Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 1:11
[There is] no remembrance of former [things]; neither shall there be [any] remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come after.
11. There is no remembrance of former things ] Better, of former men, or of those of old time, and so in the next clause of those that shall come after. The thought of the oblivion of the past, suggested in the previous verse, as explaining the fact that some things seem new to us which are not so, is reproduced in another aspect as yet a new element in the pessimism into which the writer has fallen. Men dream of a fame that shall outlive them. How few of those that went before them do they remember even by name? How little do they know even of those whose names have survived amid the wreck that has engulfed others? What does it profit to be famous now, just known by name to the generation that follows, and then forgotten altogether? Comp. a striking passage to the same effect in Jeremy Taylor’s Contemplations of the State of Man, ch. 3, “The name of Echebar was thought by his subjects to be eternal, and that all the world did not only know but fear him; but ask here in Europe who he was, and no man hath heard of him; demand of the most learned, and few shall resolve you that he reigned in Magor,” and Marc. Aurel. Meditt. ii. 17, , , “posthumous fame is but oblivion.” So ends the prologue of the book, sounding its terrible sentence of despair on life and all its interests. It is hardly possible to turn to the later work, which also purports to represent the Wisdom of Solomon, without feeling that its author deliberately aimed at setting forth another aspect of things. He reproduces well-nigh the very words of the prologue, “the breath of our nostrils is as smoke” “our name shall be forgotten in time: our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud” but he puts all this into the mouth not of his ideal Solomon but of “ungodly men, reasoning with themselves but not aright,” Wis 2:1-5 , and shews how it leads first to sensuous self-indulgence, and then to deliberate oppression, and persistent antagonism to God. (See Introduction, chap. v.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Things – Rather, men.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. There is no remembrance] I believe the general meaning to be this: Multitudes of ancient transactions have been lost, because they were not recorded; and of many that have been recorded, the records are lost. And this will be the case with many others which are yet to occur. How many persons, not much acquainted with books, have supposed that certain things were their own discoveries, which have been written or printed even long before they were born! Dutens, in his Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns, has made a very clear case.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There is no remembrance of former things: this seems to be added to prevent this objection, There are many new inventions and enjoyments unknown to former ages. To this he answers, This objection is grounded only upon our ignorance of ancient times and things, which is very great, and which if we did exactly know or remember, we should easily find parallels to all present occurrences in former ages. The latter clause tends both to illustrate and confirm the former. The sense is, There are many thousands of remarkable speeches and actions done in this and the following ages, which neither are, nor ever will be, put into the public records or histories, and consequently they must unavoidably be forgotten and lost unto succeeding ages; and therefore it is just and reasonable to believe the same concerning former ages, seeing the same causes are most likely to produce the same effects.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. The reason why some thingsare thought “new,” which are not really so, is theimperfect record that exists of preceding ages among theirsuccessors.
those that . . . comeafterthat is, those that live still later than the”things, rather the persons or generations, Ec1:4, with which this verse is connected, the six intermediateverses being merely illustrations of Ec1:4 [WEISS], that areto come” (Ecc 2:16; Ecc 9:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[There] is no remembrance of former [things],…. Which is the reason why some things that are really old are thought to be new; because either the memories of men fail them, they do not remember the customs and usages which were in the former part of their own lives, now grown old; or they are ignorant of what were in ages past, through want of history, or defect in it; either they have no history at all, or what they have is false; or if true, as there is very little that is so, it is very deficient; and, among the many things that have been, very few are transmitted to posterity, so that the memory of things is lost; therefore who can say with certainty of anything, this is new, and was never known in the world before? and the same for the future will be the case of present things; see Ec 2:16;
neither shall there be any remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come after; this will be the case of things present and future, that they will be buried in oblivion, and lie unknown to posterity that shall come after the things that are done; and if any person or persons should rise up and do the same things, they may be called new, though they are in fact old, for want of knowing that they were before. The Targum is,
“there is no remembrance of former generations; and even of later ones, that shall be, there will be no remembrance of them, with the generations of them that shall be in the days of the King Messiah.”
R. Alshech interprets it of the resurrection of the dead.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“There is no remembrance of ancestors; and also of the later ones who shall come into existence, there will be no remembrance for them with those who shall come into existence after them.” With (with Kametz) there is also , the more common form by our author, in accordance with the usage of his age; Gesen., Elst., and others regard it here and at Ecc 2:16 as constr., and thus as virtually object-gen. (Jerome, non est priorum memoria ); but such refinements of the old syntaxis ornata are not to be expected in our author: he changes (according to the traditional punctuation) here the initial sound, as at Ecc 1:17 the final sound, to oth and uth. is the contrast of : to attribute to one, to become partaker of. The use of the expression, “for them,” gives emphasis to the statement. “With those who shall come after,” points from the generation that is future to a remoter future, cf. Gen 33:2. The Kametz of the prep. is that of the recompens. art.; cf. Num 2:31, where it denotes “the last” among the four hosts; for there is meant of the last in order, as here it is meant of the remotely future time.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 11 emphasizes how quickly man’s deeds are forgotten. Of what worth then are his accomplishments under the sun? See Ecc 2:16; Ecc 6:3-4; Ecc 8:10; Ecc 9:5; Psa 34:16; Deu 32:26.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(11) If anything appears new, this is only because its previous occurrence has been forgotten. So likewise will those of this generation be forgotten by those who succeed them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Former things But mark the contrast with mankind! Hebrew grammar requires that the word supplied should be men, not things, “former” being masculine. “Former men” are utterly gone. Earth has lost their pattern forever. So, future men will be forgotten by those who in their turn will follow them. This preliminary gives us the view which prompted Koheleth to inquire whether, in this short and unreturning life, there is any good for man, who is but a shadow, and if there be any good for him, what can it be? He commences his researches, assuming the resources of the greatest of kings. So often and profoundly seems Koheleth to have reflected on the character and career of Solomon that the personation sits easily upon him. It was said of a great actor that he, for the time, was Othello. So Koheleth assumes with perfect naturalness the part of the great monarch. It will be seen that he gradually discards it, and at last appears in his own character.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 1:11. There is no remembrance, &c. This verse may be rendered, There is no memorial to what happened before, neither shall there be any memorial to what shall happen henceforth, with those who shall come hereafter. The first proof of the general proposition is contained in the 4th and following verses to the present; and is taken from the consideration of natural things. It may be paraphrased thus: “It is vain for men to expect any advantage from future changes in the course of nature; since not only the earth, but all the other visible parts of the universe, have hitherto remained the same throughout the different generations which have succeeded each other since the world began, Ecc 1:4. The sun, the winds, the rivers, are in a continual motion, yet from the beginning to this time they have been constantly subject to the same laws and revolutions, Ecc 1:5-7. If a man, not satisfied with bare contemplation, will undertake to find out the secret causes of these wonderfully constant effects, what does he get by his curiosity, but trouble and weariness? Repeated inquiries, when never attended with the hoped-for success, must soon become tiresome and vexatious. An inquisitive man would fain look into all the recesses of nature, and hear all that others have to say on what he is not able to discover himself: but he never can compass his end, and satisfy his curiosity, either through his own researches, or by getting acquainted with those of others, Ecc 1:8. It is even beyond his power to mark any phaenomenon which may with any certainty be looked upon as a new one. Natural revolutions are such, that you have no sign nor token to distinguish that which happens for the first time from that which hath happened many times before; and that course is so well settled, that the same disappointments which have hitherto been met with are to be expected for the future.” Ecc 1:9-11. Desvoeux.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 1:11 [There is] no remembrance of former [things]; neither shall there be [any] remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come after.
Ver. 11. There is no remembrance of former things. ] None to speak of. How many memorable matters were never recorded! How many ancient records long since perished! How many fragments of very good authors are come bleeding to our hands, that live, as many of our castles do, but only by their ruins! God hath by a miracle preserved the Holy Bible from the injury of times and tyrants, who have sought to abolish it. There we have a true remembrance of former things done in the Church by Abraham and his offspring, when the grandees of the earth, Ninus, Belus, &c., lie wrapt up in the sheet of shame, or buried in the grave of utter oblivion. Diodorus Siculus confesseth that all heathen antiquities, before the Theban and Trojan wars, are either fabulous relations or little better. Ezra – that wrote one of the last in the Old Testament – lived before any chronicles of the world now extant in the world.
Neither shall there be any remembrance.
“ – Quis nosset Erasmum,
Chilias aeternum si latuisset opus?”
Nineveh, “that great city,” is nothing else but a sepulture of herself; no more shall Rome be ere long. Time shall triumph over it, when it shall but then live by fame, if at all, as others now do.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
remembrance = memorial.
of former things. Supply the Ellipsis (App-6) with the word “men”, to complete the argument from verses: Ecc 1:2-4 -. The Chaldee for the former [men] version supplies the word “generation”.
after = “after [them]”, or at the last.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
There is: Ecc 2:16, Psa 9:6, Isa 41:22-26, Isa 42:9
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 1:11. There is no remembrance, &c. This seems to be added, to prevent the objection, that there are many inventions and enjoyments unknown to former ages. To this he answers, This objection is grounded only upon our ignorance of ancient times, which, if we exactly knew or remembered, we should easily find parallels to all present occurrences. There are many thousands of remarkable speeches and actions done in this, and which will be done in the following ages, which neither are, nor ever will be, put into the public records or histories, and consequently must unavoidably be forgotten in succeeding ages; and therefore it is just and reasonable to believe the same concerning former ages.