Editing Ecclesiastes (section)

==Influence on Western literature==

Ecclesiastes has had a deep influence on Western literature. It contains several phrases that have resonated in British and American culture, such as "eat, drink and be merry", "nothing new under the sun", "a time to be born and a time to die", and "[[vanity]] of vanities; all is vanity".<ref name="rRMn7">{{cite book |last=Hirsch |first=E. D. |title=The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |year=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newdictionaryofc00hirs/page/8 8] |url=https://archive.org/details/newdictionaryofc00hirs |url-access=registration |isbn=0-618-22647-8}}</ref> American novelist [[Thomas Wolfe]] wrote: "[O]f all I have ever seen or learned, that book seems to me the noblest, the wisest, and the most powerful expression of man's life upon this earth—and also the highest flower of poetry, eloquence, and truth. I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter of literary creation, but if I had to make one I could say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom expressed in it the most lasting and profound."{{sfn|Christianson|2007|p=70}}
* The opening of [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Sonnet 59]] references Ecclesiastes 1:9–10.<ref>Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 59.” Folger Shakespeare Library, 1996-2025,</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 59 {{!}} Folger Shakespeare Library |url=https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/read/59/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=www.folger.edu |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Shakespeare Sonnet 59 - If there be nothing new, but that which is |url=https://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/59.html |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=www.shakespeare-online.com}}</ref>
* Line 23 of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]'' alludes to Ecclesiastes 12:5.<ref>Printz, John Robert. “The Relevance of Ezekiel and Ecclesiastes to the Theme of “The Waste Land” (T.S. Eliot).” American University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, ProQuest, 1968. Accessed December 11, 2024.</ref><ref>Booth, Allyson. “And the dead tree gives no shelter”: Ecclesiastes.” Reading The Waste Land from the Bottom Up. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2015.</ref><ref>Alkafaji, Saad Najim. “The Use of Allusions in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.” Alusatath Journal 
for Human and Social Sciences, vol. 1, 2018, pp. 81.</ref>
* [[Christina Rossetti]]'s "One Certainty" quotes from Ecclesiastes 1:2–9.<ref>Diane, D’Amico. Christina Rossetti: Face, Gender, and Time, P. 80-85, Louisiana State University Press. 1999.
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* [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s ''[[A Confession|Confession]]'' describes how the reading of Ecclesiastes affected his life.
* [[Robert Burns]]' "Address to the Unco Guid" begins with a verse appeal to Ecclesiastes 7:16.
* The title of [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s first novel ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' comes from Ecclesiastes 1:5.<ref>Faulstick, Dustin. “Wharton, Hemingway, Ecclesiastes, and the Modernist Impulse.” Wharton, Hemingway, and the Advent of Modernism, edited by Lisa Tyler, et al, Louisiana State University Press, 2019, pp. 189-208.</ref><ref>Stein, Nathaniel. “The Sun (Also) Rises: How Alter’s New Translation Fares in Literature.” The New Yorker, 27 Sept. 2010, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-sun-also-rises-how-alters-new-translation-fares-in-literature. 
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* The title of [[Edith Wharton]]'s novel ''[[The House of Mirth]]'' was taken from Ecclesiastes 7:4 ("The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.").<ref>Dahl, Curtis. "Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth": Sermon on a Text." Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, 1975, pp. 572. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/edith-whartons-house-mirth-sermon-on-text/docview/1301319241/se-2.</ref>
* [[John Steinbeck]]'s ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' <ref name="Steinbeck, John 2017">Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 2017.</ref> (1939) quotes from Ecclesiastes 4:9–12, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their…" in chapter 28 (570-571).<ref name="Steinbeck, John 2017"/><ref>Rombold, Tamara. “Biblical Inversion in ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’” College Literature, vol. 14, no. 2, 1987, pp. 146–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111734. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.</ref><ref>Salloom, Aida Thamer. "John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: A Literary Portrayal of Historical Truth." Muthanna University, vol. 10, No. 3, 2024, pp. 24
https://iiardjournals.org/get/RJHCS/VOL.%2010%20NO.%203%202024/John%20Steinbeck%27s%2018-30.pdf
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* The title of [[Laura Lippman]]'s novel ''[[Every Secret Thing (novel)|Every Secret Thing]]'' and that of [[Every Secret Thing (film)|its film adaptation]] come from Ecclesiastes 12:14 ("For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether ''it be'' good, or whether ''it be'' evil.").<ref>Lipman, Laura. Every Secret Thing. HarperCollins. 2003.  (Epigraph.)</ref>

* The main character in [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s short story ''[[The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God]]''<ref name="pCnJt">{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Bernard |author-link=George Bernard Shaw |title=The adventures of the black girl in her search for God |publisher=Hesperus |location=London |date=2006 |isbn=1-84391-422-0 |oclc=65469757}}</ref> meets Koheleth, "known to many as Ecclesiastes".<ref>Williams, Albert. “The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.” Chicago Reader. 23 Jan. 1997. Web.
https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/the-adventures-of-the-black-girl-in-her-search-for-god/
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* The title of [[Henry James]]'s novel ''[[The Golden Bowl]]'' is taken from Ecclesiastes 12:6.<ref>Byrd, Scott. “The Fractured Crystal In ‘Middlemarch’ and ‘The Golden Bowl.’” 
Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, 1972-73, pp. 551-554, JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26278841. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

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* The title and theme of George R. Stewart's post-apocalyptic novel ''[[Earth Abides]]'' is from Ecclesiastes 1:4.
* In the dystopian novel ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'', [[Ray Bradbury]]'s main character, [[Guy Montag|Montag]], memorizes much of Ecclesiastes and Revelation in a world where books are forbidden and burned<ref>Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1979: (144). Print..</ref><ref>Frenning, Henric. Burning the Good Book: Religion and ideology in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Lund, Sweden: lup.lub.lu.se, 2018 (8). Web.</ref>
* The passage in chapter 3, with its repetition of "A time to ..." has been used as a title in many other cases, including the novels ''A Time to Dance'' by [[Melvyn Bragg]] and ''[[A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)|A Time to Kill]]'' by [[John Grisham]], the records ''[[...And a Time to Dance]]'' by [[Los Lobos]] and ''[[A Time to Love (album)|A Time to Love]]'' by [[Stevie Wonder]], and films ''[[A Time to Love and a Time to Die]]'', ''[[A Time to Live]]'' and ''[[A Time to Kill (1996 film)|A Time to Kill]]''.
* The opening quote in the movie ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]'' by [[Oliver Stone]] is taken from Ecclesiastes 11:9.
* The essay "[[Politics and the English Language]]" by [[George Orwell]] uses Ecclesiastes 9:11 as an example of clear and vivid writing, and "translates" it into "modern English of the worst sort" to demonstrate common failings of the latter.<ref>“Politics and the English Language.” The Orwell Foundation. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/</ref>
* The opening pages of [[Jean Baudrillard]]'s [[Simulacra and Simulation]] misquote Ecclesiastes.<ref>Baudrillard,Jean."Simulacra And Simulation 1995 University Of Michigan Press." University Of Michigan Press. 27 July 2003, https://archive.org/details/simulacra-and-simulation-1995-university-of-michigan-press/page/n1/mode/2up</ref><ref>Mahan, Kevin Paul. “It Was and It Isn’t: A Rhetorical Exploration of Simulacra in Emerging Church Vintage Worship.” Scholars Crossing, May 2008, https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/17/. Accessed 7 Jan. 2025.</ref>
* The main character of [[Terry Gilliam]]'s movie ''[[The Zero Theorem]]'', ''Qohen Leth'', is inspired by Qohelet.