For
everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up
...
With the change of
the calendar year I am especially attracted to this passage from the biblical book
Ecclesiastes (in the Hebrew known as Kohelet). The author is supposed to
be the King Solomon, but there is no way it could
be him! This text is one of the youngest parts of the Hebrew Bible
written in the Hellenistic period just as the Greek culture was making its
deep impact on the Ancient Near East. It was a period of profound
cultural and religious, political and military upheavals.
Interestingly, this biblical poem was almost certainly inspired
by an even older, much older, wisdom literature from Babylonia.
“Dialogue of a master and his servant” or, as it is sometimes called
“Dialogue of Pessimism” was written in Akkadian language
on cuneiform tablets sometime in the early tenth century BCE.
Interestingly, it was also a period of upheavals and uncertainties of the Early Iron Age.
Dialogue of master and servant also deals with life
unpredictability, absurdities of history and feelings of existential futility. In
such a situation many social and religious answers of traditional
religion as well as cultural norms show themselves insufficient and deeper and
a more genuine search is needed.
We ourselves live in quite turbulent times so come to be inspired
by examples how Hebrew and Babylonian teachers of wisdom dealt with
life’s ambiguities. Come for the dramatic reading of an old Babylonian
wisdom literature as well as a modern music rendition
of the Hebrew poem from Kohelet.
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