Determinism in the Book of Ecclesiastes

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A&C Black, 2001 M09 1 - 234 pages
Is the author of Ecclesisastes a determinist? Many readers, from the Targumist and Ibn Ezra up to the present day, have thought so. But there has been no systematic investigation of Qoheleth's determinism, its nature and extent, its relationship to free will and its philosophical background. In separate chapters, Rudman discusses key terms and texts that express a deterministic worldview, then explores the sources for Qoheleth's thought. He concludes that the author was a sage writing in the third quarter of the third century BCE, who was profoundly influenced by Stoic ideas.

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Contents

Preface
7
Abbreviations
8
Chapter 1 ECCLESIASTES AND ITS HELLENISTIC CONTEXT
11
Chapter 2 QOHELETH AND FATE
33
THE DETERMINATION OF THE COSMOS AND HUMANITY IN ECCLESIASTES 138
70
A REREADING OF ECCLESIASTES 3115
83
THE DIVINE DETERMINATION OF EMOTION IN ECCLESIASTES
99
QOHELETH AND HUMAN JOY
126
Chapter 7 QOHELETH AND THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL
144
Chapter 8 DETERMINISM IN EARLY JEWISH LITERATURE
160
Chapter 9 QOHELETH AND STOIC DETERMINISM
173
Chapter 10 CONCLUSION
200
Bibliography
207
Index of References
214
Index of Modern Authors
224
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About the author (2001)

Dominic Rudman is Leverhulme Special Research Fellow, Department of Theology, University of Exeter.

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