Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 1:2 Go To Ecclesiastes 1
Didymus the Blind
AD 398
There is a difference between vanities; there are those that are especially so, and others that are not.… Question: [Does Ecclesiastes speak] about one and the same [kind of vanity]? Answer: About both, about the things that are just vanity as well as about those that are a vanity of vanities. Both the things that most clearly belong to the sphere of vanity and the less obvious vanities are altogether vain in comparison with actual truth. The newborn, the little child and the boy are imperfect. Of course, they are imperfect in comparison with an adolescent, and they are all imperfect in comparison with a man.… Question: Does he not mean by “vanity of vanities” the visible and the perceivable? Answer: Yes, but the layperson and the astronomer do not perceive the sun in the same way. The perception of the sun by an astronomer and by a scientist is far inferior to the seeing of the invisible God and it is inferior to the knowledge that comes from God.
