A good name is better than precious perfumes,
as the day of death is better than the day of one's birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for death is the end of all men;
and the living should take this to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter:
for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
than to hear the song of fools.
For the laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thorns under a pot.
This also is vanity.
Extortion makes a wise man mad,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning:
and patience is better than pride.
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry,
for anger rests in the bosom of fools.
Say not thou,
“What is the cause that the former days were better than these?”
For thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
Wisdom is good as an inheritance:
and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
For wisdom is a shelter. Also money is a shelter,
but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life to those that have it.
Consider the state of our universe:
for who can make straight that which is crooked?
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider:
joy and adversity exist everywhere,
to the end that man can find nothing of what will come.
In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
there is a just man that perishes in his righteousness,
and there is a wicked man that lives long in his wickedness.
Be not over righteous,
nor over wise:
why should thou destroy thyself ?
Be not over wicked,
neither be thou foolish:
why should thou die before thy time?
It is good that thou should take hold of one,
and not remove thy hand from the other.
for he that avoids these extremes escapes them all.
Wisdom strengthens the wise
more than ten mighty rulers of the city.
For there is not a just man upon earth,
that does good, and does not sin.
Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken;
lest thou hear a servant’s curse.
For oftentimes also thine own heart knows
that thou thyself likewise has cursed others.
All this have I tested by wisdom and I said:
“I will become wise.” But it was beyond me.
Wisdom is far off, and exceeding profound -
who can find it out?
I applied my heart to know, and to search,
and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things,
and to know the wickedness of folly,
even of foolishness and madness:
And I find more bitter than death,
the woman who snares, whose heart is a trap, whose hands are chains.
A moderate man shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be ensnared.
“Behold, this have I found,” said the preacher,
“adding one thing to another, to uncover the reason which my soul seeks,
but does not yet find:
one man among a thousand have I found,
but a woman among all those have I not found.
Lo, this only have I found:
that although man may be upright,
he cannot cease to search for meaning.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Saturday, 21 November 2009
The Teacher, Chapter 6
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: A man may have riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacks nothing his soul desires, yet he hath not the power to enjoy them: instead a stranger enjoys them all. This is vanity, and it is a grievous evil.
A man begets a hundred children, and lives many years so that the days of his years be many, yet if his soul be not satisfied with his goodness, or if he has no burial; I say that a stillborn child is better than he – for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is shrouded with darkness. Though it has never seen the sun, nor known any thing, it has more rest than that man. Yea, though he might live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good. Do not all go to one place?
All the labour of man is for his mouth,
and yet his appetite is never satisfied.
For what hath the wise more than the foolish?
What hath the poor, by knowing how to walk before others?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.
This is also vanity and grasping for the wind.
Whatever one is, he has been named already,
for it is known that he is man;
and he may not contend with any who is mightier than he.
The more the words,
the less the meaning,
and how does that profit anyone?
For who knows what is good for man in this life, the few days of his vain life which he passes through like a shadow?
For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
A man begets a hundred children, and lives many years so that the days of his years be many, yet if his soul be not satisfied with his goodness, or if he has no burial; I say that a stillborn child is better than he – for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is shrouded with darkness. Though it has never seen the sun, nor known any thing, it has more rest than that man. Yea, though he might live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good. Do not all go to one place?
All the labour of man is for his mouth,
and yet his appetite is never satisfied.
For what hath the wise more than the foolish?
What hath the poor, by knowing how to walk before others?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.
This is also vanity and grasping for the wind.
Whatever one is, he has been named already,
for it is known that he is man;
and he may not contend with any who is mightier than he.
The more the words,
the less the meaning,
and how does that profit anyone?
For who knows what is good for man in this life, the few days of his vain life which he passes through like a shadow?
For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Saturday, 14 November 2009
The Teacher, Chapter 5
Walk prudently amongst those whom you respect,
and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools,
for they do not know that they do evil.
Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily.
Space is infinite and endless,
yet you are merely on earth, and your life a span,
therefore let your words be few.
Our dreams arise out of many cares,
and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
When you make a vow, do not delay to pay it,
for fools give no pleasure.
So pay what you have vowed:
better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin,
nor claim that it was an error.
For who cares for your excuse? who destroys the work of your hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also many diverse vanities.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, be not surprised at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest seest also; and over them both are others higher still.
The profit of the earth is taken by all: the king himself is served by the field.
He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with it,
nor he that loveth wealth with its increase.
This too is vanity.
When goods increase, so are they that eat them,
and what good is there to the owner,
saving to feast his eyes on them?
The sleep of a labouring man is sweet,
whether he eat little or much:
but the abundance of the rich man will not suffer him to sleep.
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely,
riches hoarded to the harm of their owner.
And those riches perish by evil works:
as he begetteth a son, there will be nothing left in his hand:
as he came naked of his mother's womb, naked shall he return.
He shall take nothing of his labours, but that which he may carry away in his hand.
And this also is a sore evil:
that exactly as he came,
so shall he go:
and what profit hath he,
since he laboured for the wind?
All his days also he eateth in darkness,
and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, for it is his sole reward.
Every man who hath riches and wealth, and can accept his lot and be happy in his labour: this he must do – it is his privilege on earth.
For he shall not dwell unduly on the days of his life;
because he finds occupation in the joy of his heart.
and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools,
for they do not know that they do evil.
Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily.
Space is infinite and endless,
yet you are merely on earth, and your life a span,
therefore let your words be few.
Our dreams arise out of many cares,
and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
When you make a vow, do not delay to pay it,
for fools give no pleasure.
So pay what you have vowed:
better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin,
nor claim that it was an error.
For who cares for your excuse? who destroys the work of your hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also many diverse vanities.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, be not surprised at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest seest also; and over them both are others higher still.
The profit of the earth is taken by all: the king himself is served by the field.
He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with it,
nor he that loveth wealth with its increase.
This too is vanity.
When goods increase, so are they that eat them,
and what good is there to the owner,
saving to feast his eyes on them?
The sleep of a labouring man is sweet,
whether he eat little or much:
but the abundance of the rich man will not suffer him to sleep.
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely,
riches hoarded to the harm of their owner.
And those riches perish by evil works:
as he begetteth a son, there will be nothing left in his hand:
as he came naked of his mother's womb, naked shall he return.
He shall take nothing of his labours, but that which he may carry away in his hand.
And this also is a sore evil:
that exactly as he came,
so shall he go:
and what profit hath he,
since he laboured for the wind?
All his days also he eateth in darkness,
and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, for it is his sole reward.
Every man who hath riches and wealth, and can accept his lot and be happy in his labour: this he must do – it is his privilege on earth.
For he shall not dwell unduly on the days of his life;
because he finds occupation in the joy of his heart.
Friday, 13 November 2009
The Teacher, Chapter 4
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun:
I beheld the tears of such as were oppressed,
and they had no comforter;
I beheld the power on the side of their oppressors,
but they had no comforter.
Wherefore I saw that the dead,
which are already dead,
have more than the living,
which are yet alive.
Yea, better than both is he which hath not yet existed,
who hath not yet seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Again, I saw that all travail and every achievement
is done by man’s envy of his neighbour.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit, a grasping for the wind.
The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh.
Better is one handful with quietness,
than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
Then I came, and I saw vanity under the sun once more:
There is one man alone, and there is not a second: yea, he hath neither child nor brother. Yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches. “For whom do I labour,” saith he, “and for whom do I deprive my soul of good?”
This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign, although he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, they were with the second youth, the king's successor. There is no end of all the people over whom he was made king. But they that come after shall not rejoice in him.
Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
I beheld the tears of such as were oppressed,
and they had no comforter;
I beheld the power on the side of their oppressors,
but they had no comforter.
Wherefore I saw that the dead,
which are already dead,
have more than the living,
which are yet alive.
Yea, better than both is he which hath not yet existed,
who hath not yet seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Again, I saw that all travail and every achievement
is done by man’s envy of his neighbour.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit, a grasping for the wind.
The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh.
Better is one handful with quietness,
than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
Then I came, and I saw vanity under the sun once more:
There is one man alone, and there is not a second: yea, he hath neither child nor brother. Yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches. “For whom do I labour,” saith he, “and for whom do I deprive my soul of good?”
This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign, although he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, they were with the second youth, the king's successor. There is no end of all the people over whom he was made king. But they that come after shall not rejoice in him.
Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
The Teacher, Chapter 3
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every thing on earth:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot,
A time to kill, and a time to heal,
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast stones, and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose,
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath the worker from his travail?
I have seen the blind compulsion with which the generations of man find themselves burdened.
Every thing is beautiful in its time: eternity can be found in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the vastness of existence from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no better in man than to rejoice and to do good in his life. Every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the satisfaction of his toil. This he hath earned and this is his right.
I know that all things which are now, will be for ever: nothing can be put in, nor any thing taken away: this is surely a fearful mystery.
That which is now hath already been;
and that which is to be hath been before;
and the past once more may be called to account.
And moreover I saw under the sun:
in the place of judgment - wickedness was there;
and in the place of righteousness - iniquity was there.
I said in mine heart, “There is a time for every deed and for every work: even the righteous and the wicked shall come to be judged alike: no man is above this law.”
I said in mine heart, “When men find a measure of themselves they see that they are themselves no different than beasts.”
For that which befalleth mankind befalleth beasts,
only one thing befalleth them both:
as the one dieth, so dieth the other.
Yea, they have all but the same breath,
so that a man hath no advantage over a beast.
For all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth if the spirit of man riseth upward, and the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth?
Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better: a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his reward.
For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot,
A time to kill, and a time to heal,
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast stones, and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose,
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath the worker from his travail?
I have seen the blind compulsion with which the generations of man find themselves burdened.
Every thing is beautiful in its time: eternity can be found in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the vastness of existence from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no better in man than to rejoice and to do good in his life. Every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the satisfaction of his toil. This he hath earned and this is his right.
I know that all things which are now, will be for ever: nothing can be put in, nor any thing taken away: this is surely a fearful mystery.
That which is now hath already been;
and that which is to be hath been before;
and the past once more may be called to account.
And moreover I saw under the sun:
in the place of judgment - wickedness was there;
and in the place of righteousness - iniquity was there.
I said in mine heart, “There is a time for every deed and for every work: even the righteous and the wicked shall come to be judged alike: no man is above this law.”
I said in mine heart, “When men find a measure of themselves they see that they are themselves no different than beasts.”
For that which befalleth mankind befalleth beasts,
only one thing befalleth them both:
as the one dieth, so dieth the other.
Yea, they have all but the same breath,
so that a man hath no advantage over a beast.
For all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth if the spirit of man riseth upward, and the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth?
Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better: a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his reward.
For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
The Teacher, Chapter 2
I said to mine heart,
“Come now, I will test thee with mirth and pleasure, enjoy thyself.”
yet, behold, I found this also is vanity."
I said of laughter, “It is mad,”
and of mirth, “What doeth it?”
I sought to wisely give myself over to wine,
and to embrace folly,
so that I might see what was good for mankind:
what they should do on earth
in the few days of their life.
I made me great works:
I builded me houses,
I planted me vineyards:
I made me gardens and orchards,
and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits.
I made me reservoirs, to water therewith
the groves that bringeth forth trees.
I got me servants and maidens,
and had servants born into my house;
also I had great possessions
of cattle, above all those that were before me.
I gathered me also silver and gold,
and the particular treasure of kings and of the provinces:
I gat me men singers and women singers,
the pleasures courtesans and concubines.
So I was great, and increased more
than all that were before me:
yet also my wisdom remained with me.
Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them,
I withheld not my heart from any joy,
for my heart rejoiced in all my labour:
this was the reward of my toil.
Then, I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought,
and on the labour that I had laboured to do:
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and there was no profit under the sun.
And I turned in towards myself and beheld wisdom, and madness, and folly:
for what more can the man do who cometh after the king?
Only that which hath been already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,
as far as light excelleth darkness.
The wise man's eyes are in his head;
but the fool walketh in darkness:
and yet I perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart,
“As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me;
and why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”
For there is no more remembrance of the wise man
than of the fool;
in the days to come all shall be forgotten.
And how dieth the wise man? As the fool.
Therefore I hated life;
because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me:
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun,
because I could have left it to the man that shall be after me,
and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
Yet he shall have rule over all things wherein I have laboured,
and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.
This is also vanity.
Therefore I alloweth my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
For there is a man whose labours are in wisdom, in knowledge, and skill,
yet he must leave his legacies to a man who has not laboured for it.
This also is futility and a great evil.
For what doth man receiveth for all his labour, and of the anxieties of his heart,
for which he hath laboured under the sun?
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief;
yea, his heart taketh not rest even in the night.
This is also meaningless.
There is nothing better for a man,
than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy well his labour.
This also I saw, that it was what the earth provideth.
A good man hath wisdom, and knowledge, and joy.
And it is the sinner who travaileth, gathereth and heapeth up,
only in order to hand to him who is perceived good.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
“Come now, I will test thee with mirth and pleasure, enjoy thyself.”
yet, behold, I found this also is vanity."
I said of laughter, “It is mad,”
and of mirth, “What doeth it?”
I sought to wisely give myself over to wine,
and to embrace folly,
so that I might see what was good for mankind:
what they should do on earth
in the few days of their life.
I made me great works:
I builded me houses,
I planted me vineyards:
I made me gardens and orchards,
and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits.
I made me reservoirs, to water therewith
the groves that bringeth forth trees.
I got me servants and maidens,
and had servants born into my house;
also I had great possessions
of cattle, above all those that were before me.
I gathered me also silver and gold,
and the particular treasure of kings and of the provinces:
I gat me men singers and women singers,
the pleasures courtesans and concubines.
So I was great, and increased more
than all that were before me:
yet also my wisdom remained with me.
Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them,
I withheld not my heart from any joy,
for my heart rejoiced in all my labour:
this was the reward of my toil.
Then, I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought,
and on the labour that I had laboured to do:
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and there was no profit under the sun.
And I turned in towards myself and beheld wisdom, and madness, and folly:
for what more can the man do who cometh after the king?
Only that which hath been already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,
as far as light excelleth darkness.
The wise man's eyes are in his head;
but the fool walketh in darkness:
and yet I perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart,
“As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me;
and why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”
For there is no more remembrance of the wise man
than of the fool;
in the days to come all shall be forgotten.
And how dieth the wise man? As the fool.
Therefore I hated life;
because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me:
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun,
because I could have left it to the man that shall be after me,
and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
Yet he shall have rule over all things wherein I have laboured,
and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.
This is also vanity.
Therefore I alloweth my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
For there is a man whose labours are in wisdom, in knowledge, and skill,
yet he must leave his legacies to a man who has not laboured for it.
This also is futility and a great evil.
For what doth man receiveth for all his labour, and of the anxieties of his heart,
for which he hath laboured under the sun?
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief;
yea, his heart taketh not rest even in the night.
This is also meaningless.
There is nothing better for a man,
than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy well his labour.
This also I saw, that it was what the earth provideth.
A good man hath wisdom, and knowledge, and joy.
And it is the sinner who travaileth, gathereth and heapeth up,
only in order to hand to him who is perceived good.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
The Teacher, Chapter 1
The words of the teacher:
“Vanity of vanities,” saith the teacher,
“vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour
which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to the place whence it arose.
The wind goeth toward the south,
and turneth about unto the north;
it whirleth about continually,
and returneth again according to its circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full:
to the place whence the rivers come, there they return again.
All things are full of labour. Man cannot utter it:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been is that which will be again;
and that which is done, is that which will be done again:
There is no new thing under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new?”
All hath been already of long ago,
All was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of former things;
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered by those who follow.
I was a king of kings.
I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom
all things that are done under the sun.
With this blind compulsion do the generations of man
find themselves burdened.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun;
and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight:
and that which is wanting cannot be reckoned.
I communed with mine own heart, saying,
“Lo, I am come to great estate,
and have gotten more wisdom than all they
that have been before me:
yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge.”
And I gave my heart to know all wisdom:
to know madness and folly.
I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom is much grief:
and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
“Vanity of vanities,” saith the teacher,
“vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour
which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to the place whence it arose.
The wind goeth toward the south,
and turneth about unto the north;
it whirleth about continually,
and returneth again according to its circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full:
to the place whence the rivers come, there they return again.
All things are full of labour. Man cannot utter it:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been is that which will be again;
and that which is done, is that which will be done again:
There is no new thing under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new?”
All hath been already of long ago,
All was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of former things;
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered by those who follow.
I was a king of kings.
I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom
all things that are done under the sun.
With this blind compulsion do the generations of man
find themselves burdened.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun;
and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight:
and that which is wanting cannot be reckoned.
I communed with mine own heart, saying,
“Lo, I am come to great estate,
and have gotten more wisdom than all they
that have been before me:
yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge.”
And I gave my heart to know all wisdom:
to know madness and folly.
I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom is much grief:
and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
An Introduction to The Humanist Bible Project
Let us assume that there is no God: this is a given of existence. It is for the crumb-collecting theologian to decide if its death was murder, old age, suicide or most likely, an antediluvian stillborn.
A question for the humanist is: what we can make of the great works of art and wisdom inspired by this God? They were certainly created by people in commune with a sense of the beyond, a mysterious compulsion that they named God. This God was perhaps a convenient explanation of their super-human powers, as if they were embarrassed to admit themselves capable of the staggering fertility of their imaginations, the towering intellect and insight whose flashes they could transcribe into music and art. So God is perhaps best described as an alibi; a colossal self-denial. We had the divine in us, were ashamed, and assigned it elsewhere. We excised perfection from humanity and called that perfection the divine. The divine is the fearful perceived impossibility of authentic perfection: the non-human, the meta-human, the über-human. Yet there is only human.
God is a human concept. Everything we assign to it signifies some human depth. The inspiration from God comes only from within. The messages and morals come from inside humans. Like the Greek Myths, all religious stories are necessarily and in every way about us. Every tale that resonates with us is one in which we see ourselves reflected, as in a glass, darkly (1 Corinthians 13). Freud found in the Oedipus myth a cipher of human desires. Camus saw in the myth of Sisyphus a manifestation of our own sense of endless futility. Whether or not done consciously, these ancient stories strive towards self-understanding. The same can be said of Shakespeare: we needn't attempt to unravel Hamlet's actions to know that somehow he is the everyman; his struggle his not explicable, but is utterly and terrifyingly knowable. Something, in the words of Beethoven, "which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
Is it not time to decipher ourselves through the prism the greatest story ever told: The Bible? To reinvent parable as myth?
The Bible stumbles on weighed down by a dead God hanging like an albatross from its neck. It should be saved and put in its place not as a devotional text, but as a psychological work of art. The Bible must be rescued, not thrown out with the bathwater of organised religion. Remove God, and we are presented with a solely human work, a work comprised of tales of greed, love, avarice, calumny, sacrifice, wisdom and art probably unparalleled in any other single text. God must be recognised as a placeholder, and re-signified as a mortal intention of the human psyche.
As an example, the story of Abraham and Isaac. In it we learn that God is a manically jealous deity, perhaps a practical-joker. Without God, these parables can become riddles of human psychology, instead of endless ruminations on the vagaries of a fantastical beardied lunatic. Perhaps we see Freud here: the father is jealous of the son and seeks to kill him. It could reflect the inexplicable instinct to destory that which we love , or perhaps our endless intoxification with danger and violence. Is this a challenge which we all face everyday - the effort not to kill those around us? Man is both a proud and yet a wretched thing.
Humans wrote every word in the Bible: unearthed every psychological truth, had every mystic revelation, created every heart-stopping metaphor, grappled with the terrifying and uncompromising truths of existence and constructed a place for mankind in a seemingly chaotic world: it’s time to take sole credit for this achievement: to acknowledge the human divine. I would like to see a Bible stripped completely of its devotional elements, with God on the cutting room floor, and left as a book of human wisdom and human art.
Time to make an atheist’s Bible of pure literature, untainted by the stain of religious association. The aim is not to explain or understand what the writers of the Bible were implying, but just to render them accessible, to allow their words to emerge from under the veil of faith.
Anyone who is interested in joining in, do so: the aspiration is to become open-source.
A question for the humanist is: what we can make of the great works of art and wisdom inspired by this God? They were certainly created by people in commune with a sense of the beyond, a mysterious compulsion that they named God. This God was perhaps a convenient explanation of their super-human powers, as if they were embarrassed to admit themselves capable of the staggering fertility of their imaginations, the towering intellect and insight whose flashes they could transcribe into music and art. So God is perhaps best described as an alibi; a colossal self-denial. We had the divine in us, were ashamed, and assigned it elsewhere. We excised perfection from humanity and called that perfection the divine. The divine is the fearful perceived impossibility of authentic perfection: the non-human, the meta-human, the über-human. Yet there is only human.
God is a human concept. Everything we assign to it signifies some human depth. The inspiration from God comes only from within. The messages and morals come from inside humans. Like the Greek Myths, all religious stories are necessarily and in every way about us. Every tale that resonates with us is one in which we see ourselves reflected, as in a glass, darkly (1 Corinthians 13). Freud found in the Oedipus myth a cipher of human desires. Camus saw in the myth of Sisyphus a manifestation of our own sense of endless futility. Whether or not done consciously, these ancient stories strive towards self-understanding. The same can be said of Shakespeare: we needn't attempt to unravel Hamlet's actions to know that somehow he is the everyman; his struggle his not explicable, but is utterly and terrifyingly knowable. Something, in the words of Beethoven, "which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
Is it not time to decipher ourselves through the prism the greatest story ever told: The Bible? To reinvent parable as myth?
The Bible stumbles on weighed down by a dead God hanging like an albatross from its neck. It should be saved and put in its place not as a devotional text, but as a psychological work of art. The Bible must be rescued, not thrown out with the bathwater of organised religion. Remove God, and we are presented with a solely human work, a work comprised of tales of greed, love, avarice, calumny, sacrifice, wisdom and art probably unparalleled in any other single text. God must be recognised as a placeholder, and re-signified as a mortal intention of the human psyche.
As an example, the story of Abraham and Isaac. In it we learn that God is a manically jealous deity, perhaps a practical-joker. Without God, these parables can become riddles of human psychology, instead of endless ruminations on the vagaries of a fantastical beardied lunatic. Perhaps we see Freud here: the father is jealous of the son and seeks to kill him. It could reflect the inexplicable instinct to destory that which we love , or perhaps our endless intoxification with danger and violence. Is this a challenge which we all face everyday - the effort not to kill those around us? Man is both a proud and yet a wretched thing.
Humans wrote every word in the Bible: unearthed every psychological truth, had every mystic revelation, created every heart-stopping metaphor, grappled with the terrifying and uncompromising truths of existence and constructed a place for mankind in a seemingly chaotic world: it’s time to take sole credit for this achievement: to acknowledge the human divine. I would like to see a Bible stripped completely of its devotional elements, with God on the cutting room floor, and left as a book of human wisdom and human art.
Time to make an atheist’s Bible of pure literature, untainted by the stain of religious association. The aim is not to explain or understand what the writers of the Bible were implying, but just to render them accessible, to allow their words to emerge from under the veil of faith.
Anyone who is interested in joining in, do so: the aspiration is to become open-source.
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