Context: Ecclesiastes is the most philosophical — and apparently most skeptical — book of the Bible. The Preacher (Qohelet in Hebrew, "one who gathers the assembly") observes life "under the sun" and announces: hebel hebalim — "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (hebel = vapor, breath, something fleeting and intangible).

The great themes: The book traverses the futility of human labor that does not outlast death (ch. 2); the irreversibility and enigma of time (ch. 3 — "there is a time for everything"); persistent injustice in society (ch. 4); the relativity of wisdom before death that equalizes wise and fool (chs. 6–7); and the unpredictability of the future (ch. 9 — "the race is not to the swift").

Theology: Ecclesiastes is not nihilism — it is the cure for naive optimism. The attempt to find ultimate meaning "under the sun" without God results in absurdity. The antidote is to "fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13–14) and to accept simple pleasures with gratitude as divine gifts amid life's brevity. It is a radical theology of human limitation that opens space for transcendent revelation.