2. Philosophical reflection in the Bible – The purpose of life according to Ecclesiastes ( 傳道書 ) Craig Ho, HKBU

3. Eccles2 傳道書 (Ecclesiastes) w Central Issue: 1.3 - What is all life’s hard work for? What is good to do for our lives (2:3)? w Key word and idea: 1.2 - “vanity”, what does it mean? w Emptiness? Meaningless? Purposelessness? Worthlessness? Incomprehensibility? Cannot be completely grasped - life is illusive! w History has no definite goal; things just repeat themselves and therefore purposeless: 1.4-11; 2.12  What are not the most fruitful things to do in life? w Human desires cannot be really satisfied and therefore fulfilling them is not the way to happiness: 2.1-11 w The pursuit of wisdom cannot be the goal of life because death annihilate the differences between a wise man and a fool: 2.14-17

4. Eccles3 What are not the purposes of life? w Accumulation of wealth will be left to the next generation who does not earn it. That shouldn’t be the purpose of our own life: 2.18-23. w The pursuit of righteousness may not be the best way of life: 7.15-18. There is no justice in real life, 8.10-14. Why the meaning of life always eludes us? w Human life is not so unique: 3.18-21. w Suffering destroy meaning - dead people sometimes are better than suffering people: 4.1-8; 6.1-5. w There is a limit to human understanding: 8.16-9.1

5. Eccles4... w The only constancy in life is death. It renders all differences meaningless: 9.2-6. w Life does not follow a simple principle: 9.11-12 9:11 我又轉念：見日光之下，快跑的未必能贏 ；力戰的未必得 勝；智慧的未必得糧食；明哲的未必得資財；靈巧的未必得喜悅 。所臨到眾人的是在乎當時的機會。 9:12 原來人也不知道自己 的定期。魚被惡網圈住，鳥被網羅捉住，禍患忽然臨到的時候， 世人陷在其中也是如此。 w The way of God is beyond our intellectual capacity: 9.1; 11.5

6. Eccles5 How should we then live? - theme statements: (A) 2:24 人莫強如吃喝，且在勞碌中享福，我看這也是出 於神的手 (B) 3:12 我知道世人，莫強如終身喜樂行善； 3:13 並且人 人吃喝，在他一切勞碌中享福，這也是神的恩賜。 (C)3:22 故此，我見人莫強如在他經營的事上喜樂，因為 這是他的分。他身後的事誰能使他回來得見呢？

7. Eccles6... (D) 5:18 我所見為善為美的，就是人在神賜他一生的日子 吃喝，享 受日光之下勞碌得來的好處，因為這是他的分。 5:19 神賜人資財 豐富，使他能以吃用，能取自己的分 ， 在他勞碌中喜樂，這乃 是神的恩賜。 (E) 8:15 我就稱讚快樂，原來人在日光之下，莫強如吃喝快 樂；因 為他在日光之下，神賜他一生的年日，要從勞碌中，時常享受所 得的。 (F) 9:7 你只管去歡歡喜喜吃你的飯，心中快樂喝你的酒，因為神已 經悅納你的作為。 9:8 你的衣服當時常潔白，你頭上也不要缺少 膏油。 9:9 在你一生虛空的年日，就是 神賜你在日 光之下虛空 的年日，當同你所愛的妻，快活度日，因為那是你生前在日光之 下勞碌的事上所得的分。

8. Eccles7...  11:9 少年人哪，你在幼年時當快樂。在幼年的日子，使你的心歡 暢，行你心所願行的，看你眼所愛看的；卻要知道，為這一切的 事，神必審問你。  11:10 所以，你當從心中除掉愁煩，從肉體克去邪惡；因為一生 的開端和幼年之時，都是虛空的。  12:1 你趁  年幼、衰敗的日子尚未來到，就是你所說，我毫無喜 樂的那些年日未曾臨近之先，當記念造你的主。  12:12 我兒，還有一層，你當受勸戒：著書多，沒有窮盡；讀書 多，身體疲倦。 12:13 這些事都已聽見了，總意就是：敬畏神， 謹守他的誡命，這是人所當盡的本分［或譯：這是眾人的本分］ 。

9. Eccles8 The reasoning of the preacher. w What do you think is the purpose of (your) life? w Is this question too distant? Too abstract? Any point to raise it now?  First observation : Things just repeat themselves and do not seem to show any purpose 1.1-11  Conclusion : “vanity” - cannot be fully grasped, just like wind. You feel it but you cannot control it. This is life.

10. Eccles9...  Second observation : Hard life from God - 1.13; 3.10  Reason : attempts to do big things fail to achieve happiness - material (2.1-11); philosophical (2.14-17); wealth (2.18- 23); w Even the purpose of righteousness (7.16-17) is not always fruitful. Why? Because we do not live in a just world (8.10- 14)  Third observation: We know very little. The only thing we know for sure in the world that is death which destroys all differences and all meanings (9.1-6).  Reason : The deep things about the world is beyond our reach (9.1).

11. Eccles10...  Fourth observation : Reality does not follow a simple principle to operate (9.10-12). w An example: 9.13-15.  Final question : What should guide us in our life?  The answer : The author of Eccles. failed to find the meaning of life in big answers but experienced it in moments of God-given enjoyment in daily enjoying meals and working hard. His advice: enjoy the good things and the hard things in life. Do not wait until it is too late.  Later addition of a traditional wise man: Fear and remember God (12.1; 13)

12. Eccles11 Conclusion w 1. The most real thing in life is working hard and enjoying (playing) hard. w 2. It is divine purpose that we all works and live and enjoy the fruit of our labour. w 3. We have to enjoy life responsibly because (according to the final editor) God will judge how we live our lives at the end of the day – final word from a traditional wise man.

13. Eccles12 Kushner, “Go Eat Your Bread in Gladness” w Five Dead Ends of the Meaning of Life  1. The way of selfishness and self-interest w - it is the quest of wealth and power w - it sees other people as competitors w - it sees the goal of life as “winning” w - it makes an idol of ourselves w - it makes us very lonely and less human due to the lack of genuine relationship

14. Eccles13 2. The way of renouncing all bodily pleasures w - it is the opposite of (1), e.g. Mahatma Gandhi w - it sees life as a battle against our natural desires for pleasurable things w - it robs us of our inner peace and contentment w - it denies the good things as God-given w “Instead, a sense of reverence for the pleasures of life which God put here for our enjoyment, a way of seeing God in the world through the experience of pleasure moments. Like all gifts, of course, they can be misused, but then the fault is ours, not God’s” (p. 82)

15. Eccles14 3. The way of wisdom - the rational understanding of life does not guarantee the living of a meaningful life - smart people sometimes do foolish things - they make clever excuses to do the wrong thing - there are important aspects of life not rooted in the rational seat of our brain: faith, love, loyalty, hope, and many other human experiences - “There is a cycle of daylight and darkness, of mind and emotion in my inner world even as there is in the world around me. … But sometimes our life’s task is to accept the darkness, the things which cannot and perhaps should not be explained, as part of the world we live in.”

16. Eccles15 4. They way of avoiding all feeling in order to avoid pain - it is the art of detachment and transcend the pain. The pain is real, but it does not hurt. - it teaches us not to be hurt by life - it teaches us not to be too involved with other people if they would hurt us one way or another - it makes us less human, humanity is realized in relationships which sometimes enrich us or hurt us. - Some painful facts, e.g. social injustice, should be fought against instead of transcending them.

17. Eccles16 5. The path of piety and religious surrender w It sees God as a super-parent or an absolute monarch who gives commands w We only have to obey and be rewarded, or else disobey and be punished. w It always reminds us of our sin and forgets our goodness. w Some believers think God has a blue-print for our lives already fixed in heaven. w “Religion should not be in the position of giving us answers. It should give us courage to find our own way.” (p. 130)

18. Eccles17 Ecclesiastes’ view w There is no one big answer to the problem of life. w The meaning of life is in the moments of life – in our work and in our daily enjoyment of things life can offer w “Life is not a problem to be solved once; it is a continuing challenge to be lived day by day.” (p. 144) w “But the key to our happiness, to our being able to find pleasure in our work, is the sense that we are using our abilities, not wasting them, and that we are being appreciated for it. ‘Whatever it is in your power to do, do with all your might.” (p. 149)

19. Eccles18 Meaning of Life, the Starting Points w Starting point 1: the meaning of life is there in what you have already got, you have it but you do know understand it, and if you do, you won’t ask about it. w Starting point 2: the meaning of life is in things that we as individuals have not yet got – they could be material things like wealth, power, or honour, or immaterial things like knowledge, attitudes, or membership of a religious community. w Starting point 3: the meaning of life is realizable only in an ideal society, like a classless egalitarian society. w Starting point 4: the meaning of life is realizable only in another life, e.g. in Heaven, the purpose of the present life is to obtain a membership of the heavenly community. If you are not part of them, your next life is doomed.