I am lost in wonder at Ecclesiastes. For all the mad raven's crowing in it, for all the misanthropy and misogyny, for all the great, thrilling, literary despair, I love the thing.
"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
As a dream comes when there are many cares,
so the speech of a fool when there are many words.
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, "My vow was a mistake." Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless."
Though I know I am forgiven for my hasty, false vows in many things, I am struck to the heart by this, in a clean, razor-sharp lighting bolt.
There is something in the unrelenting doom of Koheleth that is both deeply convicting and deeply uplifting. "Meaninglessness! Vanity! Withering into dust! All men forgotten! Chasing after wind!" and yet he cared deeply enough to write a document that has remained and existed for thousands of years. There is a bone-deep humour in it, and yet I am neither laughing at him, nor with him. It's not satire, he's not being subversive, he is deeply in earnest, absolutely stone-dead straight-faced, and yet for some reason, reading the truth about ourselves is not the horrifying experience it is supposed to be. There is more meaning, and life, and breath, and drive in this poem to futility than in almost any other piece of writing I have found. Mortality, calamity, unfairness, misery, all are true, all are part of our existence, all are inescapable. I don't know how he does it, but somehow, knowing that in the end all things come to dust does not take away the thirst for living, and gives a sense of wholeness and peace rather than a compulsion to hysterical consumption.
Funny, innit?
"In the diminishment of the ego comes the expansion of the consiousness. This is the sublime."
-Joseph Campbell
5 comments:
Ever read the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Pullman?
No, should I? Were these the ones we were talking about at the Friendly 8?
My memory is extremely poor.
It may have been. It is mind bending tale of religion dogma and morality. However, it's wrapped in a delightful children's story. And like all good children's stories it appeals to adults.
Think Harry Potter on mind altering substances.
A crucial paraphrase: Lord Asriel is massing his armies for an assault on heaven.
Pretty sure it will get banned in some states.
I love what you say about Ecclesiastes. A question, though: who or what is "Koeleth"? I am not familiar with this name. Is it a Hebrew name for the author of Ecclesiastes (who I used to be told was Solomon)? Or is it a contemporary author who you are somehow relating to Ecclesiastes? I feel ignorant, but the cure for that is always to ask a question.
- - Rich Accetta-Evans
Hello, Rich. Thanks... :) I've been knee-deep in a modern Jewish translation of the Torah, and had the Hebrew name for the book/author of Ecclesiaties in my mind. I also spelled it wrong, leaving out an H, which would have further confused the issue. Ecclesiastes is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew Koheleth, which is roughly translated "Preacher" or "Teacher" though the most ancient meanings of the word are still debated.
I'm not nearly a biblical scholar, though, so this is a rough answer. :)
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