This interesting chapter was chosen quite randomly to see what different perspectives could be brought to bear on it. Besides this post on how the chapter is organized, subsequent postings will treat it in two additional ways.
Structure
One must start first with an overview of how the whole book is organized. The arrangement shown in Figure 1 above has much to recommend itself and is defended in my post titled “Is There Any Organization to Ecclesiastes?” But, of course, there are many alternative ways of viewing it.
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)
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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)
Concentrating on Chapter 8 only, we note the following parallels which pair up D with that portion of D'.
The majority of the references to “matter” appear in D and D' (see especially 3:1 and 8:6).
The thought in 3:11 is parallel to the teachings in 7:27-28 and 8:17.
The phrase “there is nothing better” appears in 3:12; 3:22 and 8:15.
The Teacher observes examples of oppression in 3:16 and 8:9.
Childs sees a similar eschatological motif in 3:17 and 8:11-12.
Zeroing in on our chapter in question, one should keep in mind the astute comment of Fredericks: “No structural outline for the entire book has demanded significant support from critics, though many outlines have been offered.” And the same is certainly true of this one chapter.
Thus, looking first at the scope of the literary unit only, we have the NIV, Whybray, and Scott attaching 8:1 to the ending of Chapter 7 as well as disagreement as to where the section's conclusion is located. J.S. Wright believes that from 8:8 to 9:3 constitutes a discrete literary unit, and Scott includes the last two verses of Ecclesiastes 8 in with 9:1-12.
Just about the only point of agreement between the above options is that v. 1 serves as an introduction to the chapter while vv. 16-17 constitute the conclusion. This view is actually strongly suggested by the following parallel words and phrases found in both those passages:
“the wise man” / “those who are wise”
“know” / “claim to know but they cannot find it out”
“wisdom” / “wisdom”
“one's face” / “one's eyes
Then, even among those who treat chapter 8 as a complete unit, there is disagreement as to its internal divisions. Several sources locate one major break of thought in this chapter, but there is little agreement between them as to exactly where that is located:
J.S. Wright: after v. 7
Dorsey: after v. 8
Glenn, Fleming, and Scott: after v. 9
The Message: after v. 13
Most others propose multiple sub-sections within the bulk of Ecclesiastes 8:
NIV 2-4; 5-8; 9-10; 11-13; 14-15.
Living Bible 2-7; 8; 9-13; 14; 15
The Message 2-7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12-13; 14; 15
TEV 2-8; 9-10; 11-14; 15
RSV, NRSV 2-9 10-13 14-15
JB 2-9; 10-14; 15
Whybray 2-9; 10-15
Hendry 2-9; 10; 11-15
Note the reasonable agreement here with those who see only one break in the chapter and locate it after either verses 7 (2 votes), 8 (4 votes), or 9 (6 votes). In addition, five of the above sources feel that v. 14 begins a new thought.
The section divisions in Figure 2 below are those determined by RSV and NRSV.
Figure 2: Structure of Ecclesiastes 8
1. Introduction (v. 1)
2. Dealing with Authorities (vv. 2-9)
2'. Fate of the Wicked (vv. 10-13)
2''.Fate of and Advice for the Wise (vv. 14-15)
1'. Conclusion (vv. 16-17)
The parallels between 1 and 1' have already been enumerated above. But, as you can see, it is much more controversial as to the internal breaks between sub-units, especially since Bible scholars and lay readers alike tend to look only for basic changes of thought or topic in the text to indicate at what point a new literary unit begins. Such a method is usually far too subjective a criteria to be safely relied on when taken alone.
The above is why the identification of the opening (v. 1) and closing literary unit (vv. 16-17) is relatively easy to determine since there are the four verbal agreements given above to help confirm them as a matched pair. But in the absence of such obvious confirmation (as in the remainder ot chapter 8), one person's opinion is just about as good as another's. So below is a rough compilation of verbal or near verbal parallels arranged in order of their appearance in the text:
wise man (1a)
who knows? (1b)
wisdom (1c)
God (2)
evil (3)
power (4)
not know (5a)
evil time (5b)
do not know (7)
power (8a)
wickedness (8b)
I saw (9a)
applying my mind (9b)
done under the sun (9c)
evil (9d)
I saw (9e)
power (10a)
this is vanity (10b)
evil deed (11b)
do evil (11c, 12a)
know (12b)
God (12c)
their days (13)
this is vanity (14a)
done on earth (14b)
deeds of the wicked (14c)
under the sun (15a)
the days of life (15b)
under the sun (15c)
I applied my mind (16a)
to know (16b)
wisdom (16c)
to see (16d)
what is done on earth (16e)
he sees not (16f)
I saw (17a)
done under the sun (17b)
While the above analysis certainly does not immediately lend itself to an exact breakdown of the sub-sections in Ecclesiastes 8, just glancing at it reveals that it builds to a peak somewhere in the vicinity of vv. 13-15 with the repetition of references to the days of one's life. In addition, there appears to be a parallel pattern with “under the sun...on earth...under the sun” in both 9c-15a and 15c-17b, suggesting a major break somewhere in v. 15. Another piece of data leading to the same basic conclusion of a two-part construction is the fact that all references to evil, wickedness, vanity and power are located in the first half of the chapter.
I am afraid that in this particular chapter, trying to go to the next step of breaking it down further into precisely delineated sub-sections which are exactly parallel to one another both verbally and in thought would be going beyond what the evidence demands. However, in many other instances in the Bible, such a procedure is very helpful in understanding now the inspired authors organized their thoughts.
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