Through the ages, the book of Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) has elicited a wide variety of interpretations. Its status as wisdom literature is secure, but its meaning for the religion of the Hebrew Bible and its heirs has been a matter of much debate. The debate has swung from claiming orthodoxy for the book to arguing that the message intended by its author is heterodox, in its entirety. There are a…
This work defends a new thesis for the word hebel in Ecclesiastes, demonstrating how Qohelet employs a single, multivalent vapor-symbol to represent human experience in a life filled with limitations and complications. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)
Fox takes as his starting point the issues that Quoheleth's interpreters have faced in their efforts to render the book faithfully, and in so doing, provides a new analysis of Quoheleth's reasoning, logic, and means of expression. Fox reaches three key conclusions about the work: Quoheleth is primarily concerned with the rationality of existence; Quoheleth is not against wisdom or the wise, and…
An internationally-renowned Old Testament scholar explores the riches of the Psalms, expounding the ways they shape those who read them.
The books in this Handbooks series are full-range commentaries that deal with problems of the original text, interpretation, vocabulary analysis and discourse structure. They also include analysis of translation problems that may occur, and they provide suggestions for dealing with such problems. Some translators, however, prefer material in a more condensed form and from which they can easily …