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The Rhetorical Function of the Irony in Hebel(לבה) in the Book of Ecclesiastes

Hong, Seong Hyuk 1

1서울신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In the book of Ecclesiastes we find many contradictory remarks on various topics. Qohelet as the preacher shows conflicting perspectives with regard to various life situations such as toil, wealth, enjoyment, death, wisdom and retribution. Thus he call this contradictory situations hebel. For instance, Qohelet expresses that “to the one who pleases him God gives reward, but to the sinner who loses his favor he gives punishment”(Ecc. 2: 26). By contrast in Ecc. 8:12a he says, “the sinner who does evil prolongs his life” and also in Ecc. 3:16 “there is wickedness in the place of justice.” This study is to demonstrate that such contradictory situations are not the result of editorial activity but belong to Qohelet’s rhetorical strategy pointing to the ‘fear of God.’For this purpose, this paper will define the proper meaning of hebel first, and then briefly mention the contradictory situations represented by hebel in the book and the scholarly debate on the subject as well. In the next stage, this paper will show that the contradictory situations expressed by hebel is not the evidence of editorial activity, attempting to find out the structural coherence of the book as welll as to rely on the rhetorical function of irony. The majority of the scholars have maintained that the final editor of the book introduced the orthodox voices of piety into the book in order to moderate the skepticism of an ‘original’ Qohelet. However the present writer claims that the contradictions can be solved by the understanding of the coherency of the book except for the postscript(Ecc 12: 13-14). If the contradictions are to be rightly dealt with by the rhetorical method called ‘irony,’ then they could be led toward the ‘fear of God,’ while reflecting the limits of human existence. This study will contribute to building up the coherent perspective of the contradictions in Qohelet represented by hebel. It will also affirm that the contradictions are Qohelet's rhetorical strategy of irony to generate the ‘fear of God,’ not the proof of different authors’ activity.

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