Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/319

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Appendix
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given to the great Teacher of the book before us, just as the name Sophereth was given apparently to a scribe? Delitzsch[1] reminds us that in Arabic the fem. termination serves sometimes to intensify the meaning, or, as Ewald puts it, 'ut abstracto is innuatur in quo tota hæc virtus vel alia proprietas consummatissima sit, ut ejus exemplum haberi queat.'[2] Thus Qoheleth might mean 'the ideal teacher,' and this no doubt would be a title which would well describe the later view of Solomon. It is simpler, however, to take the fem. termination as expressing action or office; thus in Arabic khalifa means 1, succession or the dignity of the successor, 2, the successor or representative himself, the 'caliph,' and in Hebrew and Assyrian pekhāh, pakhatu 'viceroy.' Comp. ἡ ἐξουσία, 'die Obrigkeit.'

The alternative is, with Ewald, Hitzig, Ginsburg, Kuenen, Kleinert, to explain Qoheleth as in apposition to (Symbol missingHebrew characters), Wisdom being represented in Prov. i. 20, 21, viii. 1-4, as addressing men in the places of concourse (Klostermann eccentrically explains ἡ συλλογίζουσα or συλλογιστική). Solomon, according to this view, is regarded by the author as the impersonation of Wisdom (as Protagoras was called Σοφία). It is most unlikely, however, that Solomon should have been thus regarded, considering the strange discipline which the author describes Qoheleth as having passed through, and how different is the language of Wisdom when, as in Prov. i.-ix., she is represented as addressing an assembly! A reference to vii. 27, where Qoheleth seems to be spoken of in the fem., is invalid, as we should undoubtedly correct haqqohéleth in accordance with xii. 8[3] (comp. hassofereth, Ezra ii. 55).

The Sept. rendering ἐκκλησιαστής, whence the 'concionator' of Vulg., is therefore to be preferred to the singular Greek rend. ἡ ἐκκλησιάστρια of Græcus Venetus.

25. Page 210.—Eccles. iii. 11. Might we render, 'Also he hath put (the knowledge of) that which is secret into their mind, except that,' &c., i.e. 'though God has enabled man to find out many secrets, yet human science is of very limited extent'? This implies Bickell's pointing (Symbol missingHebrew characters).

26. Page 219.—Eccles. vii. 28. The misogyny of the writer was doubtless produced by some sad personal experience. Its evil effect upon himself was mitigated by his discovery of another Jonathan with a love passing the love of women.' This reminds us of the

  1. ↑ Hoheslied und Koheleth, pp. 212-3.
  2. ↑ Grammatica arabica, § 284 (i. 167). Comp. Wright, Arabic Grammar, i. 157 (§ 233).
  3. ↑ The mistake was caused by the rarity of (Symbol missingHebrew characters) with the article.
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