Jump to content

Ecclesiastes 8

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ecclesiastes 8
Hebrew Bible, MS Sassoon 1053, images 464-467 (Ecclesiastes).
BookBook of Ecclesiastes
CategoryKetuvim
Christian Bible partOld Testament
Order in the Christian part21

Ecclesiastes 8 is the eighth chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[1][2] The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called '(the) Qoheleth' ("the Teacher"), composed probably between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE.[3] Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon.[4] This chapter concerns human and divine authority with the advice that fearing God is the wisest course.[5]

Text

[edit]

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 17 verses.

Textual witnesses

[edit]

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis (1008).[6][a]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: S; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century).[8] The Greek text is probably derived from the work of Aquila of Sinope or his followers.[3]

Structure

[edit]

The New King James Version has two sections within this chapter:

Royal authority (8:1–9)

[edit]

Verse 1 closes the theme from chapter 7.[9] and may be read as part of that section, leaving verses 2-9 as a group dealing with authority. Qoheleth then uses the previous observation of human authority to form a basis for understanding the divine authority but Weeks notes that verses 2 and 3 present "several difficulties", and their sentence division is unclear.[5]

Verse 1

[edit]
Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man's wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed.[10]
  • "Make his face shine": in the Jerusalem Talmud, a story is related on how Rabbi Abbahu went down to Tiberias. [When he arrived there], the students of Rabbi Johanan noticed that his face was aglow. They then said to their master, Rabbi Johanan, that Rabbi Abbahu had presumably found a treasure. He responded to them, saying: "Why do you say so?" They replied to him: "It is because his face is all-shining." He said to them: "Perhaps it is because he heard a new instruction out of the Book of the Law." He went unto him, and enquired: "What new instruction have you heard out of the Law?" He said to him: "It was an old Tosefta." He then said concerning him: "A man's wisdom makes his face to shine" (Ecclesiastes 8:1).[11]
  • "Hardness" (KJV: "boldness"; NKJV: "sternness"): literally, "strength".[12]

Fearing God is the wisest course (8:10–17)

[edit]

Echoing the idea in Ecclesiastes 3:16–17, Qoheleth affirms that it is still 'safer to stand in fear before God', even as the righteous are sometimes regarded as wicked and the punishment of the wicked seems lacking.[13]

Verse 15

[edit]
So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.[14]

"To eat, drink, and be merry" refers to Ecclesiastes 2:23-24; 3:13; 5:18-20; 9:7,[15] as the remedy that Qoheleth offers, that is, to accept God's gift and place oneself in his hands.[16]

See also

[edit]
  • Related Bible parts: Numbers 6

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Since the anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo in 1947 the whole book has been missing from the Aleppo Codex.[7]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Halley 1965, p. 275.
  2. ^ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. ^ a b Weeks 2007, p. 423.
  4. ^ Public Domain Jastrow, Morris; Margoliouth, David Samuel (1901–1906). "Ecclesiastes, Book of". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  5. ^ a b Weeks 2007, p. 426.
  6. ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 35–37.
  7. ^ P. W. Skehan (2003), "BIBLE (TEXTS)", New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (2nd ed.), Gale, pp. 355–362
  8. ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 73–74.
  9. ^ Eaton 1994, pp. 615–616.
  10. ^ Ecclesiastes 8:1 ESV
  11. ^ Rozenboim, David Yonah, ed. (2010). Jerusalem Talmud תלמוד ירושלמי עוז והדר [Talmud Yerushalmi] (in Hebrew). Vol. 4 (Oz ve-Hadar ed.). New York: Friedman–Oz ve-Hadar. p. 66b (Shabbat 8:1). OCLC 695123759.
  12. ^ Note [a] on Ecclesiastes 8:1 in NKJV
  13. ^ Weeks 2007, pp. 426–427.
  14. ^ Ecclesiastes 8:15 NKJV
  15. ^ Coogan 2007, p. 953 Hebrew Bible.
  16. ^ Eaton 1994, p. 616.

Sources

[edit]
[edit]