Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New Readers Old and New / Katharine J. Dell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dell, Katharine J. (Katharine Julia), 1961-

Series:

Critical studies in the Hebrew Bible ; no. 3.

Critical studies in the Hebrew Bible ; number 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Ecclesiastes.

Bible. Ecclesiastes--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (117 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Readers of texts come from all generations, from different contexts and with different agendas. This book gives a sample of what both ancient and contemporary readers have brought to the book of Ecclesiastes in the quest for illumination of the text and for their own enlightenment, often furnishing their own agenda. Debates over meaning are formed, shaped, and illuminated by the interpreters themselves. Part One looks at ancient interpreters and at their methods of approaching the text. Jewish and Christian interpreters alike sought to find meaning amongst some of the key puzzles of the book: why does the author call himself 'the son of David' and appear to be Solomon when his pen name also seems to be Qoheleth? Why the contradictions in content? How did such an unorthodox book come to be canonized? How did the dualistic contemptus mundi interpretation of the vanity theme perpetuated by Jerome and others come to hold the field for so long? And how did Luther and the reformers seek to rectify that approach? These questions and others are addressed in this book, looking through the lens of past interpretation. Part Two acknowledges our increasing self-awareness of the importance of method in approaching biblical texts and turns to a sample of modern interpretations from familiar reading groups such as the ecologist, the animal theologian, the liberationist, the post-colonialist, and the feminist. It will be seen that different modern approaches often enlighten the interpretation of specific verses within Ecclesiastes and hence that no one method is a wholesale 'solution' to interpretive concerns. -- Publisher.

Contents:

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: Ancient Interpretations

Chapter 1: Ecclesiastes as Wisdom: Consulting Early Interpreters

Chapter 2: Vanity, Human Beings, and the Created World: The Dualistic Method as Applied to Ecclesiastes

Part 2: Modern Interpretations

Chapter 3: The Cycle of Life in Ecclesiastes: An Ecological Reading

Chapter 4: Animal Theology and the Direction of the רוח

Chapter 5: A Liberationist or Postcolonial Reading?: Ecclesiastes as a Resistant Text

Chapter 6: Reject or Retrieve? :Feminist Readings of Ecclesiastes 7:23

Conclusion

Bibliography

Ancient Interpreters

Modern Interpreters

Index of Authors

Index of Scripture.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781575068633

157506863X

OCLC:

922991757