Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He hath set the world (or eternity) in their heart"
One Hebrew word, ha-olam, read four ways: "eternity" (most modern versions), "the world" (KJV, the library's Greek, the Vulgate), "a sense of duration / past and future" (NRSV), or, with different vowels, "hiddenness / ignorance" (some scholars). The consonants are the same in every witness.
Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
The book as first written
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).
Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Cuncta fecit bona in tempore suo, et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem.
Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 3:11. 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.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
אֶת־הַכֹּ֥ל עָשָׂ֖ה יָפֶ֣ה בְעִתּ֑וֹ גַּ֤ם אֶת־הָעֹלָם֙ נָתַ֣ן בְּלִבָּ֔ם מִבְּלִ֞י אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹא־יִמְצָ֣א הָאָדָ֗ם אֶת־הַֽמַּעֲשֶׂ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים מֵרֹ֥אשׁ וְעַד־סֽוֹף׃
Everything he made beautiful in its time; also ha-olam he set in their heart, yet so that the human cannot find out the work God has done from beginning to end
Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 3:11.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872
Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Toutes les choses qu’il a faites sont bonnes en leur temps, et il a mis le monde entier dans le cœur des hommes, en sorte que du commencement à la fin ils ne puissent s’expliquer l’œuvre que Dieu a créée.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 3:11. 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).
What changed, and why
In biblical Hebrew olam usually means "a long time, forever." The meaning "world" is common in later (rabbinic) Hebrew; if Ecclesiastes is late, that sense was available. The Greek translators used ton aiona, which can mean "the age" or "eternity"; Giguet's French gives "le monde entier." The Vulgate reads "he handed the world over to their disputation" (mundum tradidit disputationi eorum), echoing 1:13.
The verse goes on: "so that (or 'yet') no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." On the "eternity" reading, humans long to see the whole but cannot; on the "hiddenness" reading (repointing to elem), God has placed ignorance in their hearts so they cannot find out his work. The NET Bible's notes set out the options.
This is a question of meaning, not of manuscripts: no ancient witness has different letters.
What the evidence shows
- All witnesses have the same consonants in 3:11.
- Ha-olam here means 'eternity.'
- 3:11 proves humans have an innate concept of infinity. The word's meaning is debated; the verse stresses what humans cannot find out.
Sources
Related lessons
- Ecclesiastes 3: A Time for Everything →"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (3:1). Fourteen pairs of opposites follow: born and die, plant and uproot, kill and heal… war and peace (vv. 2–8). Humans cannot see the whole: God has made everything beautiful in its time and put "eternity" (or "the world") in their hearts, yet they cannot find out his work from beginning to end (vv. 9–15). Then injustice: wickedness sits in the place of judgment (v. 16). God will judge (v. 17), but humans and animals share one fate and one breath; "who knoweth" where the human spirit goes? (vv. 18–21). So enjoy your work: it is your portion (v. 22).
- 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: Greek Ecclesiastes, a Different Kind of Translation →Greek Ecclesiastes is unusually literal, unlike the free Greek of Proverbs or the shorter Greek of Job. It even renders the Hebrew object marker et with the Greek preposition syn, a hallmark of the 2nd-century AD Jewish translator Aquila. Scholars debate whether it is Aquila's own early work, a translation from his school, or an earlier translation revised in that style. This investigation explains the evidence and lists the places where the library's Greek differs meaningfully from the Hebrew.