Ecclesiastes
By (author) Barbara M Leung Lai
For readers of Ecclesiastes perhaps perplexing paradoxical elusive pessimistic-characterize the first impressions of the book. The ‘search’ for (1) a fitting reading strategy to unpack the complexity of the book; and (2) a logical structure amidst the fragmented thinking-out-loud mode of expressions presents a great challenge to all commentators. First-time readers may be discouraged to engage in understanding this difficult and strange book. Yet against our collective lived experience under the sun there are others who find this book ‘on the meaning of life’ exceptionally intriguing and inviting.
To address these challenges this commentary distinguishes itself on three grounds. First Barbara Leung Lai intentionally hammers out a five-fold interconnected perspectival reading strategy toward interpretation: as a ‘Grand Narrative’ of all humanity; as a multi-voiced book; as a dialectic composition; as an enriched whole through reading ‘cross the grains’; and as a ‘memoir’. This approach to reading Ecclesiastes opens an expanded window of perception toward interpretation.
Second she foregrounds the five identifiable voices embedded in this polyphony: i.e. the voice of the narrator the ‘I’-voice of the Preacher/Qohelet Qohelet’s ‘inner voice’ the collective voice of wisdom and the voice of the epilogist. The result of this innovative task provides for us a comprehensive sensible and cohesive analytical outline demonstrating the trajectory of the flow of thought within the twelve chapters.
Third in keeping with the objective of the Readings series (for first-time commentary readers of Ecclesiastes) Leung Lai invites all readers to read and practise hearing this polyphonic text self-engagingly. Be encouraged and empowered to develop our own readerly interpretive voice.
In terms of the originality of its five-fold approach to reading and its structural outline based on multi-voice analysis this commentary is a groundbreaking endeavour-a fresh and invigorating read for all readers.
- By (author) Barbara M Leung Lai
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
