Bible Synapse
Does wisdom bring happiness or grief?
Hard question · Psalms, wisdom and the prophets · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom”; her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
The Preacher searched out by wisdom all that is done under heaven, and found that in much wisdom is much grief.
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
He saw that wisdom excels folly as far as light excels darkness.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
The objection
Proverbs says “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom” and that all her paths are peace (Proverbs 3:13, 17). Ecclesiastes says “in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18).
The answer
The two books are describing different things. The wisdom Proverbs praises begins with “the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:7): it is a way of living in trust and obedience, and that way does bring peace. Ecclesiastes 1 describes a different project: the Preacher set himself to search out by wisdom “all things that are done under heaven” (1:13), to understand the whole of life “under the sun”. The more he understood, the more clearly he saw what cannot be put right: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight” (1:15). Knowing more of a broken world brings grief.
Ecclesiastes does not turn against wisdom. In the next chapter the Preacher says that “wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness” (2:13), and later that “wisdom giveth life to them that have it” (7:12). Both books are true: wisdom is the better way and brings a deep peace, and it also opens a person’s eyes to sorrows that a careless person never notices.
From the classic commentators
Let us not therefore be driven off from the pursuit of any useful knowledge, but put on patience to break through the sorrow of itMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Ecclesiastes 1:18
There is indeed wisdom and knowledge opposite to this, and infinitely more excellent, and which, the more it is increased, the more joy and comfort it bringsJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Ecclesiastes 1:18