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Though not a creation account per se, Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 features a portrait of creation that is entirely unique in the biblical corpus. Qoheleth, the ostensible author of most of Ecclesiastes, describes creation in terms of wearying, ever-repeating cycles, from wind and water to life and death. Qoheleth’s world is devoid of anything “new,” a creation without pause and effect with human life beset by uninterrupted toil. The final chapter of Ecclesiastes, moreover, alludes to the eventual dissipation of creation. All is “vanity” (hebel); creation is a static, closed whole. Science, too, points to the ultimate dissolution of the universe, death by entropy. At the same time, science reveals that the cycles of nature Qoheleth so disparaged are in fact life-sustaining. Science both underscores and reorients Qoheleth’s “empirical” view of the world. Though creation seems pointless, it nevertheless provides sustaining moments of joy for human well-being.

Although the Bible frequently depicts God as eminently knowable, it also zealously protects divine secrecy. The deus revelatus is at the same time deus absconditus. Recognition that all knowledge of God is partial derives from this intrinsic nature of deity: the more God discloses the more the divine essence hides. The author of Ecclesiastes exposes a view of an unknown creator, one who doles out favors without rhyme or reason and condemns humans to abysmal ignorance. The apocalypses of Fourth Esdras and Second Baruch reveal the agony generated by a mysterious God whose ways are beyond understanding.

This is the third of six chapters on the Old Testament and its authors. Its subject is wisdom in Israel, and this involves the three wisdom texts of the Bible: Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, which make up the main wisdom literature, and in addition the phenomenon of wisdom, which is seen to be wider than just these three books. The first section discusses the definition, scope, and influence of the Israelite wisdom. The second analyses the Old Testament wisdom literature—Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the wisdom Psalms. The last section discusses the place of wisdom in Old Testament theology.

This chapter begins with a discussion of how the sages of Israel, and of the ancient world in general, attempted to make sense of human existence by postulating an intrinsic connection between act and consequence, and thereby lay the basis for a morally significant life. It then examines the book of Job and analyses the biblical Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth).

The interpretations of the story of Bontsye Shvayg by Hilde Abel and Arnold Perl are the focus of this chapter. Abel’s rendition, the most widely read, believes that a bitter laugh is the only possible climax to the story and Perl’s play, “The World Sholom Aleichem,” a dramatic rendition that has done more to bring Perets’ story before contemporary audiences, believes in Bontsye’s piety that no prosecutional laugh could challenge. The chapter presents a “wrong” interpretation of Bontsye that goes against what the text plainly expresses. It notes, however, that an interpretation is only wrong from one’s perspective because of historical factors (i.e. Holocaust) which have been a huge influence in transforming the “wrong” interpretation into what has to be right. The discussion of a “sincerely wrong” approach to Bontsye moves back to the larger issue on how to explain the contrapuntal structure of the book of Job. The chapter also mentions Ecclesiastes, whose pietistic terms must be rethought, still worked to mold the canonical shape of the book of Job.

Wisdom literature does not claim to be revelation from God—at least not in the same way as the other biblical genres we are exploring—nor does it describe God's revelation in history. Hence, Israel's historical traditions, such as the promises to the patriarchs, the exodus from Egypt, the law of Moses, the conquest of Canaan, the period of the judges, the monarchy, and so on, are not even mentioned in wisdom literature as they are in other genres of the Bible. And unlike the prophetic books, apocalyptic literature, and the New Testament letters, wisdom writings do not purport to convey direct revelation from God. They focus instead on the search through reason for meaning and happiness in this life. This chapter explores the three wisdom books in the Bible: Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, otherwise known by its Hebrew name, Qoheleth. It analyzes the structure, setting, and intent unique to each of these books, showing how each book exemplifies the genre of biblical wisdom literature by presenting divergent viewpoints on a topic or set of topics of significance to human beings.

Setting the pioneering work of The Open University in context, the chapter explains how and why it’s work in prison is so consistent with its guiding principles. It recalls the passionate egalitarian beliefs that propelled The OU from the start, that continue to sustain it and that flow through the chapters. Each chapter is briefly introduced and the gift of the (prisoner) artist who provided the front cover image is celebrated.

In the midst of a Mishnaic debate about the canonical status of the books of Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs—a debate couched in the Mishnah's halakhically technical terms of whether or not these books “render the hands ritually impure”—one hears an impassioned outcry from Rabbi Akiva. Two details of Rabbi Akiva's language here are crucial: the Song of Songs “was given” to Israel on a day, precisely the same language characteristically used by the rabbis for the revelation of the Torah. Second, through the morphological echoing of the phrase “song of songs” in his evaluation—song of songs; holy of holies—“Song of Songs” becomes more than a title. It is also a declaration of supreme worth, as can be heard in one midrashic explanation of the phrase.

This chapter considers Israelite Wisdom literature via the lens of Positive Psychology. She finds the book of Proverbs to present a eudaimonic vision of happiness, in no small part because the book is predicated on the belief that the world is well ordered and that that order can be understood by human minds. The book of Qoheleth presents a very different perspective. Here the existence of any cosmic order is seriously questioned, and, even if it exists, the book challenges whether human minds can ever know of it. This leads to Qoheleth’s embrace of a kind of hedonic joy. Without the crucial role played by healthy institutions and social structures, people in Qoheleth’s position may be tempted toward a hedonism of despair that is ultimately nihilistic and self-destructive. So, while both hedonia and eudaimonia are elements of the happy life, it is crucial that both dimensions of happiness are realized within a larger, encompassing eudaimonic framework.