Qohelet and His Contradictions

by Michael V. Fox

Publisher:

Almond Press

, 1989

Overview

Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox seeks to address the complexities and so-called “absurdities” of Ecclesiastes, or “Qohelet,” the Hebrew word for the preacher. He focuses not on resolving the contradictions, but on seeing them as part of the overall structure and meaning of the book. Fox gives an in-depth introduction to the historical exegetical studies of Ecclesiastes and explains his own position. He then divides the discussion into five sections:

• The Meaning of Hebel and Re'ut-ruah in Qohelet
• Toil and Pleasure
• The Way of Wisdom: Qohelet’s Epistemology
• Justice and Theodicy
• Commentary

The first four sections contain the same format, in which Fox names a specific contradiction and terminology. The last section provides Fox’s commentary on the whole of Ecclesiastes, including purpose, key words, language, structure, and translations. Fox also gives a bibliography and indexes of authors and subjects.

Contents

Top Highlights

“In any case, ‘inclusios’, which the phrases are said to form, do not prove the boundaries of literary units, for an expression (root, word, phrase, etc.) can be repeated within a unit and can recur beyond it. Consequently we can know that a repeated expression is an inclusio only after we find it occurring at the beginning and end of a unit demarcated by other means. Then we may point to the inclusio to show how the author effects closure.” (Page 156)

“As I see it, hebel designates not the mysterious but rather (and this is a fundamental difference) the manifestly irrational or meaningless. To call something hebel is an evaluation of its nature. Whether or not there is meaning beyond the visible surface of events, that surface, which is the world as it presents itself to humans, is warped. Similarly, while hebel is a near-synonym of ‘meaningless’, the terms differ insofar as ‘absurd’ is not merely the absence of meaning, but an active violation of meaningfulness.” (Page 34)

“The teaching of 3:1–9 is rather that the occurrence of all events is beyond human control, for God makes everything happen in its proper time (proper, that is, from his viewpoint). Therefore strenuous labor does not pay off in proportion to its unpleasantness.” (Page 192)

“mt spellings may have nothing to do with the book’s origins (Barr, 1985).” (Page 154)

“Hebel for Qohelet, like ‘absurd’ for Camus, is not merely incongruous or ironic; it is oppressive, even tragic. The divorce between act and result is the reality upon which human reason founders; it robs human actions of significance and undermines morality. For Qohelet hebel is an injustice, partly synonymous with ra‘ah, ‘inequity, injustice’ (see 6:1–2; 9:3; cf. 2:21; 4:8).” (Page 33)

Product Details

• Title: Qohelet and His Contradictions
• Author: Michael V. Fox
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 1989
• Pages: 384

About Michael V. Fox

Michael V. Fox received his rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College. He received a Ph.D. in Bible, Semitics, and Egyptology from the Hebrew University. He is currently Halls-Bascom Professor of Hebrew at the University of Wisconsin.

The Jewish Publication Society of Americawas founded in Philadelphia in 1888 to provide the children of Jewish immigrants to America with books about their heritage in the language of the New World. As the oldest publisher of Jewish titles in the English language, the mission of JPS is to enhance Jewish culture by promoting the dissemination of religious and secular works of exceptional quality, in the United States and abroad, to all individuals and institutions interested in past and contemporary Jewish life.

Over the years JPS has issued a body of works for all tastes and needs. Its many titles include biographies, histories, art books, holiday anthologies, books for young readers, religious and philosophical studies, and translations of scholarly and popular classics. It is perhaps known best for its famous JPS Tanakh, the translation of the Hebrew Bible in English from the original Hebrew.