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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The present work is a fragmentary realisation of a plan which has been maturing in my mind for many years. Exegesis and criticism are equally necessary for the full enjoyment of the treasures of the Old Testament, and just as no commentary is complete which does not explain the actual position of critical controversies, so no introduction to the criticism of a book is trustworthy which does not repose, and show the reader that it reposes, on the basis of a thorough exegesis. In this volume I do
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INTRODUCTION. HOW IS OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY?
INTRODUCTION. HOW IS OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY?
The point of view represented in this volume is still so little recognised and represented in England and America that the author ventures to prefix a short paper delivered as an address at the Church Congress held at Reading in October 1883. It is proverbially more difficult to write a thin book than a thick one, and the labour involved in preparing this twenty minutes’ paper, with its large outlook and sedulously under-stated claims, was such as he would not willingly undertake again for a lik
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CHAPTER I. JOB’S CALAMITY; THE OPENING OF THE DIALOGUES. (CHAPS. I.-XIV.)
CHAPTER I. JOB’S CALAMITY; THE OPENING OF THE DIALOGUES. (CHAPS. I.-XIV.)
The Book of Job is not the earliest monument of Hebrew ‘wisdom,’ but for various reasons will be treated first in order. The perusal of some of the pages introductory to Proverbs will enable the student to fill out what is here given. The Hebrew ‘wisdom’ is a product as peculiar as the dialectic of Plato, and not less worthy of admiration; and the author of Job is its greatest master. To him are due those great thoughts on a perennial problem, which may be supplemented but can never be supersede
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CHAPTER II. THE SECOND CYCLE OF SPEECHES. (CHAPS. XV.-XXI.)
CHAPTER II. THE SECOND CYCLE OF SPEECHES. (CHAPS. XV.-XXI.)
The three narrow-minded but well-meaning friends have exhausted their arsenal of arguments. Each with his own favourite receipt has tried to cure Job of his miserable illusion, and failed. Now begins a new cycle of speeches, in which our sympathy is still more with Job than before. His replies to the three friends ought to have shown them the incompleteness of their argument and the necessity of discovering some way of reconciling the elements of truth on both sides. They can teach him nothing,
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CHAPTER III. THE THIRD CYCLE OF SPEECHES. (CHAPS. XXII.-XXXI.)
CHAPTER III. THE THIRD CYCLE OF SPEECHES. (CHAPS. XXII.-XXXI.)
It is not wonderful that the gulf between Job and his friends should only be widened by such a direct contradiction of the orthodox tenet. The friends, indeed, cannot but feel the force of Job’s appeal to experience, as they show by the violence of their invective. But they are neither candid nor, above all, courageous enough to confess the truth; they speak, as the philosopher Kant observes, as if they knew their powerful Client was listening in the background. And so a third cycle of speeches
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CHAPTER IV. THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU. (CHAPS. XXXII.-XXXVII.)
CHAPTER IV. THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU. (CHAPS. XXXII.-XXXVII.)
At a (perhaps) considerably later period than the original work (including chap. xxviii.)—symbolised by the youthfulness of Elihu as compared with the four older friends—the problem of the sufferings of the innocent still beset the minds of the wise men, the attempt of the three friends to ‘justify the ways of God’ to the intellect having proved, as the wise men thought, a too manifest failure (xxxii. 2, 3). One of their number therefore invented a fourth friend, Elihu (or is this the name of th
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CHAPTER V. THE SPEECHES OF JEHOVAH. (CHAPS. XXXVIII.-XLII. 6.)
CHAPTER V. THE SPEECHES OF JEHOVAH. (CHAPS. XXXVIII.-XLII. 6.)
‘The words of Job are ended’ (xxxi. 40 b ), remarks the ancient editor, and amongst the last of these words is an aspiration after a meeting with God. That Job expected such a favour in this life is in the highest degree improbable, whatever view be taken of xix. 25-27. It is true, he sometimes did almost regard a theophany as possible, though he feared it might be granted under conditions which would make it the reverse of a boon (ix. 3, 15, 33-35; xiii. 21, 22). He wished for a fair investigat
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CHAPTER VI. THE EPILOGUE AND ITS MEANING.
CHAPTER VI. THE EPILOGUE AND ITS MEANING.
We now come to the dénoûment of the story (xlii. 7-17), against which, from the point of view of internal criticism, much were possible to be said. We shall not, however, here dwell upon the inconsistencies between the epilogue on the one hand and the prologue and the speeches on the other. The main point for us to emphasise is the disappointingness of the events of the epilogue regarded as the final outcome of Job’s spiritual discipline. Surely the high thoughts which have now and then visited
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CHAPTER VII. THE TRADITIONAL BASIS AND THE PURPOSE OF JOB.
CHAPTER VII. THE TRADITIONAL BASIS AND THE PURPOSE OF JOB.
This is widely different, remarks Umbreit, [69] from the question whether Job actually said and did all that is related of him in our book. It is scarcely necessary, he adds, in the present day to disprove the latter, but we have no reason to doubt the former (the theory as to the historical existence of a sort of Arabian king Priam, named Job). In truth, we have no positive evidence either for affirming or denying it, unless the ‘holy places,’ each reputed to be Job’s grave, may be mentioned in
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CHAPTER VIII. DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
CHAPTER VIII. DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
We have seen ( Chap. VII. ) that the unity of authorship of the Book of Job is not beyond dispute, but we shall not at present assume the results of analysis. Let us endeavour to treat of the date and place of composition on the hypothesis that the book is a whole as it stands (on the Elihu-portion however, comp. Chap. XII. ) It is at any rate probable that the greater part of it at least proceeds from the same period. Can that period be the patriarchal? The author has sometimes received credit
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CHAPTER IX. ARGUMENT FROM THE USE OF MYTHOLOGY.
CHAPTER IX. ARGUMENT FROM THE USE OF MYTHOLOGY.
One of the peculiarities of our poet (which I have elsewhere compared with a similar characteristic in Dante) is his willingness to appropriate mythic forms of expression from heathendom. This willingness was certainly not due to a feeble grasp of his own religion; it was rather due partly to the poet’s craving for imaginative ornament, partly to his sympathy with his less developed readers, and a sense that some of these forms were admirably adapted to give reality to the conception of the ‘liv
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CHAPTER X. ARGUMENT FROM THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.
CHAPTER X. ARGUMENT FROM THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.
The facts on which our argument is based are mainly the passages in Job which refer to ‘sons of Elohim’ (or better, as Davidson, ‘of the Elohim’), to ‘the Satan,’ and to the mal’akim . The first of these three phrases means probably inferior members of the class of beings called Elohim (i.e. ‘superhuman powers’); the second, ‘the adversary (or opposer);’ the third, ‘envoys or messengers’ (ἄγγελοι). We may at once draw an inference from the expression ‘the Satan,’ the full importance of which wil
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CHAPTER XI. ARGUMENT FROM PARALLEL PASSAGES.
CHAPTER XI. ARGUMENT FROM PARALLEL PASSAGES.
The new phase into which the controversy as to the early Christian work on the Teaching of the Apostles has passed excuses me from justifying the importance (in spite of its difficulty) of the study of parallel passages. A great point has been gained in one’s critical and exegetical training when one has learned so to compare parallel passages as to distinguish true from apparent resemblances, and to estimate the degree of probability of imitation. In Essay viii. of vol. ii. of The Prophecies of
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CHAPTER XII. ON THE DISPUTED PASSAGES IN THE DIALOGUE-PORTION, ESPECIALLY THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU.
CHAPTER XII. ON THE DISPUTED PASSAGES IN THE DIALOGUE-PORTION, ESPECIALLY THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU.
A detailed exegetical study would alone enable the reader to do justice to the controversies here referred to. But I may at least ask that, even upon the ground of the slender analysis which I have given, he should recognise the difficulties at the root of these controversies. In comparison with his possession of a ‘seeing eye,’ it is of little moment to me whether he adopts my explanations or not. Poets, like painters, have different periods. It is therefore conceivable that the author of Job c
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CHAPTER XIII. IS JOB A HEBRÆO-ARABIC POEM?
CHAPTER XIII. IS JOB A HEBRÆO-ARABIC POEM?
That the Book of Job is not as deeply penetrated with the spirit of revelation, nor even as distinctly Israelitish a production, as most of the Old Testament writings, requires no argument. May we venture to go further, and infer from various phenomena that, not merely the artistic form of the māshāl , but the thoughts and even the language of Job came in a greater or less degree from a foreign source? The question has been answered in the affirmative (as in the case of the words of Agur in Prov
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CHAPTER XIV. THE BOOK FROM A RELIGIOUS POINT OF VIEW.
CHAPTER XIV. THE BOOK FROM A RELIGIOUS POINT OF VIEW.
Motto: ‘Jedem nämlich wollte ich dienen, der hinlänglich Sinn hat in die grosse Frage tiefer einzugehen, welche das ernste Leben einmal gewiss an Jeden heranbringt, nach der Gerechtigkeit der göttlichen Waltung in den menschlichen Geschicken.’— Stickel ( Das Buch Hiob , Einl. S. vi.) There was a period, not so long since, when a Biblical writing was valued according to its supposed services to orthodox theology. From this point of view, the Book of Job was regarded partly as a typical descriptio
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CHAPTER XV. THE BOOK OF JOB FROM A GENERAL AND WESTERN POINT OF VIEW.
CHAPTER XV. THE BOOK OF JOB FROM A GENERAL AND WESTERN POINT OF VIEW.
The Book of Job is even less translatable than the Psalter. And why? Because there is more nature in it. ‘He would be a poet,’ says Thoreau, ‘who could impress the winds and streams into his service to speak for him.’ They do speak for the poet of Job ; the ‘still sad music of humanity’ is continually relieved by snatches from the grand symphonies of external nature. And hence the words of Job are ‘so true and natural that they would appear to expand like the buds at the approach of spring.’ It
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NOTE ON JOB AND THE MODERN POETS.
NOTE ON JOB AND THE MODERN POETS.
Job, like Spenser, should be the poet of poets; but though Goethe has imitated him in royal fashion, and here and there other poets such as Dante may offer allusions, yet Milton is the only poet who seems to have absorbed Job. Paradise Regained is in both form and contents a free imitation of the Book of Job, the story of which is described in i. 368-370, 424-6, iii. 64-67. The following are the principal allusions in Paradise Lost :—i. 63, comp. Job x. 22; ii. 266, comp. Job iv. 16; ii. 603, co
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NOTE ON THE TEXT OF JOB.
NOTE ON THE TEXT OF JOB.
That the received text of our Hebrew Bible has a long history behind it, is generally recognised; and few will deny that its worst corruptions arose in the pre-Massoretic and pre-Talmudic periods (comp. The Prophecies of Isaiah , vol. ii., Essay vii.) The popularity of the Book of Job may not have been equal to that of many other books, but we have seen reason to suppose that within the circles of the ‘wise men’ it was eagerly studied and imitated. In those early times such popularity was a sour
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AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
There are many books and articles of importance besides the commentaries. Among these are Hupfeld, Commentatio in quosdam Jobeïdos locos (1855); Bickell, De indole ac ratione versionis Alexandrinæ in interpretando libro Iobi (1862); G. Baur, ‘Das Buch Hiob und Dante’s Göttliche Comödie,’ Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1856), p. 583 &c. (with which may be grouped Quinet’s splendid chapter, in his early work on religions, entitled Comparaison du scepticisme oriental et du scepticisme occiden
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CHAPTER I. HEBREW WISDOM, ITS NATURE, SCOPE, AND IMPORTANCE.
CHAPTER I. HEBREW WISDOM, ITS NATURE, SCOPE, AND IMPORTANCE.
We have studied the masterpiece of Hebrew wisdom before examining the nature of the intellectual product which the Israelites themselves graced with this title. The Book of Job is in fact much more than a didactic treatise like Ecclesiastes or a collection of pointed moral sayings like the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus. Its authors were more than thinkers, they were poets, ‘makers,’ great imaginative artists. But we must not be unjust to those who were primarily thinkers, and only in the
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CHAPTER II. THE FORM AND ORIGIN OF THE PROVERBS.
CHAPTER II. THE FORM AND ORIGIN OF THE PROVERBS.
In one of the opening verses of the Book of Proverbs (i. 6) three technical names for varieties of proverbs are put together:—(1) māshāl , a short, pointed saying with reference to some striking feature in the life of an individual, or in human life generally, often clothed in figurative language (whence, according to many, the name māshāl , as if ‘similitude;’ comp. παραβολή), (2) m’lîça , perhaps a ‘bent’, ‘oblique’ or (as Sept.) ‘dark’ saying, (3) khîda , a ‘knotty’ or intricate saying, espec
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CHAPTER III. THE FIRST COLLECTION AND ITS APPENDICES.
CHAPTER III. THE FIRST COLLECTION AND ITS APPENDICES.
Upon entering what Dante in the De Monarchiâ so well calls ‘the forest’ of the canonical proverbs, we are soon struck by differences of age and growth. The central portion of the book, and in some respects the most interesting, is comprised in x. 1-xxii. 16. To this, which is indeed the original Book of Proverbs, the first nine chapters were intended to serve as the introduction. It is the oldest Hebrew proverbial anthology extant. Probably from its compiler it received the name ‘Proverbs of Sol
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CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND COLLECTION AND ITS APPENDICES.
CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND COLLECTION AND ITS APPENDICES.
The next proverbial anthology (xxv.-xxix.) like its chief predecessor is described in the heading as ‘Proverbs of Solomon.’ [183] The social state however presupposed in many of them is so different from that of the Solomonic age that we may at once reject the theory of the wise king’s authorship. Another name with which in xxv. 1 the work is connected is that of Hezekiah, who has been suggestively called ‘the Pisistratus of Judah.’ The comparison halts, no doubt; for Pisistratus and his ‘compan
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CHAPTER V. THE PRAISE OF WISDOM.
CHAPTER V. THE PRAISE OF WISDOM.
‘Thou hast kept the good wine until now,’ for ‘good wine’ well describes the glorious little treatise at the head of our Book of Proverbs (i. 7-ix. 18). I do not think it is right to infer from the heading in i. 1 that its unknown author assumed the mask of Solomon. In itself such a hypothesis would not be incredible. We have the analogy of the Egyptian scribe who represents Amenemhat I. ‘rising up like a god’ and addressing to his son some instructions on the royal art of governing. [219] But i
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CHAPTER VI. SUPPLEMENTARY ON QUESTIONS OF DATE AND ORIGIN.
CHAPTER VI. SUPPLEMENTARY ON QUESTIONS OF DATE AND ORIGIN.
There are two extreme views on the date of the Book of Proverbs, between which are the theories of the mass of moderate critics. The one is that represented by Keil in his Introduction and Bishop Ellicott’s Commentary, that the whole book except chaps. xxx., xxxi., and perhaps the heading i. 1-6, is in substance of Solomonic origin; [233] the other is that of Vatke and Reuss (the precursors of Kuenen and Wellhausen) that our proverbs as a collection come from the post-Exile period. Much need not
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CHAPTER VII. THE TEXT OF PROVERBS.
CHAPTER VII. THE TEXT OF PROVERBS.
The sense of proverbs is naturally most difficult to catch when there has been no attempt to group them by subjects. Hence the textual difficulties of so large a part of the earliest anthology. Grätz has made some valuable among many too arbitrary corrections; but a systematic use of the ancient versions is still a desideratum. Lagarde, Oort, Bickell, and others have led the way; but much yet remains to be done. My space only allows me to give some preliminary hints, which may at least stimulate
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NOTE ON PROVERBS XXX. 31.
NOTE ON PROVERBS XXX. 31.
Some assume here a corruption of the text, but the margin of the Revised Version gives an appropriate sense. It implies indeed the admission of a downright Arabism, but there are parallels for this in vv. 15, 16, 17, and alqūm for the Arabic al-qaum is (see Gesenius) like elgābhīsh (Ezek. xiii. 11, 13, xxxviii. 22) and almōdād (Gen. x. 26). ‘The king when his army is with him’ may very fitly be adduced as a specimen of the ‘comely in going.’ M. Halévy indeed has suggested that qūm in alqūm may b
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CHAPTER VIII. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
CHAPTER VIII. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
It is only in modern times that the Book of Proverbs has been disparaged; the early Christian Fathers considered it to be of much ethico-religious value. Hence the sounding title, first used by Clement of Rome ( Cor. , c. 57), ἡ πανάρετος σοφία. From our point of view, indeed, the value of the book is different in its several parts, but no part is without its use. Can any Christian help seeing the poetic foregleams of Christ in the great monologue of Wisdom in chap. viii.? Dorner may be right in
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AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
The ‘aids’ here mentioned are such as might otherwise escape notice. W. Nowack, Die Sprüche Salomo’s u.s.w. (a recast of Bertheau’s commentary in the Kurzgefasstes Exeg. Handbuch ), 1883; H. Deutsch, Die Sprüche Salomo’s nach der Auffassung im Talmud und Midrasch dargestellt und kritisch untersucht (erster Theil, 1885); Bickell, ‘Exegetisch-kritische Nachlese: Proverbien und Job,’ in Zeitschr. fur kathol. Theologie , 1886, pp. 205-208; Aben Ezra’s commentary on Proverbs, edited by Chaim M. Horow
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CHAPTER I. THE WISE MAN TURNED SCRIBE. SIRACH’S MORAL TEACHING.
CHAPTER I. THE WISE MAN TURNED SCRIBE. SIRACH’S MORAL TEACHING.
The inclusion of Sirach within our range of study, as an appendix and counterpart to the canonical Book of Proverbs, requires no long justification. The so-called ‘Wisdom of Solomon’ is in form and colouring almost as much Greek as Hebrew, and has no place in a survey of the wisdom of Palestine. But the ‘Wisdom’ more modestly ascribed to the son of Sirach is a truly Israelitish production, though as yet none but the masters of our subject have recognised its intrinsic importance. Whence comes th
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CHAPTER II. SIRACH’S TEACHING (continued). HIS PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT OF THOUGHT.
CHAPTER II. SIRACH’S TEACHING (continued). HIS PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT OF THOUGHT.
Passing now from Sirach’s moral statements to those which are concerned with doctrine, an honest critic must admit that the author is here even less progressive. The Messianic hope, in the strict sense of the word, has faded away. [268] In xlv. 25 (comp. xlviii. 15) the ‘covenant with David’ is described as being ‘that the inheritance of the king should be only from father to son;’ similarly in xlvii. 22 the ‘root of David’ denotes Rehoboam and his descendants. But this want of a definite Messia
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AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
AIDS TO THE STUDENT.
Besides the commentaries of Bretschneider (1806), Fritzsche (1859), and Bissell (in the American edition of Lange), see Gfrörer, Philo , ii. (1831), pp. 18-52; Dähne, Geschichtliche Darstellung der jüdischalexandrin. Religionsphilosophie , ii. (1834), pp. 126-150; Zunz, Die gottesdienstl. Vorträge der Juden (1832), pp. 100-105; Ewald, Jahrbücher der bibl. Wissenschaft , iii. (1851), pp. 125-140; History of Israel , v. 262 &c.; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums , i. (1857), p. 310 &c.;
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CHAPTER I. THE WISE MAN TURNED AUTHOR AND PHILOSOPHER.
CHAPTER I. THE WISE MAN TURNED AUTHOR AND PHILOSOPHER.
In passing from the book of Ecclesiasticus to that of Ecclesiastes, we are conscious of breathing an entirely different intellectual atmosphere. ‘Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee,’ said Sirach, ‘for thou hast no need of the secret things’ (iii. 21, 22), but the book now before us is the record of a thinker, disappointed it is true, but too much in earnest to give up thinking. Of meditative minds there was no lack in this period of Israel’s history. The writers of the 119th and
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CHAPTER II. ‘TRUTH AND FICTION’ IN AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER II. ‘TRUTH AND FICTION’ IN AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Let us now take a general survey of this strange book, regarding it as a record of the conflicting moods and experiences of a thoughtful man of the world. The author is too modest to appear in his own person (at least in i. 1-ii. 12), but, like Cicero in his dialogues, selects a mouthpiece from the heroic past. His choice could not be doubtful. Who so fit as the wisest of his age, the founder and patron of gnomic poetry, king Solomon (1 Kings iv. 30-32)? After the preluding verses, from which a
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CHAPTER III. MORE MORALISING, INTERRUPTED BY PROVERBIAL MAXIMS.
CHAPTER III. MORE MORALISING, INTERRUPTED BY PROVERBIAL MAXIMS.
Let us now resume the thread of Koheleth’s moralising. Violence and oppression were two of the chief evils which struck an attentive observer of Palestinian life. But there were two others equally worthy of a place in the sad picture—the evils of rivalry and isolation. First, with regard to rivalry (iv. 4-6). What is ‘skilful work,’ or art, but an ‘envious surpassing of the one by the other’? This also is ‘pursuit of wind;’ it gives no permanent satisfaction. True, indolence is self-destruction:
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CHAPTER IV. FACTS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE.
CHAPTER IV. FACTS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE.
At vii. 15 a new section begins, consisting almost entirely of the author’s personal experiences, very loosely connected; it continues as far as ix. 12. A curious passage at the outset appears to describe virtue as residing in the mean between two extremes (vii. 15-18). The appearance however is deceptive: it is as much out of place to quote Aristotle’s famous definition of virtue (μεσότης δύο κακιῶν), as Buddha’s counsel to him who would attain perfection to ‘exercise himself in the medium cour
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CHAPTER V. THE WISE MAN’S PARTING COUNSELS.
CHAPTER V. THE WISE MAN’S PARTING COUNSELS.
A new section begins at x. 16—no ingenuity avails to establish a connection with the preceding verses. We are approaching our goal, and breathe a freer air. From the very first the ideas and images presented to us are in a healthier and more objective tone. The condemnation expressed in ver. 16 does credit to the public spirit of the writer, and, I need hardly say, is not really inconsistent (as Hitzig supposed) with the advice in ver. 20. In the words— Even among thine acquaintance [318] curse
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CHAPTER VI. KOHELETH’S ‘PORTRAIT OF OLD AGE;’ THE EPILOGUE, ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN.
CHAPTER VI. KOHELETH’S ‘PORTRAIT OF OLD AGE;’ THE EPILOGUE, ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN.
We have now arrived at the conclusion of the meditations of our much-tried thinker. It is strongly poetic in colouring; but when we compare it with the grandly simple overture of the book (i. 4-8), can we help confessing to a certain degree of disappointment? It is the allegory which spoils it for modern readers, and so completely spoils it, that attempts have been sometimes made to expel the allegorical element altogether. That the first two verses are free from allegory, is admitted, and it is
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CHAPTER VII. ECCLESIASTES AND ITS CRITICS (FROM A PHILOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW).
CHAPTER VII. ECCLESIASTES AND ITS CRITICS (FROM A PHILOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW).
By comparison with Ecclesiastes, the books which we have hitherto been studying may be called easy; at any rate, they have not given rise to equally strange diversities of critical opinion. A chapter with the above heading seems therefore at this point specially necessary. Dr. Ginsburg’s masterly sketch of the principal theories of the critics down to 1860 dispenses me, it is true, from attempting an exhaustive survey. [345] It is not the duty of every teacher of Old Testament criticism to trave
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CHAPTER VIII. ECCLESIASTES AND ITS CRITICS (FROM A LITERARY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW).
CHAPTER VIII. ECCLESIASTES AND ITS CRITICS (FROM A LITERARY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW).
It is not every critic of Ecclesiastes who helps the reader to enjoy the book which is criticised. Too much criticism and too little taste have before now spoiled many excellent books on the Old Testament. Ecclesiastes needs a certain preparation of the mind and character, a certain ‘elective affinity,’ in order to be appreciated as it deserves. To enjoy it, we must find our own difficulties and our own moods anticipated in it. We must be able to sympathise with its author either in his world-we
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CHAPTER IX. ECCLESIASTES FROM A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS POINT OF VIEW.
CHAPTER IX. ECCLESIASTES FROM A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS POINT OF VIEW.
We have seen how large a Christian element penetrates and glorifies the bold questionings of the Book of Job. Whatever be our view on obscure problems of criticism, the character-drama which the book in its present form presents is one which it almost requires a Christian to appreciate adequately. It is different with the Book of Ecclesiastes. ‘He who will allow that book to speak for itself, and does not read other meanings into almost every verse, must feel at every step that he is breathing a
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CHAPTER X. DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
CHAPTER X. DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
Jewish tradition, while admitting a Hezekian or post-Hezekian redaction of the book, assigns the original authorship of Ecclesiastes to Solomon. The Song of Songs it regards as the monument of this king’s early manhood, the Book of Proverbs of his middle age, and the semi-philosophical meditations before us as the work of his old age. The tradition was connected by the Aggada with the favourite legend [388] of the discrowned Solomon, but is based upon the book itself, the passages due to the lit
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CHAPTER XI. DOES KOHELETH CONTAIN GREEK WORDS OR IDEAS?
CHAPTER XI. DOES KOHELETH CONTAIN GREEK WORDS OR IDEAS?
We now begin the consideration of the question, Are there any well-ascertained Græcisms in the language and in the thought of this obviously exceptional book? That there are many Greek loan-words in Targumic and Talmudic, is undeniable, though Levy in his lexicon has no doubt exaggerated their number. G. Zirkel, a Roman Catholic scholar, was the first who answered in the affirmative, confining himself to the linguistic side of the argument. His principal work, [394] Untersuchungen über den Predi
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CHAPTER XII. TEXTUAL PROBLEMS OF KOHELETH.
CHAPTER XII. TEXTUAL PROBLEMS OF KOHELETH.
According to Delitzsch, the Song of Solomon is the most difficult book in the Old Testament. If so, Ecclesiastes comes next in order. None of the attempts to discover a logical plan having been successful, Gustav Bickell’s new hypothesis (1884) deserves a respectful hearing, since it endeavours to solve the enigma in a most original way, connecting it with the problem of the text. This critic starts from the observation that continuous passages of some extent are suddenly closed by an abrupt tra
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CHAPTER XIII. THE CANONICITY OF ECCLESIASTES AND ECCLESIASTICUS.
CHAPTER XIII. THE CANONICITY OF ECCLESIASTES AND ECCLESIASTICUS.
It is not surprising that these strange Meditations should have had great difficulty in penetrating into the Canon. There is sufficient evidence (see the works of Plumptre and Wright) [425] that the so-called Wisdom of Solomon is in part a deliberate contradiction of sentiments expressed in our book. The most striking instance of this antagonism is in Wisd. ii. 6-10 (cf. Eccles. ix. 7-9), where the words of Koheleth are actually put into the mouth of the ungodly libertines of Alexandria. The dat
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AIDS TO THE STUDENT
AIDS TO THE STUDENT
The literature upon Koheleth is unusually large. Some of the most important books and articles have been referred to already, and the student will naturally have at hand Dr. Wright’s list in The Book of Koheleth (1883), Introd., pp. xiv.-xvii. It may suffice to add among the less known books, J. G. Herder, Briefe das Studium der Theologie betreffend , erster Theil (xi.), Werke, ed. Suphan, Bd. x.; Theodore Preston, Ecclesiastes, Hebrew Text and a Latin Version, with original notes, and a transla
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APPENDIX IN WHICH VARIOUS POINTS IN THE BOOK ARE ILLUSTRATED OR MORE FULLY TREATED.
APPENDIX IN WHICH VARIOUS POINTS IN THE BOOK ARE ILLUSTRATED OR MORE FULLY TREATED.
1. Page 3 . —Pfleiderer, in the spirit of Lagarde, accounts for the Pauline view of the atonement by the ‘stereotyped legal Jewish’ doctrine of the atoning merit of the death of holy men ( Hibbert Lectures , pp. 60-62). But was not this idea familiar and in some sense presumably real to Jesus? And why speak of a ‘stereotyped’ formula? Examples of a self-devotion designed to ‘merit’ good for the community, or even for an individual, abound in Judaism. 2. Page 7 , note 2. —The word Kenotic is conv
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