根據學者考證，《訓導篇》的作者是主元前三世紀中葉聖地的一位教師，當時正值埃及王朝統治下的社會政治相對平靜的時期。

然而，作者卻表達了深深的失望，因為他沒有找到靈魂所尋求的。萬物皆有其局限，沒有什麼新鮮事，萬物躁動不安，似乎永無止境，毫無意義。

這並非一個悲觀主義者的世界觀。

每個人都應該意識到作者所言不虛。

正是在這樣的背景下，對上主的真正探尋才能開始。

從某種意義上說，在成為基督徒之前，人們需要經歷《訓導篇》所帶來的幻滅感。

According to scholars, the author of the Book of Qoheleth was a teacher in the Holy Land, about the middle of the third century BC, a time of relative social and political tranquility under the political control of the Egyptian Dynasty.

Nevertheless, he expresses his deep disappointment, because he does not find what his soul is looking for. Everything shows its limits, nothing is new, the restless movements of all things continue, apparently to no end and to no purpose.

This is not the worldview of somebody who decided to be a pessimist.

Everybody should conclude that what the author says is true.

It is on this background that an authentic quest for God can begin. In a sense, before becoming a Christian, one needs to pass through the disillusionment of the Book of Qoheleth.