Cover of The book of Ecclesiastes

The book of Ecclesiastes

by Tremper Longman III · first published 1998

5mentions
2recommended by
5HN commenters
2015–2022first – last mentioned

40% recommend60% neutral

Ecclesiastes is one of the most fascinating and hauntingly familiar books of the Old Testament. The sentiments of the main speaker of the book, a person given the name Qohelet, sound incredibly modern. Expressing the uncertainty and anxieties of our own age, he is driven by the question, Where can we find meaning in the world? Longman first provides an extensive introduction to Ecclesiastes, exploring such background matters as authorship, language, genre, structure, literary style, and the books theological message. He argues that the author of Ecclesiastes is not Solomon, as has been traditi

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What Hacker News says

  • thow-58d4e8b · Feb 7, 2022 · Recommends

    Book of Ecclesiastes (part of the books of wisdom of the Hebrew bible) ancient era existentialism written in poetic form. Unlike the other suggestions here, it can be accessed for free and takes only ~20 minutes to read

    on “Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?” ↗
  • fsiefken · Nov 19, 2016 · Recommends

    …someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is futility and chasing after the wind." == For a contemporary take on Ecclesiastes see "American Beauty" or read "Beyond Futility, American Beauty and the Book of Ecclesiastes' by Robert Johnston in "The Gift of Story: Narrating Hope in a Postmodern World" https://books.google.nl/books?id=2WP_KMBmf7UC&pg=PA85

    on “Stoicism: Indifference is a power” ↗
  • …upper-middle-class households, the exchange rate between money and the quality of life becomes essentially zero. What's left are pointless status seeking games, scams and useless trinkets. The Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes describes it poignantly: > I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure[...] Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was…

    on “The death of the ‘Millionaire Next Door’ dream” ↗
  • xamuel · Aug 26, 2019 · Mentions

    >"Our times are different" thrown around without care is a very widespread cognitive error. Absolutely right. The Book of Ecclesiastes talks about this at great length. History repeats, no-one will remember those of us alive today, and the people who follow us will also be forgotten by those who follow them. >even if you do believe…

    on “Michael Crichton: Why Speculate? (2005)” ↗
  • danso · Dec 28, 2015 · Mentions

    …title and clicked on the article half-believing it's part of an online performance art exhibit in which nouns are switched around in headlines on a yearly cycle, as a way to reiterate the lessons of the Book of Ecclesiastes [1]: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. ArsTechnica's sister, Wired, is a particularly frequent propagator of the "Native…

    on “The App-ocalypse: can Web standards make mobile apps obsolete?” ↗

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