I have always wanted to see the look on Qoheleth’s face. An innovative thespian on a spiritual quest recently gave me that chance. A colleague from the theater department at my university had told me ...

“To the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” said Ecclesiastes [Kohelet in Hebrew], traditionally believed to be King Solomon, sometime before his death ...

Traditionally, Ecclesiastes is understood to be authored by King Solomon (1010-931 BC). Taking 1:1 at face value, these are the words of the “Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” Given the ...

In my first semester of college as a classics major, I translated from Latin the opening passage of the ancient book of Ecclesiastes. This wasn’t ever a book I came across in parochial school or ...

Biblical Hebrew uses similar names for “vanity” and the slain brother. That’s no accident. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” So says Qohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes, as he begins his reflections.

He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. Today’s readings, to me, ...

I recently listened to a podcast about Ecclesiastes — the most philosophical book in the Bible — and found myself thinking: This ancient teacher sounds like he has been reading Plato. A note on who we ...

“Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?” So writes the author of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew scriptures. Of course, the straightness referred to here has ...