Analysis: The Biblical Book Of Ecclesiastes

What is the Purpose of life? This is the age-old question that all of humanity asks themselves at last once in their lifetime. Are we simply born to attain fame, riches, wisdom, love, or piety? Everyone seems to have some sort of an answer, but that answer is heavily depended on his/her reality of death. Thus, are we simply born to achieve all that we can to eventually departure it or is there a greater plan at play, is there a goal we are created to strive for? The Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes questions the purpose of life. This paper will examine Ecclesiastes all while cross-examining it with Peter Kreeft’s analysis of Ecclesiastes and will provide personal reflections with respect to both texts. Thus, is the concept of death and purpose of life mutually exclusive or are they simple complementary to one another?
Martin Luther King. Jr. said, “If a man has not …show more content…
Thus, what happens when we die? I think that the answer to this question is the key to answer the question, what is the purpose of life. Kreeft states five reasons as to why Ecclesiastes (Solomon) believes that everything under the sun is vain. These five things are; the sameness and indifference of all things, death as the certain and final end of life, time as a cycle of endless repetition, evil as the perennial and unsolvable problem, and god as an knowable mystery(45). I examined the second concept out of the five that Kreeft mentioned with respect to my personally views. Although, I do not personally believe that death is the certain and final end of life, the book of Ecclesiastes however, does believe that. Thus, if one is to simply analysis the purpose of life with Ecclesiastes’ take on death then certainly all is vain. Kreeft also agrees with this point, “If death is, as it seems to be, the final end, then life’s story is vanity with a vengeance (Kreeft, 47). All is not vain for death is not the end but rather the beginning of the eternal