How could anyone believe that the day of death is better than the day of birth? Or that it is better to mourn than to rejoice? Yet the Bible says so, at Ecclesiastes 7:1-4. Understanding comes when the historical background of the words is known. “A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one’s being born. Better is it to go to the house of mourning than to go to the banquet house, because that is the end of all mankind; and the one alive should take [it] to his heart. Better is vexation than laughter, for by the crossness of the face the heart becomes better. The heart of the wise ones is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the stupid ones is in the house of rejoicing.” Just as a good name with God is better than precious oil or any other material possession, so death after a life that has built up a good name with God is better than birth when one has no name with God at all and it is unknown whether the name one builds during life will be good or bad. Death with a good name insures that one of a resurrection to life, but at birth one has no assurance at all of attaining the new world of everlasting life. And when it speaks of the house of mourning it refers to a home in which a person has died, and the practice of friends going there to comfort the survivors. It is better to show this kindness than to callously ignore those in grief and rush off to banquets to laugh and revel and rejoice. Ordinarily it is better to begin life than end it, and to rejoice than to mourn; but when we understand what is behind these words we see that they are exceptional, that in their setting they are true.

PUNISHMENT IN HELL-FIRE

One last example from many Biblical accounts to show how the facts behind the words bring clarity. The Bible speaks of the incorrigibly wicked being everlastingly punished in “hell fire” or a lake of fire. Not only does this seem fiendish, but it contradicts the statements that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” and that “the wages sin pays is death.” (Ezek. 18:4, AS; Rom. 6:23) When the King James Bible speaks of “hell fire,” as at Matthew 5:22, the original Greek is géhenna tou pyrós [“gehenna of the fire,” Yg]. It has no reference to any lake of fire inside the earth, but means the valley of Hinnom to the west and south of ancient Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time it was the dumping place and incinerator for the filth of the city. Fires, to which sulphur or brimstone was added to assist the burning, consumed the refuse. Here the bodies of not only dead animals but occasionally the bodies of executed criminals were thrown. When a human body was thrown there it indicated a person too wicked to deserve a resurrection; hence no memorial tomb was used for him. Hence the place became a symbol of a destruction or punishment that was complete and everlasting. The Jews of Jesus’ day understood this symbol, so Jesus used it to indicate the everlasting punishment in death for the willfully wicked.

Just as there are modern expressions that would be meaningless to persons living in ancient times because they would not know the background of our age, so there are words from Bible times that are meaningless to us unless we learn the facts behind them.

Religion Without Power

“Those cities with the worst political corruption have no dearth of church buildings,” observes Professor Elton Trueblood. “It is sobering to be reminded that Rome, when the city fell into such moral and political decay, had more than four hundred shrines.”—Your Other Vocation.