Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon by 
Ecclesiastes by
Summary: "The book of Ecclesiastes is probably best known for its repeated refrain that "everything is meaningless," or "vanity." However, a thorough reading demonstrates that this is not its final conclusion. Knut Heim's Tyndale commentary shows that the book is intellectually sophisticated, theologically rich, emotionally deep-and full of humor"-- Provided by publisher.
Ecclesiastes by
Summary: Douglas O Donnell shows, in this redemptive-historical, biblical, practical, and expositional commentary, that Ecclesiastes answers two key questions that worry everybody in the depths of their minds. The first is "What does man gain from all the toil at which he toils under the sun?" the answer being "nothing." The second follows: "In light of such vanity the fact that our work and knowledge and pleasures and possessions are ultimately made futile by death how then should we live this temporary life under the sun?" The answer is surprisingly simple: we are to abandon human illusions of self-importance, put aside all pretense of pride, and embrace divine wisdom. "The Preacher" of Ecclesiastes says that this is "the end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13). O Donnell explains how these two key ideas inform the text of Ecclesiastes and the practical instruction that flows from them. -- Amazon.com.
Ecclesiastes by
Summary: In this expert commentary on Ecclesiastes, Peter Enns neither disregards nor attempts to resolve the book's many theological tensions and ambiguities. Rather, he shows how these form the backdrop against which the author struggles to show readers the proper path forward in their journeys of faith -- remaining true to the tradition to "fear God and keep the commands" despite the apparent futility of human existence. --from publisher description.
Ecclesiastes by
The book of Ecclesiastes is, above all else, unflinchingly honest. Whether wrestling with the tedium of work, the injustices of life, the ravages of age, or the inevitability of death, this enigmatic Old Testament book takes a hard look at the way the world really is. And yet, as Phil Ryken points out in this instructive commentary, Ecclesiastes wisely teaches people to trust God in the midst of such struggles. Written with pastors and Bible teachers in mind, this commentary will equip readers to better understand, explain, and apply the message of Ecclesiastes, highlighting the book’s enduring relevance as a testament to the ultimate duty of all people: fearing God and keeping his commandments.
Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs by
The Teach the Text Commentary Series gives pastors the best of biblical scholarship and presents the information needed to move seamlessly from the meaning of the text to its effective communication. By keeping the discussion in each carefully selected preaching unit to six pages of focused commentary, the volumes allow pastors to quickly grasp the most important information. Each unit of the commentary includes the big idea and key themes of the passage; sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text; and full-color images. How do we find meaning in life when it seems futile and meaningless? Ecclesiastes takes readers on a journey pondering this timeless question, and this commentary helps set the book within a biblical worldview in order to help teachers communicate and apply the profound truths of Ecclesiastes today. Song of Songs is full of evocative poetry, but centuries of interpretation have produced little consensus about how this unique book should be understood. Edward M. Curtis lays out the key themes of the book and provides carefully organized commentary for interpreting, teaching, and illustrating this book -- Publisher description.
Exalting Jesus in Ecclesiastes by
Edited by David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, this new commentary series, projected to be 48 volumes, takes a Christ- centered approach to expositing each book of the Bible. Rather than a verse-by-verse approach, the authors have crafted chapters that explain and apply key passages in their assigned Bible books. Readers will learn to see Christ in all aspects of Scripture, and they will be encouraged by the devotional nature of each exposition. Projected contributors to the series include notable authors such as Russell D. Moore, Al Mohler, Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, Mark Dever, and others.
NBBC, Ecclesiastes / Lamentations by
The New Beacon Bible Commentary is an engaging, indispensable reference tool to aid individuals in every walk of life in the study and meditation of God’s Word. Written from the Wesleyan theological perspective, it offers insight and perceptive scholarship to help you unlock the deeper truths of Scripture and garner an awareness of the history, culture, and context attributed to each book of study. Readable, relevant, and academically thorough, it offers scholars, pastors, and laity a new standard for understanding and interpreting the Bible in the 21st century.Each volume features:Completely New Scholarship from notable experts in the Wesleyan traditionConvenient Introductory Material for each book of the Bible including information on authorship, date, history, audience, sociological/cultural issues, purpose, literary features, theological themes, hermeneutical issues, and moreClear Verse-by-Verse Explanations, which offer a contemporary, Wesleyan-based understanding derived from the passage’s original languageComprehensive Annotation divided into three sections, which cover background elements behind the text; verse-by-verse details and meanings found in the text; and significance, relevance, intertextuality, and application from the textHelpful Sidebars, which provide deeper insight into theological issues, word meanings, archeological connections, historical relevance, cultural customs, and moreExpanded Bibliography for further study of historical elements, additional interpretations, and theological themesEcclesiastes is one of the most interesting books in the Bible because it largely ignores the history and law of ancient Israel, but it alsYNbeaThe New Beacon Bible Commentary is an engaging, indispensable reference tool to aid individuals in
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs for Everyone by
Westminster John Knox Press is pleased to present the seventeen-volume Old Testament for Everyone series. Internationally respected Old Testament scholar John Goldingay addresses Scripture from Genesis to Malachi in such a way that even the most challenging passages are explained simply and concisely. The series is perfect for daily devotions, group study, or personal visits with the Bible. In this volume, Goldingay explores three books of the Old Testament in the wisdom literature genre. These three books are all associated with Solomon and his wisdom, yet unlike other books, they do not mention the Torah, the exodus, or the covenant. As Goldingay says, "The basis of their teaching is the way life actually works. They look at life and reflect on experience and encourage people to live on the basis of how life works." Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs for Everyone explores three practical, down to earth, and hopeful books.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes by
In this new volume in the Belief series, Amy Plantinga Pauw reveals how the biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, while often overlooked, are surprisingly relevant for Christian faith today. Both biblical books probe everyday human experiences. They speak to those who seek meaning and purpose in an uncertain world and encourage us to look for God's presence in human life, not in divine visions or messages. They show openness to wisdom insights from many sources, urging us to find the commonalities and connections of our wisdom with those of our religious neighbors. Ultimately, these books affirm that true wisdom, whatever its human source, comes from God. Pauw includes reflections for preaching and teaching throughout her study.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes by
Pastors and leaders of the classical church interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture. The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century. In this addition to the well-received series, Daniel Treier offers theological exegesis of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
Determinism in the Book of Ecclesiastes by
Is the author of Ecclesisastes a determinist? Many readers, from the Targumist and Ibn Ezra up to the present day, have thought so. But there has been no systematic investigation of Qoheleth's determinism, its nature and extent, its relationship to free will and its philosophical background. In separate chapters, Rudman discusses key terms and texts that express a deterministic worldview, then explores the sources for Qoheleth's thought. He concludes that the author was a sage writing in the third quarter of the third century BCE, who was profoundly influenced by Stoic ideas.
Ecclesiastes and Scepticism by
Scholars often view the apparent scepticism of Ecclesiastes in terms of a reaction against the more confident assertions found in works like Proverbs, and the book does indeed seem to deny the possibility of humans shaping their future or changing their fate through informed action. What appears to concern the work's protagonist, whose monologue occupies most of its length, is not any scepticism about God's activity or consistency, but rather the problems that arise from a human inability to discern divine action or purpose. This study seeks to understand both the roots and the implications of this empiricism, comparing the monologue with other biblical and ancient literature, and suggesting that, although it has points of contact with other texts, its scepticism is largely distinctive, and unlikely to represent some broader tradition.
Ecclesiastes Through the Centuries by
Over the centuries, Ecclesiastes has influenced numerous and diverse aspects of life and thought. Ecclesiastes Through the Centuries assesses the effects of the book on the culture of the various times in religious, artistic, and social contexts. Presents an innovative, reception history approach to the study of Ecclesiastes, by tracing its influence on religion, culture, literature, art, and social thought Explores a fascinating range of Jewish and Christian readings Features engaging and unusual examples from art, music, literature and history: from Thackeray and Orwell, to Salvador Dali's Illustrated Bible, to the inflammatory exposition of Ecclesiastes at the funeral of Queen Mary Published in the innovative Blackwell Bible Commentaries series; for further information visit the series website at www.bbibcomm.net
The End of Wisdom by
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.
Interpreting Ecclesiastes by
Readers of texts come from all generations, from different contexts and with different agendas. This book gives a sample of what both ancient and contemporary readers have brought to the book of Ecclesiastes in the quest for illumination of the text and for their own enlightenment, often furnishing their own agenda. Debates over meaning are formed, shaped, and illuminated by the interpreters themselves. Part One looks at ancient interpreters and at their methods of approaching the text. Jewish and Christian interpreters alike sought to find meaning amongst some of the key puzzles of the book: why does the author call himself'the son of David'and appear to be Solomon when his pen name also seems to be Qoheleth? Why the contradictions in content? How did such an unorthodox book come to be canonized? How did the dualistic contemptus mundi interpretation of the vanity theme perpetuated by Jerome and others come to hold the field for so long? And how did Luther and the reformers seek to rectify that approach? These questions and others are addressed in this book, looking through the lens of past interpretation. Part Two acknowledges our increasing self-awareness of the importance of method in approaching biblical texts and turns to a sample of modern interpretations from familiar reading groups such as the ecologist, the animal theologian, the liberationist, the post-colonialist, and the feminist. It will be seen that different modern approaches often enlighten the interpretation of specific verses within Ecclesiastes and hence that no one method is a wholesale'solution'to interpretive concerns.
Journal of a Mad Man by
What is the meaning of life? The question has been asked by the brightest philosophical minds for centuries. Still to this day answers vary greatly depending on the worldview. Solomon, the wisest king in Israel's history, set all his energies to search for the ultimate meaning of life under the sun. His conclusions may shock and surprise you--vanity, chasing after the wind, absurdity, vanishing smoke. Are these the musings of a genius or of a mad man? If you are looking for a candy-coated appraisal of life then go ahead and put this book down. However, if you are looking for a no-frills, brutally honest, ragged-edged assessment of reality, then you have discovered an indispensable volume. In Journal of a Mad Man, pastor and author Derrick McCarson will carefully guide readers verse by verse through Solomon's meditations recorded in the Old Testament book of wisdom--Ecclesiastes. Not only will readers attempt to plumb the depths of some of mankind's most vexing questions, but they will also discover Solomon's secrets for wise living in a warped world.
The Story of Israel in the Book of Qohelet by
This book is a study of the making of collective memory within early Judaism in a seminal text of the Western canon. The book of Ecclesiastes and its speaker Qohelet are famous for saying that there is nothing new under the sun, and in the literary tradition of the modern West that has been taken as the motto of a book that is universal in scope, Greek in its patterns of thought, and floating free from the particularism and historical concerns of the rest of the Bible. Jennie Barbour argues that reading the book as a general compendium in this way causes the reader to miss a strong undercurrent in the text. While Ecclesiastes says nothing about the great founding events of Israel’s story, it is haunted by the decline and fall of the nation and the Babylonian exile, as the trauma of the loss of the kingdom of Solomon persists through a spectrum of intertextual relationships. The view of Qohelet from the throne in Jerusalem takes in the whole sweep of Israel’s remembered historical experiences; Ecclesiastes is revealed as not simply as a piece of marketplace philosophy, but as a learned essay in processing a community’s memory, with strong ties to the rest of Jewish and Christian scripture.
Time in the Book of Ecclesiastes by
Uniquely within a Hebrew Bible context, the book of Qohelet engages at length with the theme of time, explicitly exploring the temporal situation of humanity. This book offers a detailed analysis of that exploration. It is argued that the narrator of Ecclesiastes, Qohelet, does not depict the temporal processes of the world as a neutral reality. Rather, he describes the temporal order as highly problematic for human attempts to fashion a meaningful existence. This is especially due to the irresolvable tensions that he perceives between the cosmic, temporal reality and the human experience of time. The former is something ongoing, repetitive, and continuous. Conversely, the individual human being’s life is limited in time, with no real connection to either past or future. Mirroring the interest in Qohelet for both, this study discusses the biblical book’s presentation of both the cosmic, temporal structures and the framework of the human past, present, and future. It offers close readings of a series of passages in which the theme of time is especially prominent, thus demonstrating how the discussion of time works in Qohelet and how it interacts with other of the book’s key themes. Of particular importance in this context is the theme of cognition: to what extent are human beings able to understand our temporal conditions and how do such impact our life in the world if we cannot understand them? Finally, this study uses linguistic and anthropological material to discuss the presence of temporal thinking in the Hebrew Bible more generally, arguing that Qohelet’s exploration of time provides an excellent entry point into this broader discussion as well.
Vain Rhetoric by
The Book of Ecclesiastes, like many ancient and modern first-person discourses, generates ambivalent responses in its readers. The book's rhetorical strategy produces both acceptance of, and suspicion towards, the major positions argued by the author.'Vain rhetoric'aptly describes the persuasive and dissuasive properties of the narrator's peculiar characterization. It also describes how the Book of Ecclesiates, with its abundant use of rhetorical questions, constant gapping techniques, and other strategies from the arsenal of ambiguity, is a stunning testimony to the power of the various strategies of indirection to communicate to the reader something of his or her own rhetorical liabilities and limitations, as well as those of the religious community in general.
The Book of Ecclesiastes (Qohelet) and the Path to Joyous Living by
This is the first full-length study of Ecclesiastes using methods of philosophical exegesis, specifically those of the modern French philosophers Levinas and Blanchot. T. A. Perry opens up new horizons in the philosophical understanding of the Hebrew Bible, offering a series of meditations on its general spiritual outlook. Perry breaks down Ecclesiastes's motto "all is vanity" and returns "vanity" to its original concrete meaning of "breath," the breath of life. This central and forgotten teaching of Ecclesiastes leads to new areas of breath research related both to environmentalism and breath control.
Ecclesiastes and Scepticism by
By emphasising observation and empiricism as a key influence on human behaviour, this work excludes any consideration of tradition or revelation. Scholars often view the apparent scepticism of Ecclesiastes in terms of a reaction against the more confident assertions found in works like Proverbs , and the book does indeed seem to deny the possibility of humans shaping their future or changing their fate through informed action. What appears to concern the work's protagonist, whose monologue occupies most of its length, is not any scepticism about God's activity or consistency rather the problems that arise from a human inability to discern divine action or purpose. This study will seek to understand both the roots and the implications of this empiricism, comparing the monologue with other biblical and ancient literature, and suggesting that, although it has points of contact with other texts, its scepticism is largely distinctive and, unlikely to represent some broader tradition. For that reason and others, the work as a whole is unlikely to be a satire, as is sometimes suggested, but it may be inviting critical reflection on the outlook and limitations of its protagonist. Over the last 30 years this pioneering series has established an unrivaled reputation for cutting-edge international scholarship in Biblical Studies and has attracted leading authors and editors in the field. The series takes many original and creative approaches to its subjects, including innovative work from historical and theological perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and more recent developments in cultural studies and reception history.
Living Life Backward by
Summary: Only by keeping the end in mind can a person truly learn how to live in the here and now. Living in light of our death reorients us to our limitations as creatures and helps us see God's good gifts right in front of us--enabling us to live wisely, freely, and generously. Drawing on wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes, David Gibson teaches us to embrace this countercultural mind-set and live life backward: to take the one thing in the future that is certain--our death--and work backward when it comes to our priorities, goals, desires, and decisions. If we do this, we'll learn that only with a proper perspective on death can we find meaning and satisfaction in life--and see just how great God is. -- Amazon.com.
Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes by
Summary: As Sidney Greidanus points out, Ecclesiastes is especially relevant for our culture: the Teacher confronts such enticements as materialism, secularism, hedonism, human autonomy, and self-sufficiency. Greidanus offers many suggestions for preaching this book, including the boundaries of each preaching text, the text's theme and goal, various ways to move to Christ in the New Testament, detailed exposition of the fifteen literary units, and application for today. --from publisher description.
Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually by
Summary: Articles in Reading Ecclesiastes intertextually address intertextual resonances between Ecclesiastes and texts across the Hebrew canon, along with texts throughout history, from Greek classical literature to the New Testament, Jewish and Christian interpretation, and existential and Modern philosophy.
The Words of the Wise Are Like Goads by
“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.
