The epilogist's colophon - Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

 The epilogist’s colophon 

from Ezra Nehemiah’s commentary on Ecclesiastes (in the Incoherent series, published by Rantrage Press, 2009, p. n - 4) —

 

He (the “Epilogist”) is just walking it back.

XII. 9 Besides being a wise man, Qoheleth was also a teacher and an editor of note.  10 He was good with words, especially at making them say what he wanted them to.  11 Truly wise men’s words are like goads or like nails—the wounds are worth collecting.  12 But of any more than that, watch out, my son. More and more books are coming out, don’t wear yourself out paying attention to any of them.  13 Instead [of reading]—or listening [to writers], fear God and keep his commandments. Forget the rest:   14 God is the one that judges—everything seen and unseen, everything good or evil. [Don’t judge yourself—Numbers 15:39!]

Notes

xii. 9.  The reader will have noted that חקר and תקר  are united asyndetically unless they’re not.

     10.  The MT vocalizes  מאזנים as a passive participle, better to read it (revocalize it) as an infinitive absolute.

     11.   דרבנות is a hapax legomenon, as is  אספה also in v 11 and  להג in v 12. Jerome translates the first of these as  stimuli and the last as meditation.

     13.  Fabianski’s essay on preference for the niphil perfect participle over the plural cohortative to translate נשׄמע is well worth reading again.

     14.  Note the absence of the definite article before  מעשה . There are lots of ways to massage the Hebrew to make a translation say what we want.

Commentary

The Epilogist—as scholars like to call him—is no fan of the Writer—Qoheleth (or Koheleth or the Preacher or the Teacher or the Sarcast, the Crab, or the Foghorn, let me remind you, before we part, dear reader, of some of the possibilities). Underlying every word of these last five verses (the 218th through 222nd) of the book is the notion that if you have read this far, you’ve wasted your time; don’t waste more by going back and reading again, forget as quickly as you can as much as you can of what you have read. In fact, God himself is It, only God himself is It and that’s the end of it (period); best quit reading altogether. Starting now.

     (The “Don’t judge yourself—Numbers 15:39!” added at the end in some manuscripts is the rough equivalent of Rockin’ Rollen Stewart’s holding up at the 1980 Masters a “Jesus Saves” placard with John 3:16 on his T-shirt. “Don’t judge yourself” means for the sign-waving Epilogist both “Don’t judge your own actions” and “Don’t judge for yourself.”(See 11:9 and comment.) “God will judge (period).”

     Qoheleth would surely add, “unless He decided not to.”

01.18.18