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Journey of a Passage

Ecclesiastes 1:9–11

"There is no new thing under the sun"

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be… and there is no new thing under the sun." The witnesses agree on the sense, but the library's Greek divides the verses differently, placing "there is nothing new under the sun" at the start of 1:10. The Qumran fragment 4Q110 is reported to preserve parts of 1:10–15.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The book as first writtenOften dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
  2. 4Q110 (4QQoh-b), Qumran Cave 41st century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The book as first written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The book as first written
Greek
  1. Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872Translated from the Greek Ecclesiastes
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)

    The book as first written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Ecclesiastes are two Qumran fragments, 4Q109 (4QQoh-a, mid-2nd century BC, reported) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b, reported).

  2. 1st century BC (reported)

    4Q110 (4QQoh-b), Qumran Cave 4

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The book as first written

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported to preserve parts of Ecclesiastes 1:10–15. One survey reports extra words after 1:14; not printed until checked against DJD XVI and the images (C check EC-C03).

  3. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Quid est quod fuit? Ipsum quod futurum est. Quid est quod factum est? Ipsum quod faciendum est. Nihil sub sole novum, nec valet quisquam dicere: Ecce hoc recens est: jam enim præcessit in sæculis quæ fuerunt ante nos. Non est priorum memoria; sed nec eorum quidem quæ postea futura sunt erit recordatio apud eos qui futuri sunt in novissimo.

    Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:9–11. Jerome translated Ecclesiastes from Hebrew (c. AD 398), after writing a commentary on it (c. 388); the Vulgate is an indirect witness to a Hebrew text, with Jerome's interpretation.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The book as first written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה֙ ה֣וּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶ֔ה וּמַה־שֶׁנַּֽעֲשָׂ֔ה ה֖וּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂ֑ה וְאֵ֥ין כָּל־חָדָ֖שׁ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃ יֵ֥שׁ דָּבָ֛ר שֶׁיֹּאמַ֥ר רְאֵה־זֶ֖ה חָדָ֣שׁ ה֑וּא כְּבָר֙ הָיָ֣ה לְעֹֽלָמִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָיָ֖ה מִלְּפָנֵֽנוּ׃ אֵ֥ין זִכְר֖וֹן לָרִאשֹׁנִ֑ים וְגַ֨ם לָאַחֲרֹנִ֜ים שֶׁיִּהְי֗וּ לֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֤ה לָהֶם֙ זִכָּר֔וֹן עִ֥ם שֶׁיִּהְי֖וּ לָאַחֲרֹנָֽה׃

    What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun (v. 9)… no remembrance of former people (v. 11)

    Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:9–11.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

  6. Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872

    Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Ecclesiastes

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Qu’est-ce que le passé? La même chose que l’avenir; et qu’a-t-on fait? ce que l’on fera toujours. Il n’y a rien de nouveau sous le soleil; qui pourra dire: Voyez, ceci est nouveau? Mais cette chose a déjà été dans les siècles qui ont passé avant nous. Mais on a perdu la mémoire des premiers, et ceux de la fin n’auront point mémoire de ceux qui naîtront d’ici à la fin.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 1:9–11. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). A C check needs the Göttingen edition of Greek Ecclesiastes (P. J. Gentry, 2019). Verse division differs: the clause "nothing new under the sun" opens 1:10 here.

What changed, and why

The claim is about recurrence and memory, not technology. Verse 10 imagines someone saying "See, this is new" and answers that it existed "of old time" (le-olamim); verse 11 names the real problem, that nothing is remembered.

Verse division is a later system (Hebrew verse divisions are marked in Masoretic manuscripts; Greek and Latin printed verse numbers date from the 16th century). Giguet's French follows a Greek text that places the clause at the start of 1:10. This changes no wording.

The phrase "nothing new under the sun" became proverbial in English and other languages through the KJV and Vulgate (nihil sub sole novum).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe witnesses agree on the wording of 1:9–11.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek divides 1:9–10 differently.
  • Strongly supported4Q110 preserves parts of 1:10–15. Reported; C check against DJD XVI.
  • Conflicts with current evidenceEcclesiastes 1:9 denies that any invention is possible. It speaks of recurring patterns and lost memory.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Ecclesiastes 1: Nothing New Under the Sun →A third-person heading introduces "the words of Qoheleth, the son of David, king in Jerusalem" (1:1). The motto follows: "havel havalim… all is hevel" (1:2), breath of breaths, vapor of vapors, "vanity of vanities" in older English. Then the question that drives the book: "What profit (yitron) hath a man of all his labour (amal) which he taketh under the sun?" (1:3). A poem shows generations passing while sun, wind and rivers go round and round (vv. 4–11). The speaker then introduces himself as a king who set out to examine everything by wisdom and found it "a pursuit of wind" (vv. 12–18).
    • Investigation: Time, Eternity and the Limits of Knowing →Ecclesiastes is a book about time: generations passing, fourteen pairs of times, eternity in the heart, the evil time that falls suddenly. It is also a book about knowing: again and again humans "cannot find out" God's work or know what comes after. This investigation traces both themes and the key words et (time) and olam (eternity, world).
    • Investigation: Ecclesiastes at Qumran →Cave 4 at Qumran yielded two fragmentary Hebrew manuscripts of Ecclesiastes: 4Q109 (4QQoh-a) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b). 4Q109, dated by its script to the mid-2nd century BC, is among the oldest surviving manuscripts of any biblical book. This investigation reports what is known, what is only reported, and what the site has not yet checked.