Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 67:2 (NA 2016)
Article: Death And Divine Judgement In Ecclesiastes
Author: Kumiko Takeuc

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TynBull 67:2 (2016) p. 309

Death And Divine Judgement In Ecclesiastes1

Kumiko Takeuc

([email protected])

Ecclesiastes among the OT books is an anomaly, but not without its significance. After all, it has survived inquiries about its questionable content and remains a part of canonical Scripture. The unusual content of Ecclesiastes may be related to certain historical circumstances when it was written. As there is little internal or external evidence, however, it is no easy task to assign the book’s date to any particular period. Premised on the current consensus regarding its plausible dating between the 6th and 3rd centuries, albeit mainly based on linguistic evidence, one may well ask: what is the book of Ecclesiastes doing, if it appeared on the cusp of the Persian-Hellenistic transition period, when the traditional idea of theodicy was perhaps becoming a serious issue in Israelite society before full-blown apocalyptic eschatology surfaced? This thesis probes that question.

In Ecclesiastes Qohelet speaks about many different things which happen in life, but he eventually sums everything up by saying, ‘Everything is hebel’. Death apparently is the reason. How can everything (הכל) that one accomplishes be assessed as ‘futile’ (הבל) apropos of death? Why is Qohelet so obsessed with death? Why does Ecclesiastes connote a more negative and sceptical tone than perhaps warranted as wisdom literature? What might the author have intended to convey to his reader? Qohelet assesses every event in life in terms of death, which occasions injustice. Answers to the puzzles of Ecclesiastes seem to be inseparable from questions of how best Ecclesiastes is to be read. This thesis contends that the book of Ecclesiastes is actually making a case for posthumous divine judgement as theological necessity. Further, judging from its implied

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social and historical context, the book may have served perhaps as a provocative voice for, or a catalyst to, the emergence of apocalyptic eschatology and later sectarian conflicts within Judaism during the mid-Second Temple period.

For unravelling these issues, the problems associated with reading Ecclesiastes are identified in the Introduction. One problem is related to the book itself and the other to the historical social background, neither of which is straightforward to clarify. In developing the current thesis, three main objectives were set forth: first, identify issues of death and divine judgement in Qohelet’s monologue within the broader ancient Near Eastern context; second, devise or modify current approaches for how best Ecclesias...

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