What did Qoheleth mean when he wrote that God "put eternity" (הָעֹלָם֙) in the heart of man? And how does the last part of the verse connect with the preceding portion?
Robert Alter (The Hebrew Bible: A Translation): "Everything He has done aptly in its time. Eternity, too, He has put in their heart, without man’s grasping at all what it is God has done from beginning to end."
Alter's Footnote: "The Hebrew ʿolam means 'eternity' in the biblical language, though some interpreters argue that here it has the sense of 'world' that it carries in rabbinic Hebrew—that is, God has planted in the human heart the love of the world. It seems more likely that the intended meaning is: man is conscious of the idea of eternity (Qohelet as philosopher surely is), but that is the source of further frustration, for he is incapable of grasping 'what it is God has done from beginning to end.' Other interpreters reverse the second and third consonants of ʿolam to yield ʿamal, 'toil.' "
See also https://www.academia.edu/3770261/A_Reexamination_of_Eternity_in_Ecclesiastes_3_11
7 comments:
This is one of my favorite verses, I'm not really in a position to judge the argumetns for different renderings, although from my very limited view, the arguments against the traditional rendering based on the context of Qohet seem weak (I'm fully aware though that my love of the traditional reading might color how I read the arguments).
I must recommend this article:
https://www.academia.edu/15707316/Deleuze_Subjectivity_and_Moral_Agency_in_Ecclesiastes
It takes Ecclesiastes 3:11 as a philosophical statement and views it through the lense of Deleuze, I really enjoy that kind of work.
Thanks Roman, I'm also familiar with Deleuze and it's no doubt interesting to read Ecclesiastes from that perspective
it could mean men want to live rather than die, death wasn't originally intended
i.e the inbuilt function we have to avoid deadly situations, how hard it is to cause death by just holding your breathe
whether this is the intended meaning, I'm unsure
Pulpit - "The LXX. has, Σύμπαντα τὸν αἰῶνα; Vulgate, Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum. The original meaning is "the hidden," and it is used generally in the Old Testament of the remote past, and sometimes of the future, as Daniel 3:33 [Daniel 4:3], so that the idea conveyed is of unknown duration, whether the glance looks backward or forward, which is equivalent to our word "eternity." It is only in later Hebrew that the word obtained the signification of "age" (αἰών), or "world" in its relation to time."
note pulpit seems to be aware eternity as a concept works in 2 directions not 1.
"so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." - but then how do we understand the next sentence?
https://youtu.be/ItcOXiNqqHc
"The Hebrew ʿolam means 'eternity' in the biblical language, though some interpreters argue that here it has the sense of 'world' that it carries in rabbinic Hebrew" - didnt this occur with the Greek equivilent (Heb 1:2) Where the word switched meaning from spatial to physical things or came to be used as an equivalent to "World" or "Universe"
The Hebrew concepts reminds me of a significant difference I have observed between the UK & US when measuring distance. Here in the UK someone will usually tell you how many miles a journey was, but in the US I have been told many times how much time a journey would take instead. The Hebrew term olam relates more to the distance than the time, but covers both.
I appreciate all of your remarks about olam. Here are some thing I've encountered previously about the subject:
Ernst Jenni, "Das Wort olam im Alten Testament," Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 64 (1952): 197-248, and 65 (1953): 1-35.
See Rolf Knierim, "Cosmos and History in Israel's Theology," Horizons in Biblical Theology 3 (1981): 71-86; James Barr, Biblical Words for Time, rev. ed (London SCM, 1968); T. Fretheim, The Suffering of God, pages 39-44.
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