There Is Nothing New under the Sun and Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

-- Ecclesiastes 1: 9 (KJV)

Ecclesiastes never foresaw the hydrogen bomb, tabloid journalism, or the Lambada when he opined that "there is no new thing under the sun." On the other hand, he would probably have called such inventions "novelties," not "new," because they wouldn't change anything important.

This is because Ecclesiastes takes a grand view of things, to say the least. Nothing we do or make matters because his context is the sweep of history and the totality of nature. But this leaves him stating the perfectly obvious: day after day, "the sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down"; the winds blow as they always do, and rivers continue to run; men keep working, but remain unsatisfied.

Ecclesiastes isn't tearing down human creativity out of spite. In fact, his ultimate message is "Don't worry, be happy" -- since you can't do anything new or significant, you might as well just enjoy yourself. "There is nothing better for a man," he advises, "than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour" (2: 24; compare 3: 13). And later: "a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry" (8: 15). If you're tempted to add, "for tomorrow he dies," that part of the proverb is supplied by Isaiah (Isaiah 22: 13) in one of his merrier moods.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!