ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ecclesiastes 1.1

Book: Ecclesiastes · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

  1. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 3. What profit hath man of all his labor wherein he laboreth under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, ASV)
WEB

1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

  1. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” 3. What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, WEB)
KJV

1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

  1. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, KJV)
YLT

1. Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

  1. Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities: the whole [is] vanity. 3. What advantage [is] to man by all his labour that he laboureth at under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: TBD
  • Audience: TBD
  • Location: TBD
  • Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

  • TBD
  • TBD
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Quoted in

Concepts:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.