Is life vanity? Reinterpreting the Qoheleth’s elusive use of Hevel in Ecclesiastes

Abstract

Over the years, the translation of hevel as “vanity” has had great influence in the history of the exegesis of Ecclesiastes. This present author has often heard or seen preachers use the text under study to caution people about the “vanity” of life and of acquisition of riches. Often preachers have used this text to call their audience to “abandoned resignation”; since for them, the Qoheleth’s statements connote that all that occurs under the sun is “vanity”. This paper tries to critically reexamine how the Qoheleth uses the word, hevel in Ecclesiastes in order to understand the essence of the book. The methodologies adopted are the historical-critical analysis and grammatical-historical analysis approaches. The findings show that the Qoheleth does use hevel with a variety of nuances. However, the basic meaning of the word is “vapor”, “breath” but sometimes the context points to “temporary” sometimes to “ungraspable”. Thus, the Qoheleth may not have been pessimistic about life but only disturbed about life’s essence in the light of its ephemeral or transient nature. The study ended by recommending that people should not be passive in life. Life can be meaningful and enjoyable when people obey God’s laws and fear Him.