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  • From: "Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Cc: "Bogdan Gheorghita" <bgheorghita AT yahoo.com>
  • Subject: Re: Qoheleth
  • Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:53:40 -0400


Bogdan Gheorghita,

I had marked your post, but you never got any answers. Here would be my quick
summary reply, if a bit slow.

I think Solomon wrote it. I think the text wants us to believe that (he was
the *only* "son of David" who ruled over "Israel" in "Jerusalem"; with which
autobiographical data of chapter 2 agrees), and i always believe what the
text intends that we believe.

The classic reasons for late dating you'll find in most scholarly
commentaries, but i think Solomon might have used non-standard lingo because
of a broader audience and also because of unique genre purposes: it is a
philosophy for mundane life "under the sun." Remember he was Israel's first
great internationalist and had contacts and wives from all kinds of places.
Solomon was hardly linguistically cloistered. Late date cannot be proven, and
Aramaisms, etc., in BH are known to exists at a very early period (some will
dispute that claim, which is fine). Also, linguistic richness is furthered by
using alternate vocabulary which was known, sometimes as less common
left-over's from a proto-Semitic pool perhaps, other times as international
loan words just like the ones with which English is loaded. Everything we do
in dating based on diachronic assumptions regarding vocabulary and syntax has
a lot of speculation involved.

Pay attention to _hebel_, vapor/breath, which is a live metaphor and usually
indicates transience, not vanity nor uselessness, etc., in my opinion. But it
is a live metaphor, not a dead one, so it can change from context to context
within the book, perhaps.

One textual note i recall is late in chapter 2, i think, where i'd follow LXX
for the suffix on _MIN_ "apart from Him", that is, God, rather then MT
"without me" or "more than me" about enjoying life. Generally MT is in good
condition. LXX sometimes might not know what it's doing also, so watch out
for pseudovariants.

Dan Wagner

----- Original Message -----
From: Bogdan Gheorghita <bgheorghita AT yahoo.com>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 8:55 AM
Subject: Qoheleth


Which are the classical linguistic reasons for dating Ecclesiastes to the
post-exilic period? What do b-hebrew listers think about Ecclesiastes
authorship? And what textual and linguistic difficulties do you find must be
paid special atention when translating this Bible book?

Bogdan Gheorghita
The Adventist Theological Institute
Bucharest, Romania





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