The book of Ecclesiastes

Main theme

Under the sun, without God, everything is vanity and a chasing after the wind; life finds its meaning only in receiving its joys as gifts from God and in fearing him.

Outline

1. Ecclesiastes 1-2 — The king’s inquiry: all is vanity

   The world goes around in circles; wisdom, pleasures and great projects do not fill the heart.

2. Ecclesiastes 3-5 — Time, injustice and money

   A time for everything, eternity in the heart, then oppression, loneliness, words before God and the love of money.

3. Ecclesiastes 6-8 — Practical wisdom and human limits

   A series of “better than…” sayings for living wisely in a world that people cannot understand.

4. Ecclesiastes 9-10 — The same fate for all

   Death comes to everyone: enjoy the life God gives, and see the value of wisdom.

5. Ecclesiastes 11-12 — Act, remember and fear God

   Sow generously, remember your Creator in your youth: God will judge every work.

Key points

• “Vanity” translates a Hebrew word meaning “mist, breath”: everything earthly is fleeting and cannot fill the soul (1:2).
• The expression “under the sun” (29 times) describes life seen from a purely earthly point of view.
• The king tried everything, knowledge, pleasure, wealth and great projects, and concludes that all is “a chasing after the wind” (2:10-11).
• God has set eternity in the human heart: nothing earthly can fill it (3:11).
• Ordinary life, eating, drinking and enjoying one’s work, is a gift from God to be received with gratitude (2:24; 3:13; 9:7).
• “Two are better than one… a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (4:9-12).
• “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (7:20).
• The conclusion of the book: fear God and keep his commandments, for he will judge every work (12:13-14).

Jesus in Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes shows the thirst of a heart in which God has set eternity (3:11); Jesus answers it by offering water that quenches forever (John 4:13-14). Creation subjected to “vanity” (Rom 8:20, the same word as in the Greek Bible of Ecclesiastes) awaits liberation through the work of Christ, and in him our labor “is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). Finally, the God who will “bring every work into judgment” (12:14) has appointed a man for that purpose, the risen Jesus (Acts 17:31).

Did you know?

• The name “Ecclesiastes” comes from the Greek ekklesia (assembly), a translation of the Hebrew Qoheleth, “the one who gathers” or “who speaks to the assembly”; the New Testament word for “church” comes from the same Greek root.
• The book begins and ends with the same formula: “Vanity of vanities… all is vanity” (1:2; 12:8), like a frame around the inquiry.
• The whole inquiry ends in a single sentence: “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (12:13).