Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 01:1 (Spring 1996)
Article: The Message Of Ecclesiastes
Author: Robert V. McCabe

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DBSJ 1 (Spring 1996) p. 85

The Message Of Ecclesiastes

Robert V. McCabe

* Dr. McCabe is Professor of Old Testament at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary in Allen Park, MI.

In the history of its interpretation, the book of Ecclesiastes has presented a plethora of difficulties.1 The book has difficulties in interpreting its individual passages, unity of thought, textual criticism, language, and syntax. One of the major frustrations has been determining what is the basic message of this book. How do some of the negative elements such as Qohelet’s2 hating life (2:17) tie in with the more positive element of his commending the enjoyment of life (2:24)? Is the message of Ecclesiastes one of skepticism or hedonism? Many critical scholars have maintained that Qohelet was a skeptic. Crenshaw has stated that “Qohelet examines experience and discovers nothing that will survive death’s arbitrary blow. He then proceeds to report this discovery of life’s absurdity and to advise young men on the best option in the light of stark reality.”3

DBSJ 1 (Spring 1996) p. 86

However, this type of thinking is not confined to the critical scholar. A number of conservative scholars have interpreted the message of Ecclesiastes in a similar fashion. Stuart has stated that the perspective of Ecclesiastes “is the secular, fatalistic wisdom that a practical atheism produces. When one relegates God to a position way out there away from us, irrelevant to our daily lives, then Ecclesiastes is the result.”4 Another example of this is found in the introduction to Ecclesiastes in the New Scofield Reference Bible. “The philosophy it [Ecclesiastes] sets forth, which makes no claim to revelation but which inspiration records for our instruction, represents the world-view of one of the wisest of men, who knew that there is a holy God and that He will bring everything into judgment.”5 Perhaps we might think the editors of the New Scofield Reference Bible were inconsistent with their predecessor C. I. Scofield. But in his correspondence school course, Scofield reflects this same type of thought:

It is not at all the will of God which is developed, but that of man “under the sun” forming his own code. It is, therefore, as idle to quote such passages as 2:24, 3:22, ...

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