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...
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...
- 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."
- 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.
- 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.
posted by Matthew Miller at 3:27 PM
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