הכל הבל in Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 12:8 – Descriptive metaphysics of properties as comparative-philosophical supplement

Jaco Gericke

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i1.6688

Abstract

In this article, a supplementary yet original contribution is made to the ongoing attempts at refining ways of comparative-philosophical conceptual clarification of Qohelet’s claim that הבל הכל in 1:2 (and 12:8). Adopting and adapting the latest analytic metaphysical concerns and categories for descriptive purposes only, a distinction is made between הבל as property of הכל and the properties of הבל in relation to הכל. Involving both correlation and contrast, the second-order language framework is hereby extended to a level of advanced nuance and specificity for restating the meaning of the book’s first-order language on its own terms, even if not in them. Contribution: By considering logical, ontological, mereological and typological aspects of property theory in dialogue with appearances of הכל and of הבל in Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 12:8 and in-between, a new way is presented in the quest to explain why things in the world of the text are the way they are, or why they are at all.

Highlights

The major concern here is how Qohelet related ‫ הבל‬to ‫הכל‬, a problem was succinctly formulated by Lohfink (1989:201–216) in a highly influential related publication entitled: Koh 1, 2 ‘alles ist Windhauch’ – universale oder anthropologische Aussage?: Koh l,2, der erste Satz des Buches, Motto und Rahmenvers zugleich, ist subtil gebaut
Once ‫ הבל‬is seen as () a propertyהכל‬and as such distinguished from the properties of ‫( הבל‬in relation to ‫)הכל‬, in comparative-philosophical terms it follows that in the world of the text certain objects can be said to instantiate or exemplify ‫ הבל‬as a property of ‫הכל‬
In this study it was argued that the concepts of ‫ הבל‬and ‫הכל‬ can be fruitfully clarified through correlation and contrast thereof in comparative-metaphysical terms with reference to the second-order term property already in different ways implicit and explicit in the associated research

Summary

Introduction

One of the fundamental associated comparative-philosophical foci in research on ‫ הבל‬in Qohelet is its appearance as ‫ הכל הבל‬to form and inclusion to the book as a whole (1:2 and 12:8) with the traditional archaic English rendering as most readers have come to know it:.‫ב ֲה ֵבל ֲה ָב ִלים ָא ַמר ק ֹ ֶה ֶלת ֲה ֵבל ֲה ָב ִלים ַהּכ ֹל ָה ֶבל‬ .‫ח ֲה ֵבל ֲה ָב ִלים ָא ַמר ַהּקֹו ֶה ֶלת ַהּכ ֹל ָה ֶבל‬Most of the research concerned with these verses is primarily focussed on the word ‫ הבל‬as first-order term of art and second-order essentially contested concept (Fox 2019:559–563; Sneed 2017:879–894; Weeks 2020:248–260; cf. Mokoena 2019 and classically Fox 1986:409–427).

Results

Conclusion