An Honest Look at Life

The book of Ecclesiastes has been deemed one of the strangest books in the Bible. Its author invites readers to look at various sights of life he had seen and to think with him about them. We do not even know this author's name. The Jews called him Qohelet. The Greeks translated Qohelet as Koheleth or Ecclesiastes. These names speak of a task a person performed. He is one who calls an audience together and talks with them about various topics. Usually the Teacher was one who had accumulated much wisdom and wealth and was a greatly respected person. This author of Ecclesiastes, whose pen name is Koheleth or Teacher, has been considered to be unusual because he was outspoken, controversial, incisive, and nontraditional. But for centuries individuals and groups have read the writing of this Teacher and listened, questioned, agreed, and pondered.