ECCLESIASTES

"I know nothing grander in its impassioned survey of mortal pain and pleasure, its estimate of failure and success, none of more noble sadness; no poem working more indomitably for spiritual illumination.”
                                                                                                                         —E. C. Stedman

---MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New
Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995

The Apologetics Study Bible succinctly outlines the issues (difficulties) of Ecclesiastes:

Two basic apologetics-related questions arise from the book of Ecclesiastes: first, whether the book was written by Solomon; and second, whether the book is orthodox. Regarding the first question, many scholars consider Ecclesiastes to be a late book, written between 400 and 100 B.C., and therefore obviously not by Solomon who lived in the tenth century B.C. Regarding the second question, many readers are troubled by the book's apparently cynical attitude ("Everything is futile," says 1:2), by its apparent denial of afterlife (e.g., 3:19-20), by its recommendations to eat, drink, and enjoy life (e.g., 5:18; 10:19), and by its seemingly indifferent attitude about morality (e.g., 7:16-17). This second question will be addressed in the notes on Ecclesiastes.

—Apologetics Study Bible, The

The Believer’s Bible Commentary offers a suggestion to deal with the understanding of this book:

Ecclesiastes is one book of the Bible whose uniqueness, at least, has never been questioned, even though nearly everything else about it has been (e.g., its authorship, date, theme, and theology).

The reason this book seems to clash with the rest of the Word of God is that it presents merely human reasoning “under the sun.” This phrase, under the sun, forms the most important single key to understanding Ecclesiastes. The fact that it occurs twenty-nine times indicates the general perspective of the author. His search is confined to this earth. He ransacks the world to solve the riddle of life. And his whole quest is carried on by his own mind, unaided by God.

If this key—under the sun—is not kept constantly in mind, then the book will present mountainous difficulties. It will seem to contradict the rest of Scripture, to set forth strange doctrines, and to advocate a morality that is questionable, to say the least.

But if we remember that Ecclesiastes is a compendium of human, not divine, wisdom, then we will understand why it is that while some of its conclusions are true, some are only half true, and some are not true at all.

MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995