IS THERE ANY ORGANIZATION TO ECCLESIASTES?

The scholarly consensus to this question is a resounding “No!”

    “One of the difficulties in determining the literary structure of Ecclesiastes is that there is no logical progression of thought by which the book is held together (except in chaps. 1-2).” (Bullock)

    “Qoheleth's unique method of argumentation makes a coherent outline of this work almost impossible.” (LaSor, et al)

    “...disjointed in construction...the book defies any logical analysis.” (Hendry)

    “A prevalent view is that...its structure is an insoluble problem.” (Ryken)

    “It is evident to any reader of Ecclesiastes that the book is not a systematic treatise...in general, no progression of thought from one section to another is discernible.” (Whybray)

    “The task of delimiting units of thought in Qoheleth has been, and remains, notoriously difficult.” (Ogden)

    “The structure of Qoheleth remains elusive.” (Caneday)

    “Structure is a problem throughout the book.” (Longman)

    “The entire book until the conclusion is a lengthy, at times almost rambling, discourse...” (Osborne)

In my post “Proverbs: Introduction to the Literary Structure” I explained that the key to understanding how the book was organized is to first realize that each discrete section ends with a piece of positive advice immediately followed by a negative qualifier, such as those shown below:

    “There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.” 1:11

    “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” 2:11

    “This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” 2:26b

    “Who can bring him to see what will be after him?” 3:22b

    “For he will not much remember the days of his life.” 5:20a

    “...so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” 7:14b

    “...man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out; even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.” 8:17b

    “...for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” 9:10b

    “...but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity...But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment...for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.” 11:10b

    “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” 12:14

The second step is the ordering of the resulting sections according to the symmetrical pattern shown below.

Figure 1: Overall Structure of Ecclesiastes

    A. Prologue (1:1-11)

        B. The ultimate futility of pursuing wisdom (1:12-2:11)

            C. The common fate of the wise man and fool (2:12-26)

                D. God’s time for everything, including judgment (3:1-22)

                    E. Enjoyment of work better than pursuit of riches (4:1-5:20)

                        -----------------------------

                    E'. Prosperity and adversity both come from God (6:1-7:14)

                D'. God’s time for everything, including judgment (7:15-8:17)

            C'. The common fate of the righteous and the wicked (9:1-10)

        B'. Live wisely but realize that success is uncertain (9:11-11:10)

    A'. Epilogue (12:1-14)

Besides the general association of similar themes shown above, the parallel sections also contain similarities in language. These were not listed in my original post, so I have included some of them below as typical examples to illustrate the point.

Sections E and E'

The “better than” proverbs are located almost exclusively in E and E'. Both of these sections begin by noting the finality of death and the prevalence of earthly injustice, and both end with mention of the key words “advantage” and “vex.” In addition, the following parallels may be cited:

    a. the only references in Ecclesiastes to not being able to rejoice/enjoy (4:16 and 6:2)

    b. five of the seven instances in the book where “fear of God” is mentioned

    c. two-thirds of the “wise / poor” pairings in the book

    d. three references in each to the finality of death

    e. similar pairing of “come / go,” referring to birth and death, respectively

    f. “his eyes are never satisfied” (4:8) // “his appetite is not satisfied” (6:7)

    g. parallel admonitions in 5:2 (“let your words be few”) and 6:11 (“the more words, the more vanity”)

    h. parallel thoughts in 5:11 (“what gain has the owner but to see them with his eyes?”) and 6:9 (“better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire”)

    i. “the few days of life” in 5:18 and 6:12

    j. the majority of comments in the book on “toil”

    k. “there is an... evil which I have seen under the sun” followed by similar anecdotes at 4:13-17; 5:13-17 and 6:1-6.

    l. the Hebrew word translated “extortion” or “oppression” (4:1-3; 7:7)

    m. Section E ends with “I have seen to be good...” while E' begins, “There is an evil that I have seen...”

Sections D and D'

The key theme of time in Section D is revisited in D' with striking parallels between Ecclesiastes 3:1 (“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”) and 8:5-6 (“For every matter has its time and way”). Other commonalities between these two sections include the following:

    a. The problem of injustice in the world is a parallel theme as well as mention of God's judgment.

    b. Many of the “uncertainty” passages occur here, with phrases such as “can't find” or “who knows?”

    c. There are references to “God's gift” and “all evil” at the approximate centers of each section.

    d. Almost all the appearances in the book of the words “wicked” and “righteous” are in these units.

    e. Section D starts with the same theme that concludes D': the inability of man to decipher the works of God, however much he may try.

    f. Similar cryptic sayings with identical beginnings occur in these sections: “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away” (3:15) and “That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?” (7:24)

    g. Childs sees a similar eschatological motif in 3:17 and 8:11-12.

    h. The majority of the references to “matter” appear in D and D' (see especially 3:1 and 8:6).

    i. The thought in 3:11 is parallel to the teachings in 7:27-28 and 8:17.

    j. The phrase “there is nothing better” appears in 3:12; 3:22 and 8:15.

    k. The Teacher observes examples of oppression in 3:16 and 8:9.

Sections C and C'

The certainty of death is a common theme appearing in the first half of both these sections, followed by a discussion of its negative aspects. Both, however, end with a reference to “pleasure.” The most important verbal parallelism between these units appears in their respective final verses where the phrase “wisdom and knowledge” occurs (only twice elsewhere in the book). Other specific parallels between the two units are:

    a. the only two pairings of the “good” and the “offender” in the book (2:26 and 9:2)

    b. most occurrences of “fate,” in the sense of death

    c. half of the eight usages of the word “already,” two in each section

    d. two of three occurrences of the word “forgotten”

    e. “desire of the eyes” in both summary statements

    f. “hand of God,” which ends C and starts C'

    g. a possible corrective in 9:4-6 to the negative statement regarding life in 2:17

    h. pessimistic statements regarding knowledge in 2:21 and 9:10

    i. two appearances in each section of the phrase “in my/their heart.”

All of the above demonstrates that one should never sell the authors of Scripture short in terms of their ability to organize their writings in a carefully thought-out manner, especially when the supervising author is the Holy Spirit.