A new approach to Qohelet 11:1

 

 

Aron Pinker

Maryland, USA

Correspondence

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

Determination of the meaning of Qoh 11:1 has been, and continues to be, one of the many problems that we face in the interpretation of the Book of Qohelet. None of the interpretations that have been discussed can circumvent the fact that the figure presented in the MT is unrealistic and untenable. Clearly, any approach to the resolution of the textual difficulties has to be anchored in text, context, and structure. The author provides an overview of a representative sample of interpretations for Qoh 11:1. His analysis shows that the various interpretations are not solidly anchored in the text. The text per se does not exhibit a compelling preference for any particular interpretation of those that have been discussed. Moreover, each of the interpretations has a number of serious deficiencies. Facing such inadequacies it seems reasonable to reconsider the premise at the basis of the standard approaches to Qoh 11:1, namely, that Qoh 11:1 begins a new unit. The author considers Qoh 11:1 to continue the warnings against unguarded talk which Qohelet started to present in 10:20. The author suggests that the Urtext of Qoh 11:1 was, "Whisper your dream upon the water, yea, in many seas you will find it. " This can be paraphrased: whisper to your reflection upon the water your dream, and you will find what you whispered in many seas; that is, it will be heard by others in public places. No secret, once uttered, is anymore a secret. This sense for Qoh 11:1, continues and develops an idea that Qohelet began to expound in 10:20, in reaction to the many informers which were active during the Ptolemaic rule.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bar, S. A Letter that has not been read: Dreams in the Hebrew Bible. New York: Hebrew Union College Press, 2001.         [ Links ]

Barton, G. A. Ecclesiastes. ICC. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908.         [ Links ]

Betz, H. D. (ed.). The Greek magical papyri in translation, including the Demotic spells. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1992.         [ Links ]

Bienkowski, P. "Administration." Pages 3-4 in Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. Edited by P. Bienkowski and A. R. Millard, University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.         [ Links ]

Brenton, L. C. L. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.         [ Links ]

Brown, F., Driver, S., and Briggs, C. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2001.         [ Links ]

Buttler, S. Mesopotamian Conceptions of dreams and Dream Rituals, Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1998.         [ Links ]

Cathcart, K. J. "Numbers 24:17 in ancient translations and interpretations." Pages 511-529 in Interpretation of the Bible: the International Symposium in Slovenia. Edited by J. Krasovec.. Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.         [ Links ]

Cole, P. (trans.). Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1996.         [ Links ]

Crenshaw, J. L. Ecclesiastes, A Commentary. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987.         [ Links ]

De Jong, S. "Qohelet and the Ambitious Spirit of the Ptolemaic Period." JSOT 61 (1994): 85-96.         [ Links ]

De Souza, P. Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002.         [ Links ]

Devereux, P. Earth Memory: Sacred Sites - Doorways into Earth's Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1992.         [ Links ]

Faust, A. and Ashkenazy, Y. "Excess in precipitation as a cause for settlement decline along the Israeli coastal plain during the third millennium BC." Quaternary Research 68,1 (2007): 37-44.         [ Links ]

Feliks, J. Plant World of the Bible. Ramat-Gan: Massada, 1968.         [ Links ]

Fox, M. V. Qohelet and his Contradictions. JSOTSup 71, 1989.         [ Links ]

_____. The JPS Bible Commentary, Ecclesiastes Philadelphia: JPS, 2004.         [ Links ]

Fredericks, D. F. "Life's Storms and Structural Unity in Qoheleth 11:1-12:8." JSOT 52 (1991): 95-114.         [ Links ]

Gemser, B. The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy' and Biblical Wisdom Literature. Leiden: Brill, 1959.         [ Links ]

Ginsberg, H. L. Studies in Koheleth. New York: JTS, 1950.         [ Links ]

Gordis, R. "The Asseverative Kaph in Hebrew and Ugaritic." JAOS 63 (1943): 176-178.         [ Links ]

_____. Koheleth - The Man and his world, a study of Ecclesiastes. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.         [ Links ]

Graetz, H. Kohelet. Leipzig: C.F. Winter'sche Verlagshandlung, 1871.         [ Links ]

Halliday, W. R. Greek divination; a study of its methods and principles. London: Macmillan, 1913.         [ Links ]

Hertzberg, H. W. Der Prediger (Qohelet) ubersetzt und erklart von H.W. Hertzberg. Leipzig: Deichert, 1932.         [ Links ]

Hetzenauer, M. BIBLIA SACRA VULGATE. EDITIONIS SIXTI V PONT. MAX. Rome, 1922.         [ Links ]

Homan, M. M. "Beer Production by Throwing Bread into Water: A New Interpretation of Qoh. XI 1-2." VT 52,2 (2002): 275-278.         [ Links ]

Japhet, S. and Salter, R. B. The Commentary of R. Samuel Ben Meir Rashbam On Qoheleth. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1985.         [ Links ]

Jastrow, M. A Dictionary of the Targumim, The Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. New-York: Traditional Press, 1903.         [ Links ]

_____. A Gentle Cynic, Being a Translation of the Book of Koheleth, Commonly Known as Ecclesiastes, Stripped of Later Additions, also its Origin, Growth, and Interpretation. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1919.         [ Links ]

Kashtan, N. "AKKO-Ptolemais: A maritime metropolis in Hellenistic and early roman times, 332 BCE-70 CE, as seen through literary sources." Pages 37-53 in Mediterranean Cities: Historical Perspective. Edited by I. Malkin. and R. L. Hohlfelder, New York: Routledge, 1988.         [ Links ]

_____ "Seafaring and Jews in Graeco-Roman Palestine: Realistic and Symbolic Dimensions." Pages 16-28 in Seafaring and Jews. Edited by N. Kashatan,. New York: Routledge, 2001.         [ Links ]

Knobel, P. S. The Targum of Qohelet. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1991.         [ Links ]

Kruger, H. A. J. "Old Age Frailty versus Cosmic Deterioration." Pages 399-411 in Qohelet In The Context of Wisdom. Edited by A. Schoors. Leuven: University Press, 1998.         [ Links ]

Lamsa, G. M. The Holy Bible From the Ancient Eastern Text. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.         [ Links ]

Lavoie, J.-J. " 'Laisse aller ton pain sur la surface des Eaux' Étude Qohélet 11,2." Pages 75-90 in The Language of Qohelet In Its Context. Edited by A. Berlejung and P. Van Hecke, P. Leuven: Peeters, 2007.         [ Links ]

Levine, E. The Aramaic Version of Qohelet. NewYork: Sepher-Hermon, 1978.         [ Links ]

Levy, L. Das Buch Qoheleth. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Sadduzäismus kritisch untersucht. Leipzig: Hinrich's, 1912.         [ Links ]

Lichtheim, M. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley: Univ. of California, 1973-80.         [ Links ]

_____. Late Egyptian wisdom literature in the international context: a study of demotic instructions. Freiburg: Universitatsverlag; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983.         [ Links ]

Lohfink, N. Qoheleth, A Continental Commentary (trans. S. McEvenue,). Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.         [ Links ]

Longman, T. The Book of Ecclesiastes. NICOT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.         [ Links ]

Loretz, O. Qohelet und der alte Orient: Untersuchungen zu Stil und theologischer Thematik des Buches Qohelet. Freiburg: Herder, 1964.         [ Links ]

Michel, D. Untersuchungen zur Eigenart des Buches Qohelet. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1989.         [ Links ]

_____. Qohelet. Erträge der Forschung 258. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988.         [ Links ]

Mikam (Mahler), M. Pages 114-115 in Sepher Tur-Sina. Edited by M. Haran and B-Z Luria, Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher, 1960.         [ Links ]

Montgomery, J. A. "Notes on Ecclesiastes." JBL 43,3/4 (1924): 241-244.         [ Links ]

Moshkowitz, Y. Z. Jerusalem: Mosad HaRav Kook, 1985.         [ Links ]

Murphy, R. E. Ecclesiastes. WBC. Dallas: Word, 1992.         [ Links ]

Ogden, G. S. "Qoheleth 11:1." VT 33,2 (1983): 222-230.         [ Links ]

Oppenheim, A. L. The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East, with a Translation of an Assyrian Dream-Book. Philadelphia: Transactions of the American Philological Society, 1956.         [ Links ]

Parker, A .J. Ancient shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces. Oxford: Tempus, 1992.         [ Links ]

Pastor, J. Land and Economy in Ancient Palestine. New York: Routledge, 1997.         [ Links ]

Perry, T. A. Dialogues with Kohelet: The Book of Ecclesiastes. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.         [ Links ]

Pinker, A. "Intrusion of Ptolemaic Reality on Cultic Practices in Qohelet 4:17 and the Unit to which it belongs." JHS Vol. 9, Art. 21 (2009): 1-30.         [ Links ]

Podechard, E. L'Ecclésiaste. Paris: Lecoffre, 1912.         [ Links ]

Rostovtzeff, M. I. The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (I-III). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941.         [ Links ]

Staerk, W. "Zur Exegese von Koh 10 ₂₀ und 11 ₁." ZAW 59 (1942/43): 216-218.         [ Links ]

Stoute, P. P. "Bread upon the waters." BibSac 107 (1950): 223-224.         [ Links ]

Taylor, R. M. The Moral Mirror of Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008.         [ Links ]

Tcherikover, V. Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews. New York: Atheneum, 1985.         [ Links ]

Tsukimoto, A. "The background of Qoh 11:1-6 and Qohelet's agnosticism." Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 19 (1993): 34-52.         [ Links ]

Tur-Sinai, N. H. II. Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1960.         [ Links ]

Uehlinger, C. "Qohelet im Horizont mesoptamischer, levantinischer und ägyptyscher Weisheitsliteratur der persischen und hellenistischen zeit." Pages 155-247 in Das Buch Kohelet: Studien zu Struktur, Geschchte, Rezeption und Theologie. BZAW 254. Edited by O. Kaiser. Berlin. W. de Gruyter, 1997.         [ Links ]

Whybray, R.N. Ecclesiastes. Old Testament Guids. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989.         [ Links ]

Zer-Kavod, M.. In Jerusalem: Mosad Ha-Rav Kook, 1973. Zimmermann, F. "Aramaic provenance of Qohelet." JQR (1945): 17-45.         [ Links ]

_____. The Inner World of Qohelet. New York: KTAV, 1973.         [ Links ]

 

 

Correspondence:
Aron Pinker, Monticello Avenue
Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A
E-mail: aronpinker@hotmail.com