pleasures are meaningless, knowledge and wisdom bring grief, and our toils have no meaning because of death.

3-5. There is a time for everything, there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, and all labor and achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. Be careful and sparing in your words to God. Wealth and possessions are meaningless.

6-11. Some quotes:

‘God gives a man riches, possessions, and power so that he lacks nothing that he desires, but God does not allow him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is a meaningless, and grievous evil.’

‘For who knows what is good for a man during his life, during the few and meaningless days as he passes through like a shadow.’

‘In this meaningless life of mine I have seen these both: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.’

‘Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of the meaningless life that God has given you.’

‘There is something else meaningless that occurs in the world: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what righteous men deserve.’

12. Ecclesiastes ends as it begins, with ‘everything is meaningless’, then gives a warning about wise words and collected sayings, noting: ‘Be warned … of anything in addition to them’, then makes an addition to them, saying in conclusion: ‘Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man’.

The tone of Ecclesiastes is dark. It reads as a crisis of faith. Nothing has meaning: not toil, not wealth, not possessions, not pleasure, not wisdom, not even life. Everything is meaningless, which presumably must include the author's faith. If the author is Solomon, then the wisest man of his time, renowned throughout the lands, could not make sense of the world through his religion. His wisdom was giving him doubts.

When the author says 'There is nothing new under the sun' could he be referring to his religion, which derived many of its stories, such as the stories of the creation and flood, from Egyptian and Babylonian mythology?

The conclusion (Verse 12) of Ecclesiastes is odd. It warns of additions to writings such as this, then makes an addition which is contrary to all that precedes it. In the preceding eleven verses, the author documents a lack of meaning and a crisis of faith, and then, in conclusion, he finds both. This feels contrived and is almost without doubt a later addition. It's easy to imagine the editorial imperative to conclude Ecclesiastes with a return to certainty and faith.

Back to Proverbs. Forward to Song of Songs.