An Introduction to the Five Scrolls

Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther

An Introduction to the Five Scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther is a comprehensive introduction to the Megilloth, an important but often neglected minor collection of books in the Hebrew Bible. Using contemporary critical methods, each chapter explores title, authorship, provenance, place and time of composition, literary development, intended audience, literary structure, form, and style, literary and traditional sources, the contents and theological contribution, canonicity, and liturgical reception of the scrolls in both Jewish and Christian traditions. An Introduction to the Five Scrolls is the first comprehensive, critical introduction to the Five Scrolls to appear in English in recent scholarship.

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Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC

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SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4808-6

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- Hardback (Forthcoming) ISBN 978-1-4632-4808-6

Publication Status: Forthcoming

Series: Gorgias Handbooks67

Publication Date: Jul 31,2025

Interior Color: Black

Trim Size: 6 x 9

Page Count: 539

Languages: English

ISBN: 978-1-4632-4808-6

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An Introduction to the Five Scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther is a comprehensive, critical introduction to the Five Megilloth or Five Scrolls, an important but often neglected minor collection of books in the Hebrew Bible. These books—Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther—often arranged in precisely this order in printed Hebrew Bibles, contain the most diverse literature in the Hebrew Bible. Almost every facet of them is in dispute.

An initial chapter introduces the Five Scrolls and their role in the Hebrew canon, the Jewish liturgical tradition, and in Christian interpretation and liturgy. The Five Scrolls in the Hebrew canon belong to the third division of that canon, the Nevi’im or Writings. Individually, they are formally recited at five of the Jewish annual liturgical celebrations, Pesekh/Passover (Song of Solomon), Shavuot/Pentecost (Ruth), Tisha’ b’Av/Ninth of Ab (Lamentations), Sukkot/Booths (Ecclesiastes), and Purim (Esther). Within the Christian tradition, all five of the scrolls appear in the Revised Common Lectionary, the annual schedule of lections for use in study, preaching, and worship in many Christian denominations.

The remaining five chapters of this introduction take up the scrolls individually. Using contemporary critical methods, each scroll undergoes a socio-historical, literary, theological, and liturgical investigation, resulting in a careful analysis of introductory issues: the title, authorship, provenance, place and time of composition, literary development, intended audience, literary structure, form, style and rhetorical artistry, literary and traditional sources, survey of the contents, the theological contribution, canonicity, and in a final section that goes beyond a standard introduction, the liturgical reception of the scrolls in both the Jewish and Christian traditions. For each scroll the journey from inception through transmission to the current or final form in the canon and in the liturgical calendar is carefully explored.

Carefully documented from original and secondary literature, the book discusses the major views and controversies advanced regarding each scroll and the issues connected with them, providing a thorough-going introduction to this literature. An Introduction to the Five Scrolls is the first comprehensive, critical introduction to the Five Scrolls to appear in English in recent scholarship. Almost encyclopedic in scope and scholarship, with an extensive bibliography, it provides the essential reference materials necessary for further in-depth study of the scrolls and their contribution to synagogue and church.

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	Contributor	Biography
	JerryGladson	Jerry A. Gladson is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Integrative Studies at Richmont Graduate University, Atlanta, Georgia and Senior Minister Emeritus of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Marietta, Georgia. He holds the MA and PhD in Hebrew Scripture from Vanderbilt University. He has taught at Richmont Graduate University; Chapman University, Orange, California; Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia; and at several other undergraduate and graduate institutions. The author of almost two hundred scholarly and popular articles, as well as major commentaries on Job, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel, this is his seventeenth book.

Foreword to the First Edition ................................................... xi
Foreword to the Revised Edition .............................................. xv
Acknowledgments ..................................................................xvii
Abbreviations ......................................................................... xix
Preface................................................................................... xxv
Chapter 1. The Five Scrolls ....................................................... 1
Chapter 2. The First Scroll: Song of Solomon ............................ 9
Historical and Cultural Setting ........................................ 11
Title of the Song ......................................................... 11
Contents ..................................................................... 11
An Outline of the Song ............................................... 13
Who Composed the Song of Songs? ............................ 14
Date of the Song ......................................................... 19
Cultural Setting of the Song ........................................ 28
The Hebrew Text of the Song ..................................... 32
An Interloper in the Canon? ....................................... 35
Literary Style ................................................................... 39
The Genre of the Song ................................................ 39
Is the Song a Unified Poetic Collection?...................... 46
Some Rhetorical Features in the Song ......................... 51
The Theological Interpretation of the Song ...................... 55
An Allegory of Divine Love ......................................... 56
A Parable or Analogy ................................................. 66
A Cultic or Fertility Liturgy ........................................ 68
A Drama ..................................................................... 72
Lyrical Love Poetry..................................................... 74
Toward the Christian Scriptures ................................. 88
The Song of Songs in Liturgy ........................................... 90
Chapter 3. The Second Scroll: Ruth ......................................... 95
The Cultural Setting ........................................................ 96
Title of Ruth ............................................................... 96
Contents ..................................................................... 97
Outline of Ruth ........................................................ 103
The Provenance of Ruth ........................................... 103
The Date of Ruth ...................................................... 110
The Hebrew Text of Ruth ......................................... 126
The Place of Ruth in the Canon ................................ 129
The Literary Artistry of Ruth ......................................... 132
The Genre of Ruth .................................................... 132
The Literary Structure and Design ............................ 138
The Purpose and Theology of Ruth ................................ 144
Ruth in the New Testament ...................................... 172
The Book of Ruth in Liturgy .......................................... 175
Chapter 4. The Third Scroll: Lamentations ............................ 181
The Socio-Historical Setting .......................................... 182
The Title of Lamentations ......................................... 183
Contents of the Poems .............................................. 184
Outline of Lamentations ........................................... 188
The Origin of Lamentations ...................................... 189
Determining the Date of Lamentations ..................... 199
Where was Lamentations Composed? ....................... 203
The Hebrew Text of Lamentations ............................ 204
Lamentations in the Canon ....................................... 206
Literary Form and Structure .......................................... 208
The City-Lament Tradition ....................................... 211
The Literary Structure of Lamentations..................... 218
Voices in Lamentations ............................................. 224
The Performative Setting .......................................... 227
The Theological Significance of Lamentations ............... 229
The Liturgical Reception of Lamentations ...................... 238
Chapter 5. The Fourth Scroll: Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) ........... 245
The Socio-Historical Setting .......................................... 246
Title of Ecclesiastes .................................................. 246
Overview of Ecclesiastes ........................................... 249
Who is Qoheleth? ..................................................... 251
The Date of Ecclesiastes............................................ 259
Where was Ecclesiastes Composed? .......................... 269
The Hebrew Text of Ecclesiastes ............................... 269
Does Ecclesiastes belong in the Canon? .................... 273
Literary Artistry in Ecclesiastes ...................................... 277
The Literary Form of Ecclesiastes ............................. 277
The Structure of Ecclesiastes .................................... 284
Outline ..................................................................... 295
The Literary Style of Ecclesiastes .............................. 296
The Theology of Ecclesiastes ......................................... 300
Elusiveness of Meaning ............................................ 303
Divine Inscrutability ................................................. 305
Frustration of Human Experience ............................. 306
Finality of Death ...................................................... 307
Enjoyment in Life ..................................................... 309
Qoheleth and the Epilogue (12:9–14) ....................... 312
Ecclesiastes as a Canonical Witness .......................... 316
Qoheleth in the Liturgy of Synagogue and Church ......... 321
Jewish Liturgy .......................................................... 321
Christian Liturgy ...................................................... 324
Chapter 6. The Fifth Scroll: Esther ........................................ 327
The Socio-Historical Setting of Esther ............................ 328
Title of Esther........................................................... 328
The Problem of Authorship and Provenance ............. 328
The Date of Esther .................................................... 340
How Authentic is the Narrative of Esther? ................ 343
The Additions ........................................................... 351
Literary Analysis of Esther ............................................. 358
Survey of Contents ................................................... 358
Literary Form ........................................................... 363
Literary Structure ..................................................... 367
The Rhetorical Style of Esther .................................. 370
The Texts and Versions of Esther .............................. 376
Esther and the Canon ............................................... 377
The Theological Significance of Esther .......................... 386
The Absence of God.................................................. 387
The Ethics of Violence .............................................. 393
Esther in Later Jewish and Christian
Interpretation ................................................... 396
Feminist Interpretations of Esther ............................. 399
Esther in the Liturgy ...................................................... 401
Epilogue ............................................................................... 409
Bibliography ......................................................................... 413
Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Translations .............. 413
Ancient Near Eastern Texts ....................................... 414
Deuterocanonical Books ........................................... 414
Pseudepigrapha ........................................................ 415
Dead Sea Scrolls ....................................................... 415
Ancient Jewish Authors ............................................ 415
New Testament ........................................................ 415
Rabbinical Works ..................................................... 416
Early Christian Writings ........................................... 417
Greco-Roman Literature ........................................... 417
Introductions, Commentaries, and Theologies of
the Hebrew Bible .............................................. 417
General and Specialized Studies ............................... 420
The Five Megilloth ................................................... 434

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An Introduction to the Five Scrolls

Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther