Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf

1 8
ECCLESIASTES
eddies and side currents of corruption and transmission which in-
evitably manifest themselves in MSS. and versions, these recensions
are the pre-Aquilan recension, the Aquilan recension and
the Massoretic recension. A careful study of the text on those
sane principles which Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort have
established for the New Testament,
reveals the fact that the text
of Qoheleth has been transmitted, on the whole, with great fidelity.
These recensions differ from one another far less than one would
expect, and affect comparatively few passages.
The best text-critical work hitherto done on Ecclesiastes is that of
McNeile in his Introduction to Ecclesiastes, to which reference has sev-
eral times been made. The more drastic work of Bickell, based on his
theory of dislocations, as well as that of Zapletal and Haupt, based on
a metrical theory of the book, are in most cases conjectures which rest
on unproven premises. A criticism of their metrical theories will be
found in 9. Winckler's emendations (Altorientalische Forschungen,
IV) (1896), 351-355, are also usually too conjectural.
With the exception of a few interpolations and a very little edi-
torial material (see below, 7), the work of Qoheleth has come
down to us modified by design or error far less than is the case
with most of the Old Testament books. This is due, un-
doubtedly, to the fact that it had undergone no long history of
transmission and frequent copying before Aqiba set those forces
to work which made further serious alterations in the text well-
nigh impossible.
5.
HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION.
It is possible in the space at our disposal to treat the history of
the interpretation of Ecclesiastes only in outline. We cannot, as
Ginsburg has done in his Coheleth, go into the merits and demerits
of all the commentaries of Qoheleth, that have ever been written,
whether Jewish or Christian. Those who are interested in such
curious details are referred to the " Introduction " of Ginsburg's
work, pp. 30-245. It will be possible here to treat in detail only
a few of the more important works of recent years, the theories
set forth in which are living issues of present-day exegesis.