Time in the book of Ecclesiastes / Mette Bundvad.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bundvad, Mette, 1982-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Ecclesiastes--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Bible. Ecclesiastes.

Time in the Bible.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 211 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Summary:

The theme of time occupies a central position in the book of Ecclesiastes. In his sophisticated discussion of time, Ecclesiastes' narrator skillfully ties the human experience of time to a range of his other main themes-such as mortality, causality, and history-and brings a measure of coherence to his difficult book. For Ecclesiastes, the world's temporal structures are not merely a neutral background to our lives and activities. Rather, they profoundly shape the human experience of life-limiting our ability to understand our everyday life, as well as hindering us from engaging properly with both past and future. Mette Bundvad offers an analysis of time in Ecclesiastes, exploring the tense relationship in Ecclesiastes between the cosmic temporal reality and the human situation in time. She provides in depth discussion of the human experience of present, past, and future, as depicted in the biblical book. Furthermore, she considers how Ecclesiastes' own literary-philosophical endeavour is affected by the narrator's claim that the human mind is not equipped to engage intellectually with our temporal conditions. In addition to her discussion of time in the book of Ecclesiastes specifically, Mette Bundvad challenges the scholarly skepticism regarding the ability of the Hebrew Bible's authors more generally to conceptualize and reflect on the theme of time. Time in the Book of Ecclesiastes show that the theme of time provides an excellent lens through which to read Ecclesiastes, casting new light on the book as a whole, as well as enriching our understanding of what discussion of temporality could look like in the Second Temple Period. Book jacket.

Contents:

Structure and composition : can the book of Qohelet be read?

Towards a biblical conception of time

World time and human time in the framing poems

The present in the book of Quohelet

Connecting present to past and future

Storytelling as a means of protest.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-201) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780198739708

0198739702

OCLC:

907178325