Thank you, my dear friend, for this very interesting question. My answer is that the specific name of Jesus, which means Jehovah-Savior, does not appear as such anywhere in Ecclesiastes, but as one of the three persons of the Godhead, I believe that He is certainly referred to. I do believe that in the OT, our Lord is represented in one or another of the terms used for “God, such as Jehovah or Elohim. The name for God which is generally found in Ecclesiastes is “Elohim”, and I’ll attempt to establish that in Ecclesiastes, we might recognize the Person of the Lord Jesus through the use of this particular name.

Now, as you and I know, Jesus is true God, one of the three persons of the Trinity, and as such, He is eternal, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. However, the specific name Jesus was only revealed to us when God the Son came to the earth as Emmanuel about 2000 years ago in Bethlehem (Matthew 1:21). As to my warrants for stating that Jesus is represented in the OT by one or another of the names for God, I’ll begin by saying that we know that Jesus is God “Emmanuel”, meaning God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). Thus, the very name Emmanuel identifies our Lord with God. Going on, in the Old Testament, we often see the name of God as “Jehovah,” which means “the self-existent One”, the great I Am.” In John 8:58, our Lord Jesus plainly states that “before Abraham was, I am.” Thus, God the Son, whom we know as our Lord Jesus did not begin His existence when He came to earth as a man, but He always existed with the Father and Holy Spirit as part of the godhead. Thus, when we consider Jehovah, we are considering all three persons of the Trinity. Again, I stated above that the name “Jesus” means “Jehovah-Savior,” and we know our Lord Jesus as the Savior of men (see John 3:16, 1 Timothy 1:15 and many other verses). Thus, I believe that we can see the Person of the Christ in the term Jehovah. But now, I have said that the primary name of God in the book of Ecclesiastes is “Elohim,” and here in particular I think that we can see Christ represented in this name. In the Hebrew, this term is plural, but generally points to the God of creation. We know from Scripture that God the Son was involved in the creation (Colossians 1:14-17; John 1:3; John 1:10; Hebrews 1:2-3; Genesis 1:26). Additionally, in Ecclesiastes 12:1, we read: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth….” We do not see the name “God” in this verse, but we do see a reference to our creator. And who is the Creator?  The Lord Jesus to be sure! Moving on to what I think is yet another link to our Lord Jesus in the OT, we know Christ Jesus as “the Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, the Son of God who came into the world (see John 1:1 and verse 14). Even though the phrase “Word of God” is not stated specifically in Ecclesiastes, the reference to keeping His Commandments certainly does refer, I believe, to keeping the Word of God, and Jesus is identified as the living Word in John 1.  

But now, to focus on the name of God in Ecclesiastes, let’s turn to Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” As I have mentioned above, the name in Hebrew for God in these verses is, Elohim, which clearly points to the creator (and Christ Jesus was definitely involved in creation as I have explained above. And what might be the “commandments” spoken of here? You might recall that often in the Psalms, the Word of God is referred to in many ways-as “His commandments”, or His “statutes”, or His “precepts” (Psalms 119:10-16). Thus, realizing that Christ Jesus is the living Word of God, I believe we can see that particular reference to God in Ecclesiastes 12:13 and 14 as the Word of God which is to be kept. We also see in this portion that God will judge the works of men, and we certainly see the Lord Jesus Christ as the judge in Acts 17:31, and thus here is another link between the name of the Lord Jesus and the name of God in the book of Ecclesiastes.

In summary, my dear friend, I think I can say from the above that while the name of “Jesus” is not used directly in Ecclesiastes, we do realize that Christ Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and thus a co-equal member of the Trinity.  The Old Testament refers to God with several different names, but I believe I am correct in saying that in Ecclesiastes, the term Elohim is used for God, which I believe represents our Lord Jesus in His role in creation. This is how I believe that we see our Lord Jesus referred to in Ecclesiastes, even though the name “Jesus” does not appear in the book.  (SF)  (610.5)