“There is nothing new under the sun” means that our ancestors committed every malice we commit, and when we can find no evidence of this, we claim they were “simply very good at hiding it.” Indeed, despite the fact that every man loves a scandal, our forefathers were somehow capable of hiding sexual neuroses which were equivalent to or much worse than the current omnipresent problem of pornography. Any vindication of old paths, old patterns, or old practices is judged callow, for “There is nothing new under the sun,” and if rape and murder and indecency are a problem in our era, the same must have been problems a hundred years ago, as well. As persons of today recognize their own neuroses, vices, and idiosyncrasies, there emerges a want to see the same sins and worse in the past. The most damaging misuse of “There is nothing new under the sun” is the wholesale dismissal of the past as a place to look for guidance and wisdom. “There is nothing new under the sun” means that there is no genuinely new technology, no new social development, no new political policy. “There is nothing new under the sun” means that nothing improves, nothing devolves, nothing falls apart, nothing comes together. ![]() I have heard “There is nothing new under the sun” mean that every sin Americans are now inclined toward was also an inclination of our forefathers- in others words, if the average man today is a sex-crazed maniac, so was he a sex-crazed maniac two hundred years ago, or in 900 AD. I have heard “There is nothing new under the sun” employed to mean that a man cannot change his ways. ![]() I have heard “There is nothing new under the sun” used to defend that particular brand of Christian nihilism which marries uncritical, undiscerning thought with piously-tinged Stoicism. ![]() It just so happens that Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible, a book on which I have read numerous commentaries, the only book of the Bible I read five or six times aloud every year, the only book of the Bible I read for fun, the only book of the Bible I read when depressed, the only book of the Bible which actually lifts my spirits, and the only book of the Bible which I regularly encourage or demand others to read- for all these reasons, when I perceive misuse of Ecclesiastes, I am particularly vexed. In recent months I have been involved in a handful of discussions wherein a person representing an opinion I disagreed with attempted to back up their position with Solomon’s saying, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Because I am quite self-righteous, when people use Scripture in a manner I do not approve of, my first questions are invariably, “Do you know where the passage you’ve just quoted comes from? Do you know what claims are situated on either side of that passage? Do you know who the author is and who he is speaking to? Do you know what larger argument is being furthered in the miniscule snippet which you’ve just lifted?” I regularly quote passages of Scripture for which I could answer none of these questions. There is something to the personal appeal of Ecclesiastes which leads many men- even Church fathers- to think their own insights uniquely lucid. Ecclesiastes is a book that appeals to every man, but to no two men in the same way. As anyone finds in the early chapters of Eric Christianson’s Ecclesiastes Through the Centuries, the first thing any man does once he has begun writing his commentary on Ecclesiastes is throw every other Ecclesiastes commentary ever written under the bus. I have some thoughts on Ecclesiastes, which is, I suppose, to say I have some offensive thoughts on Ecclesiastes. “Sing to the LORD a new song.” -Psalm 96:1 “There is nothing new under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9 The Four Elements of Classical Education. ![]() A Brief Introduction to Classical Education.The Gathering Place (Apprentices & Mentors).
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