by Daniel Stein
Koheleth: The Immortalist of the Holy Bible
The contempt and sometimes fear of mortality are indubitably ancient notions of the human history. A prominent instance is the writings found and gathered to the book called “Ecclesiastes”, or “The book of Koheleth” (in Hebrew), which is actually a late book in the Old Testament of the bible.
The text introduces us to a character that evidently had it all: “The words of the Preacher (refers to “Koheleth”), the son of David, king in Jerusalem. “ Following the first verse of introduction, “the Preacher” begins with a first person monologue that stretches through the nigh-entire book.
According to the traditional annotation, this book has been written by the hands of King Solomon himself, during his elderly reign over the kingdom of Israel.
On the other hand, many modern bible-researchers claim that this scripture has been written in a much later era (times of the Second Temple), since it comprises great influences of Greek philosophy and Persian-originated vocabulary. By this reasoning we assume that Koheleth’s description as “the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” was pasted unto the text in later times, as a method used to add special prestige to his unique writings.
The futility of all Endeavors
”Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
The second verse of Ecclesiastes-Chapter 1 pretty much abstracts the entire piece. Koheleth thinks of the life of men, and comes up to one unequivocal conclusion – “All is vanity.” Our lives are rationally and spiritually profitless with no permanent worth, lacking ultimate meaning, as they have no lasting value. Still, later in the text, Koheleth is trying to find at least one element that makes life worthwhile. He fails miserably, and Koheleth’s pessimistic posture is felt through the entire text.
-”What advantage does man have in all his work, Which he does under the sun?”
Koheleth looks at the cycle of human life, and finds it utterly meaningless and without point. He asks himself - - People live, people die, to what end? –If all is vanity, what is the point in human endeavor, and human achievements?
-“A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever.”
Life elementally follows its continual unchanging repetition. It is aimless, dull, unenlightening and accomplishes nothing of real value. And so, the immortality of the earth virtually dwarfs its biosphere; all life is temporal, like passing shadows on a stage (the earth). This is the epitome of Koheleth’s thinking - Nothing practically changes. One generation after another goes on in the same way as the previous one did. He illustrates his notion of changelessness with the following examples:
- “Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.”
-“Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north,
The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.”
-”All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow again.”
Koheleth looks at the patterns of nature (the course of the sun, the wind and the rivers) and finds implicit tedium in their repetitive-perpetual existence. What is their ultimate goal?
Koheleth’s intention is not to criticize them, but to indicate that they have no achievable final end in sight. They are leading nowhere. Furthermore, it is immensely frustrating that men cannot alter or dominate the nature of their existence.
-”All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it.”
-”The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.”
-“That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun...”
This continual process of nature as well seizes people. It produces tediousness for the ears and eyes of men, and “all things are wearisome” due to the monotony of happenings. There is nothing on earth eventually worth striving and living for .It may be of advantage in the short term, but sadly it fades away.
-”There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur,
There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come later still.”
No doubt, Koheleth’s musings gave way to a deep sadness. He clearly understands – there is no way out of this cycle of purposelessness. The current generation does not remember past generations, and if it does – it does so for merely a small bunch of ultra-salient individuals amongst thousands or millions. On top of that, future generations won’t differ at all, regrettably. Imagine how sad it is to comprehend that no one shall ever remember the mysteries of your heart – your private sufferings, deepest hopes and feelings.
This is Koheleth’s notion of the “Futility in all Endeavor” – there is no point to life if men are destined to die and be forgotten by their successors.
The Futility of Labor
-“Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. “
-“And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.”
This is but another aspect of life NOT worth living for. According to Koheleth, the fact that men leave their bequest and the outcomes of all their efforts after their deaths - is a great folly. What men build up, others pull down. He asks himself: “What is the point in working hard and gaining wealth throughout your life if in the end, you are supposed to leave it all behind for your heir?”(Remember that Koheleth has been ‘king over Jerusalem’, and describes his personal wealth as greater than any other man’s). And it is not going to matter what type of man your heir is, or if he deserves your ‘fruits of labor’ or not, either way he shall have it all, and the freedom to spend it to his liking. What a somber thought…
The futility of Wisdom and the sake of it
In his quest to find meaning to life, Koheleth examines the value of the human wisdom.
We learn about Koheleth’s great wisdom from 3 sources –
( I). His description as: “the son of David, king in Jerusalem”. The son of David is King Solomon, no doubt. Solomon was commonly known for his great wisdom.
( II). In verse 9 of the last paragraph that is concluding the book says the narrator:
-“In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher(“Koheleth”) also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs”.
(III). Koheleth’s own description of his attainment of great wisdom throughout his life:
-“I said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge."
And so he decides to try and use his great wisdom, in search for answers:
-“And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven.”
-”I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.”
Koheleth believes that his wisdom has made him realize that everything is done in vain, striving for nothing. And the same applies for every man, the more you learn – the more you understand how vain your life actually is (as it ends eventually), and morosely - how you cannot remedy it by your wisdom and knowledge. No doubt, Koheleth would have been astounded to discover how much the view has changed in our days!
-“What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.”
After all, what is the benefit of wisdom if men cannot change or “rectify” their nature with it? –Remember that Koheleth lived in very ancient times, where industrialization was not even a myth yet; technology was primitive and science in its diapers. He might have thought quite differently if he’d lived in modern times. He might have hoped then.
-“Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.”
The wise man, according to Koheleth, sees the “lacking” and “crooked” nature with great clarity – but perhaps “not seeing” (or: being a fool) might turn out for the better, as it shall save great grief and affliction, for ultimately – wise men, like fools – shall never know how to alter nature (Don’t we all just beg to differ…?).
-“And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.”
-“The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one fate befalls them both.”
What a sad uptake. Although wisdom is superior to stupidity (Wise men are capable of distinguishing between good and bad, and the fool is mentally blind)– death comes to us all. Both (wise men and fools) are destined to perish and be forgotten in a terrible oblivion.
-”Then I said to myself, ‘As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise?’ So I said to myself, ‘This too is vanity.’"
If one fate finds all men, what is the point and value of gaining wisdom? –In any case it will be lost to the man who held it some day.
-“For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die!”
-“SO I HATED LIFE!! for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.”
Both sages and fools are destined to be eventually forgotten from the human history, and so are their markings. Thus neither accomplishes more than the other. This reasoning is unquestionably laden with deep despair, as in the next verse – Koheleth declares his feelings regarding life, as it is. He virtually confesses that life has become quite insipid to him because of its pointlessness, which is caused solely by its temporality. (I wonder what would he have thought on unceasing life spans?).
Koheleth failed to see one of the greatest values of human wisdom. It is alive and undying. Human wisdom passes from one generation to another, intensified and brought closer to perfection with each living breath and dying moan. It is by no means forgotten. This is the quintessential attribute of our species. And today, beyond a shadow of doubt - we understand it.
Dust to dust, Ashes to ashes
Koheleth puts in comparison man and animal. He quickly comes to realize that there isn’t any intrinsic difference between the two.
-“Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other.”
-”All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.“
–“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”
He brings up the fact that men and animals die the same, sharing fates-sharing natures. Wherefore in the end, a man has no real advantage over an animal. Both strive to the same place – dust, from which they’ve originally emerged.
Although it is not directly stated, we can clearly infer by-now that Koheleth refers to death as total obliteration of everything you were while being alive, and everything you’ve ever had.
-“Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"
There is a common supposition amongst people that when an animal dies – it dies for good, its “soul” is going down with its body deep into the earth, or –from another point of view – it has no “soul” at all, and when its body dies, the “being” dies along. On the other hand, when a man dies – his soul continues on its peregrination, to heaven or hell (Christianity), the afterlife in general. Also, Koheleth seems to be generally familiar with the belief that rewards and punishments will be meted out to individuals in a future life that is beyond the grave, but he takes no stock in this concept.
Koheleth knows there isn’t any corporeal proof to verify these conjectures, hence he puts them into question…
This is plainly fascinating. Could this be heresy and denial of the afterlife in the very bible itself?
According to many traditional sources, the book Ecclesiastes was originally intended to be omitted from the Holy Scriptures, mainly due to negation of numerous sacred values. So how come it was left after all?
Well, the book astonishingly ends with these verses:
-“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.”
-“For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”
Traditional annotators claim that Koheleth himself wrote these concluding words as an acceptance to everything he had presented in the aforementioned passages, and came to his ultimate inference: mankind has one purpose of life which is observation of the commandments. (Come on...).
However, many modern bible-researchers plead that the ending passage of this book has been pasted unto it many years after it was written, so it can be treated as one of the Holy Scriptures. They argue: all over the book expressed Koheleth skepticism towards the sacred values the bible (value of life, supremacy of man, jubilation, reward and punishment) and presented a deep deterministic approach which vastly negates the concept of free will on which the bible is built on. On chapter 3, we clearly see Koheleth’s notion of “There is a time for everything”, that is – a man has no right to choose between good and evil, and if he does choose so – it matters not, for everything is preplanned and predetermined (Life & Death) for him. This is unmistakably a direct opposition to the very essence of the holy bible – free will - the ability to choose how to live your life, which shall later affect your very own divine judgment in the world-to-come. (Koheleth directly doubts it).
Our hero is a total nihilist; how come there is no trace for his pessimistic and critical approach in this unusual ending paragraph of the book? – That produces a genuine artificial seemingness, which brings us to assume that this is but a merely poor attempt to try and match Koheleth’s notions unto the scriptural acceptation. In addition, the ending verses of the book are given out by the narrator, oddly cutting off Koheleth’s first-person monologue that dominated the entire book.
Epilogue
The writings of this scripture unmistakably clarify us that people began thinking about their purpose in life thousands of years ago. It is now clear that some non-conformist individuals despised or even feared mortality, and saw no real value in life, as it is painfully nonpermanent. It most likely required great amounts of courage to face the orthodox society of their times, vaguely sheltered behind their barriers of religion.
As for Koheleth himself, merely a poor anachronism, as he could have doubtlessly been a great adherent of immortality nowadays. If you’ll read his writings thoroughly, you’ll soon find out how close his deepest thoughts and opinions are to the ones of a modern immortalist.
It is easily deduced that Koheleth acknowledged death not only as the end of his life, but as the end of his comprehensive existence as well, and as long as life is temporary, its only meaning lies in what eventually will come of it – death. His deep frustration and negative feelings towards life were merely caused by the lack of hope.
The only difference between Koheleth to a modern immortalist is that the former did not see any technological breakthrough coming to “save him” any time soon (“What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted...”). And so with great desperation he decides that if nature cannot change: “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good…”. Koheleth definitely loved to be alive and loathed death with all his heart, as he could never have accepted the fact that one day his precious little life will distressfully come to a dire severance.
How grievous is the fact that it never had occurred to him that men might one day be able to gather enough of that so-called ‘wisdom’ to conquer the blight of involuntary death. Well, it certainly did not happen in his time.
Nevertheless, perchance for the modern immortalist waits an entire different fate ahead…
*Note: All verses shown in this article are taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible) version of the Old Testament.
Copyright © 2004 Daniel Stein. All rights reserved.
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Posted to ImmInst with Approval
