Royal Autobiography in the Book of Qoheleth (Reprint 2011)

This book examines the literary genre(s) to which the book of Qoheleth belongs and on which it is modelled.

It suggests that Qoheleth is best described as a royal autobiography based on the arguments of specific literary features of style and content, resemblance to various kinds of royal autobiographical narrative from the ancient Near East, and the existence, despite first impressions, of a coherent worldview.

The analyses in this book cover various aspects from textual criticism, through aspects of vocabulary and style, to the interpretation of particular passages and the problem of making sense of the book as a whole.