Kohelet “was struggling to use Hebrew or quasi-philosophic purposes, a use to which the language had not previously been applied”

The impact of Aramaic upon the syntax and vocabulary has already been discussed, while other elements of his style will be analyzed below.  At the very outset, it must be borne in mind that Koheleth was a linguistic pioneer.  He was struggling to use Hebrew or quasi-philosophic purposes, a use to which the language had not previously been applied.  A thousand years later, medieval translators like the Tibbonides, who rendered Saadiah, Maimonides, Judah Halevi and other Jewish philosophers into Hebrew, still found that the language had not yet fully developed the flexibility, precision and vocabulary necessary for the treatment of philosophic themes.  Koheleth’s comparative success in this respect is not the least element of his literary skill.

Robert Gordis, Koheleth – The Man and His World: A Study of Ecclesiastes, 3rd ed. (Shocken Books: New York, 1968), 88.