QOHELETH: ENIGMATIC PESSIMIST OR GODLY SAGE?

The enigmatic character and polarized structure of the book of Qoheleth is not a defective quality but rather a deliberate literary device of Hebrew thought patterns designed to reflect the paradoxical and anomalous nature of this present world. The difficulty of interpreting (his book is proportionally related to one's own readiness to adopt Qoheleth's presupposition-that everything about this world is marred by the tyranny of the curse which the Lord God placed upon all creation. If one fails to recognize that this is a foundational, presupposition from which Ecclesiastes operates, then one will fail to comprehend the message of the book, and bewilderment will continue.

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