Date

7-21-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)

Chair

Curtis Fitzgerald

Keywords

Eschatological, Judgment, Hebel, Vanity, Ecclesiastes, Fear God

Disciplines

Practical Theology

Abstract

This dissertation examines the relationship between the assertions of divine judgment in the book of Ecclesiastes and the New Testament passages that depict the final judgment of humans. Chapter One introduces the topic and thesis by foregrounding modern scholarship's neglect of the conceptual relationship between Ecclesiastes’ assertions of divine judgment and the New Testament’s mature doctrine of personal eschatological judgment, which underpins this study. Chapter Two examines Qohelet’s deployment of the term הֶבֶל (heḇel) as a tensive symbol for the conditions stemming from the fall and its effects on humanity's pursuit of anything of lasting value (יִתְרוֹן, yiṯrôn). For Qohelet, how people respond to hebel is determinative in the final judgment. The analysis of the first of Ecclesiastes’ assertions of divine judgment in 3:16–17, the subject of Chapter Three, examines the scriptural basis for Qohelet’s belief in the afterlife as the setting for the vindication of the faithful and his binary assessment of individuals as either “righteous” (ṣadîq) or wicked (rāšāʿ). These features are foundational for informing the subsequent divine judgment proclamations in Eccl 8:12–13, 11:9, and 12:13–14. The flagrant violation of the traditional retribution principle causes Qohelet to abandon hope in a temporal solution to injustice “under the sun;” thus, he reckons ultimate vindication lies in the heavenly realm beyond death.

Chapter Four examines the Deuteronomistic background underpinning Qohelet’s conviction that only those who authentically fear God will fare well in the postmortal judgment (8:12). The analysis of the hebel rhetoric surrounding the divine judgment proclamation of 11:9 exposes a human “heart” issue connected with the fall, the only cure for which is covenantal obedience, without which one becomes subject to everlasting condemnation. Chapter Five concludes the analysis of Ecclesiastes’ statements of divine judgment by examining the narrator’s pronouncement in 12:13–14, whose deep-penetrating, all-encompassing scope is a testament to God’s omniscience that connotes God’s preoccupation with human justice. Ecclesiastes’ four divine judgment proclamations, enhanced by allusions to the prophetic Sage and Shepherd texts (12:9–11), provide a framework for intertestamental and New Testament authors to apply, extend, and elaborate on the trajectory toward the New Testament’s mature doctrine of personal eschatological judgment.

Following an overview of the development of the theology of the afterlife and postmortal judgment in Second Temple Period literature, Chapter Six analyzes the New Testament’s christological doctrine of postmortal judgment. The analysis demonstrates that the New Testament subsumes the principal elements associated with Qohelet’s formulation of personal eschatological judgment, namely its universality, emphasis on deeds performed out of divine reverence, eschatological tone, depth of penetration, bipa

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