THE PULPIT COMMENTARY,' EDITED BY THE VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER; AND BY THE REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A. WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY THE VEN. ARCHDEACON F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S. London: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LT 1893. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 45,554 (The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.) THE PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD. 1893. ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. INTRODUCTION. § 1. TITLE OF THE BOOK. THE book is called in the Hebrew Koheleth, a title taken from its opening sentence, "The words of Koheleth, the son of David, King in Jerusalem." In the Greek and Latin Versions it is entitled 'Ecclesiastes,' which Jerome elucidates by remarking that in Greek a person is so called who gathers the congregation, or ecclesia. Aquila transliterates the word, Koλé; what Symmachus gave is uncertain, but probably IIapoiaσrýs, 'Proverb-monger.' The Venetian Greek has Ἡ Ἐκκλησιάστρια and Ἡ Ἐκκλησιάζουσα. In modern versions the name is usually 'Ecclesiastes; or, The Preacher.' Luther boldly gives 'The Preacher Solomon.' This is not a satisfactory rendering. to modern ears; and, indeed, it is difficult to find a term which will adequately represent the Hebrew word. Koheleth is a participle feminine from a root kahal (whence the Greek kaλéw, Latin calo, and English "call "), which means, "to call, to assemble," especially for religious or solemn purposes. The word and its derivatives are always applied to people, and not to things. So the term, which gives its name to our book, signifies a female assembler or collector of persons for Divine worship, or in order to address them. It can, therefore, not mean "Gatherer of wisdom," ""Collector of maxims," but "Gatherer of God's people" (1 Kings viii. 1); others make it equivalent to Debater," which term affords a clue to the variation of opinions in the work. It is generally constructed as a masculine and without the article, but once as feminine (ch. vii. 27, if the reading is correct), and once with the article (ch. xii. 8). The feminine form is by some accounted for, not by supposing Koheleth to represent an office, and therefore as used abstractedly, but as being the personification of Wisdom, whose business it is to gather people unto the Lord and make them a holy congregation. In Proverbs sometimes Wisdom herself speaks (e.g. Prov. i. 20), sometimes the author speaks of her (e.g. Prov. viii. 1, etc.). So ECCLESIASTES. b |