본문 바로가기
  • Home

Criticism and Conservative of Traditional wisdom in Ecclesiastes -Focusing on two key words and Ecc. 9:7-10-

Heung-Hyun Kim 1

1숭실대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to critically reexamine traditional interpretations of hebel discourses in the book of Ecclesiastes. The previous studies have focused on the negative meaning of the term hebel. But this study argues that Qoheleth employed double entendre to carry ambivalent meanings in his/her discourses that deal with hebel. To this end, this study applies a theological theme interpretation method through close reading based on the current canonical form. The central thesis of this study is that 'the various hebel discourses in Ecclesiastes carry out the double entendre dialectically through two key words'. The arguments support that this central thesis are two. First, Ecclesiastes shows double entendre that criticizes and defends the traditional wisdom at the same time. The key texts that support this are 1:12-18 and 12:9-14. The key concepts of these paragraphs located at the beginning and end of Ecclesiastes are ‘hm'k.x'B;’(1:13, "with the Wisdom") and ‘~l'[.n<-lK'’(12:14 everything hidden). Second, among the hebel discourses in Ecclesiastes, 9:7-10, that is one of the hebel explicit discourses well prove Qoheleth's criticism and conservative of traditional wisdom under the incomprehensible social circumstances of hebel. The conclusion of this study will suggest that Ecclesiastes concretely revealed the significance of the wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes to lead people of Yehud who wanted to realize excessive self-desire into the fear of God based on double entendre that criticized and conserved traditional wisdom. The significance of this thesis is to prove that Ecclesiastes is not a book of futility or a book of enjoyment of life, rather than conflicting understanding schemes, trusting eschatological judgment and consistently describing the critical wisdom of the traditional wisdom that drives a God-fearing life in reality.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.