Abstract

Qohelet 7,25-8,1a is one of the most debated pericopes in the whole book: many exegetes have detected a very strong misogynistic tone there. A careful examination enables us to relativise a statement that is so rooted in the "Wirkungsgeschichte" of the text and to place it against the background of ignorance of the «law of the seasons» (Qoh 3,1-8) which characterises the life of every man, possibly also Solomon, whose deeds are evoked rather discreetly through the number, one thousand. Because of this ignorance, which also involves «the time to love», a man can happen to meet the woman who is described in such a negative way. This reflection, which can challenge the conclusions of sapiential literature, could have been favoured with the encounter with contemporary popular Hellenistic philosophy which contained a lively discussion on women to which Xan-thippe, Socrates’ wife, may not have been a stranger.