the third about the thirtieth of the month. The likelihood is that they were held at regular intervals though the days were not absolutely fixed. Ecclesue were originally held in the Agora or Forum. The place of meeting was subse quently removed to the Pnyx, and afterwards to such of the greater temples as might be most convenient. The Pnyx lay to the west of the Areopagus, and commanded an extensive view. It was partly within the city walls, and had an area of about 12,000 square yards. On its northern side, cut out of the solid rock, was the bema or hustings from which the speakers addressed the people. From this tribunal a splendid view of the principal buildings of the city might be had. The right of assembling the people lay with the prytanes, or presidents of the senate or Council of Five Hundred, who both advertised beforehand the busi ness to be discussed, and on the day of meeting sent round a crier to remind the citizens that their presence was required. In times of war, however, or other national crises, the generals of the army sometimes assumed this privilege, though it was necessary for them in doing so to give notice of their intention by a public proclamation. They also sometimes claimed the right of preventing the ecclesia from assembling; but their claims to this privilege were not generally recognized. Such of the citizens as re fused to attend were fined, and six magistrates called lexiarchs were appointed to collect the fines. To assure a full meeting, the custom was ultimately introduced of pay ing the poorer classes a small sum for their attendance. This sum was originally an obolus, but after the time of Pericles it was raised to three. According to the usual order the proceedings of an ecclesia were commenced by a lustration or ceremonial purification of the place of assembly. The victims sacrificed were usually sucking pigs, whose blood was sprinkled round the boundary of the assembly. The crier next offered up a prayer to the gods for guidance, after which the business for which the assembly had been convened was introduced. According to the laws of Solon, the crier first called upon citizens above fifty years of age to speak and then upon all others ; but this distinction was afterwards abolished, and the discussion was open from the commencement to all citizens of whatever age. The vote was generally taken by show of hands. In certain special cases, however, such as those affecting individual rights, the ballot was used. The decision to which the assembly came was called apsephisma. The ecclesia was sometimes adjourned from one day to the next, and it generally broke up at once if any of those present declared that he had seen an unfavourable omen or if thunder and lightning occurred. The word ecclesia came to mean any assembly regularly convened, and in New Testament Greek it is used to denote the assembly of Christians in any particular place,
or the Christian church.ECCLESIASTES, The Book of, has been handed down by Hebrew tradition as one of the three canonical books of Solomon, son of David, the other two being Proverbs and the Song of Songs, or Canticles.
Two different practices have obtained from time immemorial as to the position of this book in the Bible. According to one, which is preserved in the MSS. and editions of the Septuagint, and is followed by the MSS. and editions of the Vulgate, Ecclesiastes is the second in the order of the five books which, according to the Alexandrian Jews and the Greek and Latin churches, was written by Solomon. The order of these five books in the Alexandrian and Sinaitic Codices and in the MS. Bible of Charles the Bold, circa 850 (British Museum) is Proverbs, Ecclesi astes, Canticles, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus. According to the other practice the book in question is separated from those which are supposed to belong to the same author, and ife joined for liturgical purposes to the other four AfegiUoth. Thus in the oldest dated MS. of the entire Hebrew Bible yet known (1009), now in the imperial library of Sfe Petersburg, it is the third of the five Megilloth, viz., iiuth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther. Though this order is also to be found in the Spanish and Italian MSS., it is by no means universal. Additional MS. 15,250 of the British Museum not only puts Ecclesiastes before Canticles, but places Ruth before the Psalms. In the fourteen pre-Reformation German translations of the Bible (1462–1518), and in Wycliffe s English version, where the five Solomonic books are still kept together, the order of the Septuagint and Vulgate is followed, as is also the case in the English Catholic version (Douai, 1610). Luther, who was the first to remove Wisdom and Ecclesi asticus from this group, and place them with the other so- called Apocryphal books at the end of the Old Testament, has left Ecclesiastes as second in the order of the Solomonic writings. In our first English translation of the entire Bible (1535) Coverdale followed the example of the great Continental Reformer. Hence this narrower group and this position of Ecclesiastes in the succeeding English Bibles, and in the present Authorized Version.
called forth so many commentaries and suffered as much at the hands of expositors as Ecclesiastes. Nearly 350 years ago Luther remarked, " Difficult as this book is, it is almost more difficult to clear the author of the visionary fancies palmed upon him by his numerous commentators than to develop his meaning." What would this sagacious Reformer have said if he could have seen the countless speculations of which it has been the subject since his days 7 We are positively assured that the book contains the holy lamentations of Solomon, together with a prophetic vision of the splitting up of the royal house of David, the destruc tion of the Temple, and the Captivity ; and we are equally assured that it is a discussion between a refined sensualist and a sober sage. Solomon publishes in it his repentance, to glorify God and to strengthen his brethren; he wrote ife " when he was irreligious and sceptical during his amours and idolatry." " The Messiah, the true Solomon, who was known by the title of son of David, addresses this book to the saints ; " a profligate who wanted to disseminate his in famous sentiments palmed it upon Solomon. It teaches us to despise the world with all its pleasures, and flee to monasteries ; it shows that sensual gratifications are men s greatest blessing upon earth. It is a philosophic lecture delivered to a literary society upon topics of the greatest moment ; it is a medley of heterogeneous fragments belong ing to various authors and different ages. It describes the beautiful order of God s moral government, showing that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord; it proves that all is disorder and confusion, and that the world is the sport of chance. It is a treatise on the suminum bonum; it is " a chronicle of the lives of the kings of the house of David from Solomon down to Zedekiah." Its object is to prove the immortality of the soul; its design is to deny a future existence. Its aim is to comfort the unhappy Jews in their misfortunes ; and its sole purport is to pour forth the gloomy imaginations of a melancholy misanthrope. It is intended " to open Nathan s speech (1 Chron. xvii.) touching the eternal throne of David;" and it propounds by anticipation the modern dis coveries of anatomy and the Harveian theory of the circula tion of the blood. " It foretells what will become of man or angels to eternity ; " and, according to one of the latest and
greatest authorities, it is a keen satire on Herod, written 8 B.C., when the king cast his son Alexander into prison.[1]
- ↑ For an historical account of the interpretation of Ecclesiastes, with detached specimens of these conflicting views, see Giusburg, Commentary on Ecrlesiastes, pp, 27-293, London, 1861.
