PM Home Bible Study Group; June 24, 2009
Ecclesiastes—Introduction

Theme: Solomon sets forth the thesis of his address: Measured strictly ‘under the sun’, all of life is ‘vanity’.

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon. The view of most commentators is that either someone wrote it as if playing the role of Solomon, or that a group of people collected the sayings of Solomon later. Many such commentators place the writing of the book far later than the lifetime of Solomon—between 500 B.C. to the time of Christ.

But Solomon’s authorship had been accepted in Jewish tradition and throughout the history of the church up until the time it began to be questioned by Martin Luther. His authorship is evident to anyone who takes the text of the book seriously and at face value:

1. The author calls himself “the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1). Who else among David’s sons would have been a better candidate than Solomon?

2. The author claims to have set in order many proverbs (12:9); which is exactly what is said in Scripture of Solomon (1 Kings 4:32).

3. The author claims to have attained more wisdom than all who were before him in Jerusalem (1:16); and the Scripture testifies that this was given by God to Solomon (1 Kings 3:12; 4:29-31).

4. The author speaks of having greater wealth, many servants, and more royalty than any before him (2:7-9); and this is recorded to be God’s gift to Solomon (1 Kings 3:13; 4:22-28; 10:14-29).

5. The author speaks of great building projects (2:4-6); and this also is testified in Scripture of King Solomon (1 Kings 9-10).

Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s philosophic ‘public address’—a presentation of wise ponderings that have been preserved for us by the Holy Spirit—that deals with the meaning, purpose and ways of everyday life. He describes his thorough examination of one area of life after another from his standpoint of someone who had unlimited ability to carry on his search for meaning. He carried on this search from a strictly secular viewpoint—that is, with the hope of eternity kept out of the picture (represented by his constant phrase “under the sun”). And throughout the book, the word inscribed large over it all is “vanity”—that is to say, it’s all absurdity! It’s all futility! It’s all nonsense!

The conclusion of this book is that life only makes sense if lived in the hope of eternity, and in the light of God’s just judgment. If handled carefully and studied reverently, this wonderful book can be used by God to save someone years and years of fruitless, ‘dead-end’ searches in life. and guide them to a relationship with Himself—where true ‘meaning’ is alone to be found.

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Solomon calls himself “The Preacher” in this book. The Hebrew word that’s translated “Preacher” is Qoheleth; which also gives us the Hebrew name for this book. It basically refers to someone who “convokes” or “calls” an assembly and addresses it. The Greek translation of the book rendered that word ekklesiastes; which, in turn, was transliterated into the English title that we’re familiar with. An appropriate way to read this book is all the way through in one sitting— thinking of it as a great philosopher or preacher giving an address to an audience.

In a sense, it’s an easy book to grasp; because its themes are clearly laid out for us. The key verse of this book—which presents us with a theme repeated throughout it—is 1:2. “‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’” (This, understood in its proper context, is something similar to what is affirmed by Jesus in Matthew 16:26, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19.) Solomon gives us his method for this address in 1:12-14. But as easy as it is to grasp in its larger sense, what makes it a difficult book is that Solomon seems to take a philosophic position (in order to present its absurdity) that he can’t consistently maintain. Sometimes he argues as if God was out of the picture; and at other times, he can’t help bringing God back into the picture (see 2:26; 3:12-15; 5:1-7; and 7:13-14 as examples).

Humankind cannot live with such utter meaninglessness of life. Such a world-view doesn’t work in everyday experience. The heart of man cries out that there must be a sense to it all. And so, at the end of the address, Solomon “answers” the cry of the human heart for meaning in 12:13-14; “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). It’s always important, in understanding this book, to keep the conclusion in mind throughout one’s reading of it.

Ecclesiastes a notoriously difficult book to outline; because Solomon seems to bounce around from subject to subject in his rhetorical search for meaning. But perhaps the simplest way to outline this book is to see it as a discourse that presents its “thesis” (that is, “all is vanity”) through four main parts:

I. THE THESIS AFFIRMED (1:1-11).

II. THE THESIS ARGUED (1:12-6:12).

III. THE THESIS APPLIED (7:1-12:8).

IV. THE THESIS ANSWERED (12:9-14).

“This book starts where man is in order to lead him to where he is not, but to a conclusion he needs to have” (John W. Lawrence, The Book of Ecclesiastes (Portland, OR: Central Bible Church, 1982), p. 23.