# 489 Ecclesiastes – In search of meaning in life – “meaningless” or not? – Introduction (2)

Sometimes famous authors are not who they appear to be. For example, did you know that the author Silence Dogood was actually Benjamin Franklin? And what about George Eliot, who actually surprised everyone when it was revealed that he was actually a she – Mary Ann Evans! And then more closer to our time, did you know that J.K. Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter books) wrote other books under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith? And I’m sure there are many more similar examples.

 So, who is this person whose words we are going to consider over the next few months? This one who makes such outrageous statements as:

 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”  says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.” (1:2)

Well, verse 1 introduces him when it says: The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem, and in 1:12 as I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Although his name is not mentioned in the book, it seems that possibly it is Solomon, or is it? There is some doubt amongst some scholars, because it seems that when one looks at the Hebrew language, we learn that the Hebrew word translated “teacher” in the NIV is ‘Qoheleth’ which means ‘the leader of the assembly’ which appears to indicate that it may have been someone else other than Solomon.

So, from now on, when we are mentioning the author, we will just call him by his ‘nickname’, Qoheleth, which I am told is pronounced as “Koh-heh-LETH” with emphasis on the last syllable.

Now just to make things more interesting, some commentators consider that there are probably two people (not including Solomon) involved in the writing of this book. The first person introduces Qoheleth’s words (1:1-11) and then summarizes them at the end of the book (12:9-14). Then in-between are the actual words of Qoheleth (1:12 – 12:8). Whatever the truth, solving the problem of who the author(s) actually is/are does not seem to be easy one. In fact, most agree that they just don’t actually know!

Is this a problem? It seems not, because it is not the only book in the Bible where the author is unknown (e.g., the book of Esther in the OT and the book of Hebrews in the NT, just to name a couple), but this does not take anything away from the authenticity of the book and the relevance of its teaching today.

Just out of interest here are some names for the author given by various translations of Ecclesiastes:

The preacher (King James Version)

The Teacher of the Assembly (Common English Bible)

Kohelet (Complete Jewish Bible)

The Quester (Message) – i.e., someone on a long or arduous search for something.

Ecclesiastes (Wycliffe Bible) – ‘ecclesiastes’ is the Greek translation for the word ‘teacher’.

NIV Study Bible suggests that “No time period or writer’s name is given in the book, but several passages strongly suggest that King Solomon is the author (1:1, 12,16, 2:4-9; 12:9…) On the other hand, the writer’s title… his unique style of Hebrew and his attitude toward rulers (suggesting that of a subject rather than a monarch – see, e.g., 4:1-2; 5:8-9; 8:2-4; 10:20) may point to another person and a later period.”

 Kidner adds concerning the author:

“There is a certain mystery about this writer’s way of announcing himself; and this intriguing touch is not likely to be unintentional [1:1) First, he comes almost but not quite to the point of calling himself Solomon.” He then continues with various reasons why it seems that it is not actually Solomon and concludes that instead “we have the portrait of a scholar whose vocation is teaching, research, editing and creative writing.” (# 59)

So, we may not know who our mysterious author, Qoheleth, is, but this book is still well worth studying as I trust you will find as we journey along with this “Quester” and hopefully our search for the truth concerning the meaning in life won’t be too long and arduous!