Dlaczego „dzień śmierci” jest lepszy niż „dzień urodzenia”? Aksjologia Koheleta w świetle przysłów z Koh 7: 1-4: Język Angielski

Piotr Żelazko

doi:10.34768/fp2021a2

Authors

Piotr Żelazko Salesian Pontifical University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1703-4675 (unauthenticated)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34768/fp2021a2

Keywords:

Hebrew Bible, Qoheleth, Ecclesiastes, Better-proverb, comparisons

Abstract

The article is an exegetic analysis of the passage Qoh 7:1-4 from the Book of Ecclesiastes. The excerpt challenges the absolute statement repeated many times throughout the book about the worthlessness of all things (“vanity of vanities.”) Some values are recognised as “better” than others which may be the evidence of Qoh’s axiology relativity. At first sight, he qualifies the universal lack of values as absolute.. The superiority “good name” over “precious oil” denies the supposed meaninglessness (vanity, ephemerality) of everything. The in-depth analysis of other comparisons present in the passage (“the day of death is better than the day of birth,” “it is better to go to a mourning house than to a wedding house”) shows that a passage which has a pessimistic character due to the elevation of death, may also be interpreted differently. The detailed study of the ancient Hebrew vocabulary in the text also revealed the various levels of the used metaphors.

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Author Biography

Piotr Żelazko, Salesian Pontifical University

Doctor of Biblical Sciences, graduate of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. At the latter, as well as at Ono Academic College, he also lectured as an invited professor. Currently, he is a lecturer of ancient Greek and biblical archaeology, history and geography at the Studium Theologicum Salesianum in Jerusalem. As a Catholic priest, he is responsible for the Hebrew-speaking parish of the Latin Patriarchate in Be'er Sheva (Israel).

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