Qoheleth: The Ironic Wink

Introduction

Introduction Wayfarer, do not pass by my epitaph, but stand and listen, and then, when you have learned the truth, proceed. There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon, no Aeacus keeper of the keys, nor any dog called Cerberus. All of us who have died and gone below are bones and ashes: there is nothing else. What I have told you is true. Now withdraw, wayfarer, so that you will not think that, even though dead, I talk too much.1 Like the unknown author of this Greek epitaph, who had experienced a shaking of the foundations of knowledge in his or her day, the protagonist in the book of Ecclesiastes, who called himself Qoheleth (pronounced Qoh-hél-eth) had seen the assumptions of the intelligentsia and the practical guidelines of ordinary citizens give way under the heavy questioning of poets such as the genius behind the book of Job and the vicissitudes of history as empire after empire decimated the Judean countryside. For authors such as these, truth had become “a pathless land,” one that could not be approached “by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.”2 The human condition, it follows, is accurately depicted in a New Yorker cartoon of an individual walking on a treadmill facing a sign on which is inscribed a single word, “truth.” And yet, despite their avowed agnosticism, each of these three individuals claimed to have reached solid ground capable of withstanding the crumbling half-truths on which they were nurtured. “What I have told you is true” matches Job’s bold denial that a calculable divine justice exists and Qoheleth’s assertion that “everything is vanity,” to use a familiar expression that I shall soon challenge as an adequate translation of the Hebrew word hebel.3 In short these thinkers dared to dismiss as lies major givens of society and to offer counter testimony with no authority except the logic of their own arguments. Leaving aside the Greek epitaph for now, I turn to the conclusions of the two Hebraic wise men. The books of Job and Ecclesiastes belong to the third division of the Tanak, or the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The first two divisions are the Torah and the Prophets. The Torah consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These five books are called Torah because they are presented as the teachings of Moses, spokesman for the deity. As such, they are accorded special 2 | Qoheleth revelatory status in Judaism, along with an oral tradition. The Prophets include the “historical” books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, plus Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel , and the Twelve. These twelve short books, by no means insignificant, are called Minor Prophets because of their brevity. The third division has less structural and thematic cohesion than the first two. It seems to have been a sort of catchall for the other books that had acquired sufficient popularity and sanctity to be included in a canon of sacred writings some time around the first century b.c.e. The largest of the books is Psalms, usually linked with Job and Proverbs. Traditionally these three have been arranged in two different sequences to yield anagrams indicating either truth or perfection (in the sense of wholeness). That is, the first Hebrew letters of Job, Proverbs, and Psalms make up the word ’emeth (“truth”), and the order Psalms, Job, and Proverbs produces the word tam (“perfection ”). In addition five books eventually came to be known as festal scrolls.4 Listed in order of appearance they are Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. The books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles round out this third division. As a mix of divine and human words, the second and third divisions have secondary authority for Judaism while Christianity accords equal revelatory status to all three divisions. In the third division three books are generally identified as wisdom literature.5 They are Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. A few scholars consider Song of Songs in this group, as well as several psalms that discuss life’s injustices and place a premium on moral instruction, most notably 34, 37, 49, 73, and 119.6 Whereas both Torah and Prophets purport to be directives from God, wisdom literature makes no such claim. In it the wise, as they are called, give their own insights gleaned from observing nature and people. The results of rigorous analogical thinking, these observations and instructions are distilled for those willing to hear, especially...