Pessimism and Love in Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs: With Translations from the Same

Ecclesiastes is the translation in the Greek Bible called the Septuagint of a Hebrew word Koheleth whose meaning it is hopeless to fix with accuracy. All that we can say is that the word has something to do with a congregation or and assembly hence the suggested translations a leader of an assembly or the assembly itself a debater a preacher a great orator. Of these translations an assembly might seem to fit in best with the nature of the contents of a book which is an assemblage of different conceptions of life and conduct. The final literary editor whoever he was of this book no doubt intended it to appear as a whole and perhaps for this purpose employed considerable editorial craftsmanship; but his labours have created endless difficulties for the later interpreters who have been driven to desperate straits to reconcile the conflicting and contradictory views which the book as a whole presents.... From the Introduction