Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes)

Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) PDF

Author: Lisa M. Wolfe

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0814681484

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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.

Royal Autobiography in the Book of Qoheleth

Royal Autobiography in the Book of Qoheleth PDF

Author: Y. V. Koh

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-02-14

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 3110923157

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This book examines the literary genre(s) to which the book of Qoheleth belongs and on which it is modelled. It suggests that Qoheleth is best described as a royal autobiography based on the arguments of specific literary features of style and content, resemblance to various kinds of royal autobiographical narrative from the ancient Near East, and the existence, despite first impressions, of a coherent worldview. The analyses in this book cover various aspects from textual criticism, through aspects of vocabulary and style, to the interpretation of particular passages and the problem of making sense of the book as a whole.

Qoheleth

Qoheleth PDF

Author: Norbert Lohfink

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published:

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9781451415179

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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.

Qoheleth

Qoheleth PDF

Author: James L. Crenshaw

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2013-08-31

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1611172586

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“In this substantive yet accessible volume, Crenshaw brings to life the Bible’s strangest sage . . . A superb introduction for students and scholars alike.” —William P. Brown, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary Rarely does a biblical book evoke admiration from a Nobel laureate in literature, a newspaper columnist, a prize-winning poet, and a popular songwriter. Ecclesiastes has done that, and for good reason. Its author, who called himself Qoheleth, stared death in the face and judged all human endeavors to be futile. For Qoheleth observation is the only avenue to understanding; an arbitrarily wrathful and benevolent deity created and rules over the world; and death is unpredictable, absolute, and final. His message is simple: seize the moment, for death awaits. James L. Crenshaw begins by examining the essential mysteries of the book of Ecclesiastes: the speaker’s identity, his emphasis on hidden or contradictory truths, and his argument of the insubstantiality of most things and the ultimate futility of all efforts. Moving from the ancient to the contemporary, Crenshaw again analyzes Qoheleth’s observations about the human condition, this time testing if they can stand up against rational inquiry today. In exploring Qoheleth’s identity, the foundations of his outlook, and his recommendations, Crenshaw engages modern readers in a conversation about one of the most disagreed upon biblical books. In Qoheleth, Crenshaw draws on related literature from the ancient Near East and traces the impact of Qoheleth in both Christian and Jewish traditions, summarizing a lifetime of scholarship on the book of Ecclesiastes. While exploring Ecclesiastes and its enigmatic author, Crenshaw engages scholars and modern interpreters in genuine debate over the lasting relevance of Qoheleth’s teachings and the place of Ecclesiastes in the biblical canon.

Qoheleth and His Contradictions

Qoheleth and His Contradictions PDF

Author: Mark Fox

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1989-05-01

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0567247333

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Fox takes as his starting point the issues that Quoheleth's interpreters have faced in their efforts to render the book faithfully, and in so doing, provides a new analysis of Quoheleth's reasoning, logic, and means of expression. Fox reaches three key conclusions about the work: Quoheleth is primarily concerned with the rationality of existence; Quoheleth is not against wisdom or the wise, and finally: Quoheleth supports the grasping of inner experience as the one domain of human freedom. These conclusions are supported by a thorough look at other analyses of Quoheleth.

The Commentary of R. Samuel Ben Meir Rashbam on Qoheleth

The Commentary of R. Samuel Ben Meir Rashbam on Qoheleth PDF

Author: Japhet

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1985-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9004676422

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This book, designed for students of the Hebrew Bible and medieval exegesis, presents a small part of the work of R. Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam), the grandson of Rashi and one of the leading figures in Rashi's school of exegesis in nNorthern France. The authors show by their editing of the text, in translation and in introduction, the specific and unique contributions which Rashbam makes, not only to the understanding of Qoheleth, but to the text of the Hebrew Bible as a whole.

Qoheleth

Qoheleth PDF

Author: Graham S. Ogden

Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Limited

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13:

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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?

Qoheleth

Qoheleth PDF

Author: Thomas Krüger

Publisher: Hermeneia: A Critical & Histor

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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Qoheleth presents a special challenge not only for professional commentators but also for 'normal' readers of the Hebrew text (or a modern translation). . . . Most people in modern Western industrial societies . . . can relate without great difficulty to the reflections of the book of Qoheleth on work and rest or on behavior vis--vis those in power, and they can understand these reflections in terms of their own experiences. Nonetheless, the way in which these and other themes are handled in Qoheleth is a little puzzling. The fact that the book . . . reveals no clear organization and no overall progression of ideas may be accepted as a literary peculiarity and perhaps even strike one as interesting. Yet when one finds on various themes many statements that are highly contradictory in both the broad and the narrow context, one begins to ask what could be the point of this book and what is the purpose expressed in it. The present commentary seeks to help answer these questions.