A few months ago I restarted my read-through of the whole Bible
in the original Hebrew and Greek for the third time. My memory has never
been all that great, so I always have a tough time with vocabulary when
learning a different language than English, so...
(1) I read the Hebrew in an interlinear text, English glosses undeer each Hebrew word. After a while in the first read-through, I decided I know enough vocabulary so I cover up the glosses, then peek only when I need to. Genesis is easy Hebrew, I know most of the words, requiring one or two peeks per verse. Poetry is the worst, because every verse in Hebrew poetry says the same thing twice, using different words, often words used only in poetry, so I'm peeking all the time.
(2) I'm more familiar with the Greek vocabulary -- I started carrying a Greek New Testament to church much earlier in life, and I've learned many more words before my memory froze up -- so I use a Bible with a dictionary in the back to look up the unfamiliar words. Also, Christians read the New Testament much more than the Old, so the passages themselves are much more familiar, and often I can guess at a word I cannot remember. It's still slower than peeking at glosses.
(3) The result of all this is that it takes me several years to work through the whole Bible. That's not A Bad Thing, going slower gives your attention to each verse much longer, for a different perspective than 50+ years of reading it a whole chapter each day in English (about three years for a complete read-through). Also, the grouping of Bible books by kind gets tiresome at the slower pace, so...
I decided to alternate Old and New Testament books, Genesis, then Matthew (which I just finished), then back to the Old. I was thinking of resuming with Exodus, but I realized I could get better variety by also alternating front aand back half, so this week I started with Ecclesiastes (I already do Psalms and Proverbs, one chapter each day). We did Ecclesiastes in Sunday School last year, but the reading pace was too fast for me to be reading in Hebrew; my interlinear also has a column of NIV translation that I used. Reading it now in Hebrew is a very different experience.
Today I read the second half of chapter 2. I also read Proverbs 8, same author, some of the same ideas. In Proverbs Wisdom (personified as a woman calling out to passers-by) announces all the benefits of paying attention to wisdom. At the end of his life, Solomon has a slightly different perspective: He tried wisdom, and it was a chasing after the wind. He also tried folly, and likewise. On a swift read-through it sounds like Eastern Zoroastrianism, the Light and Dark sides of the Force, equal and pointless. Reading slower, as I did today, I see
I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. -- Ec.2:13Solomon didn't say so, but I am reminded from other Scriptures that Wisdom and Light come from God, darkness and folly come from rejecting God's Goodness. Ecclesiastes is written from the perspective of "under the sun" = below (and apart from) God's Goodness. Four verses later,
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, -- Ec.2:17,18aThe Christian in me has a different perspective. We have God's Holy Spirit in us to give life and work meaning. Work is part of the "Good" universe that God created before the Fall, and God expects us all to work and earn our keep [2Th.3:10]. Work came before the Fall, so in the New Jerusalem there will also be work. Adam was given one job, to care for the Garden and give names to everything in it (part of care). This is agrarian work.
The New Jerusalem is a city, and as such has many different jobs to make the city function. Therefore it seems reasonable that each of us -- created as we are to be different from each other -- will have different jobs in the City. OK, there's no need for cops and maybe firemen (but I don't know about the firemen part, perhaps a Fire Marshal to inspect our individual add-ons to the City so as not to create a fire hazard). My nephew here is a fireman, aspiring to be Fire Marshal. I'm a computer programmer, and there will be computers in the New Jerusalem -- every person is a computer that executes DNA-coded software. With infinite time, who knows what we can program?
All this from Solomon hating work, because he lost the God perspective he had at the beginning of his reign. I program from wisdom, not folly. "Wisdom is better than folly." Still is, still will be in the New Jerusalem.
Tom Pittman
First draft, 2025 January 8