Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
” The old and traditional view of the authorship of this book attributes it to Solomon. This view can be satisfactorily maintained, though others date it from the Captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly as Solomon (1:12). It has been appropriately styled The Confession of King Solomon. ” The key-note of the book is sounded in ch. 1:2, “Vanity of vanities! saith the Preacher, Vanity of vanities! , all man’s efforts to find happiness apart from God are without result.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(the preacher). The title of this book is in Hebrew Koheleth, signifying one who speaks publicly in an assembly. Koheleth is the name by which Solomon, probably the author, speaks of himself throughout the book. The book is that which it professes to be,—the confession of a man of wide experience looking back upon his past life and looking out upon the disorders and calamities which surround him.
The writer is a man who has sinned in giving way to selfishness and sensuality, who has paid the penalty of that sin in satiety and weariness of life, but who has through all this been under the discipline of a divine education, and has learned from it the lesson which God meant to teach him.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
ECCLESIAS'TES (Koheleth), OR (as the name signifies) THE PREACHER, was written by Solomon toward the close of his splendid and eventful career as monarch of Israel, or by a later author, who impersonates Solomon and gives us the practical lesson of his sad experience. It corresponds to the old age of Solomon, as the Canticles to his youth and the Proverbs to his mature manhood.
The design of the author evidently is, (1) To demonstrate the folly and madness of making this world, its pleasures, or its pursuits the objects of affection or hope; (2) To show the character, influence, and advantages of true wisdom or religion. " The book represents Hebrew scepticism subdued and checked by the Hebrew fear of God and reaping lessons of wisdom from the follies of life.
It is an ethical or philosophical treatise in prose, with regular logical divisions, but full of poetic inspiration, and in part also poetic in form, with enough of rhythmical flow to awaken a deep and emotional interest in these sad soliloquies of the author.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
a preacher