Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, 6.1

Russell Meek

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781725262560
• eBook ISBN: 9781725262577
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament (JESOT) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the academic and evangelical study of the Old Testament. The journal seeks to fill a need in academia by providing a venue for high-level scholarship on the Old Testament from an evangelical standpoint. The journal is not affiliated with any particular academic institution, and with an international editorial board, open access format, and multi-language submissions, JESOT cultivates and promotes Old Testament scholarship in the evangelical global community. The journal differs from many evangelical journals in that it seeks to publish current academic research in the areas of ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Linguistics, Septuagint, Research Methodology, Literary Analysis, Exegesis, Text Criticism, and Theology as they pertain only to the Old Testament. JESOT also includes up-to-date book reviews on various academic studies of the Old Testament.

Intertextual Links between Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes as a Pointer to Qohelet’s Positive Message

Kyle C. Dunham

Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary

[email protected]

Intertextual links between Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes have begun only recently to garner interest as a possible literary source for Qohelet. In examining these proposed links, Deuteronomy proves, in fact, to be the sole literary precursor from which Qohelet draws by all three rhetorical modes: citation, allusion, and echo. In addition, Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes share several important discourse concepts, including eating as the joyful response to God’s provision, remembrance as an antidote against spiritual apostasy, and divine kingship as the source for wisdom. These cumulative links form a chain of evidence suggesting that Deuteronomy’s positive message of enjoying the blessings of life as grateful and obedient recipients of divine grace is perhaps more influential upon Qohelet than realized. The literary connections suggest furthermore that Qohelet should be read in a more positive light than interpreters have been accustomed to do.

Keywords: Intertextuality, Qohelet, Ecclesiastes, Deuteronomy, wisdom, joy, fear, torah

Introduction

Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes share a key literary relationship that has begun to be explored only recently.90 Deuteronomy is, in fact, the only biblical writing that Qohelet evokes by all three categories of allusive mode— literary citation, allusion, and echo.91 This correspondence in terminology and themes points to Deuteronomy as a primary literary backdrop for Ecclesiastes, perhaps the most important source outside Genesis. Such a link should come as no surprise, as scholars of biblical wisdom have long recognized correlations between Deuteronomy and the biblical wisdom corpus.92

Deuteronomy’s wisdom emphasis emerges in its introduction, where conformity to its legal code is lauded as the means to superior wisdom: “Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom (חכמה) and your understanding (בינה) in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’” (Deut 4:6).93 Deuteronomy elsewhere grounds its wisdom in the fear of Yhwh, as within the biblical wisdom tradition: “The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear (ירא) the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day” (Deut 6:24). As a vital source of authoritative wisdom affirming life and goodness for Israel, Qohelet evokes Deuteronomy through several verbal links as well as through a number of shared semantic fields and discourse concepts. Both Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes commend to their readers a life of joy in celebrating the daily provisions of food and drink, spouse, and the capacity to enjoy life itself.94 These connections reinforce positive aspects of Qohelet’s message that many interpreters reject or downplay in preference for a pessimistic reading of the book.95 While Qohelet commends obedience and joy like Deuteronomy, he does so not merely as a means of obtaining superior wisdom. Rather, obedience and joy serve as an antidote to the pain and suffering endemic to a fallen world. These clear verbal links establish a similar trajectory of theme and message to which we now turn.

Literary Citation (Deut 23:22–23 in Eccl 5:3–4)

The clearest literary link between Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes occurs in Qohelet’s discussion of proper oath-taking in Eccl 5:3–4.96 Before turning to examine the literary citation, we will define briefly the category. Literary citation is the formal or informal rhetorical use of an earlier text by a later author such that the author preserves explicit literary markers from that text.97 The citation is intentional and objective (i.e., with a definable repetition of collocated terms).98 It functions to signal the author’s in-groupness or fluency, to persuade or motivate the audience, or to organize the discourse.99 A formal literary citation includes a quotation formula (e.g., “it is written”), while an informal citation lacks an introductory marker.

In the context of the appropriate handling of vows and dreams, Qohelet invokes the legal stipulations of Deut 23:22–23 to bolster his admonitions about correct worship practices. In a more general sense, the pericope of Eccl 4:17–5:6, with its successive instructions on a circumspect approach to the cult, is the most unique rhetorical unit within the book and provides the most fruitful source for drawing intertextual links.100 Although not all proposed intertexts have proved equally persuasive,101 Qohelet adapts here a near-verbatim excerpt from Deut 23:22.

Verbal Correspondences in the “Law of Vows”
Deut 23:22–23	Translation	Eccl 5:3–4	Translation
כי־תדר נדר ליהוה אלהיך לא תאחר לשׁלמו כי־דר֙שׁ ידרשׁנו יהוה אלהיך֙ מעמך והיה בך חטא׃ וכי תחדל לנדר לא־יהיה בך חטא׃	If you make a vow to Yhwh your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it, for certainly Yhwh your God shall require it from you and it will be sin for you. And if you refrain from vowing, it will not be sin for you.	כאשׁר תד֙ר נדר לאלהים אל־תאחר לשׁלמו כי אין חפץ בכסילים את אשׁר־תדר שׁלם׃ טוב אשׁר לא־תדר משׁתדור ולא תשׁלם	When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow! It is better that you not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it.

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The Hebrew texts of the passages share six words in nearly identical sequence. The preferable classification for this textual link is literary citation with an informal citation marker.102 Qohelet modifies the apodictic legal prohibition against frivolous vows to a more practical warning about proper oath-taking in worship. He modifies four elements of the Deuteronomy text.

(1) Deuteronomy’s clause-initial protasis particle כי (“if” or possibly “when”) Qohelet alters to his preferred discourse marker כאשׁר (“just as, when”). This alteration serves at least two purposes. First, it underscores the reality and immediacy of the depicted vow. The vow is envisioned not merely as to its potentiality but as to its likelihood in the worshipper’s observance of the cult (“when you make a vow”). Second, the discourse marker כאשׁר hints to Qohelet’s use of source material in the formulation of this injunction, as the lexeme functions uniquely in Ecclesiastes as a discourse marker introducing adapted literary material.103

(2) The divine covenant name יהוה אלהיך (“Yhwh...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Covenant Sin in Nahum
• The Identity of him who is like a Son of Man in Daniel 7:13–14
• Intertextual Links between Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes as a Pointer to Qohelet’s Positive Message