A hermeneutical cloud still dominates ongoing discourse on the meaning and application of הֶבֶל, a crucial weaving thread in the book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew Qoheleth, presumably the disguised author, proposes the theological ideology of hebel as the totality of human existence in this book. What does Qohelethintend to achieve by asserting and dismissing everything in human experience as hebel? This article proposes a political and economic reading of Ecclesiastes, holding that the author, from personal observation, saw and addressed life (...) from the point of view of ivory tower aristocrats who sought to control their environment by every means to their benefit. It suggests that a political and economic reading of Ecclesiastes locates another perspective on Qoheleth’s purposes for the use of hebel. As such, it argues that the Qoheleth uses hebel as a literary rhetorical device as an evaluative grid to critique and indict the negative behaviour of the politically powerful and the wealthy, to caution against the reckless abuse of political and economic power to their benefit by those who live in privilege in society, and lastly to give counsel for an appropriate application of such privileged power for the good of society vis-à-vis the transitory, transient and unpredictable nature of human existence. (shrink)

Against the background of a disenfranchised and hopeless exilic Israel, Ezekiel received the vision of ‘Dry Bones’, predicting an eschatological resuscitation and resurrection to life and restoration to the land of Yahweh’s covenant people. This article previews the political, social, economic and moral conditions of many African societies as being in a disenfranchised, hopeless exilic state. It nonetheless argues that the theological essence of Ezekiel’s visionary imagery of ‘Dry Bones’ resonates well with such deteriorating and hopeless African societies. It envisages (...) the semblances, relatedness and relevance of Ezekiel’s hope principle of a restorative eschatological theology as a possible reality for Africa’s hopeless present ‘Dry Bones’ state. Upon this hope principle, the article proposes a theological framework of faith against despondency and despair for the realisation of such eschatological reality for Africa. It holds that God is equally capable of displaying his restorative power and sovereignty to reverse the hopeless conditions of African nations in demonstration of his love, compassion and care as he did for the apparently irreparable condition of exilic Israel. (shrink)