Summary

Multiple questions surrounding the book of Ecclesiastes (Qohelet or Qoheleth in Hebrew)—including the identity of the book’s author and how it fits with other biblical texts—have long fascinated and confounded readers. In regard to authorship, scholarship since the late 19th century has dispensed with the tradition that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, but exactly who is responsible for the present form of the text and why he chooses to call himself “Qohelet” remains unknown. Multiple voices in the book appear to compete over theological and religious questions concerning divine justice and the efficacy of ethical behavior. The voice that frames the words of Qohelet both cites Qohelet’s teaching with approval and appears to undermine them in the book’s epilogue. The linguistic and lexical features of the book are late biblical Hebrew but contain several repeating keywords, each with connotations whose meanings shade into others and which cannot be understood with facile one-to-one renderings. Ecclesiastes contains no undisputed allusions or citations of other biblical material, despite its being one of the latest compositions in the Hebrew Bible, but it does reference material found in the Old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, a work over a millennium older than Ecclesiastes. The book resists the attempt to reduce its message to coherent themes, and modern critical scholarship sees in Ecclesiastes a mirror that shows the field’s own methodological flaws. The book’s aphoristic quality, vivid description of life’s joys and sorrows, and unflinching engagement with the limits of religion have insured its influence as a cultural touchstone.