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I could never get my body to learn to swim or dance.īeing an isolated oddity in these ways was painful to me, as it would be to any teen. For years I had to cover the hole, where there was no bone, by wearing an aluminum plate, secured to my head by elastic. Also, I was barred from sports and team games by reason of a hole in my head-literally, just over the brain-that I had acquired in a road accident at age 7. I was reared in a stable home and did well at school, but, being an introvert, I was always shy and awkward in company. Pride led me to stand up for Christian truth in school debates, but with no interest in God or a willingness to submit to him. (One main difference, of course, is that his thinking is all done within the framework of Old Testament revelation.) How far this matches the way people see me, I do not know, but this is how I want to see myself-and why I warm to Ecclesiastes as a kindred spirit. But while temperamentally inclined to pessimism and cynicism, I think, he was kept from falling into either of those craters of despair by a strong theology of joy. Whoever he was, Qohelet was a realist about the many ways in which this world gives us a rough ride. All I am sure of is that each point has maximum strength if it comes from the real Solomon at the end of his life.
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Whether he was the Solomon of history or someone impersonating him-not to deceive but to make points in the most effective way-we do not know. As his official testimonial or third-person testimony (it might be either) in 12:10 shows, this man took his instructional task very seriously and labored to communicate memorably. I see him as a reflective senior citizen, a public teacher of wisdom, something of a stylist and wordsmith.
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That is how the writer, who called himself Qohelet-Hebrew for “Gatherer,” a title that in Greek became Ecclesiastes, the “Assembly-man”-strikes me. Should people raise their eyebrows and ask why, I give them two reasons.įirst, it is a special pleasure to read an author with whom one resonates. When asked which Bible book is my favorite, I say Ecclesiastes. Finding out how people experience Scripture-especially those who write books about the Bible-is a natural interest to us. Christians like to quiz each other about their favorite book in the Bible.