Qoheleth

The Preacher — the Septuagint title of Ecclesiastes; its theology of vanity as the beginning of wisdom.

Qoheleth (the Preacher, the Assembler) is the Hebrew title of the book called Ecclesiastes in the Septuagint tradition. Orthodox theology reads Qoheleth's meditation on vanity (mataioteta, emptiness) not as pessimism but as apophatic wisdom: the recognition that created things cannot satisfy the soul made for God. 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity' — this recognition is the beginning of the soul's turning from created things toward the Creator. The Preacher prepares the way for the Gospel: if all is vanity, then the soul must seek what is not vanity.