Ecclesiastes

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ecclesiastes \Ec*cle`si*as"tes\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ? a preacher.
     See {Ecclesiastic}, a.]
     One of the canonical books of the Old Testament.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  Ecclesiastes
       n : an Old Testament book consisting of reflections on the
           vanity of human life; is traditionally attributed to
           Solomon but probably was written about 250 BC [syn: {Book
           of Ecclesiastes}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Ecclesiastes
     the Greek rendering of the Hebrew _Koheleth_, which means
     "Preacher." The old and traditional view of the authorship of
     this book attributes it to Solomon. This view can be
     satisfactorily maintained, though others date it from the
     Captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly as Solomon
     (1:12). It has been appropriately styled The Confession of King
     Solomon. "The writer is a man who has sinned in giving way to
     selfishness and sensuality, who has paid the penalty of that sin
     in satiety and weariness of life, but who has through all this
     been under the discipline of a divine education, and has learned
     from it the lesson which God meant to teach him." "The writer
     concludes by pointing out that the secret of a true life is that
     a man should consecrate the vigour of his youth to God." The
     key-note of the book is sounded in ch. 1:2,
     
       "Vanity of vanities! saith the Preacher,
     
       Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!"
     i.e., all man's efforts to find happiness apart from God are
     without result.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Ecclesiastes, a preacher