The Jews are a people defined by two things: an ancient homeland, and a set of books, arranged and called their law. For the former, the Jews trace themselves back to the Ancient Israelites. The story of the Ancient Israelites is recorded most thoroughly in their own writings, despite the good deal of myth and bias added in it. The Israelites first began to worship one God as they were held in slavery in Egypt. These Israelites maintained their common heritage as Israelites by unifying their previously disorganized faith into one belief in one God. The books of the Torah (The Law) are traditionally traced back to this era. The Torah contains a mixed bag of ancient rules for the Jews to follow and myths adapted from the ancient polytheist faiths …show more content…
This is not really a real testimony of authorship, bur rather a literary tactic in order to give the reader context for the book. The real author is unknown5, but generally referred to as Koleheleth, which is also the name of the book in Hebrew. Koleheleth means gatherer, and is in reference to Koleheleth's role as a gatherer of wisdom3. The exact date of writing is contested, but it is considered to have been written between 4504 and 180 BCE1. Ecclesiastes is a work of wisdom literature, in a middle eastern literary tradition, in which writings were written for young men who were coming into a life of middle-class prosperity. These books would impart wisdom onto these young men so that they'd live a wealthy and comfortable life8. Ecclesiastes subverts many of the expectations one has of a book of wisdom. It laments the emptiness and vacuity of the material world and offers no advice on how to succeed in …show more content…
Ecclesiastes really offers no conclusive way to escape this materialistic worldview, except to believe in God. So a reader, touched by this powerful description of a world perhaps familiar to them, is not guided to a right way of living besides that they should worship God. Which is unsatisfying as it really isn't satisfactory for many people who might be less than devout. A lot of this can be attributed to limitations of the strange way it is written. Koheleth may have found it difficult to make the character-author of Solomon come to a conclusion in a well-written way. Of course, there is a part added on by later scribes that says that you should just worship God4, but this is inadequate, as previously discussed. So while faith can be incredibly powerful and beautiful thing, Ecclesiastes isn't very good at telling the reader