“Two people are better than one, because they can reap more benefit from their labor. For if they fall, one will help his companion up, but pity the person who falls down and has no one to help him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm, but how can one person keep warm by himself? Although an assailant may overpower one person, two can withstand him. Moreover, a three-stranded cord is not quickly broken.”
— Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Aww, I love this book so much. A great introduction to authorship by Bible Project guys, because there’s the author and then a narrator who tells us what the author is thinking through most of the book. May not change how we read it too much but it is significant.
This is definitely wisdom literature so genre is key. Timeless, general principles. God is mentioned but rarely. Overall theme is there’s no purpose in anything we do, even in wisdom because death wins. (Let the book speak on its own…don’t go jumping to 1 Corinthians 15). New generations always come and we are forgotten, so what’s the point? It’s a great therapy book. These wisdom books are always good to use to relate biblical ideas to unbelievers. Wisdom is universal. In fact, we have extra biblical wisdom literature, and if we compared Proverb to the Egyptian version, it would be difficult to tell them apart at times. We also have a secular version of a righteous sufferer (Job).
This paragraph is not isolated to weddings =-). We need community, or at least other people in life to stabilize us. We can have Lone Ranger mentality but that’s no good. And that’s not just a “Christian” idea. That’s for everyone. And that helps physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We need each other, even if we drive each other crazy sometimes.
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