This study is designed to help you become well-practiced and more knowledgable in navigating your Bible, to gain a love for Scripture, and of course to learn about and appreciate the wonderful, mysterious book of Ecclesiastes.
Through this study, it is my hope that you would grow more in your faith and relationship with the Lord. There are twelve lessons, filled with questions to answer on your own throughout the week. Each lesson is broken up into sections, to help you to pace yourself. Do a little bit each day, and on the questions with several Scripture passages to look up -- look up at least one of the passages, but try to look up as many as time and interest allow.
Each week will have Scripture to memorize (at the end of the lesson). This is to help you to really know Scripture, so that you can always have it with you as a guide. All of the memory verses and the questions were written with the New Living Translation in mind, but you are welcome to do the study in whichever translation of the Bible you already use. At the end of each lesson is a “departing thought.” This is an opportunity for you to apply what you have been studying to your life. Go as deep as you would like. The departing thought could also be used as a journal prompt.
Introduction to Ecclesiastes:
Authorship and Date: Traditionally, the author was identified as Solomon, but given the date of the book, and other indicators within the text, the most we can conclude is that it probably was not Solomon, but someone who was familiar with Solomon who was “a wise man, who taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. This description suggests that he was a teacher...”
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Ecclesiastes was written, but “the language of the book shows that it cannot have been written in the age of Solomon. ... Dates proposed for the book range from the Persian (5th-4th century B.C.E) to the Hellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century B.C.E). ... As in the case of other Wisdom books, however, exact dating is not crucial here. The author is primarily concerned with aspects of life, and death, that are pertinent to all times and places.”
Literary Context, Genre, Structure, etc: Ecclesiastes belongs to what is called Wisdom literature.
“Ecclesiastes is one of the most rigidly structured books in the Bible. The principle of organization is dialectical, that is, based on a conflict between opposites. ... The narrative conflict underlying the dialectical structure is the contrast between a God-centered worldview and all the other worldviews. ...In addition to giving his work dialectical structure, the author has seized upon one of the oldest of all literary devices, the quest motif.”
Intended Audience and Purpose: Ecclesiastes is a timeless book written to all generations.
“It is an essay in apologetics. It defends the life of faith in a generous God by pointing out the grimness of the alternative.”
Overall Message: “...this book espouses the most basic theme of biblical literature -- that life lived by purely earthly or human values, without faith in God and supernatural values, is meaningless and futile. The key term in the book is the phrase ‘under the sun.’ This phrase, or its equivalent ‘under the heaven,’ occurs thirty times in the book and denotes that which is only earthly. To be ‘under the sun’ is to be earth-bound cut off from the supernatural order.”
So we must read Ecclesiastes with this in mind, that though it may seem like some of it is contradicting itself, we must keep in mind which worldview is being portrayed, life under the sun, or life with God. “When the narrator voices dispair over the futility of life under the sun, he is not affirming this as his final answer to life’s existence.”
Be blessed as you begin your study in Ecclesiastes!
Introduction to Ecclesiastes:
Authorship and Date: Traditionally, the author was identified as Solomon, but given the date of the book, and other indicators within the text, the most we can conclude is that it probably was not Solomon, but someone who was familiar with Solomon who was “a wise man, who taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. This description suggests that he was a teacher...”
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Ecclesiastes was written, but “the language of the book shows that it cannot have been written in the age of Solomon. ... Dates proposed for the book range from the Persian (5th-4th century B.C.E) to the Hellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century B.C.E). ... As in the case of other Wisdom books, however, exact dating is not crucial here. The author is primarily concerned with aspects of life, and death, that are pertinent to all times and places.”
Literary Context, Genre, Structure, etc: Ecclesiastes belongs to what is called Wisdom literature.
“Ecclesiastes is one of the most rigidly structured books in the Bible. The principle of organization is dialectical, that is, based on a conflict between opposites. ... The narrative conflict underlying the dialectical structure is the contrast between a God-centered worldview and all the other worldviews. ...In addition to giving his work dialectical structure, the author has seized upon one of the oldest of all literary devices, the quest motif.”
Intended Audience and Purpose: Ecclesiastes is a timeless book written to all generations.
“It is an essay in apologetics. It defends the life of faith in a generous God by pointing out the grimness of the alternative.”
Overall Message: “...this book espouses the most basic theme of biblical literature -- that life lived by purely earthly or human values, without faith in God and supernatural values, is meaningless and futile. The key term in the book is the phrase ‘under the sun.’ This phrase, or its equivalent ‘under the heaven,’ occurs thirty times in the book and denotes that which is only earthly. To be ‘under the sun’ is to be earth-bound cut off from the supernatural order.”
So we must read Ecclesiastes with this in mind, that though it may seem like some of it is contradicting itself, we must keep in mind which worldview is being portrayed, life under the sun, or life with God. “When the narrator voices dispair over the futility of life under the sun, he is not affirming this as his final answer to life’s existence.”
Be blessed as you begin your study in Ecclesiastes!
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