implying (
Hebrew characters) 'thy fountain;' 'whither thou goest,' (Hebrew characters), 'thy pit,
or grave;' 'before whom thou wilt stand,' (Hebrew characters), 'thy creator.'
28. Page 232.—Döderlein (in a popular work on Ecclesiastes, p. 119) describes xii. 9 &c. as the epilogue, 'perhaps, of a larger collection of writings and of the earlier Hebrew canon.' Herder, too, thinks that the close of the book suggests a collection of sayings of several wise men (Werke, ed. Suphan, x, 134).
29. Page 244.—According to Grätz, Koheleth is not to be taken in earnest when he writes as if in a sombre and pessimistic mood. Such passages Grätz tries to explain away. Koheleth, he thinks, is the enemy of those who cultivate such a mood, and who, like the school of Shammai, combine with it an extravagant and unnatural asceticism (comp. vii. 16, 17). The present, Koheleth knows, is far from ideal, but he would fain reconcile young men to inevitable evils by pointing them to the relative goods still open to them. This attitude of the author enables Grätz to account for Koheleth's denial of the doctrine of Immortality. This doctrine, he remarks, was not of native Jewish origin, but imported from Alexandria, and was the source of the ascetic gloom opposed by Koheleth. Koheleth's denial of the Immortality of the Soul does not, according to Grätz, involve the denial of the Resurrection of the Body, the Resurrection being regarded in early Judaism as a new creative act.[1] It is not clear to me, however, that Koheleth accepts the Resurrection doctrine, even if he does not expressly controvert it.
30. Page 245, note 3.—Herder says with insight, though with some exaggeration, that most of Koheleth consists of isolated observations on the course of the world and the experience of the writer. No artistic connection need be sought for. But if we must seek for one (so that Herder is not convinced of the soundness of the theory), it is strange that no one has observed the twofold voice in the book, 'da ein Grübler Wahrheit sucht, und in dem Ton seines Ichs meistens damit, "dass alles eitel sey," endet; eine andre Stimme aber, im Ton des Du, ihn oft unterbricht, ihm das Verwegne seiner Untersuchungen vorhält und meistens damit endet, "was zuletzt das Resultat des ganzen Lebens bleibe?" Es ist nicht völlig Frag' und Antwort, Zweifel und Auflösung, aber doch aus Einem und demselben Munde etwas, das beyden gleicht, und sich durch Abbrüche und Fortsetzungen unterscheidet.' Brief das Studium der Theologie betreftend, erster Theil (Werke, Suphan, x. 135-136).
Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/322
- ↑ Kohelet, p. 29. Certainly this is not the view of Talmudic Judaism, at least not in the sense described by Dr. Grätz. See Weber, Altsynagogale Theologie, p. 323.
