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Conventional
interpretations of Ecclesiastes offer little help in resolving these
contradictions.9 In taking the frustration expressed by Kohelet
to its existential extreme, most commentators conclude that he rejects
completely the finite nature of life, either by means of a skeptical
nihilism or fatalistic moralism. As M. James Sawyer writes, according to
Ecclesiastes “Man is compelled to seek for an answer to the meaning of
life. It is a task which wearies him and causes him grief and is doomed to
ultimate failure.”10 Yet any reading of the book that does
not account for its affirmation of joy and wisdom misunderstands the
central message of the text. For in truth, Kohelet is neither a
determinist nor a nihilist. Rather, he is a profound humanist, valuing
both life and the process of learning that makes it worthy of our
sincerest efforts.
To
be sure, Kohelet was not alone among the ancients to concern himself with
the meaning of death and the quest for eternal life. Throughout much of
the ancient world, rulers built monumental structures to establish their
immortality. The pyramids of ancient Egypt, which aimed to project the
“star” of Pharaoh into the eternal sphere of the heavens, are evidence
of this.11 Furthermore, it was common to amass material
riches—what archaeologists call “grave goods”—in the hope of
transferring them to the world beyond.12 This practice was
prevalent, for example, among the Egyptians, Sumerians, Mayans, and
Chinese; indeed, like King Tutankhamun’s numerous shabti and ushebti
companions, the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang had thousands of life-size
clay soldiers buried near his grave in order to ensure victory in his
battles in the afterworld
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