“The End,” Not

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.*

What college student hasn’t breathed this same sigh? The intriguing thing here is how early it was penned.

Exactly how many books were there way back then? It’s vague but though Hebrew was early for literacy, most of the world’s languages didn’t yet have an alphabet, let alone books. Even classical Greek was first coming into a literate form about the time this was written.

And of the few books that did exist, how big were their “editions,” each one laboriously hand copied?

Compare with today when the Library of Congress catalogues more than 32 million books and 61 million manuscripts in 470 languages!!

And that’s before Google came along and left those numbers in the dark ages dust!!!!!!

Still, all it takes is one book to bring on a great heaviness to the eyes and a weariness of body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another intrigue about this Ecclesiastical comment is how it comes itself at the end of its own book. Is it the writer himself who is weary? Has he made many books? Has the compilation of this one completely worn him out? Maybe.

The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most unusual assemblies of thought of all time. The topics are broad, the order random, the attitude negative at worst, skeptical as a rule, often cautionary, but now and then gloriously and enthusiastically positive about living life to the fullest. It’s a wide range and it’s author could have gone on and on with whatever came to his mind . . . for, as he said, there really in no end. But he finally said, “Enough.”

He quit because he was tired . . . and figured you must be too.

But he didn’t quit because there would ever be an end. That’s his point. There are always more thoughts, more ways to put them, and more people to say them to.

It’s like a painting. People often ask, “How do you know when you’re finished?” It can be hard to know. There’s always more that can be added. Where to stop is a matter of style, and intent . . . and fatigue. Finally you just abandon it!

You call it “finished,” and you go onto the next one.

The End, is only a temporary pause.

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*Ecclesiastes 12:12b