"Vanity, vanity. All is vanity," saith the preacher.
But to start well, it won't hurt to avoid my paraphrase (as given above) and quote directly from the good ol' King James Version (KJV):
"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity..."
And here it is from another familiar translation, the New International Version (NIV):
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Which do you like better? "Vanity, saith the Preacher" or "Meaningless, says the Teacher"? They are both valid translations in there own right and I'm not here to stir the pot of the "KJV-Only" guys, but I am here to tell you that it just doesn't matter. It's the concept that matters. The concept as illuminated personally to you by the Spirit of God. And here to say that such a thing is and should be flexible and not rigid so it fits better. Did you understand what was being preached or taught (teached?) as the case may be? Good. Does it matter if you have a preference about what version? Answer: Yes. It does matter. It matters to you, and that's enough. God, our Father, cares about you. He brings His message to you even if that costs him His Only Begotten, His Son. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself again. For we too are sons and daughters, having been adopted and we are being prepared to be lifted up, not like Jesus was but maybe in an even more glorious way, who knows? He does.
We know we're talking about emptiness and all the stuff that shall be dropped into the privy and flushed. All things shall perish and are even now perishing, all things except, that is, except the Word of God. So we have freedom to have that life saving Word of Truth placed into us and tucked away for eternity. And it doesn't matter if the Holy Writ that lives inside of us is KJV or if it is NIV or even if it is simply conceptual.
So don't let my wandering ways bother you. We can go back to the question, "Vanity of vanities -All is vanity... [and just exactly] what does this mean?
This response quoted here (below) was given about 7 years ago and voted 'Best Answer,' and is quoted here in part, "'Vanity,' in Ecclesiastes, and usually in Scripture, means, not foolish pride, but [rather] the emptiness in final result of all life apart from God." This was quoted from Yahoo member and contributor, Rosalinda, of YahooAnswers®. She continued her own preach in a well caught and taught summation of the INTENT (originally written in Hebrew, then translated to English for your reading pleasure) with, "Absolutely Pointless! every thing is Pointless All is to no purpose, Sai[th] the Preacher, All the ways of man are to no Purpose...
So it seems that our Bible Writer (the Holy Spirit) wants those who are willing to look to know what His concept of 'Vanity' means, right? And I'm here to tell you that the Holy Spirit wants all those who are willing to have more than just simple knowledge but wants us to have real and effective understanding of the concept and not just the word or phrase. If I wanted to try to explain the concept, I might say that those things that are tied to or connected with emptiness or destruction == vain and/or vanity. But don't mistake that definition (which I like) with what the Holy Spirit wants for you. That's just my way of thinking about it. Nothing more.
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I'll try to start the ball rolling with another example that I just now caught seemingly out of thin air: You've heard it said, "Do not take the Name of the LORD in vain," right? Could that mean, "don't use His name for silly and/or empty purpose"? You may call on the Name of the LORD, as men have for thousands upon thousands of years, ever since way back before it was called "way back when," in the Genesis 4:6 days. But calling on His Name is not the same as taking His Name in vain. The latter means don't do it uselessly or if there is no meaning involved. Do not invoke His Name toward vanity or emptiness. Or maybe, "Don't pretend you know Him by calling Him LORD [for stupid stuff]," might be another way of thinking about the same or similar thing.
But according to an online source, known to me from my just a moment ago, Mr. Google search, "Biblical Hermeneutics beta, our way of relating to God changed back in the time that Gen 4:6 mentions for,
"It was then that men began to invoke the Lord by name." Other translations have "call on the name" or "worship the LORD by name". Before this it seems like Adam and Abel worshiped God. And Cain certainly spoke to God."
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