Qohelet/o pregador não é misógino: a articulação do sentido e seus entornos em eclesiastes 7:25-26

Alessandra Castilho da Costa

doi:10.55245/energeia.2025.11

Authors

Alessandra Castilho Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55245/energeia.2025.11

Keywords:

Ecclesiastes 7:25-26, Qohelet/the Preacher, Text Linguistics, Eugenio Coseriu

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze the articulation of meaning in Eccl. 7:25-26 and to answer whether this excerpt contains misogynistic contente. It constitutes part of a broader research on Eccl. 7:25-29, a passage in which the speaker, Qohelet/The Preacher, supposedly attributes to women a morality inferior to that of men. Based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Text Linguistics proposed by Coseriu (1994), two semiotic relations are distinguished in the texts: in the first, there are designation (the reference to the extralinguistic reality) and signified (the content given by a language); in the second, there is meaning (the human attitude implied by the discourse or the purpose for which it is carried out). The analysis of these relations points to two implicit paraphrases in Eccl. 7:25, wickedness is folly and justice or righteousness is wisdom, which articulate themselves to a higher-level unit of meaning that challenges the interpretation of the preceding portion of Ecclesiastes (7:16-17) as a defense of moderate practice of wickedness and righteousness; in Eccl. 7:26, gender disagreement leads to the comparison of equality the woman is equal to the man, which articulate itself to the unit in which the feminine voice of Qohelet/Preacher, the soul mate of the masculine speaker Qohelet/the Preacher, is introduced. From this latter comparison, it follows that the speaker is not a misogynist. Finally, it is verified that the two verses comprise a riddle, with turns of speech by Qohelet/the (masculine) Preacher and Qohelet/the (feminine) Preacher.

Author Biography

Alessandra Castilho, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Alessandra Castilho da Costa is professor of the Departament of Language at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) since 2010. She obtained her PhD in linguistics from the University of Halle, at Halle/Saale (Germany; 2001-2005). She is a specialist in German Language Teaching from the Brazil-Germany Pedagogical Institute/Instituto Pedagógico Brasil-Alemanha (1995-1996) and was local coordinator of the Professional Master's Program in Letters (PROFLETRAS), Unity of Natal/RN (2018-2020). Her reserch interests comprise text linguistics, discourse traditions and language teaching.

References

Aschenberg, Heidi (2017): Kontexte in Texten: Umfeldtheorie und literarischer Situationsaufbau. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie. Vol. 295. Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter.

Beaugrande, Robert-Alain de; DRESSLER, Wolfgang U. (1981): Introduction to text linguistics. London: Longman.

Bianchi, Francesco (1993): The language of Qohelet: A bibliographical survey. Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Volume 105 Issue 2, S. 210-223.

Brongers, Hendrik Antonie (1965): Merismus, Synekdoche und Hendiadys in der bibel-hebräischen Sprache. In: BOER, Pieter Arie Hendrik de. Oudtestamentische Studiën: namens het Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap in Nederland: 1940-1965. Leiden: Brill, S. 100-114.

Bühlmann, Walter; Scherer, Karl; Rickenbacher, Otto (1994): Stilfiguren der Bibel: von Assonanz bis Zahlenspruch; ein kleines Nachschlagewerk. Gießen: Brunnen-Verlag.

Bullinger, Ethelbert William (1898): Figures of Speech used in the Bible. Delmarva Publications, Inc.

Cançado, Márcia (2008): Manual de semântica. Belo Horizonte: Editora da UFMG.

Castilho da Costa, Alessandra (2025): Quebra de concordância de gênero e/ou número no hebraico bíblico e figuras de linguagem: paranomásia numérica, figura do todo e suas partes, analogia. In: Cristina Bleorțu; Carlota de Benito Moreno; David Paul Gerards; Philipp Obrist; Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo y Huerta; Albert Wall (eds.). Discursos tradicionales y particulares: Festschrift für Johannes Kabatek zum 60. Geburtstag. Madrid; Frankfurt: Iberoamericana – Vervuert, S. 91-97.

Ceresko, Anthony R. (1982): The Function of Antanaclasis (mṣʾ" to find"//mṣʾ" to reach, overtake, grasp") in Hebrew Poetry, Especially in the Book of Qoheleth. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, v. 44, n. 4, p. 551-569.

Chiappe, Dan; Kennedy, John (2001): Literal Bases for Metaphor and Simile. Metaphor and Symbol 16 (3):249-276.

Corley, Jeremy (2015): Friendship in the Hebrew Wisdom Literature. In: PIBA 38, 27-51.

Coseriu, Eugenio (1954): Forma y sustancia en los sonidos del lenguaje. Univ. de la Republica.

Coseriu, Eugenio (1967): Lexikalische Solidaritäten. Poetica, v. 1, S. 293-303.

Coseriu, Eugenio (1979 [1955/56]): Determinação e entorno: dois problemas duma linguística do falar. In: Teoria da linguagem e linguística geral. Tradução em português de Agostinho Dias. Rio: Presença; São Paulo: EDUSP, p. 209-238.

Coseriu, Eugenio (1992): Competencia lingüística. Elementos de la teoría del hablar. Elaborado y editado por Heinrich Weber. Versión española de Francisco Meno Blanco. Madrid: Gredos.

Coseriu, Eugenio (1994): Textlinguistik. Eine Einführung. 3a ed. revisada, Tübingen: Francke.

Coseriu, Eugenio (2003): “Orationis fundamenta”. La plegaria como texto. RILCE. Revista de filología hispánica, v. 19, n. 1, p. 1-25.

Coseriu, Eugenio; Loureda, Óscar. La lingüística del texto como hermenéutica del sentido (2006): In: Eugenio Coseriu/Óscar Loureda. Lenguaje y discurso. Pamplona: EUNSA.

Coseriu, Eugenio (2007): Lingüística del texto. Introducción a la hermenéutica del sentido. Edición, anotación y estudio previo de Óscar Loureda Lamas. Madrid: Arcos.

Dell, Katherine J. (2013): Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New: Readers Old and New. Penn State Press.

Fischer, Alexander Achilles (2007): Freundschaft (AT). In: Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet. Deutsche Bibel Gesellschaft [online https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/18617/ last accessed 12/10/2025].

Fleck, Michael (2019): „Die Frau, die bitterer ist als der Tod...“: exegetische Studie zu Koh. 7, 25-8, 8. Tese de Doutorado. Dissertation, Paderborn, Universität Paderborn, 2019.

Fontaine, Carole R. et al. (1998): 'Many Devices'(Qoheleth 7.23-8.1): Qoheleth, Misogyny and the Malleus Maleficarum. The feminist companion to the Bible; Ser. 2, 2: Wisdom and Psalms, p. 137-168.

Fox, Michael V. (1989): Qohelet and His Contradictions. In: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, 71/Bible and Literature Series 18; Sheffield: Almond Press.

Fox, Michael. V. (2004): The JPS Bible Commentary: Ecclesiastes. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

Gesenius, Wilhelm (1857): Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, translated, with additions and corrections from the author's Thesaurus and other works, by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Limited.

Ginsburg, Christian D. (1861): Coheleth, commonly called the book of Ecclesiastes: translated from the original Hebrew, with a commentary, historical and critical. London: Longman.

Holmstedt, Robert D. (2010): The Syntactic Encoding of the Collaborative Nature of Qohelet’s Experiment. Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures VI: Comprising the Contents of Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Vol. 9, edited by Ehud Ben Zvi, Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias Press, p. 395-422 [online https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463229436-032 last accessed 12/10/2025].

Holmstedt, Robert D.; Jones, Andrew R. (2017): Apposition in Biblical Hebrew: Structure and Function. KUSATU: Kleine Untersuchungen zur Sprache des Alten Testaments und seiner Umwelt, v. 22, p. 21-51.

Holmstedt, Robert D.; Cook, John A.; Marshall, Phillip S. (2017): Qoheleth: a handbook on the Hebrew text. Baylor University Press.

Holmstedt, Robert Dean (2002): The relative clause in Biblical Hebrew: A linguistic analysis. The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ingram, Douglas Nairn (1996): The ambiguity of Qohelet: a study of the ambiguous nature of the language, syntax and structure of the Masoretic text of Qohelet. Thesis. School of Arts and Humanities, Department of Religious Studies, University of Stirling.

Kabatek, J.; Coseriu, E.; Murguía, A. (1997): „Die Sachen sagen, wie sie sind...“: Eugenio Coseriu im Gespräch. Günter Narr Verlag.

Kabatek, Johannes (2006): Tradições discursivas e mudança linguística. In; LOBO, T.; RIBEIRO, I.; CARNEIRO, Z; ALMEIDA, N. Para a História do Português Brasileiro, Volume VI: Novos Dados, Novas Análises. Tomo II. Salvador: EDUFBA, p. 505-527.

Kabatek, Johannes (2015): Wordplay and discourse traditions. Wordplay and Metalinguistic/Metadiscursive Reflection. Authors, Contexts, Techniques, and Meta-Reflection, p. 213-228.

Keil, Carl Friedrich; Delitzsch, Franz (1875): Biblischer Kommentar über das Alte Testament. Vierter Theil: Poetische Bücher. Vierter Band: Hoheslied und Koheleth. Mit Excursen von Consul D. Wetzstein. Leipzig: Dörffling und Francke.

Koch, Peter; Oesterreicher, Wulf (1990): Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.

Koch, Peter (1997): Diskurstraditionen: zu ihrem sprachtheoretischen Status und zu ihrer Dynamik. In: Frank, Barbara; Haye, Thomas; Tophinke, Doris (org.). Gattungen mittelalterlicher Schriftlichkeit. Tübingen: Narr, S. 43-79.

Koch, Peter (2021): Tradições discursivas: de seu status linguístico-teórico e sua dinâmica. Tradução em português de Alessandra Castilho Ferreira da Costa. Pandaemonium Germanicum, São Paulo, Brasil, v. 24, n. 42, p. 360–401. DOI: 10.11606/1982-88372442360 [online https://www.revistas.usp.br/pg/article/view/176747 last accessed 12/10/2025].

Krüger, Thomas (2004): Qohelet: a commentary. Translated by O. C. Dean Jr. Edited by Klaus Baltzer. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Massaud, Moisés (2002): Dicionário de termos literários. São Paulo: Cultrix.

Mccreesh, Thomas P. (1991): Biblical Sound and Sense: Poetic Sound Patterns in Proverbs 10-29. Vol. 128. A&C Black.

Mendelssohn, Moses; Kohelet (hebr.), JubA 14, 1972; S. 148-207.

Michel, Diethelm (1989): Untersuchungen zur Eigenart des Buches Qohelet. Mit einem Anhang von Reinhard G. Lehmann, Bibliographie zu Qohelet Berlin; New York: de Gruyter.

Murphy, Roland E. (2018): Ecclesiastes, Volume 23A. Word biblical commentary. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic.

Plantin, Cristian (2025): Dictionnaire de l’Argumentation. Une Introduction aux Études d’Argumentation: ENS Éditions, Lyon.

Reichert, Victor Emanuel (1945): The five Megilloth. Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther. London; New York: Soncino Press.

Ricalens-Pourchot, Nicole (2011): Dictionnaire des figures de style. 2e edition revue et augmentée. Paris: Armand Colin.

Sæbø, M. (1997): שׂכל śkl hi. to have insight. In: Jenni, Ernst; Westermann, Claus (Eds.). Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament Volume III. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, p. 1269-1272 [online https://archive.org/details/theologicallexic0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up last accessed 12/10/2015].

Sandoval, Timothy J.; Hayes, Marcus (2011): Ecclesiastes/Qohelet. Oxford bibliographies online. Biblical Studies. Oxford, 2011. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0015

Schrott, Angela (2016): Dunkle Rede, helle Köpfe: Historische Dialogforschung in der Romanistik. In: Elmar Eggert, Jörg Kilian (eds.): Historische Mündlichkeit. Beiträge zur Geschichte der gesprochenen Sprache. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 77-100.

Seow, Choon-Leong (1997): Ecclesiastes: A new translation with introduction and commentary. The Anchor Bible, Volume 18C. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Slonim, Mayer G (1939): The Substitution of the Masculine for the Feminine Hebrew Pronominal Suffixes to Express Reverence. The Jewish Quarterly Review, v. 29, n. 4, p. 397-403.

Waltke, Bruce K.; O’Connor, Michael P. (2006): Introdução à sintaxe do hebraico bíblico. Tradução de Fabiano Antonio Ferreira, Adelemir Garcia Esteves e Roberto Alves. São Paulo: Cultura Cristã.

Zöckler, Otto (1868): Das Hohelied und der Prediger. Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk. Die Heilige Schrift; v. 13. Bielefeld und Leipzig: Velhagen und Klasing.