Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Verse 2 quickly moves past the succinct introduction to one of the key points this book stresses: that of vanity, a word employed five times in this verse alone. The author refers to himself once more as the Preacher (essentially the title of the book under consideration). This preacher, whose sermon we are about to explore for the next twelve chapters, begins with a bountiful volley of vanity.
Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
The term Ecclesiastes, a Greek term hailing from the Septuagint, is the equivalent of the Hebrew term, “Preacher.” The Tanakh and Setaugint also associate the term “Qohelet” with, “the assembler.” An assembler is one that gathers an assembly, which is a group of people gathered together for a common purpose. That common purpose, in this instance, is to hear the sermon of the wisest man that ever lived, after a lifetime of achievement and observation. This preacher has a sermon prepared, and it is a poignant, sometimes cutthroat subversion of what some readers might have been expecting from it.
Merry Christmas! Before I begin my next commentary, which will be the book of Ecclesiastes, I wanted to focus once more on the wonderful tradition of Christmas.
