Good book, good read... the Bible. Photograph: Martin Godwin
My best Christmas present was a copy of the New Jerusalem Bible. My library had been sorely lacking in any sort of Bible and I decided that I'd like to begin to acquaint myself with the good book. It is after all considered to be an important text whether you believe in God or not. This version is supposed to be good for studying as it is crammed with scholarly footnotes. So I am keeping it by my bedside and most evenings I will read a few pages.
On first perusal the Old Testament appears a mixture of severe laws and homely wisdom. For example, in Deuteronomy we read: "A man whose testicles have been crushed or whose male member has been cut off must not be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh." And in Proverbs, we learn that the perfect housewife "makes her own quilts, she is dressed in fine linen and purple."
Colourful and shocking such stuff may be, but my favourite Old Testament book among those that I've so far looked at must be Ecclesiastes. Clearly written by an ancient counterpart of Samuel Beckett, the philosophy is nihilistic to say the least:
"Sheer futility, Qoheleth says, Sheer futility: everything is futile! What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever."
Qoheleth goes on to argue that since all is futile, then the sensible course is to eat, drink and be merry: "I know there is no happiness for a human being except in pleasure and enjoyment through life."
As well as being an early existentialist, Qoheleth also anticipates Oliver James and his Affluenza book when he writes:
"No one who loves money ever has enough, No one who loves luxury ever has any income."
If life is absurd and meaningless, then you may as well forget about hard work and money-grubbing and sit back and enjoy it. In its cheerful fatalism Ecclesiastes is surely the closest of the Biblical texts to the Tao Te Ching - the great exposition of a philosophy of inaction - and it's a damn good read to boot.
