Ageyns frendshippe of worthynesse.

The allusion to Eccles. vii. 29 is obvious. Thus the same varieties of character recur in all ages. This point of view is very different from that of the Agadic writers who borrow from Eccles. vii. 26 a weapon against ‘heresy’ (mīnūth), a term which includes the Jewish Christian faith. All are agreed that the ‘bitter woman’ is heresy, and one of them declares that the closing words of the verse refer to ‘the men of Capernaum’ (see Matt. ix. 8). Delitzsch, Ein Tag in Kapernaum, 1886, p. 48; comp. Wünsche, Midraseh Koheleth, p. 110.

27. Pages [223]-227.—Eccles. xi. 9-xii. 7. The key to the whole passage is xi. 8. ‘For, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, that they shall be many.’ I cannot accept the ingenious conjecture of Dr. C. Taylor, which might (see Chap. X.) have been supported by a reference to Egypt, that xii. 3-5 are cited from an authorised book of dirges. Not only these verses but xii. 1b-6 form a poem on the evils of old age, the whole effect of which is lost without some prefix, such as ‘Rejoice in thy youth.’ Döderlein supplies this prefix in xii. 6; but this is not enough. If we hesitate, with Luzzatto, Geiger, and Nöldeke to cancel xii. 1a as a later addition for purposes of edification, we must, with Gritz and Bickell, read either אֶת־בּוֹרְךָ or אֶת־בְּאִֹרְךָ. These two readings seem to have existed side by side, and to an ingenious moralist this fact apparently suggested a new and edifying reading אֶת־בּוֹרְאֶּךָ. Hence Akabia ben Mahalallel,[[451]] one of the earliest of the Jewish ‘fathers,’ and probably a contemporary of Gamaliel I., advises considering these three points as a safeguard against sin, ‘Whence thou comest, whither thou goest, and before whom thou wilt have to give an account.’ ‘Whence thou comest,’ implying בְּאֵרְךָ ‘thy fountain;’ ‘whither thou goest,’ בּוֹרְךָ, ‘thy pit, or grave;’ ‘before whom thou wilt stand,’ בּוֹאֶךָ, ‘thy creator.’

28. Page [232].—Döderlein (in a popular work on Ecclesiastes, p. 119) describes xii. 9 &c. as the epilogue, ‘perhaps, of a larger collection of writings and of the earlier Hebrew canon.’ Herder, too, thinks that the close of the book suggests a collection of sayings of several wise men (Werke, ed. Suphan, x, 134).

29. Page [244].—According to Grätz, Koheleth is not to be taken in earnest when he writes as if in a sombre and pessimistic mood. Such passages Grätz tries to explain away. Koheleth, he thinks, is the enemy of those who cultivate such a mood, and who, like the school of Shammai, combine with it an extravagant and unnatural asceticism (comp. vii. 16, 17). The present, Koheleth knows, is far from ideal, but he would fain reconcile young men to inevitable evils by pointing them to the relative goods still open to them. This attitude of the author enables Grätz to account for Koheleth’s denial of the doctrine of Immortality. This doctrine, he remarks, was not of native Jewish origin, but imported from Alexandria, and was the source of the ascetic gloom opposed by Koheleth. Koheleth’s denial of the Immortality of the Soul does not, according to Grätz, involve the denial of the Resurrection of the Body, the Resurrection being regarded in early Judaism as a new creative act.[[452]] It is not clear to me, however, that Koheleth accepts the Resurrection doctrine, even if he does not expressly controvert it.

30. Page [245], note 3.—Herder says with insight, though with some exaggeration, that most of Koheleth consists of isolated observations on the course of the world and the experience of the writer. No artistic connection need be sought for. But if we must seek for one (so that Herder is not convinced of the soundness of the theory), it is strange that no one has observed the twofold voice in the book, ‘da ein Grübler Wahrheit sucht, und in dem Ton seines Ichs meistens damit, “dass alles eitel sey,” endet; eine andre Stimme aber, im Ton des Du, ihn oft unterbricht, ihm das Verwegne seiner Untersuchungen vorhält und meistens damit endet, “was zuletzt das Resultat des ganzen Lebens bleibe?” Es ist nicht völlig Frag’ und Antwort, Zweifel und Auflösung, aber doch aus Einem und demselben Munde etwas, das beyden gleicht, und sich durch Abbrüche und Fortsetzungen unterscheidet.’ Brief das Studium der Theologie betreftend, erster Theil (Werke, Suphan, x. 135-136).

INDEX.

Footnotes

[1]. ‘Toleranz sollte eigentlich nur eine vorübergehende Gesinnung sein; sie muss zur Anerkennung führen.’—Goethe.