Genre
This book is wisdom literature, which gives rules of proper conduct, usually in the form of maxims, pithy insights, and “words to live by.” Wisdom literature attempts to show the way things are and the way things should be. Also of this genre are Job, Proverbs, and the book of Wisdom.
The goal of wisdom in this context is to live the good life here and now, marked by length of days, prestige, and prosperity. Wisdom literature highlights patterns of living that brought happiness in the past, and exhorts readers to live those patterns in the hope of finding the same happiness in the future.
The way that wisdom literature teaches is not the way that we are accustomed to being taught in modern society. We want a full and linear explanation of something from beginning to end with all the finer points in between. Wisdom literature does not give us that. Rather, it gives us a thought or an image and invites us to sit with it, to probe the depths of it over an extended period of time. You could spend a lifetime praying with any of these verses and find something fruitful every single time! We usually don’t give ourselves the time and space to sit with scripture like that, and We lose so much when we rush over a passage to get to the next good thing.
Date
Fragments of this book were found in the Qumran writings, so it is no later than about 150BC. Most scholars date it in the 3rd century BC.
Author
The book attributes itself to King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. Tradition says he wrote the Song of Songs when he was young, the wisdom of Proverbs in mid-life, and the disillusioned complaints of Ecclesiastes when he was old. That’s certainly easy to believe!
In reality, the book was written a thousand years after Solomon, but in the style and tradition of wisdom that Solomon began. It’s author is anonymous, but it’s easy to imagine they were wise and had plenty of life experience.
The author calls himself “the Preacher,” sometimes translated “Teacher.” The Hebrew name of the book is Qoheleth, which means “one who calls or gathers or assembles.” The Greek rendering is Ecclesiastes, from the root word “ekklesia” which means, in general, an assembly.
General Observations
Why is this book in the canon? Because people perennially ask the questions that the book asks. An initial image of the author may be of someone who does not seem to possess a close personal relationship with God. A deeper reading indicates that the author trusted God even in darkness and amidst great questions. Against all hope and despite the evidence of experience, he remains open to the possibility that God might be at work in the world.