Hi, I’m Christy Shriver.  We’re here to discuss works that have changed the world and have changed us. 

And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  Today we are going to start our two part series on a Jewish Sacred Text known to those in the Christian tradition as the Book of Ecclesiastes and for those of the Jewish tradition as Qoheleth.  The traditional scholarship, both Christian and Jewish, of the book suggests that it was written by Solomon, the son of David whose reign was from 970 to 931 BCE- give or take a few years.  But, as we must assume with any piece of text this old, there is no consensus as to the dating of the book, if King Solomon wrote it,  or even IF he even lived.   

True, but even if you could find agreement on those points- which is no small thing actually an  impossibility- but even if you could- it is still one of the most problematic books in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  Qoheleth, as the writer identifies himself in the book, says things that seem to contradict traditional religious beliefs and even appear self-contradictory within the book itself.   Actually, the book is FULL of apparent contradictions, certainly complicated tensions.  In many ways, Qoheleth sounds very much like Albert Camus and parts of it have been compared to Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus.  Absurdism, as Camus expresses it in his writings and as we talked about when we discussed The Stranger, can be seen as even dialoguing with the writer of Ecclesiastes, even agreeing when talking about the contradictions inherent in being human.    But, even if we got past all of that, if we accept that King Solomon lived as Scripture says he does, and we can trace a line of reasoning in this complicated book (which I do and claim right now that we can) we also must wrestle with the idea King Solomon, as a person, is one of the more problematic heroes to populate the pages of the Christian and/or Jewish Canon.  He was a great political leader and prophet during his lifetime.  Men came by the thousands to listen to his wisdom, and he built a great empire.  Problematically, though, it didn’t last past his lifetime as a direct consequence of the choices he made in his personal life, not his professional one.  His legacy was a kingdom that disintegrated immediately after his death. The Bible says his heart was not loyal to the Lord, that he did evil in the sight of the Lord to the point that God ripped, and I quote the Bible here “his vast kingdom from him and give it to his servant”. So, there you go, as a hero, King Solomon gets mixed reviews- he’s a contradiction.   

And yet, his books on wisdom stand on their own merit and have for over 3000 years- there is the one he wrote on romance, Song of Solomon, another on practical life called Proverbs and this third one that we’re discussing, Ecclesiastes which is a work of deep philosophy.  Just like, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is full of maxims or quotable lines that you could put on t-shirts and sell, and we probably should, I’m pretty sure the copyright restrictions have expired.   His statements of truth resonate, as you would expect with Christians, Jews, and Muslims, because he’s an acknowledged prophet in those traditions, but remarkably his ideas also resonate with Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, and  others from a variety of worldviews.   So, this episode and next, we will jump into Jewish wisdom literature and find the common ground made famous by Qoheleth…as the writer of Ecclesiastes identifies himself in the text. Christy, Who is Qoheleth?  

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