Qoheleth , livre ebook

Qoheleth
Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament
James L. Crenshaw, Series Editor
Qoheleth
The Ironic Wink
James L. Crenshaw
2013 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crenshaw, James L.
Qoheleth : the ironic wink / James L. Crenshaw.
pages cm. - (Studies on personalities of the Old Testament)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-257-7 (alk. paper) - ISBN 978-1-61117-258-4 (epub)
1. Bible. Ecclesiastes-Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1475.52.C74 2013
223 .806-dc23
2013005006
Contents
Series Editor s Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Authorial Deceit
2 Veiled Truth?
3 Elusive Essence
4 Ocular Deception
5 Surreptitious Givens
6 Victorious Time
7 Tasty Nectar
8 Flawed Genius
Conclusion
Appendix: Intellectual Kinship
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Biblical and Extrabiblical Literature
Subject Index
Series Editor s Preface
Critical study of the Bible in its ancient Near Eastern setting has stimulated interest in the individuals who shaped the course of history and whom events singled out as tragic or heroic figures. Rolf Rendtorff s Men of the Old Testament (1968) focuses on the lives of important biblical figures as a means of illuminating history, particularly the sacred dimension that permeates Israel s convictions about its God. Fleming James s Personalities of the Old Testament (1939) addresses another issue, that of individuals who function as inspiration for their religious successors in the twentieth century. Studies restricting themselves to a single individual-for example, Moses, Abraham, Samson, Elijah, David, Saul, Ruth, Jonah, Job, Jeremiah-enable scholars to deal with a host of questions: psychological, literary, theological, sociological, and historical. Some, like Gerhard von Rad s Moses (1960), introduce a specific approach to interpreting the Bible, hence provide valuable pedagogic tools.
As a rule these treatments of isolated figures have not reached the general public. Some were written by outsiders who lacked a knowledge of biblical criticism (Freud on Moses, Jung on Job) and whose conclusions, however provocative, remain problematic. Others were targeted for the guild of professional biblical critics (David Gunn on David and Saul, Phyllis Trible on Ruth, Terence Fretheim and Jonathan Magonet on Jonah). None has succeeded in capturing the imagination of the reading public in the way fictional works like Archibald MacLeish s J. B . and Joseph Heller s God Knows have done.
It could be argued that the general public would derive little benefit from learning more about the personalities of the Bible. Their conduct, often less then exemplary, reveals a flawed character, and their everyday concerns have nothing to do with our preoccupations from dawn to dusk. To be sure, some individuals transcend their own age, entering the gallery of classical literary figures from time immemorial. But only these rare achievers can justify specific treatments of them. Then why publish additional studies on biblical personalities?
The answer cannot be that we read about biblical figures to learn ancient history, even of the sacred kind, or to discover models for ethical action. But what remains? Perhaps the primary significance of biblical personages is the light they throw on the imaging of deity in biblical times. At the very least, the Bible constitutes human perceptions of deity s relationship with the world and its creatures. Close readings of biblical personalities therefore clarify ancient understandings of God. That is the important datum which we seek-not because we endorse that specific view of deity, but because all such efforts to make sense of reality contribute something worthwhile to the endless quest for knowledge.
James L. Crenshaw Robert L. Flowers Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Duke University
Acknowledgments
The book of Ecclesiastes has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. A Guggenheim Fellowship to study the depiction of old age in Ecclesiastes and in related literature from the ancient Near East and an invitation to be a fellow at St. Edmund s House at Cambridge University in 1984-85 made it possible for me to put the finishing touches on a commentary on Ecclesiastes for the Old Testament Library. Still I could not get over my fascination with the biblical book, and I continued to teach it to graduate students at Duke University and to write articles on various aspects of its thought. In 2006-7 I was named the Joseph McCarthy Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome with the responsibility of teaching Ecclesiastes to two dozen Jesuits and three sisters. On returning to Duke in the fall semester I taught a seminar on the book to graduate students, thinking it would be my last such offering. That was not to be, even if my interests have broadened considerably in recent years.
My retirement from Duke University in 2008 and move to Nashville to be near our two sons and five grandchildren left me with much free time to continue my research and writing. I was immediately invited to teach a Maymester course on Job and Ecclesiastes at Vanderbilt. My wife and I quickly enrolled in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt, and I have been privileged to learn something from superb teachers about a variety of topics (the Russian revolution, the age of the universe, great thinkers of the nineteenth century, the Civil War, revolutions in the Americas, the Mayan civilization, health reform, social protest, great singers and their songs, and more). Thanks to my friend and former colleague Charles Hamrick, to the marvelous director, Norma Clippard, and to the selection committee, I was invited to join the teaching staff. So far, I have taught classes on Job and Ecclesiastes, which greatly assisted me in writing Reading Job: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Macon: Smyth Helwys, 2011) and the present book on Ecclesiastes. I am also scheduled to teach a class on Psalms in the fall of 2012.
I wish to express my deep appreciation to the more than two hundred adults who made my classes a joy. Their presence constantly challenged me to make the study of biblical texts both intellectually stimulating and, dare I say, fun. I am also grateful for members of Sunday school classes at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church, and Vine Street Christian Church, all of Nashville, where many of my ideas about Ecclesiastes were tested. This book is dedicated to these lovers of learning.
My thanks also go to my wife, Nita, who for more than fifty-six years has encouraged me to follow my passion to understand ancient literature. As usual, Gail Chappell has typed much of my handwritten prose on a computer, saving me much time and headache. She has my lasting gratitude.
The translations in this book are my own, and I have simplified all transliterations of the Hebrew.
Introduction
Wayfarer, do not pass by my epitaph, but stand and listen, and then, when you have learned the truth, proceed. There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon, no Aeacus keeper of the keys, nor any dog called Cerberus. All of us who have died and gone below are bones and ashes: there is nothing else. What I have told you is true. Now withdraw, wayfarer, so that you will not think that, even though dead, I talk too much. 1
Like the unknown author of this Greek epitaph, who had experienced a shaking of the foundations of knowledge in his or her day, the protagonist in the book of Ecclesiastes, who called himself Qoheleth (pronounced Qoh-h l-eth) had seen the assumptions of the intelligentsia and the practical guidelines of ordinary citizens give way under the heavy questioning of poets such as the genius behind the book of Job and the vicissitudes of history as empire after empire decimated the Judean countryside.
For authors such as these, truth had become a pathless land, one that could not be approached by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. 2 The human condition, it follows, is accurately depicted in a New Yorker cartoon of an individual walking on a treadmill facing a sign on which is inscribed a single word, TRUTH . And yet, despite their avowed agnosticism, each of these three individuals claimed to have reached solid ground capable of withstanding the crumbling half-truths on which they were nurtured.
What I have told you is true matches Job s bold denial that a calculable divine justice exists and Qoheleth s assertion that everything is vanity, to use a familiar expression that I shall soon challenge as an adequate translation of the Hebrew word hebel . 3 In short these thinkers dared to dismiss as lies major givens of society and to offer counter testimony with no authority except the logic of their own arguments.
Leaving aside the Greek epitaph for now, I turn to the conclusions of the two Hebraic wise men. The books of Job and Ecclesiastes belong to the third division of the Tanak, or the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The first two divisions are the Torah and the Prophets. The Torah consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These five books are called Torah because they are presented as the teachings of Moses, spokesman for the deity. As such, they are accorded special revelatory status in Judaism, along with an oral tradition. The Prophets include the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, plus Isai