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THE POLITICS OF PESSIMISM IN ECCLESIASTES A Social-Science Perspective
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Biblical scholars must face reality. In terms of the canon, Qohelet is the “odd book in” as James Crenshaw describes.1 The book is easily the strangest in the Bible.2 It can aptly be described as a “frightening guest . . . in the canon.”3 Gerhard von Rad refers to “the farthest frontier of Jahwism where Ecclesiastes pitched his camp.”4 Similarly, C. L. Seow describes the book as being on “the margins of the canon.”5 Qohelet’s conception of God is especially troubling for most readers, past and present. Is Qohelet’s deity the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Qohelet never uses the appellation יהוה for God. Qohelet counsels caution: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools. . . . Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for god is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few” (5:1–2).6 While this counsel mimics the prophets (1 Sam 15:22; Mic 6:6–8; Hos 6:6), what is missing is an intimate relationship with Yahweh. Job makes a similar statement about the transcendence of God (7:11), but the book simultaneously emphasizes God’s immanence (the theophany in chs. 38–41), something that never occurs in Qohelet.
Mark R. Sneed - Personal Name
978-1-58983-635-8
NONE
Social Science
English
2012
1-17
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