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1–3. The main idea of ​​the book. 4–11. The circulation of the world's elements. 12–15. Personal experience of Ecclesiastes. 16–18. Vanity of wisdom. Eccl.1:1. Words of Ecclesiastes, son of David, king in Jerusalem. Comparing the inscription of the book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes, some interpreters, not without reason, find in the latter signs of non-Solomonic origin. It is not entirely clear why Solomon is not called here by his own name, as he is in the book of Proverbs, if he really was the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes. Is not the historical Solomon here a mere symbol, like the very name Kohelet? The expression “king in Jerusalem” is also little understood. In historical books, Solomon is usually called the king of Israel (for example, 2 Kings 23.13; 1 Kings 4.1, etc.), but never simply a king in Jerusalem. The last expression apparently indicates the time when Israel ceased to constitute an independent kingdom and no longer had its own king in Jerusalem. Eccl.1:2. Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities - all is vanity! "Vanity of Vanities". Heb. hebel (from the Chaldean habal - to smoke, evaporate) means: smoke, steam, breath, in a figurative sense: insignificance, useless thing, perishability, vanity. This name refers to the pagan gods (Deut. 32.21; Jer. 14.22), as not bringing any benefit to man (Jer. 16.19), every useless thing, vain, vain action (Is. 30.7, 49.4), fantastic thoughts (Ps. 93.11), joyless, sorrowful life (Job 7.16). The expression “vanity of vanities” indicates the highest degree of insignificance and uselessness. According to Ecclesiastes, everything is insignificant. But in Eccl. 1ff. In verses, this “everything” is limited to what exists and happens “under the sun,” i.e., within the limits of earthly, finite existence. And even in this case, the concept of vanity in Ecclesiastes needs some limitation. All things and phenomena, according to the plans of Providence, have their own purposes, the implementation of which they cannot be considered useless, insignificant (cf. (Eccl. 3.11): He made everything beautiful in its time). They are insignificant, in the minds of Ecclesiastes, only in relation to the goal of human aspirations, which is to achieve perfect, absolute happiness - Ithron. In relation to this goal, everything in the world is insignificant, useless, vain. Nothing can give a person lasting happiness. Eccl.1:3. What profit does a man get from all the labors he toils under the sun? "What does a man profit?" The Hebrew word Ithron never appears in the Bible. According to the Hebraists, it means: remaining, imperishable. Blessed Jerome conveys the question of verse 3 with the words: quid superest, i.e. what remains? Gregory of Nyssa expresses it even more clearly: “Which of the visible goods always remains the same?” The word Ithron, thus, denotes constant, stable, eternal happiness - in contrast to temporary, fleeting, illusory happiness. Ecclesiastes leaves his question, whether all the efforts of people lead to any lasting happiness, here unanswered. But this answer has already been given in the most decisive manner in the second verse, in the recognition of the vanity of everything. Eccl.1:4. A generation passes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The impossibility of lasting human happiness is already expressed in the instability and constant change of human generations, with the immutability and strength of inanimate nature. “What is more vanity than that vanity,” says Blessed Jerome, “that the earth, created for people, remains, and man himself, the lord of the earth, instantly disintegrates into dust?” Eccl.1:5. The sun rises, and the sun sets, and hastens to its place where it rises. But in the life of nature, as well as in the life of humanity, there is constant change. And here everything moves, everything flows, but not forward, but around, therefore, always along the same path, forever according to the same pattern. This is, first of all, the movement of the sun. “He hastens to his place,” or more precisely from the Hebrew: “out of breath, he hastens to his place.” The expression indicates fatigue from the eternally monotonous movement. Eccl.1:6. The wind goes to the south and goes to the north, spins and spins as it goes, and the wind returns to its circles. Apparently the freest of the elements - air, in fact, eternally repeats the same movement, movement along the same circle. It should be noted that the monotony in the movement of the wind was especially noticeable for a resident of Palestine. There, from the autumn equinox until November, the north-west wind prevails; from November to February - western and southwestern winds, from February to June - eastern, from July - northern, interspersed with others. Eccl.1:7. All rivers flow into the sea, but the sea does not overflow: to the place from which the rivers flow, they return to flow again. Rivers are also subject to constant and monotonous movement, and this movement does not produce any extraordinary changes in the world. No matter how many rivers flow into the sea, the sea will never overflow and flood the land. “To the place from which rivers flow, they return to flow again.” This translation is not accurate, although it successfully expresses the idea of ​​gyration. ט means: “where”, not: “from”. In the same way, בט means: “there”, “there”, and not: “from there”. The correct translation of this passage should be: “to the place where rivers flow, there they always flow again.” The sacred writer speaks only about the flow of rivers always in the same direction, and not about the circular movement of the water element, although even at that time they already knew that water, evaporating and forming clouds, falls again to the earth (Job 36.27 etc.). Eccl.1:8. All things are in labor: a person cannot retell everything; The eye will not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear will be filled with hearing. "All things are in labor". The Hebrew dabar has two meanings: thing and word. Both meanings are found in the book of Ecclesiastes. This gives grounds for many translators and interpreters to translate the beginning of the eighth verse: all words are weak, powerless (to convey the monotonous movement of things). This is how the Greek and Slavic translation conveys: “All words are difficult, a man will not be able to speak: and the eye of seeing will not be satisfied, and the ear of hearing will not be filled.” It is difficult to choose between these two understandings, since both of them are quite appropriate to the context. The constant, monotonous movement of things is so great that it could provide endless material for the human ability to speak, see and hear. Eccl.1:9. What has been is what will be; and what has been done will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. The constant, monotonous movement of things in the same direction, movement in its own circle, of course, cannot produce anything new. Its results are always the same. Eccl.1:10. There is something about which they say: “look, this is new”; but this was already in the centuries that were before us. If sometimes they think that something new has happened, a step forward has been taken, then, in fact, here too we are dealing with a repetition of the old. Eccl.1:11. There is no memory of the past; and those who come after will have no memory of what will happen. The error, in this case, comes from a lack of historical memory, from the fact that subsequent generations are forgotten about previous generations. Instead of “about the former and about what will be,” it should be translated: “about the former” and “about the later,” since the masculine plural in the Hebrew text obviously indicates people. In Slavic - “There is no memory of the first, and the last past will not be their memory with the future for last.” Eccl.1:12. I, Ecclesiastes, was king over Israel in Jerusalem; The aimless circulation of the world's elements, in itself, does not yet prove that the highest happiness for man is impossible. Human life is more complex than the life of nature, it follows its own independent path and, therefore, perhaps, contains special inclinations to satisfy the human desire for eternal happiness. Therefore, the writer considers it necessary to turn from observing external nature to psychological experience. Solomon, in whom, apparently, all the gifts of happiness were combined with wisdom, more than anyone else had reason to answer the question about the possibility of personal happiness; in his rich life experience, all goods were assessed from the point of view of perfect happiness; in fact, what the writer of the book decides theoretically was verified. It is clear how useful it was for him to benefit from Solomon's experience. However, having passed through the divinely enlightened consciousness of the sacred writer, this experience should have received some new features that were not characteristic of the historical personality of Solomon; it naturally had to take on the character of philosophical quests, philosophical experiments: if the historical Solomon, in search of happiness, acted at the behest of his heart, according to natural passion, like other people, then the ideal Solomon - Ecclesiastes was guided in this case by ideal motives, “wisdom” (Eccl. 1:13, 2:3), the desire to experientially explore the greatest question for humanity: what is good for the sons of men and what they should do under heaven in the days of their vain life. Eccl.1:13. and I gave my heart to search and test with wisdom everything that is done under heaven: this difficult task God gave to the sons of men so that they would practice in it. The purpose of the experiment of Ecclesiastes was to examine everything that is done under heaven from the point of view of the question of happiness. The first result that Ecclesiastes came to in his studies was the realization that the very desire of people to know and appreciate human affairs constitutes a difficult, painful task, which, having been implanted by God Himself in the nature of man, takes possession of him, as if against his will. Some interpreters refer to the expression “hard work” not to the study of human affairs, but to the affairs themselves. But it hardly corresponds to the expression: “everything that is done under heaven.” The study of human affairs is a difficult, painful task due to the extreme disappointment of its results. Eccl.1:14. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, everything is vanity and vexation of spirit! The conclusion that Ecclesiastes came to in his studies was that all is vanity and vexation of the spirit. Ecclesiastes adds a new one to his favorite expression hebel - reuth ruach. This expression is translated differently. Some (translated from Chaldean, Syriac, Vulgate), deriving the word reuth, found only in Ecclesiastes, from raah - to rage, to break, translate: excitement, languor of spirit (like Russian). Others (Aquila, Theodotion and Symmachus), deriving from raah - to graze, translate: herding the wind. Still others, deriving from the same verb with the meaning to covet, translate: the desire of the wind, windy undertaking (LXX - προαίρεσις πνεύμαίος) or chasing the wind. The last two understandings are more consistent with the context and have a very close parallel place in the book of St. Hosea (Hosea 12.1), in the words: “Ephraim feeds the wind (raah ruach) and chases the east wind.” Having called all human affairs “grazing the wind” or “chasing the wind,” Ecclesiastes points to the insignificance and illusory nature of their results in the sense of achieving lasting happiness. Eccl.1:15. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is not there cannot be counted. This verse explains the reason for the futility of human activity. The latter is not able to change the existing order, correct all the shortcomings and imperfections in external nature and in human nature, or recreate both. Eccl.1:16. I spoke to my heart like this: behold, I have become exalted and gained wisdom more than all who were before me over Jerusalem, and my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge. If all human deeds and aspirations are insignificant and fruitless, like smoke, like chasing the wind, due to the irremovable shortcomings and imperfections of the world, then, of course, it is clear that the study of them by wisdom and wisdom itself cannot give moral satisfaction to a person. By the expression “more than all who were before me over Jerusalem,” some interpreters do not mean kings, since before Solomon there was only one king in Jerusalem - David, but, in general, the Israelites. However, the preposition “above” (al) contains the concept of domination and can, therefore, only indicate the kings of Jerusalem. Ecclesiastes ascribes to himself the possession of wisdom, as religious and moral-practical knowledge, and, in general, knowledge, as theoretical, scientific comprehension of things. Eccl.1:17. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and stupidity: I learned that this too is languor of the spirit; Eccl.1:18. because in much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow. Ecclesiastes was convinced from his own experience that the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge turned out to be the same vanity, the same chasing after the wind, like everything else in human life. It not only did not bring him happiness, but, on the contrary, increased his suffering, showing all the illusory nature of human hopes, all the futility of human aspirations, exposing the insignificance of everything earthly. You might be interested in: