were another than himself, in order to keep up the assumption of Solomonic authorship.
The other alleged interpolations raise a much more difficult question. 12"- '* are suspected partly on account of their general tenor, partly from their reference to the judgment. It seems strange to announce as the conclusion of the matter, that the teaching of the book may be summed up in the injunctions to 'fear God and keep his commandments.' Its teaching is rather that ' all is vanity and striving after wind,' and that man's wisest course is to recognize this and extract as much pleasure from life as he can. It is not denied that the fear of God is advised in the book, but that it is its main theme, or the chief lesson to be drawn from it. Kuenen, wlio gives a very long and elaborate defence of the authen- ticity of the entire Epilogue, admits that if this were interpreted in the highest sense as the one thing about which man had to concern himself, we shotild be compelled to deny 12'*- '* to the author of the rest of the book. He argues, however, that the writer simply means that the fear of God and keeping of His commandments is the indispen.sable condition of enjoying life. But it is questionable whether the exijlicit words, ' for this is the whole duty of man,' do not compel us to interpret the command in the larger sense whi;h Kuenen denies. This passage has been also suspected because of its ret. to a judgment. And the same objection lies against 3" and U'-'^Cbut know thou that for all these things God will bring tliee into judgment'). If the reference is to a judgment after death, it seems improbable that they can be harmonized with other passages in the book (cf. 3"'-2' 9»- «• '»). But it is possible that a judgment in this life is referred to. This requires a change of reading in 3", when instead of ' there ' (□y' sham), ' he hath appointed ' (D^' sdm) would be read. It is not clear, however, that this yields so good a sense, and it is not im- probable tliat in all the passages a jmignient after death is spoken of. In 12'* the ditliiuUy arises partly from the idea, which is thought to be alien to the general tenor of the book, partly from its incongruity with the context. The counsel, ' Re- member thy Creator in the days of thy youth,' is not what we expect from the author of such a book. Nor do the preceding counsels lead up to this. The young man is bidden to rejoice in all the days of his life, esp. in the days of his youth, remembering the dark days that await him in Sheol. But remembering not only these, but all the failure of manly vigour and his [ihysical powers, and of the zest for pleasure that will come upon him with old age, he would do well to make the mo.st of his prime of life. This gives a connected sense, and one in harmony with the rest of the book, and we obtain it by deleting 12'* and con- necting 12"" with 11'°. The meaning in that case will be — make the best of your youth in the en- joyment of pleasures before the evil days of old age come, when you will say, I have no delight in them. It is true that the connexion of 12"" with 11'° is a little awkward if 12'* is omitted, but the connexion in the text is even more awkward. Graetz proposes to retain the words with a slight alteration of the Hebrew, and to read, ' Remember abso thy fountain (i.e. tliy wife) in tlie days of thy youth.' This is not grotesque, though it has been criticized as such ; nor even unworthy, for it is an exhortation to a life of conjugal purity (in opposi- tion to illicit amours), such as we have also in 9*. But it is .scarcely a happy suggestion. Bickell not only adopts the correction of the text, but attempts to improve the connexion by transposition. 12"' ("and the spirit return unto God who gave it ') may be retained on the ground that it simply implies the dissolution of the personality into its
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original sources, the body will return to dnst, the spirit to God. The 'spirit probably means nothing more than the breath of life (cf. Ps 104"). No very serious objection need be felt to 7' or S'*- ".
While Knenen retains these passages (except 12"*, which he regards as altered on dogmatic grounds) by denying that they contain anything of a higher point of view than we generally find in the book, several critics defend the genuineness of the whole, with the obvious interpretation. Sanday in his Bampton Lectures argues that they must have been included, for other^vise a scribe would have passed it by, and it would have been simply left out of the Canon. This, however, is (questionable. A book professing Solomonic authorship would not be lightly rejected; it would be assumed that it must really teach true religion, and a few interpolations would bring this out more clearly. He also urges that it is psychologically more probable that an Isr. would ' have this reserve in the bottom of his soul, than that he should give way to blank and unrelieved pessimism.' It is more remarkable to find so radical a critic as Comill defending their authenticity. He maintains that the same thoughts run through the whole book ; the fear of God and God the Judge are cardinal conceptions. In his very striking passage on the contents of the book he says : ' OT piety has never achieved a greater triumph than in the Bk of K.' (Einleit. 251). While the author sees the misery of the world as clearly as our modem pessimists, he is so penetrated by the piety of OT that he does not hit on the simplest and most obvious solution, that the world is the plaything of blind chance. He returns to the faith of uis childhood in a personal God and a moral order of the world.