For the Gospel Coalition web site, I recently reviewed a book by Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes.
Greidanus opens Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes with the observation, “Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult biblical book to interpret and teach (1).” He isn’t the first to observe that Ecclesiastes is tough going for students of Scripture. In How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth (243), Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart wrote:
Ecclesiastes is a very difficult book to read, with several passages that seem self-contradictory and others that seem contradictory to the whole of biblical revelation. This confusion has led to polar opposite interpretations, as can be seen from two of the recommended commentaries . . . (whose authors happen to be close friends of one another). Professor Longman (along with one of us) understands Ecclesiastes to be an expression of cynical wisdom, which serves as a kind of “foil” regarding an outlook on life that should be avoided; Professor Provan (along with one of us) understands the book more positively.
So two recommended evangelical commentaries disagree about the purpose of Ecclesiastes—not just a particular passage, you understand, but rather they are fundamentally at odds about the overall purpose of the book. And if Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart can’t agree about which of them is right, how are the rest of us to proceed with confidence?
The rest here.
