An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 133: A Big Bundle of Misery (Ecclesiastes 7-12)

Ecclesiastes 7-12
A Big Bundle of Misery.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Ecclesiastes 7

“And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.”

Oh, Preacher. You’ve let me down. The first batch of chapters from Ecclesiastes was good stuff, despite the general sense of pessimism. Despite seeing all things as vanity, the Preacher still manages to conclude that enjoying life while you have it is the best thing to do. Here we seem to revert to the grouchiness of Proverbs – laughter is foolish and sorrow is better; women are not to be trusted and stand in the way of wisdom. Like the latter part of Proverbs, this chapter is more a sequence of aphorisms than a meditation and single piece than the earlier chapters of Ecclesiastes. It’s almost like it’s an inserted section written by a different author. Let’s hope we return to the original writing style soon.

Ecclesiastes 8

“Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.”

There’s some philosophical maundering to start this chapter, that doesn’t, to me, really seem to say anything that’s easy to understand. Either several re-reads in the right frame of mind are needed, or the writing is just going round in circles. Possibly both. The last part of this chapter re-iterates some of the points made previously – that death comes to all, and to “eat, to drink and to be merry” is the best a mortal can hope to do, and also that no mortal can hope to learn everything there is to know.

Ecclesiastes 9

“For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.”

Valar Morghulis, saith the Preacher once again. All men must die, whether they be rich, poor, pious or impious, good or bad. Go forth and enjoy life while you can. I’m beginning to suspect that “vanity” used here doesn’t mean excessive self-regard, as we might use it, but rather “things done to no purpose”, i.e. an adjectivation of things done in vain. It makes more sense now. The other concept that the Preacher tries to convey here is that wisdom is better, and stronger, than violence, but wisdom gets forgotten more easily. Oh, and continuing the heavy mining of Ecclesiastes for quotes, the phrase “Nor the battle to the strong” sounded to me like I’d heard it somewhere before. A quick Google later and it turns out to have been the title of a Deep Space 9 episode. Not something I’d usually remember.

Ecclesiastes 10

“Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.”

No, it’s gone odd again. I’m guessing that the quoted line above is the source of the saying about a fly in the ointment. The rest of this chapter is, generally, about how a good or bad ruler can affect their country, and how fools talk a lot of rubbish. The rest is a bit more opaque, seemingly expanding on the idea from Proverbs about not demolishing ancient monuments to doing any kind of manual work, but “money answereth all things” – is this some biblical endorsement of being rich?

Ecclesiastes 11

“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.”

This fairly short chapter seems to be saying that it’s no use worrying over things that you cannot hope to know or control – rain will fall to earth, a tree lies where it falls, seeds will grow, or will not. These things, the Preacher says, are for God to know, and the best thing to do is not to worry about them but to “rejoice in youth”, but also not to worry when youth ends.

Ecclesiastes 12

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”

The Preacher finishes his lesson with some grim poetry about the end of days, both in an apocalyptic-sounding sense, when the “grasshopper shall become a burden” and the “silver cord be loosed”, but also in a personal sense, when a “man goeth to his long home”, dust to the earth and the soul to God. This is used as an opportunity to repeat he general lesson of the book, to appreciate life, and good stuff, whilst you have it.

The chapter closes with a bit of self-congratulation about how the Preacher has written down proverbs, and even manages to give a “take-home message” in the last couple of verses; to fear God and keep his commandments is all that matters in the end.

It’s nice to have a relatively short book to work through, particularly after the marathon of psalms; and I fear the “greater prophets” coming soon. Ecclesiastes was quite good; like Proverbs it started out well and then got a bit bogged down in repeating itself in the middle. What I find interesting is that the stuff about the Holy Wisdom from Proverbs, and the “eat, drink and be merry” pseudo-Epicurean philosophy of this book seem very far removed from much of the rest of the theology of the Old Testament; in many ways a lot more contemplative than, say, the relatively simplistic ideas of Job.