Ecclesiastes 8


Ecclesiastes 8 is the eighth chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called ' Qoheleth', composed probably between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE. Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon. This chapter concerns human and divine authority with the advice that fearing God is the wisest course.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 17 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus. The Greek text is probably derived from the work of Aquila of Sinope or his followers.

Structure

The New King James Version has two sections within this chapter:
  • = Obey Authorities for God's Sake
  • = Death Comes to All

Royal authority (8:1–9)

Verse 1 closes the theme from chapter 7. and may be read as part of that section, leaving verses 2-9 as a group dealing with authority. Qoheleth then uses the previous observation of human authority to form a basis for understanding the divine authority but Weeks notes that verses 2 and 3 present "several difficulties", and their sentence division is unclear.

Verse 1

  • "Make his face shine": in the Jerusalem Talmud, a story is related on how Rabbi Abbahu went down to Tiberias., the students of Rabbi Johanan noticed that his face was aglow. They then said to their master, Rabbi Johanan, that Rabbi Abbahu had presumably found a treasure. He responded to them, saying: "Why do you say so?" They replied to him: "It is because his face is all-shining." He said to them: "Perhaps it is because he heard a new instruction out of the Book of the Law." He went unto him, and enquired: "What new instruction have you heard out of the Law?" He said to him: "It was an old Tosefta." He then said concerning him: "A man's wisdom makes his face to shine".
  • "Hardness" : literally, "strength".

Fearing God is the wisest course (8:10–17)

Echoing the idea in Ecclesiastes 3:16–17, Qoheleth affirms that it is still 'safer to stand in fear before God', even as the righteous are sometimes regarded as wicked and the punishment of the wicked seems lacking.

Verse 15

"To eat, drink, and be merry" refers to Ecclesiastes 2:23-24; 3:13; 5:18-20; 9:7, as the remedy that Qoheleth offers, that is, to accept God's gift and place oneself in his hands.