سفر الجامعة

يجب ألا يـُخلـَط بينها وبين Ecclesiasticus.

For other uses, see سفر الجامعة (توضيح).

Ecclesiastes 3 in the Leningrad Codex

سفر الجامعة (إنگليزية: Book of Ecclesiastes؛ بالعبرية: קֹהֶלֶת‎، قـُهـِلـَت Qoheleth، حرفياً، "واعظ"، بالعبرية، أو، بأكثر الترجمات حـَرفيةً إلى اليونانية، "عضو التجمع"، مشتركاً في نفس الجذر ekklesia مع الكلمة التي تعني "تجمع"، أو "كنيسة"، مع قـُهـِلـِت مشتقة من كلمة عبرية ذات معنى مماثل، يشيع الإشارة لها بالإنگليزية Ecclesiastes (وتُختصر "Ecc.") هو أحد أسفار التناخ والعهد القديم. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word קֹהֶלֶת‎ (Kohelet, Koheleth, Qoheleth or Qohelet). An unnamed author introduces "The words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem" (1:1) and does not use his own voice again until the final verses (12:9–14), where he gives his own thoughts and summarises the statements of "Kohelet"; the main body of the text is ascribed to Kohelet himself.

Kohelet proclaims (1:2) "Vanity of vanities! All is futile!"; the Hebrew word hevel, "vapor", can figuratively mean "insubstantial", "vain", "futile", or "meaningless". Given this, the next verse presents the basic existential question with which the rest of the book is concerned: "What profit hath a man for all his toil, in which he toils under the sun?", expressing that the lives of both wise and foolish people all end in death. While Kohelet endorses wisdom as a means for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived senselessness, he suggests that human beings should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in one's work, which are gifts from the hand of God. The book concludes with the injunction to "Fear God and keep his commandments; for that is the all of mankind. Since every deed will God bring to judgment, for every hidden act, be it good or evil".

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 المواضيع

Scholars disagree about the themes of Ecclesiastes: whether it is positive and life-affirming, or deeply pessimistic; whether it is coherent or incoherent, insightful or confused, orthodox or heterodox; whether the ultimate message of the book is to copy Kohelet, the wise man, or to avoid his errors. At times Kohelet raises deep questions; he "doubted every aspect of religion, from the very ideal of righteousness, to the by now traditional idea of divine justice for individuals". Some passages of Ecclesiastes seem to contradict other portions of the Old Testament, and even itself. The Talmud even suggests that the rabbis considered censoring Ecclesiastes due to its seeming contradictions. One suggestion for resolving the contradictions is to read the book as the record of Kohelet's quest for knowledge: opposing judgments (e.g., "the dead are better off than the living" (4:2) vs. "a living dog is better off than a dead lion" (9:4)) are therefore provisional, and it is only at the conclusion that the verdict is delivered (11–12:7). On this reading, Kohelet's sayings are goads, designed to provoke dialogue and reflection in his readers, rather than to reach premature and self-assured conclusions.

The subjects of Ecclesiastes are the pain and frustration engendered by observing and meditating on the distortions and inequities pervading the world, the uselessness of human ambition, and the limitations of worldly wisdom and righteousness. The phrase "under the sun" appears twenty-nine times in connection with these observations; all this coexists with a firm belief in God, whose power, justice and unpredictability are sovereign. History and nature move in cycles, so that all events are predictable and unchangeable, and life, without the sun, has no meaning or purpose: the wise man and the man who does not study wisdom will both die and be forgotten: man should be reverent ("Fear God"), but in this life it is best to simply enjoy God's gifts.

 اليهودية

In Judaism, Ecclesiastes is read either on Shemini Atzeret (by Yemenites, Italians, some Sepharadim, and the mediaeval French Jewish rite) or on the Shabbat of the Intermediate Days of Sukkot (by Ashkenazim). If there is no Intermediate Sabbath of Sukkot, Ashkenazim too read it on Shemini Atzeret (or, in Israel, on the first Shabbat of Sukkot). It is read on Sukkot as a reminder not to get too caught up in the festivities of the holiday, and to carry over the happiness of Sukkot to the rest of the year by telling the listeners that, without God, life is meaningless.

The final poem of Kohelet has been interpreted in the Targum, Talmud and Midrash, and by the rabbis Rashi, Rashbam and ibn Ezra, as an allegory of old age.

 المؤلِف والمحتوى التاريخي

سفر الجامعة، بريشة گوستاڤ دوريه

 التأثير على الأدب الغربي

بعض الباحثين، مثل مايكل فوكس، اقترحوا أن سفر الجامعة تأثر بفلسفات مثل الرواقية والإپيقورية.

Ecclesiastes has had a deep influence on Western literature. It contains several phrases that have resonated in British and American culture, such as "eat, drink and be merry", "nothing new under the sun", "a time to be born and a time to die", and "vanity of vanities; all is vanity". American novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote: "[O]f all I have ever seen or learned, that book seems to me the noblest, the wisest, and the most powerful expression of man's life upon this earth—and also the highest flower of poetry, eloquence, and truth. I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter of literary creation, but if I had to make one I could say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom expressed in it the most lasting and profound."

• The opening of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 59 references Ecclesiastes 1:9–10.
• Line 23 of T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" alludes to Ecclesiastes 12:5.
• Leo Tolstoy's Confession describes how the reading of Ecclesiastes affected his life.
• Robert Burns' "Address to the Unco Guid" begins with a verse appeal to Ecclesiastes 7:16.
• The title of Ernest Hemingway's first novel The Sun Also Rises comes from Ecclesiastes 1:5.
• The title of Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth was taken from Ecclesiastes 7:4 ("The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.").
• The title of Laura Lippman's novel Every Secret Thing and that of its film adaptation come from Ecclesiastes 12:14 ("For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.").
• The main character in George Bernard Shaw's short story The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God meets Koheleth, "known to many as Ecclesiastes".
• The title and theme of George R. Stewart's post-apocalyptic novel Earth Abides is from Ecclesiastes 1:4.
• In the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's main character, Montag, memorizes much of Ecclesiastes and Revelation in a world where books are forbidden and burned.
• Pete Seeger's song "Turn! Turn! Turn!" takes all but one of its lines from the Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3.
• The passage in chapter 3, with its repetition of "A time to ..." has been used as a title in many other cases, including the novels A Time to Dance by Melvyn Bragg and A Time to Kill by John Grisham, the records ...And a Time to Dance by Los Lobos and A Time to Love by Stevie Wonder, and films A Time to Love and a Time to Die, A Time to Live and A Time to Kill.
• The opening quote in the movie Platoon by Oliver Stone is taken from Ecclesiastes 11:9.
• The essay "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell uses Ecclesiastes 9:11 as an example of clear and vivid writing, and "translates" it into "modern English of the worst sort" to demonstrate common fallings of the latter.

 انظر أيضاً

• Bible
• Vanitas
• تناخ
• Turn! Turn! Turn! by Pete Seeger
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes بقلم Roger Zelazny
• Tripping Billies by Dave Matthews Band
• Wisdom of Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus)
• Q (novel)
• Alter, Robert. The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary. W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.

 الهامش

• Nicholas Perrin, “Messianism in the Narrative Frame of Ecclesiastes?”, Revue biblique 108:1 (2001).

 وصلات خارجية

سفر الجامعة أدب الحكمة
سبقه المراثي	التوراة	تبعه إستر
سبقه الأمثال	العهد القديم المسيحي	تبعه نشيد الأناشيد