The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most debated Books of the “Ketubim” accord-ing to its image of God on the one hand and its human inner mood on the other hand. This paper tries to show that the translation into Greek caused most of the negative stimulations and pessimistic views of the future often connoted with this scripture. The diaspora or minority experience may have led the translator(s) to such a critical out-look into nearer future. The Hebrew “Vorlage” was critical as well, but not so much to future as such, as more to the question about validity of traditional values. This paper shows how comparatively moderate linguistic adaptions were strong enough to lend a pessimistic overtone to a fascinating piece of literature, to theology and to the inner feeling of a great Hebrew sage, thinker and believer.

Septuagint; Qohelet; Pessimism; Translation technique

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