Qoheleth the Irreligious

Writing the script for my graphic novel continues at a glacial pace. I attribute this slow progress to the puzzling words coming out of Mr. Q’s mouth. Mr. Q, as you will recall from earlier posts, is the university professor named after the author of Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth. As Mr. Q speaks the words of Ecclesiastes I write the comments of students who hear and respond to his words.

This morning Mr. Q spoke Ecclesiastes 7:16-17, “Do not be overly righteous and do not be overly wicked.”

What irreligious words to come from the Bible! Even casual readers of the good book learn that Bible promotes ṻber-righteousness and has zero tolerance for wickedness.

In this post, rather than trying to untangle this hermeneutic knot, and without disclosing my imagined student reactions to such a comment, I think I’ll simply itemize many of the irreligious comments from Ecclesiastes (chapters 1 to 7:17).

“Everything is vanity.” These are odd words coming from a book purporting to offer meaning to life.

“There is nothing new under the sun.” Readers of the New Testament familiar with new birth, new covenant, new heaven, and new earth, will find these words puzzling.

“There is no remembrance of earlier things.” Again, the Eucharist is a remembrance ceremony.

“What is crooked cannot be straitened.” Christian therapists like me make our livelihoods helping people get untwisted.

“In much wisdom there is much grief.” Tell that to Solomon who wrote of wisdom in glowing and effusive terms.

“Increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.” This seems overstated to me, especially after a recent trip to the dentist. Knowledge of Novocain decreased my pain.

“The same fate befalls the wise and the foolish.” Really?

“I hated life.” Tell me more of this philosophy of yours; I’m terribly interested.

“God tests people so we see we are but beasts.” Yet Jesus said we are worth more than sparrows.

“The fate of humans and the fate of beasts is the same.” PETA will love this; but even beasts will get separated (“sheep to the right; goats to the left” – Matt. 25).

“There is a time for war.” I’m a (weak) pacifist and wish there was never a time for war. I relish the fantasy of non-violence, sanctions rather than SCUD missiles, and lions and lambs hanging out together.

“All return to the dust.” Ecclesiastes is vague on the afterlife. Not silent, just vague.

“I congratulated the dead who are already dead.” Camus (or was that Kafka?) rightly asked, “Why then not commit suicide?”

“Every labor is the result of rivalry.” No altruism? Hmmm.

“God will destroy the work of vow breakers.” What do we make of vow breakers whose work has not been destroyed?

“As a man is born, thus he will die. So what is the advantage of living?” Well, the point of religion is to answer such a question.

“It [the unborn] comes in futility and goes into obscurity.” Pro lifers won’t like hearing Qoholeth calling a fetus an “it.” In addition, granting rights to an “it” that is “futile” and “obscure” is a hard sell if all we have to go by is Ecclesiastes.

“What the eye sees is better than what the soul desires.” Yet in the New Testament it’s the invisible world that gets top billing.

“Who knows what is good for a man during his life time?” For a small donation televangelists will be happy to tell you what is good for you.

“Sorrow is better than laughter.” Try growing a church using that meme.

“Money is a protection.” Hmmm. The New Testament seems to see wealth differently.

“Do not be over righteous.” Try telling this to pietists, holy rollers, and Puritans.

“Do not be overly wicked.” As if being moderately wicked was okay.

My point in listing these irreligious comments is to ask myself why they are in the Bible at all. I refuse to ignore them, write them off as the rant of the demon possessed, or pretend that Qoholeth was being sarcastic and didn’t really mean them.

At this point I’m not really sure why they are there. So my slow grappling continues.