Is Everything Meaningless? John's Response to Ecclesiastes (Part 5)

Why does John end much like Ecclesiastes? What point is he attempting to get across? When we examine the gospel of John we find there are two different worlds; a higher world and a lower world. For instance in John 3:12 Jesus tells Nicodimus, "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Likewise in 8:23 Jesus states, "I am from above, you are from below; you are of this world, I am not of this world." These two different realms represent two different modes of knowing. The lower world is the world of tangiable experience. It's the world we can see, taste, touch and hear. In the words of Ecclesiastes, it's the world "under the sun." The higher world, on the other hand, is the world outside the limits of Ecclesiastes empirical knowledge. It's the reallity to which the writer of that book only briefly alludes. John on the other hand, makes this higher world the very foundation of his story. According to John the higher world, that which is above the sun has come to man. In John 1:1-18, John tells, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God. He was with God in the beginning... And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us... No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is the bosom of the Father, He has made Him Known." John, like Ecclesiates, focus' attention on seeing and believing; like the former book He expresses the importance of a tangiable witness. Like Ecclesiastes John recognizes the source of all things is God. But unlike Ecclesiastes, John testifies that the hope, the purpose, the point, the Logos of the higher world has entered thetangiable world and made Himself known to man. (Again sorry it's taken me so long to write. I going to finish this series. I promise.)

Is Everything Meaningless? John's Response To Ecclesiastes (Part 4)

Sorry its been so long since I have really written anything. I need to learn to bite the bullet and just publish my posts instead of obsessing over every word. That's why I started this blog in the first place; to practice getting my words on page in a reasonable amount of time. Well here it goes.

What does Ecclesiastes have to do with the gospel of John? Good question. For starters both Ecclesiastes and John end in much the same way.

Ecclesiastes:

In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful worlds and to write words of truth correctly. The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned; the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearing to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:9-14)

John:

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:24-25)

Notice how both Ecclesiastes and John end on a statement concerning many books. Ecclesiastes warns of an endless craving for books. John suggests that if all the deeds of Jesus were written, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. Sounds similar doesn't it? Well if you think I making mountains out of mole hills there's also a statistical connection. Out of the sixty-six books in the bible, only these two works end with a statement concerning books.

Dig a little deeper the connection between Ecclesiastes and John grows even stronger. Both endings, surpisingly, are postscripts written by someone other than the main author. The majority of Ecclesiastes is written from a first person perspective. Read it and you will see how many times the first person singular pronoun (a.k.a. "I") appears. But the end refers to the author in the third person (i.e. the "Preacher"). John, like Ecclesiastes, also ends by the hand of someone other than the main author. "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true." Notice how "his" is not included in the "we."

These connections shouldn't come as a surprise for those familar with John's Gospel. John intentionally creates many subtle allusions to the Old Testament. For example...

1. When Jesus says in John 1:51, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man," he echoes Genesis 28:12-19. "Jacob had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."
2. Jesus meeting with a woman by a well in John chapter 4 recalls Abraham's servants meeting with Rebecca, the future wife of Isacc, in Genesis 24. Both the servant and Jesus go to a forign land, sit down by and well and ask a local girl for a drink.
3. After Jesus crosses the sea in John chapter six he is confronted by a grumbling (6:41, 61; 7:12) crowd wanting the "mana" which Moses provided the children of Israel. This recalls Exodus 16, where the children of Israel after crossing of the red sea "grumble" for food in the desert (Exodus 16:2, 7, 8, 9, 12; 17:3).

These words and phrases are very specific. Often times they only occur twice in the entire bible, once in John and once in the story he is establishing a connection with.

The list of these connection could continue. But for our purposes it is important to note that many of John's key allusions point to a particular genere of Jewish writings known as wisdom literature. These writing include such apocraphal works as Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Solmon as well as Old Testament works such as proverbs. and yea you guess it, Ecclesiastes.

So the question is why does John establish a connection to the book of Ecclesiastes? I'll focus on that question in my next post.

Is Everything Meaningless? John's Response to Ecclesiastes (Part 3)

The narrow naturalistic, seeing-is-beleiving perspective, which leads the writer of Ecclesiastes to despair, can be expressed best in this illustration.


By limiting his search to the world "under the sun," the writer of Ecclesiastes guarantees the results of his findings. If a higher world does not exist then the world is "meaningless."

Is Everything Meaningless? John's Response to Ecclesiastes (Part 2)

I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say, “I’ll believe it if I can see it.” It’s a common expression in a world where “seeing is believing.” Since the world is tangible concrete proof matters. But there is a problem with this naturalistic perspective. Our eyes simply cannot see meaning.

The writer of Ecclesiastes (a.k.a. Qohelet or The Assembler) expresses the point best. In his book, he observes the world “under the sun.” Like a modern scientist,

“He seeks out experience of every kind as the most accurate path to insight. He looks, observes, considers, reflects and testifies to the validity of his conclusions; “I said in my heart” (1:16; 2:1, 15; 3:17), “I gave my heart” (1:13, 17; 8:9, 16), “I saw” (1:14; 2:24; 3:10, 16; 4:1, 4, 15; 5:17; 6:1; 7:15; 8:9, 10; 9:11, 13; 10:5, 7), “I know” (1:17; 2:14; 3:12, 14; 8:12), and “there is” (2:21; 6:1, 12, 8:14; 10:5)… If asked “How do you know?” Qohelet readily responds, “I saw it.” (James Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes pg. 28)

Because of this seeing-equals-believing outlook, Qohelet cannot discover any meaning in life. (Ecc. 1:2; 12:8).

He seeks pleasure.

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “what does it accomplish?” (Ecc. 2:1-2)

He seeks wisdom.

So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly... Then I said to myself, “As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise?” So I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” (Ecc. 2:12-15)

In the end, Qohelet cannot even distinguish the significance between men and beasts.

“For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they have the same breath and there is no advantage for men over beasts, for all is meaningless. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?” (Ecc 3:19-21)

“Meaningless, Meaningless, all is Meaningless,” He both begins and ends his book.

I hope you will read the book of Ecclesiastes and feel the spiritual void welling up inside the modern world. Scientists, whose eyes are tuned to the natural world more than any other group, tell us that we are the product of blind, purposeless chance. There is nothing outside the material world. We have no more significance then a fallen twig. And like the writer of Ecclesiastes they cry, “Meaningless.”

Stay tuned for Part III.