which is by itself totally conclusive: the language in which the book is written. Even the merest beginner in the study of Hebrew cannot fail to recognize that Qoheleth’s Hebrew is as different from the ‘classical’ Hebrew of the tenth to seventh centuries BC as is chalk from cheese. The following quotations from modern scholars make the position clear: If Ecclesiastes belongs to the time of Solomon the Hebrew language has no history (T.K. Cheyne). We could as easily believe that Chaucer is the author