Solomon
Friday, November 20, 2009
Out of all the books in the Bible, my favorite is Ecclesiastes. Yes, that staple of funerals with the oft-quoted A Time for Everything passage.
What I love about this book is that to me it's the most relatable. Written by King Solomon towards the end of his life, the book is full of the melancholy and almost bitter reflection of a man who wished to know everything and found no fulfillment. Unlike some gruesome Old Testament tales (what with the prescriptions for periodic genocide, this terrible, terrible story in Judges chapter 19 that rivals anything Crime Library can come up with) and some of St. Paul's epistles, which can be rather stringent, Ecclesiastes has that sad, seen-and-done-it-all vibe of someone who's taken life by the horns and came out the worse for the wear. I.e., someone just like you or me.
It's also some kind of indictment against the value of wisdom. Remember that Solomon asked for wisdom instead of victory or riches and God was so pleased with his choice that he gave him all three. But then Ecclesiastes is full of Solomon's thoughts on the great lengths he went to store up wisdom (and, conversely, to enjoy himself with wine and pleasure and sex) and finding all of this meaningless in the end. It sort of reinforces the idea that the more you know, the less happy you can be.
Anyhoo, here's my favorite passage in the book. It's sad and wry and wise, rivaling anything Shakespeare could put out:
3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
5 For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
and even the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate
and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
in anything that happens under the sun.
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
A curious thing: in high school I did my baby thesis on the concepts of death and resurrection (what? I was a proto-Goth OK) and it was really odd that in the earliest days of Judaism, they did not believe in the afterlife. This is why Solomon essentially says, "do the best you can with your time now, because it all ends with death." Naturally, this belief system brings forth bitterness and alienation - "well, what's my reward for doing good when my wicked neighbors have a lot more fun than I do?", i.e., proto-existentialism - so the belief system developed a concept of an afterlife later on. Christianity takes this concept one step further with Christ's death and resurrection - you might say that the whole rationale for the faith hinges on the belief of life after death.
I'm not saying I believe one way or the other, except that it's really fascinating to find out. And even if Solomon believed all he had and worked for would end with his death, the beauty and melancholy of his words cannot be denied.
