Translation
Is there anything whereof one can say, “See, this is new”? It was here long ago, in the ages before us.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
Is there anything that can be proved to be truly new?
No. I’m confident I can prove
it is actually very old. Human nature and the human experience remain the same.
Footnotes
1
Is there anything new? Once again, we may be tempted to look at our modern society and think it proves Solomon wrong. We have things like electricity, cars, planes and the internet, which never existed before. But I think he is talking about life, effort, purpose and human nature, more than about gadgets. The quest for labor-saving/time-saving devices is nothing new, only the type of gadgets has changed. We will realize one day that, while we have more time-saving devices than any culture on earth, we actually have less time for things that really matter, less time for God, and less time for other people. So, while some things have changed regarding our technology, life itself has not changed, at least not for the better.