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Bertrand pinçon, L'énigme du bonheur: Étude sur le sujet du bien dans le livre de Qohélet (VTSup 119; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008). Pp. xiv + 311. $158.
The French word bonheur can denote good fortune or happiness and thus can refer either to a favorable act of chance or to the well-deserved fruits of one's own actions. Deciding how Qohelet looks at le bonheur is the aim of this book, based on the author's doctoral thesis completed under the direction of Eberhard Bons at the Catholic Theological Faculty in Strasbourg (2007). Pinçon seeks to interpret Qohelet's understanding of tab and to situate that understanding in the larger theological and anthropological thought of Ecclesiastes. In his introduction, P. states that he follows the trend of current scholarship, which dates Qohelet to the Hellenistic period and sees the prologue and epilogue as the only evidence of editorial activity in the book. The body of P.'s work is divided into three parts of three chapters each. In part 1, P. reviews both premodern and modern interpretations of the meaning of happiness for Qohelet. He looks first at those interpreters who have understood Qohelet as an advocate of joyful living: Denis Buzy, "La notion de bonheur dans l'Ecclesiaste," RB 43 ( 1 934) 494-5 1 1 ; Robert Gordis, Koheleth-The Man and His World (3rd ed. New York: Schocken, 1968); Etienne Glasser, Le procès du bonheur par Qohélet (LD 61 Paris: Cerf, 1970); R. N. Whybray, "Qoheleth, Preacher of Joy," JSOT 23 (1982)...