
Below is an interview between myself and OT Scholar Pete Enns. He is one of the foremost thinkers on critical scholarship and evangelical faith. You can read his thoughts on Ecclesiastes below, which in my opinion is one of the most confusing books in the bible.Β You can read the other parts of the series hereβ¦.
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How does all of this fit with the rest of the Bible? Isnβt Ecclesiastes way out of sync with the life of faith Scripture holds out for us?
Ecclesiastes lets us in on the dark side of faith, something every Christians experiences sooner later. I would say that Ecclesiastes is in conversation with Israelβs religious tradition.
The baseline Old Testament teaching (letβs call it) is that God rewards Israel when faithful and punishes when disobedient. This theology is behind the Pentateuch, many of the prophets, and Proverbs. Psalm 1 is a good summary of that idea. What Ecclesiastes shares with Job and many of the lament psalms is a critique of that baseline teaching.
In their own way, each of these says, βLife is not the way God promised it would be, with blessings to the righteous and curses to the wicked. The opposite is true uncomfortably often. What is the world is God doing? What is he waiting for?β
Parts of the Bible challenge other parts?
Yes. These challenging voices say, βUh. Excuse me. If God is God, and he says he will reward the faithful and punish the wicked, how come I keep seeing the exact opposite? Why canβt God just make the systemβhis own system!!βwork all the time? I get the principle, but itβs not reliable, which means God is not reliableβand which means I am having a faith crisis.β
The book of Job engages that complaint by saying, βGod is God. Donβt question him. He knows what heβs doing.β The lament psalms resolve this complaint in worship and by encouraging patience. Ecclesiastes resolves it by leaving the tension in a state of paradox. The book does not solve anything; it gives readers the resolve to keep going.
Once you decide to keep going in the faith journey in the face of apparently incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, you have won. That mindset is where Ecclesiastes takes us.
Doesnβt the New Testament fix Qoheletβs problem? How seriously can we take Qoheletβs extreme view in light of the Gospel?
It is a mistake to think of Ecclesiastes as a book that shows what happens to you if you stop trusting Jesus. It is a book that explores unflinchingly an inevitable dimension of the faith journeyβdoubt, even anger toward God. Only people of faith experience Qoheletβs despair; only those of deep faith struggle with their faith this deeply.
Most Christians I know have felt as despondent as Qohelet doesβat least those who keep their eyes open and try to life a faithful life. I know I certainly have.
When we feel as if God is truly nowhere to be found, we are in good company. This sense of utter alienation from God is not absent from the New Testament. In fact, it is modeled for us in Jesusβ sense of God-abandonment in the garden and on the cross. Jesus did not just βfeelβ aloneβhe was alone. Part of following Christ, of being βin Christβ as Paul puts it, is participating in that same type of sufferingβa point Paul famously makes in Phil 3:10, that believers βparticipateβ in Christβs sufferings.
We need to learn to expect our own βQohelet momentsβ in life.
Struggling with faith is a common, universal, Christian phenomenon. So maybe Qoheletβs words are not that far from our own experience.
Exactly. Anyone who has been a Christian for more than 45 minutes knows something of the disconnect between how things are and what they ought to be.
A lost chapter of church history, especially for many Protestants, is the experience spiritual depression by such mystic figures as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. The βdark night of the soulβ is that sense of utter spiritual darkness where one has no foothold, no foundation for faith, no sense of spiritual orientation. The familiar trappings are gone.
When God feels absent or non-existent, he does not come to the rescue like a helicopter parent. He leaves you in that pitch-black spiritual cave until every last bit of ego-driven βcontrolβ of your spiritual life is exposed for the sham that it is. He allows the βgodβ of our own imaginations to fade away so that he can begin the deeper process of forming us into spiritual begins who are content to trust rather than control.
Paradoxically, when God seems non-existent, it is then that he may actually be most at work. A Christian theology that learns to accept the dark night will be able to give thanks to God in any and all circumstances.
So, yeah, there is quite a bit in Ecclesiastes that intersects with the Gospel. Knowing Jesus doesnβt keep us from these experiences of alienation from God. They may actually bring us closer toward these experiences. That is all part of the Christian packageβsuffering conforms us to Christβs image.
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Peter Enns (PhD, Harvard University) is senior fellow of biblical studies for The BioLogos Foundation, an organization founded by Francis Collins that explores, promotes, and celebrates the integration of science and Christian faith. From his office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he writes a regular column for The BioLogos Forum blog Science and the Sacred. Enns has taught at Eastern University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary and is the author or editor of several books, including Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament and two forthcoming books βEcclesiastes (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary) and Evolution of Adam, The: What the Bible Does and Doesnβt Say about Human Origins.
You can order Peteβs commentary for βpre-orderβ by clicking the image below: