The things of this world cannot satisfy our eternal longings because they are temporary.…While Ecclesiastes does not aim to show how we find satisfaction in what is eternal…it does give us enough hints to understand the only answer possible in the book.

The only stable thing in our world is change. As technology accelerates and transforms life, we lose stability. We no longer have the sturdiness of permanence. Our hometowns can’t remind us of days gone by, because they have been so transformed by industry that we can barely recognize them. Change is constant.

And as Augustine recognized in his Confessions, we feel just as unstable as the things we hope in. So, he reasons, we need to place our hopes in something that cannot change, something more stable than the changing world around us.

His observation was not novel. Hundreds of years before, the Book of Ecclesiastes made much the same point. Its author, Qohelet, argues that life under the sun is transitory and cannot satisfy our deepest longings. And if we seek anything under the sun to satisfy the eternity set into our heart, it amounts to vanity.

The Christian theologian Theodoret of Cyrus (393–458) calls this “the futility of impermanent things.” I think it’s an apt description of a key theme in Ecclesiastes, one that marks our world as one in which hoping in impermanence leads to hopeless vanity.

In this article, I explore this theme of the futility of impermanent things in Ecclesiastes. By doing so, not only will we gain a better sense of the whole book but also of its ending, which has long puzzled interpreters.

Vanity as Impermanence

According to Theodoret, Ecclesiastes leads us “to discern the futility of impermanent things and the transitory character of what seems pleasant.” It is hard to deny Theodoret’s view, since the opening verses say:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Ecc 1:2–4).

The earth remains forever, and our efforts are “vanity of vanities!” Note the contrast between life under the sun (vanity) and the implied permanence of the earth. Here, we begin to see Qohelet’s theological argument in practice. The world of impermanence cannot satisfy. God, Qohelet says, “has put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecc 3:11). And further: “whatever God does endures forever” (Ecc 3:14).

Life under the sun cannot satisfy our longing for eternity, because only God and his work lasts forever. But we do not, nor does our work under the sun.

What makes Theodoret’s point of view so compelling, however, has to do with the word “vanity” itself. The term translates the Hebrew term hevel, which means breath or vapour. Imagine seeing your breath on a cold day. The vapour appears for a moment, then is gone again. That is the kind of thing meant by the phrase “vanity of vanities.” It refers to transience.

Throughout Ecclesiastes, human life approximates vanity, life as a vapour. But God’s work lasts (Ecc 3:14). And evidently, God lives beyond us since our spirit returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7).

The vanity of life lies in its impermanence, in its temporary character. Nothing lasts but the work of God. Everything we do, whether great or mighty by human standards, cannot survive the test of time. Time comes for us all, whether we will it or not.

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