The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.
2021 Catholic Media Association Award third place award in academic studies Qoheleth, also called Ecclesiastes, has been bad news for women throughout history. In this commentary Lisa Wolfe offers intriguing new possibilities for feminist interpretation of the book's parts, including Qoheleth's most offensive passages, and as a whole. Throughout her interpretation, Wolfe explores multiple connections between this book and women of all times, from investigating how the verbs in the time poem in 3:1-8 may relate to biblical and contemporary women alike, to noting that if 11:1 indicates ancient beer making it thus reveals the women who made the beer itself. In the end, Wolfe argues that, by struggling with the perplexing text of Qoheleth, we may discover fruitful, against-the-grain reading strategies for our own time.
This new addition to the successful Continental Commentary series is a significant and fresh treatment of Qoheleth (or Ecclesiastes). A famed professor presents a startlingly new translation of this often perplexing book of the Old Testament. Lohfink also argues for a rather different interpretation of the book than one finds elsewhere. Rather than reading the book's perspective as depressing, lost, or cynical, he highlights the elements of joy and balance. The volume includes introduction, new translation, commentary, parallel passages, bibliography, and indexes.
Through the ages, the book of Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) has elicited a wide variety of interpretations. Its status as wisdom literature is secure, but its meaning for the religion of the Hebrew Bible and its heirs has been a matter of much debate. The debate has swung from claiming orthodoxy for the book to arguing that the message intended by its author is heterodox, in its entirety. There are a number of passages in the book that present difficulties for any comprehensive approach to the work. Martin Shields here fully acknowledges the heterodox nature of Qoheleth's words but offers an orthodox reading of the book as a whole through the eyes of the author of the epilogue. After a survey of attitudes regarding wisdom in the Hebrew Bible itself, which serves as an orientation to the monograph as a whole, Shields provides a detailed study of the epilogue (Qoh 12:9-14), which he believes is the key to the reading of the remainder of the book. He then addresses various problematic texts in the book in light of this perspective, arguing that the book could originally have functioned as a warning to students against joining a wisdom movement that existed at the time of the book's composition. Qoheleth is presented as a true adherent of this movement, and the divergence of his words from the theism presented in the rest of the Hebrew Bible becomes the basis of the epilogue's critique. Finally, Shields proposes a historical context in which just this scenario may have arisen, showing that the desire of the writer of the epilogue is to correct a wayward wisdom tradition.
Qoheleth's driving question, according to Ogden, is posed in the opening lines of his book. It is the question, What lasting advantage (yithron) results from the multitude of activities in which humans find themselves engaged? In a word, the answer is, None; but the supplementary question remains, How shall we then live? Qoheleth is no pessimist. Even though he believes that nothing survives from the activities of life, he encourages his readers to live life to the full, to 'eat, drink and enjoy what God provides'. Wisdom is one of those enjoyable benefits of life, but even it has its limitations: it can never produce an understanding of the totality. What of the classic term hebel (traditionally translated 'vanity') in Qoheleth's thought? It is much better understood, argues Ogden, as 'enigma' or 'mystery', and the mystery it points to is the mystery of the yithron: how is joy the proper goal of human life when we know it must inevitably come to an end without leaving any surplus?
Pessimist Hedonist Skeptic Fatalist Scholars have used these and a variety of other pejoratives to describe Qoheleth, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. But are these monikers fair assessments of this formative book of the Hebrew wisdom tradition? Brian Neil Peterson challenges this dominant scholarly perspective by arguing that Qoheleth's message is more optimistic than it appears. He insists that Qoheleth--a realist who recognizes that the world is broken due to the Fall in Genesis 3--is instructing his readers to live life to the fullest in the fear of God despite the presence of injustice, oppression, and futility experienced on a daily basis. Due to the fleeting nature of life, Qoheleth offers hope to his readers and urges them to put God first and enjoy God's good gifts, not as a destination in life, but rather as part of one's earthly journey.
“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” The word “meaningless” (hebel) appears more than 40 times in the book of Ecclesiastes and raises the question why a book that appears to deny meaning or purpose is included in the Bible. Many questions of interpretation as well as relevance surround the book of Ecclesiastes, including indeed the proper translation and understanding of the word hebel. If, after all, the book does examine the question of the meaning of life, what could be more important? The present volume explores Ecclesiastes/Qohelet on many different levels: linguistic, text-critical, theological, historical, and literary. The contributors, chosen from many of the leading and emerging experts on the book, present both the state of the field and their own assessment of the varied interpretive issues of Ecclesiastes. They include scholars, preachers, and philosophers. It should be helpful not only to scholars but also to all who want to study this book seriously. The first section of this volume deals with the history of interpretation. The second section is concerned with issues of history, form, and rhetoric. Section three is about key concepts and passages. The fourth section focuses on the language and grammar of Qohelet. The last section engages practical issues of interpretation. The volume is designed to provide exposure to a variety of readers who seek to engage Qohelet in fresh ways in the twenty-first century—from historians of interpretation to biblical exegetes to linguists to theological students.
The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.
