Saturday, March 14, 2009

Everything is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever
returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come
from, there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
This passage opens up the book of Ecclesiastes. Like the rest of the Bible, this passage is very true. To me, it is mournful, poetic, and in a sense, epic.
  • What does this passage mean to you?
  • What does he mean in verse 9, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"?

6 comments:

Justin said...

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"?

Hmmm, I'll have to think about
that.
What do you think?

Princess Samantha said...

I personally think that v. 9 means something like, "It's all been done before." If something leaves, it will always come back. If something comes back, it will leave again. I think apparently the author (I think it's Solomon; does anyone know who wrote Ecclesiastes???) is going through a point in his life where everything is mediocre. So basically, he is bored and trying to find the real meaning of life. That's my opinion.

Justin said...

He certainly doesn't sound to cheerfull.

Princess Samantha said...

LOL Yeah, but I sort of like it. I might make a song out of it. :D

Grace said...

Sam, you could make a song out of anything and make it sound amazing :D I really like that passage. Its very meaningFUL :P I'm not really sure about v. 9 either. I'll have to think about it a little longer

Princess Samantha said...

Haha, maybe one day I'll be able to make a song out of anything like Matt Thiessen. :P

Hey, even if there's another post, you can still put up your thoughts about this verse if you want to. :)