Wisdom (Eccl 2:12-17)
Bible Commentary / Produced by TOW Project.jpg)
Perhaps it is good to seek an object outside of work itself, but a higher objective is needed than pleasure. So the teacher reports, “I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly” (Eccl. 2:12). In other words, he becomes something akin to today’s professor or researcher. Unlike achievement for achievement’s sake, wisdom can at least be attained to some degree. “I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness” (Eccl. 2:13). But other than filling the head with exalted thoughts, it makes no real difference in life, for “the wise die just like fools” (Eccl. 2:16). Pursuing wisdom led the Teacher to the brink of despair (Eccl. 1:17), a result that remains all too common in academic pursuits today. The teacher concludes, “all is vanity and a chasing after wind” (Eccl. 2:17).
Contributors: Duane Garrett
Adopted by the Theology of Work Project Board July 14, 2011.
Image by
Used under license from Veer
.
Used by permission.
Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org
You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.
© 2011 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.
Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
