Ecclesiastes

In short

Life stinks, then you die.

Why it is important

It’s literally about the meaning of life.

If it was written by Solomon (I say yes), then he is uniquely qualified to say, “Trust me, I have literally had insane wealth and power and tons of women, and it really is worth nothing.” (I am utterly paraphrasing there.)

Main characters

Perhaps you can think of the author as a character, but otherwise, there are no characters. It’s wisdom literature.

What is in this book

The word “vanity” appears (singular and plural) 37 times in the Bible, and 34 of them are in this book. The message of the book is that life is pointless and what you do never makes any difference. The book REALLY hammers this point home over and over again.

As a side note, I’ve always felt that the antithesis of this is 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

The title and who is it?

Hang on tight. This gets confusing.

• The Hebrew title is Koheleth. As is typical, the book is named for its first few words: “The… preacher.”
• Ecclesiastes is a Greek word translating that Hebrew word
• Christians often know the Greek word “ekklesia” (church), and you can see the connection to Ecclesiastes, right?
• But “ekklesia” really means “assembly,” and the author (the “Preacher”) might better be translated as “the assembler” or “the gatherer.”

So, who is the preacher or assembler or gatherer? Traditionally it’s thought to be Solomon, but Hezekiah is often suggested because of the date of the book and because of his times of gathering people for worship. I can’t see how it’s not Solomon, and I’ll repeat the reasoning from last Monday:

Ecclesiastes 1:1 and 1:12 say it is written by “the son of David,” who was “king over Israel in Jerusalem.” Yes, I know that “son” can mean any descendant. But you can’t argue that there were only three men who were “king over Israel IN JERUSALEM.” (Other kings of “Israel” were in other cities, like Tirzah or Samaria.) Well, Saul was not David’s son, and neither was David, so that brings us to one man: Solomon.

Theology and doctrine

Of course, God didn’t give us life just for us to be miserable. I think the whole point of the book is that life is meaningless WITHOUT God, when we try to make it through this life on our own.