6. The chronology of the writer.
With respect to the time of writing, it is uncertain enough, and the learned generally have recourse to conjectures. The Hebrews generally approve, that the Song of Songs was written by Solomon as a Young Man, Proverbs as a Mature Man, and Ecclesiastes as an Old Man. That both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were written by Solomon after his repentance, and so in his old age, Pineda divines, book 8 de Rebus Salomonis, chapter 1, fortified by the suffrage of Jerome and Cyril. While all these things are indeed uncertain, that is only probable, that it was not the labor of a month, nor of one year. For, although it were conceded that the first twenty-four chapters were written by the hand of Solomon, and indeed within a time not so very long: nevertheless, the Celebrated Geier, Prolegomenis in Proverbia Solomonis, knowingly observes, that, in what time of age those proverbs that the Men of Hezekiah compiled were set forth, is hardly able to be defined.