A Critical and Exegetical Commentary - On the Book of Ecclesiastes #261337

HE following pages are a plain commentary on the Book T of Ecclesiastes. Those who expect to find here the advocacy of new and startling theories of this fascinat ingly perplexing book will be disappointed. In the judgment of the writer there has been something too much of these things in the recent literature on Qoheleth. An endeavour is made in the following pages to examine the important theories concerning the book, both ancient and modern, in an impartial spirit, and, in the formation of judgments, to go whither the evidence points. Obviously, in treating a work which has been studied so many centuries, there is little Opportunity for novel discovery. Occasionally the writer has found himself differing from all his predecessors, but much more often the evidence has pointed to a conclusion already anticipated by some previous worker. He cannot hope that his conclusions will commend themselves to all his colleagues, but if this com mentary shall have a part, however humble, in recalling criti~ cism to regions in which the evidence is sufficiently objective to give some ultimate promise of a consensus of judgment on the part of scholars concerning the problems involved, the labour expended upon it will be more than rewarded.