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J Relig Health (2014) 53:511519
DOI 10.1007/s10943-012-9655-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
Zacharias Kotz
Published online: 27 October 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract Qohelets warning in chapter 7:16 not to be too righteous has commonly been interpreted by biblical scholars in ways that acquit the author of teaching immorality. This article approaches the text from a psychological critical perspective, bringing it into dialogue with the psychological maturation process of individuation in Jungian psychology. The confrontation with the shadow, made up of reprehensible qualities residing in the unconscious that a person wishes to deny, forms the prologue to this process. Projection or repression of these primitive instincts can lead to various problems, such as stagnation and neurosis. Raising the shadowy, primitive, and archaic content of the unconscious to consciousness and integrating it with the ego, however, leads to a mysterious union of opposites and a new personality, a self that transcends consciousness.
Keywords Jung Individuation Shadow Qohelet 7:16
Introduction
Whybray (1978:191) has argued that the meaning of dont be too righteous (
) in Qohelet 7:16 is of crucial importance to the understanding of Qohelets message as a whole. He suggests that
in ethical contexts represents an absolute category, and Qohelets failure to commend righteous behaviour leaves him open to the charge of teaching immorality. Indeed, many commentators have seen in this statement a protest against the orthodox wisdom that God loves and blesses the righteous while he disdains and punishes unrighteous behaviour (cf. Lauha 1978:133; Enns 2011:84). Verses 16 and 17 constitute two tripartite poetic lines that form a literary unit both in form and content (cf. Whybray 1978:192):
Z. Kotz (&)
Faculty of Humanities, School of Basic Sciences, Subject Group Theology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, P. O. Box 2099, Faerie Glen, Pretoria 0043, Republic of South Africa e-mail: [email protected]
Jung, Individuation, and Moral Relativity in Qohelet 7:1617
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512 J Relig Health (2014) 53:511519
Dont be too righteous (
)
And dont be too wise (
)
Why do you want to destroy yourself? Dont be too wicked (
)
And dont be too foolish (
)
Why do you want to die before your time?
Bicksler (2005:12) has pointed to the numerous editorial attempts to suppress the heterodox, disturbing, and radical elements...