5B
RELIGION/tS)* Ctarlotte Stitt
Thursday, June 3, 2004
The Bible’s most improbable book,
Ecclesiastes, gets Jewish commentary
By Richard Ostling
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
What is the Book of Ecclesi
astes doing in the Bible? This
astonishing little master-
work from ancient Israel
struggles with concepts
found elsewhere in the Scrip
tures.
Ecclesiastes is greatly per
plexed that evil people often
prosper while good ones suf
fer, and says that life some
times seems to lack meaning
or makes no sense. It asks,
how do things fit together?
The issues are sifted, if not
exactly answered, in “Ecclesi
astes,” the latest of the Jew
ish Pubhcation Society’s com
mentaries on bibhcal books.
The series is excellent in
quahty, but pricey (this 87-
page book costs $34.95).
“Ecclesiastes” provides the
Hebrew text, the JPS Eng-
hsh translation, and an intro
duction and verse-by-verse
comments from Michael V
Fox, professor of Hebrew at
the University of Wisconsin,
in Madison.
The famous opening about
human existence is translat
ed here, “Utter futility! ... All
is futile!” Other understand
ings include “senselessness,”
“absurdity” and the King
James Version’s “vanity of
vanities”-referring not to
pride or ego but worthless
ness.
The hteral Hebrew means
breath or vapor. Fox explains,
and all these translations use
metaphors to say that life
often defies reason and is
incomprehensible and fleet
ing. That’s the central motif
the book struggles to compre
hend.
The book’s speaker, knovm
as Koheleth or “the Preach
er,” struggles with the short
ness of life, the futility of
effort, the triviality of mater
ial goods, the vulnerability of
wisdom and the apparent
violations of justice. But “the
irrationality of the world is
the fundamental grievance,”
Fox writes.
As in Fox’s “A 'Time lb Tfear
Down and a Time lb Build
Up” (Eerdmans, 1999), this
commentary disputes schol
ars from the past century
who’ve seen Koheleth as a
modem-style skeptic, pes
simist or fatalist who
embraces pleasure and
scorns the rest of Scripture.
By that theory, the tradi
tional beliefs in Ecclesiastes
were tacked on by later rab
bis to offset the bleak origi
nal, for example the book’s
summation: “Revere God and
observe his commandments!
For this applies to all
mankind.”
But in Fox’s view, Koheleth
is no nihilist. The speaker
says that many things are
worthwhile in life: moderate
work and pleasure, love and
friendship, gaining and using
our limited human wisdom,
seeking to be righteous, and
"fearing God and hoping for
divine justice.”
This complex biblical book
says that such things are
often fleeting, limited and
uncertain, but they “are
enough to make life worth
living,” Fox says.
Fox acknowledges that the
God of Ecclesiastes is qirite
different from other biblical
portrayals. In line with Jew
ish tradition, the book sees
God as absolute, transcen
dent, powerful, “unpre
dictable and rather danger
ous.” But unlike earlier bibli
cal writings, Ecclesiastes
expects no warm fellowship
from its rather distant deity.
The (Tod of Ecclesiastes
may be “rather steely and
remote,” Fox says, but he is
“not hostile.” Koheleth is
committed to obedience to
God’s will, but coimts on little
divine help or reward in
return.
Fox vigorously disputes
some of the JPS translations.
He finds it "highly mislead
ing” to imply that Koheleth
was a modem-style doubter
who looked with disdain
upon conventional religious
beliefs, which the JPS does
by attributing such state
ments to others, sometimes
by addition of quotation
marks.
Fox insists that Koheleth
never says conventional
beliefs are in error, nor does
he seek to eliminate or modi
fy them.
'The speaker “believes in
divine justice but sees it con
tradicted, and - rather than
working out a smooth solu-
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tion as a theologian might, or
rejecting the principle as a
skeptic might _ Koheleth
throws up his hands in frus
tration.”
Fox thinks the book’s pious
summation may well come
from the book’s original
writer, who looked upon
Koheleth’s musings from the
standpoint of conventional
belief. He thinks that even for
Koheleth, revering God and
following his will “are
bedrock truths that experi
ence can collide with but not
dislodge.”
Note: JPS has also issued
commentaries on Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Esther, Jonah
and the Haftarot (liturgical
readings from prophets).
On the Net:
JPS Bible titles:
http://www.jewishpub.org
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