Proverbs; Ecclesiastes Part 1 • Dr. Adam Miller • Sept 7-13 • Come, Follow Me
September 2, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readProverbs; Ecclesiastes Part 1 • Dr. Adam Miller
The opening line of Ecclesiastes reads: "Futile, futile, laments the teacher. Absolutely futile. Everything is futile." Its closing line, before a later editor added a softer ending, says essentially the same thing: "Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless." This is a book that many people have wondered how it got into the Bible at all, and yet Dr. Adam Miller, a philosopher and Latter-day Saint theologian, argues that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes together form an essential, unfinished conversation about what wisdom actually is—and that understanding this conversation changes how we read the gospel itself.
The structure of wisdom literature
The Bible is not a single book but a collection of books in open conversation with each other, and genre matters. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are wisdom books, not narrative, history, law, or prophecy. They function as inspired parallel reflections on the meaning of life, interrupting the steady stream of Old Testament story to ask: What kind of world is this? What kind of life is foolish given that world? What kind of life would be redemptive and wise?
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Dr. Adam Miller & the Wisdom Books** - Hosts Hank Smith and John Bytheway introduce returning guest Dr. Adam Miller, a philosopher, to discuss Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
- 2 (03:56) **The Problem: A World of Loss Meets a Religion of Sacrifice** - Miller sets the existential stakes: the world guarantees disappointment and death, while the gospel requires losing your life to save it.
- 3 (06:55) **Three Goals for the Episode** - Miller previews the three-part structure of his argument.
- 4 (08:55) **Introducing Dr. Adam Miller** - John Bytheway gives Miller's academic background: professor of philosophy, PhD from Villanova, author of over a dozen books including *Original Grace*.
- 5 (11:06) **A Philosopher's Approach to Scripture** - Miller explains his interpretive method: keep all parts of scripture in conversation with each other and with Jesus Christ.
- 6 (14:34) **Genre: Wisdom Books vs. Narrative/Prophecy** - Miller explains that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are wisdom books, a different genre from the rest of the Old Testament.
- 7 (17:39) **The Surprising Books: Job, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes** - Miller notes that Ecclesiastes may be the most surprising and challenging book in the Bible, and one of his personal favorites.
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Show Notes
What if wisdom isn’t about loss but learning how to meet it? Dr. Adam Miller explores Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and examines how correction, sacrifice, and seeing reality clearly lead us beyond conventional wisdom to the unconventional wisdom of Jesus Christ.
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Part 1 -
0:00 - Part 1 - Dr. Adam Miller
3:35 The Art of Losing
5:36 Where Wisdom Arises
7:54 The Foolishness of God
11:05 A Philosopher Reads Scripture
13:44 Scripture is Ongoing Conversation
16:49 Trust Beyond Knowledge
18:10 The Bible’s Wisdom Books
21:22 Why Ecclesiastes Belongs
23:57 Job Doesn’t Get Answers
25:28 Hungry and Wondering
27:42 Everything is Futile
30:39 Seeing What We Avoid
32:51 Jesus Faces Loss
35:29 Wisdom in the Book of Mormon
36:48 Wisdom is Better Than Rubies
40:05 Wisdom Personified as a Woman
42:24 Are We Willing to Be Corrected
45:01 When the Truth Feels Hard
47:15 Loving Being Duped
50:32 Paying to Deceived
51:57 The Price of Real Wisdom
53:34 Trust in the Lord
55:52 With All Thy Getting
57:50 The Path of the Just
59:33 Wisdom Comes Through Doing
1:01:17 Lose Your Soul to Save It
1:05:07 Turn Left to Go Right
1:08:54 End of Part 1 - Dr. Adam Miller
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