Thomas Bolin, «Rivalry and Resignation: Girard and Qoheleth on the Divine-Human Relationship», Vol. 86 (2005) 245-259
This article looks at the repeated gnomic phrase in the Book
of Qoheleth, "All is vanity and a chasing after wind" (NRSV) and reads it as a
disjunctive parallelism in which the terms lbh
and xwr denote mortality and the divine spirit,
respectively, thus showing the sense of the phrase to be, "All is mortal, but
strives for immortality". Using René Girard’s concept of mimetic rivalry
clarifies this reading of the proverb, and shows it to be a concise expression
of a major theme in the Book of Qoheleth, viz., the author’s thoughts on the
difference between humanity and God, understood as paradoxical relationship
based on both similarity and difference between humans and the divine. More
importantly, Girard helps to understand more deeply how and why Qoheleth views
human proximity with the divine as the cause of conflict and pain in human life.
Because this tension is also evident in numerous other biblical and
extra-biblical texts, caution must be exercised, in referring to the Book of
Ecclesiastes as a "radical" or "heterodox" writing.
Rivalry and Resignation: Girard and Qoheleth 251
follows the exclamation, lbh lkh. . .µylbh lbh in v. 8, which not only
functions as a refrain concluding the entire book, creating a frame with
its occurrence in 1,2, but also as the climax of Qoheleth’s résumé of
the human life in 11,8 – 12,8. Even in youth, notes 11,8, life is nothing
but lbh, and Qoheleth advises the young to enjoy pleasure while they
can during these days of youth, before the inevitable decline and death.
And because death is the result of God’s choice to reclaim the jwr
given to us, an eventuality we are powerless to prevent, Qoheleth ends
his description of human life — at the graveside, as it were — with an
exclamation of humanity’s utter transience.
Throughout his book, Qoheleth dwells at length on the pain and
frustration caused by our knowledge of death and of the eternal life
beyond our reach. This is probably most succinctly expressed in 3,11,
where Qoheleth notes that God has placed “eternity†into the mind of
humanity, but has also established that humanity can never fully grasp
the extent of divine existence. The exact meaning of µl[h in this verse
has been debated. One proposed solution repoints it to read µli[i
(“ignoranceâ€) (24), but this term does not occur elsewhere in Biblical
Hebrew and is based on a dubious etymological derivation. µl[h has
also been emended to read lm[ (“toilâ€), which, while having the
advantage of being a frequently occurring word in Qoheleth (25), makes
the already enigmatic phrase πwsAd[w varm even more opaque. How
does God’s placing “toil†in the human heart make it impossible
for humanity to grasp what God does? Moreover, while lm[ occurs
immediately prior to 3,11 in v. 9, v. 10 uses ˆyn[h, another favorite term
of Qoheleth’s, to describe human effort. In a similar vein are attempts
to read µl[h in 3,11 as expressing the created world, or extended
duration (26). Yet it must be noted that elsewhere in Qoheleth (Qoh 1,4;
12,5) µl[ is used to express the idea of eternity. The idea of eternity in
3,11 makes clear its synonymous relationship with hç[Arça hç[mh
πwsAd[w çarm µyhlah, and emphasizes the contrast that God has given
humankind the awareness (µblb ˆtn) of permanence (27), but has
prevented them from ever possessing it (axmyAal) (28).
(24) G. BARTON, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of
Ecclesiastes (ICC; Edinburgh 1908) 105.
(25) FOX, A Time to Tear Down, 210-211. BHS lists no variants.
(26) R. MURPHY, “On Translating Ecclesiastesâ€, CBQ 53 (1991) 573.
(27) CERESKO, “The Function of Antanaclasisâ€, 565-567.
(28) J. CRENSHAW, “The Eternal Gospel (Ecclesiastes 3:11)â€, Urgent Advice
and Probing Questions. Collected Writings on Old Testament Wisdom (Macon
1995) 565-567; and SEOW, Ecclesiastes, 162-163.
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