A Handbook on Ecclesiastes
Overview
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“Some interpret the calls to enjoyment in a negative way. They suggest Qoheleth is resigned to his fate; we all die, so we might as well live while we can. But given the centrality of the key term tov, we believe Qoheleth’s approach is much more positive. When he says ‘there is nothing better for man than to …,’ he is really saying that to enjoy the life God gives us is our best course of action.” (Page 4)
“The meaning seems to be that, although we have the awareness of eternity, we are unable to find out anything about it.” (Page 100)
“He has just listed all his personal and professional achievements (2:1–10). Fame, fortune, pleasure were all his, and he calls them his ‘reward’ (2:10); but they are not yithron. So we begin with a negative definition of yithron: it is not material gains Nor is it available ‘under the sun,’ so it is not in any way ‘earthly.’” (Page 5)
“Proverbial sayings usually do not have absolute meaning. That is to say, they are not true in every situation. We need to consider the circumstances before we can determine how appropriate certain pieces of advice are. Advice may suit one situation but not another. This feature of proverbial sayings means that there is no conflict between our verse here and the idea expressed in verse 6, that less may be better than more. Sometimes it is really better to have more, not less. What makes ‘more’ better than ‘less’ is the nature or value of the thing being compared. Here Qoheleth is thinking particularly of the benefit of having friends.” (Page 137)
“As laughter is generally our response to an amusing situation, we can recognize that Qoheleth is not testing laughter itself, but rather a light-hearted attitude to life. We must not lose sight of the question Qoheleth is asking as he examines these experiences. He wants to know what will provide the ‘lasting benefit.’ He concludes that these two things, failure to take life seriously and seeking material success, cannot give lasting benefit, even though both are perfectly good and proper in themselves.” (Page 52)
- Title: A Handbook on Ecclesiastes
- Authors: Graham S. Ogden and Lynell Zogbo
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 463
