Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

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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