Catching the Wind - A Guide for Interpreting Ecclesiastes

Dale McIntire

• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781644680735
• eBook ISBN: 9781644680759
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

"Depressing." "Ungodly." "Skippable." Each of these words have been used to describe Ecclesiastes. Catching the Wind: A Guide for Interpreting Ecclesiastes provides an interpretive companion for pastors, Bible study teachers and leaders, and Bible readers who are tired of skipping Ecclesiastes because either it is too hard to understand or its content appears too contrary to fit into preconceived notions of what and how God reveals Himself in His Word. The message of Ecclesiastes, often lost to readers and interpreters in the puzzling, enigmatic details of the book, becomes readily accessible when Ecclesiastes is considered in the whole. Catching the Wind utilizes the structure of a modern social research report to reveal the divine intent of Ecclesiastes, the divine truth that true meaning in human life comes in covenant relationship with the sovereign God and through no other means. The guide provides instruction for developing a biblical hermeneutic, an interpretation of the text of Ecclesiastes, examples of personal application, and abundant study questions for further investigation.

Chapter 2

The Researcher and the Research Problem (1:1–2)

Introducing the Researcher and His Credentials (1:1)

1The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Presenting the presenter

You have perhaps heard the proposition that “experience is the best teacher?” The proverb has been around for a very, very long time. The phrase suggests that most people learn best by doing something rather than by reading about it. Apparently, it was the Romans who first found the idea worth writing about. Julius Caesar recorded the earliest known version of the proverb around 52 BC, “Experience is the teacher of all things.” Pliny the Elder wrote in Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77), “Experience is the most efficient teacher of all things.” The Roman historian Tacitus (c. AD 209) observed, “Experience teaches.”69 I bring this idea about experience and teaching to your attention because we are about to learn some things from a teacher who has both the wisdom and the experience to back up what he presents.

I was a biology major in college. The final class I took before I graduated was Comparative Anatomy. The class was devoted to studying the similarities and differences between anatomical structure and development in the bodies of various species of animals, birds, and fish. The professor focused his research efforts on comparing the embryonic development between the inner ear of humans and reptiles (snakes, in particular) in an effort to demonstrate an evolutionary connection between the two. Much of his time back in those days was spent preparing cross sections of snake embryos at various stages of development for study under the microscope. When it came to comparative anatomy, this man knew what he was talking about! I learned a great deal from him as a result of his expertise and his competence in sharing what he knew. Although I was not then (nor am I now) a fan of evolutionary theory, I came to understand the ideas of evolution from someone who held those ideas closely and operated his entire life work in the context of that theoretical perspective. Teachers who know from experience what they are teaching make the best teachers.

A narrator opens Ecclesiastes by presenting the presenter and his credentials. The narrator seems to want us to be comfortable that we have embarked on learning with a competent teacher. The identification and credentials regarding Koheleth are clues in the introduction as to what we might expect to follow.

Whether or not the narrator and Koheleth are the same person is unclear. It would not be the first time a person introduced himself/herself to an audience using the third person, but for casual audiences, it does seem a bit awkward. When I was writing my doctoral thesis for Bethel Seminary, one of the “rules” that stumped me for months was that the introduction could not be written in the first person. In my mind, however, I needed to tell a first-person account that provided the background for the entire study. There was an academic standard for third-person perspective when inaugurating the report. I finally got permission from my advisor to use the first-person story but maybe Koheleth didn’t?

More likely, Koheleth is presenting a formal report and uses the third person to introduce himself. Or, perhaps, the author, whoever he is, uses a narrator to introduce Koheleth in order to retain some control over what Koheleth says and does, as a novelist would for characters they are developing in their story so that Koheleth presents what appears to be his own thoughts but are actually the thoughts and intents of the behind-the-scenes author. In either case, the result is to identify the content of the report with Koheleth, who, by description, appears to be identified with Solomon, son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Who, or what, is Koheleth?

Let’s assume that by fact or intent, Solomon and Koheleth are one and the same and that a narrator has been used to introduce Koheleth to his audience as the primary communicator. If Solomon is the author/presenter, why call him Koheleth? Why not just call him Solomon and be done with all the mystery? The answer lies in the probability that Koheleth is not a name but a title, a label for a position or function within the community.

Koheleth is used seven times within Ecclesiastes (1:1, 2, 12; 7:27; 12:8, 9, 10). In two instances (1:1, 12), Koheleth is identified as the son of David, king in Jerusalem. In two instances (1:2; 12:8), he is the presenter of the research problem. In one instance (7:27), Koheleth is presented as the meticulous researcher of “the reason of things.” In the last two instances (12:9, 10), further characteristics of Koheleth’s function in the community are listed. Kaiser notes that in 12:8, in the Hebrew, “koheleth” appears with the definite article (“the koheleth”) providing further evidence that “Koheleth” should be understood as a title rather than a proper name.70

I had a name once. My mother gave me a short four-letter name that was unlikely to be reduced to a nickname. She named me “Dale.” And that turned out to be a very fine name, a reasonably adequate name right up until I became the undershepherd of a small Baptist congregation in rural northeast Minnesota. I got a new name when I embarked on that adventure. I became “Pastor.”

Sometimes, I am “Pastor Dale.” Most times I am simply “Pastor.” Once, in front of the whole congregation and quite accidentally, my wife called me “Pastor Honey.” When she recovered from her misstatement and everyone else stopped laughing, she immediately claimed exclusive rights to that moniker and no one else has dared use it since!

Koheleth treats his title much like I treat the word pastor. Yes, it is a title, a label, that describes my function within the community, but after twenty-five years, “Pastor” is so much my identity that it has become my name (though, from time to time, it gets shortened to “Rev” or “Preach”). So it is for Solomon who is Koheleth both in practice and in person.

That leads us to ask, if Koheleth is a title, what does the title mean? The use of “Preacher” and “Teacher” as translations for Koheleth in various English versions reveals an attempt to get at the heart of this word. Functionally, the word means either “one who collects or assembles” or “one who does something in the assembly.”71 Given the expanded description in 12:9–10 of Koheleth’s role in the community as “instructor of the people” and as a gatherer of useful and truthful sayings for public education and given the example of 1 Kings 8:172 where Solomon “assembled” the people, it seems best to understand the Koheleth as one who gathers wisdom for the purpose of public dissemination. Since the subject presented is “wisdom” in the biblical sense, we can understand that the purpose of the assembling, of both people and subject, is for spiritual edification in the pursuit of a covenant relationship with God.

What about the “words”?

The book we are beginning to study is a book of words. We are told definitively that these are “the words of Koheleth.” Knowing now what we know of Solomon the person and Solomon the Koheleth, what might we expect of these words? We ought to expect that what follows is a collection of wisdom presented to the publ...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Ecclesiastes as Research
• The Researcher and the Research Problem (1:1–2)
• The Refined Research Question (1:3)
• Preliminary Observations (1:4–11)
• Methodology and Initial Conclusions (Series 1) (1:12–2:26)
• Experimental Series 2 (3:1–5:11)
• Experimental Series 3 (5:12–8:15)
• Summary of Methodology and Final Conclusions (8:16–12:8)
• The End of the Matter (12:9–14)
• Appendix A: Resource Biography Profiles
• Appendix B: Weekly Homework Assignments
• Bibliography
• About the Author