The Bible Project

In this episode, Tim and Jon begin their discussion on the book of Ecclesiastes. This is an interesting book in Scripture, and the author is relentlessly trying to get the reader to rethink their black and white mindset. It can be a bit depressing to read, and it doesn’t quite give you the same type of feel-good wisdom that the book of Proverbs does. The guys will try to get at what this book is trying to teach us and what the author thinks it means to live a good and godly life. In the first part of the episode (02:14-09:57), the guys talk about the two distinct voices in Ecclesiastes. We know that it was written by a son of David, which could mean an actual king, or it could mean someone who wrote in the tradition of the wisdom of the kings. Getting a little bit of context about the author will help us to figure out what this book is trying to say. In the next part of the episode (10:18-17:28), the guys discuss the Hebrew word, “hevel,” used thirty-eight times in this short book. “Hevel” is roughly translat