The Myth of Success
As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 NASB
Grievous evil – We don’t like the words of Ecclesiastes, do we? They are just too harsh, maybe because, if we really admitted it, they ring true. They scare us. We want to believe that we are working for something, that we make a difference, that we will leave behind a legacy. But Qohelet points out the painfully obvious. We came naked into the world. We leave naked. All that we accomplished, all that we accumulated, it does go with us. No matter how long we live, no matter how much we do, in the end we return to the same fragile, vulnerable state. As Qohelet says, this is a “grievous evil.”
The Hebrew phrase is insightful. ra’a(h) hola(h)—evil that makes us weak, tired and sick. The circle of life is not just pointless. It’s sickening. Disheartening. Discouraging. We have to go around it, but in the end, nothing really matters. We didn’t accomplish what we hoped to. Life just returns to the grave and starts over with someone else.
This is the fatalism of Eliade’s “myth of eternal return.” It is found in many ancient cultures. Disney made it into a cartoon movie with cute little characters, but the real story is a tragedy. It can’t be covered up by catchy musical tunes. If all there is is birth and death and birth again, if life really is one big circle, then Theognis is right:
Not to be born is the best of all things for those who live on earth, And not to gaze on the radiance of the keen-burning sun. Once born, however, it is best to pass with all possible speed through Hades’ gates And to lie beneath a great heap of earth.[1]
Ancient cultures that embraced this view of human existence often manufactured rituals and festivals to honor the renewal cycle. In fact, our celebration of New Year is derived from just such an ancient belief. Eliade recognized that the Hebrews were the first people to invent “history,” the idea that human and divine interaction is actually going somewhere, not just repeating itself over and over. But if this is true of Hebrew thought, then why does Qohelet seem to tip his hat to Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos (ah, you might have to look that one up)? The answer is his epistemology (another big word idea). Qohelet allows no place for revelation. He doesn’t have a god who speaks from outside the box. He has only the evidence of observation in this world, and he concludes, rightly I might add, that if this is the case, life is indeed pointless. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Of course, this is a legitimate conclusion given his starting point, and that’s why Ecclesiastes is in the Bible. If you start without God, you will end up without anything. The best book for any atheist is Ecclesiastes. It drives the nail into the coffin with exquisite artistry—for no purpose at all. Better read than dead, I suppose.
Topical Index: Ecclesiastes 5:15-16, eternal return, Maurice Eliade, Theognis, fate, ra’a(h) hola(h), grievous evil
[1] Theognis of Megara, Theognidea, lines 425-428, 6th century BCE
Qoholet earned his point of view – his paradigm – by his cumulative choices. What we choose to live BECOMES our paradigm, or, what we believe to be true; for, post-Tree, experience is what we have to establish our take on reality. Experience is what our amygdala, that gateway/segue between body, emotions, mind and spirit, uses to establish its filters, or what is used to ‘tell’ whether something is credible, or, true, or not. Experience, therefore, is stronger than any doctrine or ‘evidence’ or even direct revelation. We know this by our legal system, where WITNESS, or, direct experience, trumps any other type of knowledge when it comes to establishing the truth. It is not insignificant that our last instructions from Yeshua were to be witnesses, or experiencers, of the truth before the world.
John 7:17 “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” I read this verse to say that only if we obey (experience) will we even be able to discern whether or not a doctrine being expounded is the truth or not. It is not cognition, then action, like the traditions of the West seem to think; it is action, then cognition, as the only way now to KNOW (um, experience) the truth.
Bleak despair is the only lens through which anyone has to view reality with if disobedience has been the hallmark of their life, no matter what they SAY they ‘believe’. From what I can tell, last minute conversions, therefore, are more the exception than the norm. We die the way we live, as a rule.
I have to believe (judging by the experience of my life, anyway) that, as a Hebrew, it is not that Qohelet did not HAVE revelation; I mean, if he followed Moses’ instructions for the king, he had personally copied out the Torah for himself – we know he at least had his father’s copy – but even revelation, post-Tree, is not enough to establish belief. Qohelet had not lived Torah – at least the latter part of his life – even if he had started out living it; it appears he had lost all ability for it to give him any blessed hope at all.
I believe there is a solemn warning here for us. If we do not LIVE the Word of God; make it our experience; we are not going to BELIEVE (um would that be be-LIVE it?) it, no matter how much of its cognitive data we have memorized and doctrine we have sworn is ‘true’. Apparently, only experience, post-Tree, makes truth true FOR ME. I also don’t think cognitive belief was what the writers of the NT had in mind, either, when they said that all it took was belief in Yeshua to be saved. I would bet that they meant experience, or, obedience TO Yeshua (as well as copying the experience of obedience OF Yeshua as our Example), too.
Laurita, your comments are always on the mark, you are filled with the Fathers spirit!
“Look at the birds of the air . . . consider the lilies of the field . . .”
Yeshua was saying the evidence of God’s unique care and provision for His creation
is obviously right before your eyes. What isn’t obviously right before self-consumed eyes,
however, is faith.
Real life taught Qohelet that he must relinquish his steadfast trust in himself in order for
the eyes of his heart to “really” see, and thus put his trust in God.
Obviously he did, as he finally and fearfully came to his famous “conclusion of the matter.”
He is right of course concerning the taking with you of the things you can carry in your hand, but it would seem that what’s truly important is what you “leave” behind. One only has to look at the legacy left by those who have gone before us to ascertain the truth and weight of the matter, and atheist and saint stand on the same ground as far as this is concerned. It would seem that nothing of this world really leaves this world and I suggest that it was planned that way. Our words and deeds remain even though we leave, but when we wake up that’s what meets us, along with the results. But about revelation, I think I remember the end of that book, wasn’t it something about fearing God and keeping His commandments……..The new left behind series, or maybe the original version.
Once again we see eating of the tree of natural human reason/knowledge leads to death. That other tree the one that leads to life includes the key to life, divine inspiration (lets not get stuck on the word divine…)