The writer of Ecclesiastes is one of those Bible mysteries that refuses to give a straight answer, and honestly, that feels pretty on-brand for a book like Ecclesiastes.

If you’ve ever opened it and thought, “Wait, this doesn’t sound like the rest of the Bible,” you’re right. Ecclesiastes feels like it was written by someone pacing a rooftop at midnight, asking hard questions. It sounds more like Nietzsche than Moses.

And that’s exactly why people have been wondering for centuries: Who was this person? Was it Solomon? Someone writing as Solomon? A philosopher in disguise?

Traditionally, the book is attributed to King Solomon, based on the opening verse: “The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.” (Ecclesiastes 1:1). But many scholars believe it was written later, possibly by an anonymous philosopher or sage using Solomon’s voice as a literary device. As someone who studied the Bible during university, this is one of those biblical mysteries that kept me reading study after study, and article after article. Because of that, I feel uniquely prepared to offer a neutral view on the authorship of this text.

If you skip over this article, you might miss what could be one of the most honest, unfiltered voices in Scripture. Ecclesiastes doesn’t preach from a mountaintop, but speaks from the valley. And sometimes, that’s where the real wisdom lives.

In this article, we’ll walk through the traditional attribution to Solomon, the scholarly suspicions that challenge that view, the meaning behind the name “Qohelet,” and what all of this says about the kind of wisdom Ecclesiastes offers.