This is my favorite book of the Bible and one that I start people on when I begin introducing Scripture to them, especially if they come from a battered and bruised background. Everyone needs Scripture, but if you have a bone to pick with God this book is especially for you. That and Job, but I think that’s harder to digest for a beginner. You need a degree of spiritual maturity to come away from that not blaming God, so I prefer this.

The book opens up with 2 distinct voices: a narrator and “the teacher”. The teacher is meant to be a character within the story and he is introduced by that narrator who we don’t see again until the end. The teacher is most likely Solomon, son of David and the only son of David to be King of Jerusalem. Some have suggested that the writer came later and was roleplaying as Solomon and using him as a frame for his thoughts on life. Solomon, meaning “peaceable” (think the Jewish word for peace, “shalom”), through an enormous series of errors, brought trouble upon himself and Jerusalem, largely through his lust and lack of self control. He was the wisest to ever live but couldn’t follow his own wisdom, something many can relate to. How many of us reflect on the disparity between what we think our potential should be and what our outcomes have been and see the consequences of our decisions all too clearly in hindsight? Laying with about 1000 women, worshipping a number of false gods, and constantly seeking material pleasure buried his soul. Truly this was a man seeking to fill a void only God can fill and this will be a very clear theme throughout. For this reason, some speculate that this is indeed written by Solomon but having crawled back in shame and unwilling to glorify his name by drawing attention to it. Still, he cites that he’s a son of the King David, so perhaps contrasting his noble heritage against his anonymity is also driven by shame. To have come from such a high place but been brought so low as to not mention who you are specifically.

Alright ready for the 2nd verse? Me too.

The teacher declares that all is vanity. This isn’t vanity in the same sense we use it today, this is more commonly translated as “meaningless” but the Hebrew word “Hevel” means vapor or smoke. It’s less that it lacks meaning entirely, more that it lacks permanence. It’s there and it isn’t. A gust of wind and it’s gone. You can see it and define its attributes but you can’t reach out and grab it and before long, it’s like it was never there at all. Your work, wealth, even generations of children, all will pass from this world without missing a beat. You made a million dollars? The sun will still rise. Your 2 kids died because of a bad winter? The mountain still stands. Even if on a personal level you feel fulfilled, this is about everything under the sun. It is all empty, so why does anything matter. Author George Orwell puts a fine point on it “Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.” You’re going to do a LOT of work. You’re going to pay a lot of bills, get very sick, and die. And for what? Another rerun of The Office? To beat one more video game? What does it matter? You’re going to die regardless, what does dying before another mild amusement comes out matter? And ultimately, that’s what this is. Ecclesiastes is a book about death.

Memento mori.

Okay so we’re all going to die. Assuming we’ve made peace with this unavoidable fact, what are we to do with it? We can add meaning, the teacher doesn’t have to be right. But a man is tired and restless and there’s nothing new under the sun to be done. Most who walk the earth will not be great men of history, for which history books are written. We are not going to Mars, we are not curing the disease, we will spin our wheels for a company, enjoy 2 out of every 7 days to ourselves, and we will fade from memory. And even if you ARE a great man of history, who REALLY remembers you? Some kids reading a history book because they have to? Are you some hero or villain? A Founding Father or a Hitler? Does anyone really know you? The whole you? They know a couple year snippet of your life and even then only insofar as it merits retelling for whatever purpose they have. Who’s to say how right any of that info will be anyway. At best you’ll be partially remembered for doing that one thing except in the cases of an obsessive who learns everything about you, then they go to die and the position is vacant again.

The teacher picks apart whatever argument you might have. Novelty is an illusion. Chasing it is more exciting than receiving it, because the moment you have the novelty in your hands, it’s already dull. Legacy is an illusion. You’re depending on other people to care (a huge ask) long after the thing has happened and you’re gone (an even bigger ask). If you’re one of the most impressive people to walk the earth, you’ll be lucky for 1% of your life to be discussed.

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is no different. Solomon (we’re rolling with this assumption) was known for his wisdom and look how he ended up, unable to reliably apply it? Beyond which, he sought to understand everything under the heavens, that is, everything on earth. His conclusion was that this is a depressing business God has given us to wander around this place, seemingly devoid of any real meaning. He saw men toiling in the fields and women suffering in sickness, children dying young and the rich being oppressive. The more he sought to understand, the more bleak the situation appeared because, in his wisdom, he knew it was for nothing. All the people in their little lives were going to die. Rich or poor, powerful or a nobody, death is the great equalizer. The realization caused him grief; ignorance is bliss. Children are happy because they have few real cares. Mom and dad pay the bills and keep them safe. They don’t know they’re living check to check when they get a new toy and to learn about it would rob them of joy. Such is the pain Solomon experiences as he sees the world through a new lens and all falls to this category: Vanity.