A Metaphrase of the
Book of Ecclesiastes.40
| 40
Gallandi, Biblioth. Vet. Patr., iii. 387. |
————————————
Chapter I.41
| 41 [The wise
benevolence of our author is more apparent than his critical
skill. No book more likely to puzzle a pagan inquirer than
this: so the metaphrase gives it meaning and consistency; but,
over and over again, not Solomon’s meaning, I am persuaded.] |
These words speaketh
Solomon, the son of David the king and prophet, to the whole Church of
God, a prince most honoured, and a prophet most wise above all
men. How vain and fruitless are the affairs of men, and all
pursuits that occupy man! For there is not one who can tell of
any profit attaching to those things which men who creep on earth
strive by body and soul to attain to, in servitude all the while to
what is transient, and undesirous of considering aught heavenly with
the noble eye of the soul. And the life of men weareth away, as
day by day, and in the periods of hours and years, and the determinate
courses of the sun, some are ever coming, and others passing
away. And the matter is like the transit of torrents as they fall
into the measureless deep of the sea with a mighty noise. And all
things that have been constituted by God for the sake of men abide the
same: as, for instance, that man is born of earth, and departs to
earth again; that the earth itself continues stable; that the sun
accomplishes its circuit about it perfectly, and rolls round to the
same mark again; and that the winds42
| 42 τὰ
πνεύματα, for which
some propose ῥεύματα, streams, as
the ἄνεμοι are mentioned in their own
place immediately. |
in like manner, and the mighty
rivers which flow into the
sea, and the
breezes that beat upon it, all act without forcing it to pass beyond
its limits, and without themselves also violating their
appointed
laws. And these things, indeed, as bearing upon the good of this
life of ours, are established thus fittingly. But those things
which are of men’s devising, whether words or
deeds, have no
measure. And there is a plenteous multitude of words, but there
is no
profit from random and foolish talking. But the race of men
is naturally insatiate in its
thirst both for speaking and for hearing
what is spoken; and it is man’s
habit, too, to desire to look
with idle
eyes on all that happens. What can occur afterwards, or
what can be
wrought by men which has not been done already? What
new thing is there worthy of mention, of which there has never yet been
experience? For I think there is nothing which one may call new,
or which, on considering it, one shall
discover to be
strange or
unknown to those of old. But as former things are buried in
oblivion, so also things that are now subsistent will in the course of
time
vanish utterly from the
knowledge of those who shall come after
us. And I speak not these things unadvisedly, as acting now the
preacher.
43
But all these
things were carefully pondered by me when entrusted with the
kingdom of
the Hebrews in
Jerusalem. And I
examined diligently, and
considered discreetly, the
nature of all that is on
earth, and I
perceived it to be most various;
44
and
I saw that to man it is given to labour upon
earth, ever carried
about by all different occasions of toil, and with no result of his
work. And all things here below are full of the spirit of
strangeness and
abomination, so that it is not possible for one to
retrieve them now; nay, rather it is not possible for one at all to
conceive what utter
vanity45
has
taken possession of all human affairs. For once on a time I
communed with myself, and thought that then I was wiser in this than
all that were before me, and I was
expert in understanding
parables and
the natures of things. But I
learned that I gave myself to such
pursuits to no purpose, and that if wisdom follows knowledge, so
troubles attend on wisdom.
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