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.

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.

Pervaded as it is with pessimism, paradox, and a multitude of contradictions, Ecclesiastes has long been one of the most difficult books of the Bible to understand. As this study demonstrates, however, it is precisely these contradictions that make Ecclesiastes so meaningful and so powerfully relevant to life in the world. By looking carefully at the language and thought of Ecclesiastes, as well as at its uses of contradictions in probing the meaning of life, Fox confronts the problems that have confounded interpretation of this biblical book. He shows that by using contradiction to tear down holistic claims of meaning and purpose in the world and rebuilding meaning in a local, restricted sense instead, the author of Ecclesiastes shapes a bold, honest-and ultimately uplifting-vision of life. Based on solid scholarly insight yet readable by all, Fox's work provides some of the best commentary available on this challenging section of Scripture.

Ecclesiastes, also known as Qohelet, is a fascinating text filled with intriguing contradictions, such as wisdom’s beneficial consequences, God’s justice, and wisdom’s superiority over pleasure. Under the paradigm of modernism, the contradictions in the book have been regarded as problems to be harmonized or explained away. In Reanimating Qohelet’s Contradictory Voices, Jimyung Kim, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s insights, offers an alternative reading that embraces the contradictions as they stand. For Kim, Qohelet’s or the protagonist’s contradictory consciousness is dialogically constructed by his contact with a complex web of discourses. Instead of harmonizing them or explaining them away, Kim identifies various dialogic voices available to Qohelet and demonstrates how those voices constitute Qohelet’s contradictory utterances and construct his unfinalizable identity.

“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” The word “meaningless” (hebel) appears more than 40 times in the book of Ecclesiastes and raises the question why a book that appears to deny meaning or purpose is included in the Bible. Many questions of interpretation as well as relevance surround the book of Ecclesiastes, including indeed the proper translation and understanding of the word hebel. If, after all, the book does examine the question of the meaning of life, what could be more important? The present volume explores Ecclesiastes/Qohelet on many different levels: linguistic, text-critical, theological, historical, and literary. The contributors, chosen from many of the leading and emerging experts on the book, present both the state of the field and their own assessment of the varied interpretive issues of Ecclesiastes. They include scholars, preachers, and philosophers. It should be helpful not only to scholars but also to all who want to study this book seriously. The first section of this volume deals with the history of interpretation. The second section is concerned with issues of history, form, and rhetoric. Section three is about key concepts and passages. The fourth section focuses on the language and grammar of Qohelet. The last section engages practical issues of interpretation. The volume is designed to provide exposure to a variety of readers who seek to engage Qohelet in fresh ways in the twenty-first century—from historians of interpretation to biblical exegetes to linguists to theological students.

Verse-by-verse analysis of Ecclesiastes with commentary by recognized biblical translation experts. Focuses on critical words and phrases, explaining accepted interpretations, noting how various translations have handled passages, and explaining the nuances of the Hebrew original text.