Here Was One

No. 24

Author

Grant Hodges
May 01, 2024

Ecclesiastes

Dear Reader,

The genre of literary fiction that’s most in style at the moment is autofiction. Recent practitioners include everyone from Annie Ernaux, to V.S. Naipaul, to Karl Ove Knausgård. The word is a portmanteau of the phrase “fictionalized autobiography,” and refers to literary works that employ fictional elements, occurrences, or devices while simultaneously recounting facts that, to one degree or another, track the author’s biography.

The roots of autofiction can be traced back centuries, and our text today—Ecclesiastes—is an early example of it.

Background

Ecclesiastes is a biblical narrative, introduced as “[t]he words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem,” which describes the Preacher’s journey through life and the conclusions he draws from his experiences. Written between about 500 and 200 BCE, it was originally believed to be authored by King Solomon. The book appears in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. A highly complex work, the point of views shifts on at least three occasions, and the text includes several varieties of poetry.

The following are two of the most famous excerpts from the first and third chapters:

From Ecclesiastes (1:1-11 and 3:1-8)

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

…

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What It Offers

In the introduction to his 1935 anthology, The Poet's Tongue, W.H. Auden offered his “simplest” definition of poetry: “memorable speech.” Ecclesiastes contains some of the most memorable speech ever consigned to the page. Countless writers have either alluded to or quoted extensively from the book in their own works, including Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Robert Burns, George Orwell, Christina Rossetti, and the film director, Oliver Stone. Consider the following book titles, all of which are taken directly from the text:

  • A Time to Kill (John Grisham)

  • The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)

  • The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)

  • The Golden Bowl (Henry James)

  • Every Secret Thing (Laura Lippman)

  • Earth Abides (George R. Stewart)

It’s fair to say that Ecclesiastes has had an incredible influence—maybe more than any other biblical text—on Western Literature. And the best part is that no one knows how or why it was added to the canon in the first place. The text contains comparatively few references to God, it seems to have been cobbled together with Persian loanwords and Egyptian Aramaicisms, and the Preacher at times acknowledges his own skepticism about the nature of divine justice and the value of existence. Nevertheless, 2500 years later, it remains, proof of the sticking-power of its speech.

As the American author, Thomas Wolfe, put it:

“[O]f all I have ever seen or learned, [Ecclesiastes] seems to me the noblest, the wisest, and the most powerful expression of man's life upon this earth—and also the highest flower of poetry, eloquence, and truth. I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter of literary creation, but if I had to make one I could say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom expressed in it the most lasting and profound.”

*****

What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.

Virginia Woolf