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Being as Breath, Vapor as Joy: Using Martin Heidegger to Re-read the Book of Ecclesiastes

Johns Hopkins University, Humanities Center, 113 Gilman Hall, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

This article is a philosophical re-examination of Ecclesiastes using the work of Martin Heidegger, particularly his early work in Being and Time. Heidegger's focus on death, temporality, and history provides a powerful and compelling framework for understanding these same themes in Ecclesiastes. In elaborating these philosophical motifs and correspondences, this article proposes that should be understood as an analog to Heidegger's concept of Geschichtlichkeit (historicity). If is understood as such, then most of the traditionally puzzling terms in Ecclesiastes (e.g. , , ) can be made sense of using the aforementioned philosophical framework. This framework additionally shows that Ecclesiastes (like Being and Time) cannot be understood as a proto-existentialist text.

Key Words: Ecclesiastes • Qohelet • hebel • vanity • Martin Heidegger • Being and Time • Wisdom literature.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 33, No. 2, 219-244 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0309089208099257


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