NOTES for Ecc 8:1-17
In chapter 8, Ecclesiastes turns to the social side of life and draws several very significant conclusions. The first, concerning one's attitude towards authority, is extremely important. Ecclesiastes says that the king's commands should be obeyed not for the king's sake or that of his power, but out of faithfulness to God, just as Ps. 15:4 says: ‘Who may dwell on your holy hill... he who swears, even to his own hurt, and does not change.’ In Ecclesiastes' eyes, the king is stripped of any heroic aura: he is powerful and unaccountable, but his authority does not extend to the spirit. The main conclusion, however, is in verse 9, which different translations render differently. The Russian Synodal translation, following the Vulgate and European translations, puts it mildly: ‘There is a time when one person rules over another to their harm.’ The Slavonic translation is far more definite: ‘In every instance in which one person has dominion over another, it is to harm them.’ This is an exact translation of the Septuagint, where the phrase reads ‘ta hosa exousiato ho antropos en antropo tou kakosai auton’: ‘To the extent that one person rules over another, he harms them.’ The idea of theocracy is very much alive and significant for Ecclesiastes, but he does not recognise human rule over other humans as a foreshadowing of that theocracy or an approach to it. Many theorists and practitioners of relations between religion and the state in the New Testament era differ from him on this point. The functional approach to state authority characteristic of the apostolic letters does not coincide with this view either. Those letters, while not regarding authority as an image of theocracy, nevertheless find it useful for maintaining order in society. But Ecclesiastes speaks of human responsibility before God, and in this context human authority seems to him only harmful.
In the following verses, we find an astonishing manifestation of Ecclesiastes' faith, seemingly so hidden. Like many biblical authors, he reflects on the fate of the righteous and the wicked. He observes that ‘judgement upon evil deeds is not carried out swiftly; therefore the hearts of the children of men do not fear to do evil’. Unlike the prophet Habakkuk, who passionately needed an explanation for this fact, Ecclesiastes accepts it as something sad but natural. Yet, like Habakkuk, who heard in answer to his question that ‘the righteous shall live by faith’, Ecclesiastes relies on faith. ‘Though a sinner does evil a hundred times... yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God.’ Here biblical faith contradicts life, and Ecclesiastes, sceptic and pessimist though he is, nevertheless shows how deeply rooted he is in the prophetic tradition and the faith of the fathers. Behind his words ‘I know’ lie profound reverence before the mystery of God and faith in the goodness of his purposes.
Chapter eight ends with words about God's works, which a person ‘cannot comprehend... however much they labour to investigate’. Ecclesiastes' thought stops at a boundary beyond which it cannot penetrate. Knowledge of God, central to biblical theology, cannot be attained by rational means. Ecclesiastes' clear understanding of this, and the reverent silence with which he passes over the question, make his outlook supremely precise and chaste. To him it is clear that the answer to what can ‘satisfy the soul’ lies in the realm of revelation. But God reveals to a person not answers to questions, but himself, and only on his own initiative.
Moreover, the affirmation that the deepest and most important thing in the world—the mystery of the Creator—is beyond comprehension makes Ecclesiastes a ‘book of expectation’, akin to the books of the great prophets. Alongside them, who await the manifestation of the Almighty's glory with all their hearts, Ecclesiastes too is one who ‘awaits the consolation of Israel’. We may say that, after the birth of the Son of God, righteous Simeon's words, ‘Now you let your servant depart’, are spoken also on behalf of Ecclesiastes and the Old Testament thinkers and righteous people kindred to him.