Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is a book of the Bible's Old Testament. The word is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew Qoheleth, which means "Preacher." The traditional view of the authorship of this book attributes it to Solomon. However, modern scholars generally believe that it dates from the later period of the Babylonian captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly as Solomon (1:12), though alternate interpretations are also possible.

It has been styled The Confession of King Solomon. The keynote of the book is sounded in ch. 1:2, KJV:

"Vanity of vanities! saith the Preacher,

Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!"

i.e., all man's efforts to find happiness apart from God are without result.

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Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897 -- Slightly updated but this is a complex text, and the above is a very simplistic reading.

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See also Bible, Tanach.