[ExI] survivor's database

[BillK]

On 9/24/09, Damien Broderick wrote:
> On 9/24/2009 3:33 PM, spike wrote:
> > Ecclesiastes 1:9 (King James Version)
> > ...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...
> >
>
>  Eccles hadn't heard about tampons, evidently. Or a few million other items.
>


Oh dear, I feel a pedantic spasm coming on...........

Eccles (or King Solomon to be precise) obviously wasn't talking about
things. Even in these olden days new things appeared frequently. New
weapons, new buildings, new clothes, etc.

A clearer translation might be:
Whatever has happened before will happen [again]. Whatever has been
done before will be done [again]. There is nothing new under the sun.

In context, he is talking about the same old things coming round again
and again, spring summer autumn winter, rain and drought, day and
night, etc. and the futility of it all apart from God.

There are other famous quotations in that section.
vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge
increaseth sorrow.

BillK