Granice mądrości. Koh 3, 1-1 na tle biblijnych i pozabiblijnych poglądów o możliwościach poznania

Abstract

The article presents the Egyptian concept of Maat, The Order of the World, which is the root of the assumptions on biblical wisdom. In the wisdom tradition of the Bible, Maat, or The Order of the World, is described with the word tsedek. Israeli wisdom literature is in its original form similar to the Egyptian thought, and it has evolved only after the crisis, associated with the experience of the Babylonian captivity. The author analyzes an extract from Ecclesiastes concerning time, confronting the biblical text with the findings of wisdom literature. The text describes also the basic features of rabbinical interpretation of the pericope: showing that divine determination of events is not incompatible with the existence of free will, adjusting the text to the later religious situation, as well as relating fragments of biblical texts to the history of Israel. Ecclesiastes relates not so much to the impossibility of a rational concept of God, but even to the notion of Genesis, to the extent that one can completely control it. Understanding this truth would be the starting point for true devotion.