Ecclesiastes Introduction

We do have evidence that the author of Ecclesiastes was familiar with certain classic texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt that were written before the time of Solomon (see note at 9:8-9). But the book shows no familiarity with later literature, such as the classic Greek texts from the fifth century BC and following. This lends weight to Solomon’s being author of Ecclesiastes and creates problems for the position that Ecclesiastes was written between 400–100 BC.