Two Are Better than One

There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches. ...
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

-- Ecclesiastes 4: 8-11 (KJV)

Ecclesiastes' formula "two are better than one" (the phrasing is from Miles Coverdale's 1535 rendition) strikes the ear as lacking a certain rhythm. But it's hard to know whether that's because we're used to hearing "two heads are better than one" or if the more specific form became proverbial (by 1546) because it trips more nicely on the tongue.

In either case, Ecclesiastes isn't concerned with problem-solving, virtually the only topic to which we apply his words today. What he means is "two bodies are better than one" -- the better to plow fields, recover from accidents, fend off enemies, and keep warm at night. He's talking about physical challenges, not opinions, and it's easier to agree with his advice than with the more familiar proverb. Especially as we grow older and more dependent, we value more the helping hand, while growing more fixed in our ideas. Ecclesiastes is a book of aged wisdom, and its author, though he seeks no second opinion on the vanity of ambition, knows it is not good to be lonely and defenseless.

 
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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!