Ecclesiastes: A 12-Week Study (Knowing the Bible)

What a wonderful book. Wow. Myself and the class has been so blessed by this study. This will stick with me forever.

I'll bottom line this -- the Preacher says: been there, done that. Either you're with God or you're toast. All else is meaningless. Take it as it comes -- enjoy your life!

My Sunday School class did this as a weekly study and it was great! Very detailed and indepth. I really got a lot out of it. I had the hard copy for class and the Kindle version to use when I didn't have my hard copy with me. This book is deep and really makes you dig into it and study hard. I really learned a lot!

Use this for a Bible study.

A solid study on the book of Ecclesiastes. I absolutely love how the questions are before the writers thoughts, views, references, and what not. That way you can do the research on your own and come up with your own ideas and let God speak to you first before the author shares his wisdom. I have done a thousand different studies and have never seen it that way. Normally the author writes his blurb, and then you have the questions. I did take away one star because a couple of chapters had questions that were just, blah. They were not really thought provoking. They were just kindergarten questions. Most of this book is really in-depth (and not for beginners) and then you get to a question that’s like “Who died on the cross for your sins?” (Not really a question, just an example). All in all, it’s a great study. Everything pointed back to Jesus! And it was theologically sound. Definitely worth your time and money.

This is an excellent, timely study that helps frame faith in the context of contemporary life and orients the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes in the fullness of Christ.

Good rich study

This book provides a solid introduction to Ecclesiastes, but with one major thematic “miss” that colors the entire treatment. Rather than focusing on what I consider to be the primary and key theme of Ecclesiastes, the vanity of life “under the sun” (in other words, in a world beneath Heaven where God’s control does not always appear evident), the author (Justin Holcomb, with J. I. Packer of “Knowing God” fame as editor) states:“ ‘A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.’ People are temporary, but the earth is lasting . . . Verses 5 and 6 establish two central metaphors that run through the rest of the book: the wind and the sun. They appear throughout the book in the phrases ‘striving after wind’ and ‘under the sun.’ These metaphors emphasize two things: the lasting significance of the earth, and humanity’s ephemeral nature by comparison.”Holcomb doesn’t appear to acknowledge that the phrase “under the sun” occurs 29 times in Ecclesiastes, and in my opinion fails to give that axiom sufficient due. The translation “wind,” which he credits equal thematic importance, appears only half as often (14 times). I believe he also misses the target right here when he considers wind to be a metaphor for the permanence of the earth, rather than for something fleeting and ephemeral that cannot be grasped (which lines up quite well with the meaning of the word usually translated “vanity,” the Hebrew “hebel,” which literally means vapor or mist). However, his approach does actually work and there is certainly nothing non-Biblical about it, but it does give an “off kilter” feel to the entire work. Treatment of some passages of Ecclesiastes feel shoehorned into Holcomb’s thematic structure, although others are little affected.As part of the “Knowing the Bible Series,” each volume approaches its respective book of the Bible by trying to cover three overarching themes: Gospel Glimpses, Whole-Bible Connections, and Theological Soundings. This is certainly a laudably cohesive approach to such a series, but obviously not all parts of the Bible are going to lend themselves to contributing neatly to those three categories. I suspect that the very unique Ecclesiastes was especially problematic in this regard, and particularly for “Gospel Glimpses” some of the parallels that were drawn seemed a bit of a stretch and rather contrived. HOWEVER, and this is a very big however, this book absolutely does the best that I have seen in applying Ecclesiastes to the Bible as a whole and to the gospel of Christ specifically. No other volume on Ecclesiastes (that I am aware of) ties the themes of the book to Christ’s work in creation and on the cross as thoroughly and as well as this book does. I loved one of the very insightful concluding statements: “Christ has rescued us from the vanity of the world by subjecting himself to that same vanity.”In summary, I would not recommend this book for a new student or a first dive into Ecclesiastes. However, for those already familiar with Ecclesiastes this book provides an excellent (though slightly off-balance) different slant, and a solid application of Ecclesiastes to the rest of scripture and to Christ’s work in particular. For the best and most straightforward introduction to Ecclesiastes I have found yet, check Executable Outlines. For an excellent basic Ecclesiastes study for women, I recommend “Ecclesiastes: Wisdom For Living Well.” For pastors and those with some formal Bible education, I also recommend the “Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs NIV Application Commentary” by Iain Provan — though I will warn you that while the Ecclesiastes treatment is quite sound I found his interpretation of Song of Songs (the second half of the book) to be quite unbiblical. Lastly, for another book that provides a different slant on Ecclesiastes I also recommend “Ecclesiastes Through New Eyes: A Table in the Mist,” though not over this book.And one concluding note: If you are searching Ecclesiastes books in order to teach a Sunday School or small group study, here are some ideas and suggestions from two 12-week classes on the book that I taught:— Bring in old copies of Popular Mechanics magazines or “Space 1999” or “2001: A Space Odyssey” videos and discuss how things often don’t change as quickly as we’d like them to (Chapter 1).— A copy of Shakespeare’s plays helps illustrate that human nature — and many other things — do not change with time (Chapter 1).— Bring in a picture of a cave painting, a book, audio book cassette, CD, VHS tape, DVD, and Blu-ray movie to illustrate that while the medium changes the basic human need for telling a good story is “nothing new under the sun” (Chapter 1).— Begin class with an artificial apple sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Pass the apple from person to person and have them describe a “fruit of their labor” that they are proud of achieving either at work or home. Or, provide advance warning and give class members a chance to bring in a related photo or item to share with the group. (Multiple chapters.)— Play a YouTube video of The Byrds' song “Turn, Turn, Turn” for Chapter 3.— Bring in your child’s copy of “All Dogs Go to Heaven” and discuss whether you believe animals have souls or not for Chapter 3. I displayed on an easel a large canvas print I had made of our favorite cat.— Discuss the “100 Things Challenge” where individuals try to live with only 100 individual possessions (for discussing riches in Chapter 5).— For the final session, I brought in many of the items that I had displayed for discussion throughout the three-month class. This led to many reminiscences and discussions as we wrapped up the conclusion. Ecclesiastes covers a diverse range of topics, and in-class object lessons and application are limited only by your imagination!— A sub-theme throughout Ecclesiastes is that bad things happen to good people. The following is not straight from Ecclesiastes, but I will tell you that at least two reasons for this are (1) We live in a fallen world with earthquakes, tornadoes, viruses, and cancer. Barring divine intervention these do not discriminate between Christian and non-Christian; and (2) God has given man free will, and — again barring divine intervention — that free will allows man to steal, harm, and even kill. There are certainly other reasons but these are two that we discussed in the class.

OK

I was rather shocked to receive a book with faulty pages. See pictures.