Information icon.svg Results for the 2024 RationalWiki Moderator Election have now been posted. Thank you for participating in this election, and congratulations to the winners!

Ecclesiastes

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Light iron-age reading
The Bible
Icon bible.svg
Gabbin' with God
Analysis
Woo
Figures
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9

Ecclesiastes is the most optimistic nihilistic book in the Bible. It is presented as a book of wisdom by a man, known in Hebrew as Qohelet (often translated as "preacher" or "leader of the assembly"), and rumored to be an early incarnation of Roger McGuinn Pete Seeger[1] — who has realized that everything is worthless, and life has no meaning, so one should enjoy simple pleasures. In this respect, his ideas resemble Epicurean philosophy. It has a certain eerie beauty born of desolation and tells you to enjoy life while you can. Christian exegesis bends over backward to explain how the book's message is that we should focus ourselves on God and that the author is trying to point out that life without God is meaningless. The majority of it is pretty much the direct opposite of that sentiment, though the concluding passages do emphasize following God's commandments.

Eric Dodson described the book as being precursor to existentialism.[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]