Old Testament track · step 3b of 6 · matching NT step →
Old Testament · Step 3b · a side path
Breath and vapour: Ecclesiastes and maya
Ecclesiastes opens with a word repeated five times in one verse: hevel, “breath” or “vapour”, usually translated “vanity”. Readers of the Gita and of Vedanta often hear in it an echo of māyā, the world as fleeting appearance. This page sets the two side by side, and shows that Qoheleth and Shankara draw quite different conclusions.
1. “Vanity of vanities” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 1:14)
Ecclesiastes 1:2
| KJVpublic domain | “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | ““Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”” | source |
ESV footnote: “The Hebrew term hebel, translated vanity or vain, refers concretely to a ‘mist,’ ‘vapor,’ or ‘mere breath,’ and metaphorically to something that is fleeting or elusive”. NIV: “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 1:14
| KJVpublic domain | “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “I have seen all the works that have been done under the sun, and lo, the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit!” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun, and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” | source |
ESV footnote on “striving after wind”: “Or a feeding on wind”.
Psalm 144:4
| KJVpublic domain | “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Man to vanity hath been like, His days [are] as a shadow passing by.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.” | source |
NRSVue: “They are like a breath”. Young’s: “Man to vanity hath been like”, the same word hevel.
2. The Gita on what comes and goes
“The contacts of the senses, O son of Kuntî! which produce cold and heat, pleasure and pain, are not permanent, they are ever coming and going. Bear them, O descendant of Bharata! For, O chief of men! that sensible man whom they (pain and pleasure being alike to him) afflict not, he merits immortality.”— Gita 2.14–15, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“There is no existence for that which is unreal; there is no non-existence for that which is real. And the (correct) conclusion about both is perceived by those who perceive the truth.”— Gita 2.16, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
Where they meet. Both texts look hard at experience “under the sun” and find it passing: a breath, a vapour, contacts “ever coming and going”. Both ask the reader not to rest the heart on what passes.
Where they part. The Gita goes on to point to the real that does not pass, the Self, and to equanimity as the way of seeing it. Qoheleth gives no such metaphysics. His answer is to accept life as God’s gift (“eat thy bread with joy”, 9:7) and to “fear God, and keep his commandments” (12:13). Hevel describes how fleeting things are; it does not say the world is unreal. The fuller maya comparison for the New Testament is on Seen and unseen.
3. Eternity in the heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11 · 12:7)
Ecclesiastes 3:11
| KJVpublic domain | “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “The whole He hath made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that God hath done from the beginning even unto the end.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” | source |
NIV footnote: “Or also placed ignorance in the human heart, so that”. NRSVue: “a sense of past and future”. KJV: “the world”. Each renders the one Hebrew word ha-olam.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
| KJVpublic domain | “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, And the spirit returneth to God who gave it.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” | source |
NRSVue: “the breath returns to God who gave it”, with the footnote “Or the spirit” (Hebrew ruach).
A sense of the eternal set inside a creature who cannot “find out the work that God maketh” is a striking picture of the seeker. Vedanta would say the eternal in the heart is what one is; Qoheleth says only that it is there and that its full meaning is hidden. The breath “returns to God who gave it”, which completes the arc that began with Genesis 2:7 (OT Step 2).
4. Wisdom “playing” before God (Proverbs 8:22–23, 30)
Proverbs 8:22-23
| KJVpublic domain | “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Jehovah possessed me -- the beginning of His way, Before His works since then. From the age I was anointed, from the first, From former states of the earth.” | source |
Proverbs 8:30
| KJVpublic domain | “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Then I am near Him, a workman, And I am a delight -- day by day. Rejoicing before Him at all times,” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always,” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence,” | source |
Footnotes: NRSVue “Or little child”; NIV “Or was the artisan; or was a little child”. NRSVue has “playing before him always”; ESV and NIV “rejoicing”.
“lila: The divine play; the Relative.”— Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Glossary · source
Wisdom delighting and “playing” before God as the world is made has reminded many readers of līlā, creation as divine play. The comparison is loose. Proverbs personifies Wisdom as God’s companion and craftsman, and the Hebrew word is debated (see Wikipedia, “Wisdom (personification)”). Līlā in Vedanta is a theory of why the One appears as many. What they share is joy at the heart of creation, rather than necessity or toil.
New Testament track: Step 3b · Seen and unseen (maya).
Eastern perspective · Upanishads
Vapour and the Real: Qoheleth beside the Upanishads
“From the unreal lead me to the real! From darkness lead me to light! From death lead me to immortality!”— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“With a golden vessel The Real’s face is covered o’er. That do thou, O Pūshan, uncover For one whose law is the Real (satya-dharma) to see.”— Isha Upanishad 15, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
The Upanishad’s prayer is for passage from the passing to the real. Qoheleth sees the passing as clearly, “all is vapour”, but makes no such prayer; he tells his reader to take joy in what is given and to fear God. Both speak honestly about impermanence. Only the Upanishad promises something beyond it to be known.
Where the traditions differ
Hevel is about brevity and futility, not illusion. The Upanishads’ “unreal” (asat) is a metaphysical category Qoheleth never uses.
Light thread
“Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:”— Ecclesiastes 11:7, KJV · source
Even Qoheleth finds the light sweet. Where the Upanishad looks for the light behind the sun, the Preacher is content to enjoy the sun while it lasts.