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Dr. Clarence E. Mason, Jr.
Philadelphia College of Bible
1969

THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES
Notes on Ecclesiastes: Part 1 - Introduction

1. INTRODUCTION: "All is vanity" 1:1-3
   1. Title and writer of book, 1:1
      1:1 The Preacher = The Great Orator
   2. Conclusion reached: All is vanity (cp. 12:8), 1:2
      1:2 All is vanity. This is the conclusion that Solomon reaches after a study of "all things under the sun." He puts it here at the beginning of the book to show what he is writing to prove. It is the theme of the book.
      
      Vanity. A Hebrew scholar has said that the nearest thing in English to this Hebrew word is "soap bubbles"; that is, emptiness, worthlessness, nothingness, uselessness! You seem to have something beautiful, but it has no reality and the disappointment is the greater when the bubble bursts. New English Bible = "emptiness."

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