Septuagint: Ecclesiastes

By Scriptural Research Institute

The book of Ecclesiastes is generally attributed to King Solomon, however, he is not mentioned anywhere by name. Within the book the author is mentioned as being someone called the ‘ecclêsiastou’ in Greek, meaning approximately ‘female cleric,’ and qōhelet in Hebrew, possibly meaning ‘female member of the community.’ The Masoretic term probably originated in the Egyptian term qải henut, meaning ‘high queen,’ suggesting the author was Solomon’s first wife. If qải henut were transliterated directly into Canaanite in the era of Solomon, it would have been qhnt, which could have been rendered as qhlt by mistransliterating an L for an N.
The current view of the academic community is to regard the text as a Persian or Greek era text, something that dates to long after the time of Solomon. There is no consensus among academics as to whether it is a Persian or Greek era text, and views are largely biased by the researcher’s view of the text, and whether it looks like it is more influenced by Plato or Zoroastrianism to that specific researcher. In all fairness, the text’s constant references to the dichotomy of light and darkness is similar to some of Plato’s work, as well as the central conflict within Zoroastrianism of light versus darkness, however, the constant mentioning of ‘everything under the Sun’ could equally point to an Egyptian influence of Amen-Ra worshipers, Atum devotees, or even Atenists. Moreover, the philosophical view of the texts, in which the toil of this life is seen as insignificant in comparison to the life in heaven, is far more in tune with Egyptian New-Kingdom era philosophy than Greek or Persian philosophy, indicating that the text may well date back to the time of Solomon.
As most major Christians denominations now agree that the Proverbs ‘of Solomon’ include proverbs copied from the ancient Egyptian text called the ‘Wisdom of Amenemope’ (or Instructions of Amenemope), there is a clear precedent for New-Kingdom era Egyptian wisdom literature influencing the works traditionally associated with King Solomon, and therefore, there is no reason to rule out Ecclesiastes as dating back to circa 950 BC. As archaeologists have yet to find evidence that King Solomon existed, he is generally considered to be a fictional character by historians, however, the fact that the Book of Proverbs attributed to him includes quotes from an ancient Egyptian source does lend some creditably to his being a historical person.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989852095

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Septuagint: Ecclesiastes

Septuagint, Volume 30

SCRIPTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Published by Digital Ink Productions, 2022

Copyright

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Septuagint: Ecclesiastes

Digital edition. June 18, 2022

Copyright © 2022 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1989852095

The Septuagint was translated into Greek at the Library of Alexandria between 250 and 132 BC.

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2020 through 2022, primarily from the Codex Vaticanus, although the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus were also used for reference. Additionally, the Westminster Leningrad Codex and Aleppo Codex of the Masoretic Text, and the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QQoha and 4QQohb, were used for comparative analysis.

The image used for the cover is ‘Dream of Solomon’ by Luca Giordano, painted in 1694 and 1695.

Note: The notes for this book include multiple ancient scripts. For your convenience, the Quivira font from Alexander Lange, and the Noto fonts from Google are embedded in the ebook. If your reader does not support embedded fonts, you will need to install Unicode fonts that cover the ranges for Akkadian Cuneiform, Greek, Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, and Phoenician on your reader manually, or you may see blank areas, question marks, or squares where the scripts are used.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

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In the mid-3rd century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Canaanite and Aramaic scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The final version of the Septuagint was published in 132 BC, which included the book of Ecclesiastes.

The book of Ecclesiastes is generally attributed to King Solomon, however, he is not mentioned anywhere by name. Within the book the author is mentioned as being someone called the ‘ecclêsiastou’ (ἘΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΟΥ͂) in Greek, meaning approximately ‘female cleric,’ and qōhelet (קֹהֶ֣לֶת) in Hebrew, possibly meaning ‘female member of the community.’ The Masoretic term probably originated in the Egyptian term qải henut (transliterated hieroglyphs: qꜣj ḥnwt), meaning ‘high queen,’ suggesting the author was Solomon’s first wife. If qải henut were transliterated directly into Canaanite in the era of Solomon, it would have been qhnt (𐤒𐤄𐤍𐤕), which could have been rendered as qhlt (קהלת) by mistransliterating an L (ל) for