Although Solomon himself, as the Koheleth, was the epitome of the successful man, massively wealthy, extremely wise, capable and creative, and a magnet to the most beautiful of women, God led him to see that his life was Vain – from a Hebrew word capable of conveying a range of meanings, such as utterly Futile, Empty, Boring and Unsatisfactory, a waste of time, as transient as a morning mist, a puff of smoke, a mere shadow of the real thing. The threefold repetition of the word Vanity in this single verse stresses the certainty of his sobering assertion.

The modern translator Knox may be close one of Solomon’s inspired intentions in this particular verse when he renders it, Quote: "A shadow of a shadow, a shadow of a shadow, the whole is a shadow" -- an outlook shared by the Greek philosopher Plato, who lived several centuries after Solomon, and who taught that the material objects we embrace in this world no more represents ultimate reality itself than the shadows cast by the sun on the rear wall of a deep cave represent the objects moving across its entrance.

Perhaps Solomon is saying that we do in fact inhabit such a "cave" -- with the result that our perceptions of reality are just as crude, distorted and lacking in meaningful detail as the shadows cast by the sun. Although Solomon was denied a full knowledge of God’s plan for mankind (1 Peter 1:10-12), he could apparently sense that there was more to this human existence than the apparent futility and disappointment that he and so many others experienced.

Plato may indeed have owed a debt to Solomon and those taught by him, and some early Christian scholars believed that even classic Greek architecture was inspired by Solomon's temple, and also that much of their science and philosophy may have been brought to them by learned Jews who were scattered abroad when Solomon's empire was destroyed after his death. Perhaps the same might be true of other schools of Greek philosophy such as the Hedonists, whose teachings seem to have elements in common with those found in Ecclesiastes.

Incidentally, we now know that the human body is little more than a mist, an illusion of solidity – and that if the atoms could be collapsed and the electrons packed in among the neutrons and protons that constitute the nuclei, the whole would occupy no more than a cubic millimeter, with even those subatomic particles apparently little more than clouds of elusive probability and capable of transformation into pure energy. Ditto the material world around us, which quantum physicists increasingly suspect is a construct of the human imagination.

The apostle James, a keen student of wisdom, seems to be referring back to this same verse of Ecclesiastes when he urges some Christian businessmen who were becoming consumed by selfish ambition to get a better perspective on life, saying, Quote: "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14).

The apostle Paul also appears to be citing this same verse when he says of our very imperfect understanding of reality that, Quote: "Now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). In translating Paul’s mysterious phrase, Greek scholars offer a variety of possibilities, such as -- a poor reflection in a mirror, in a mirror darkly, a mirror in darkness, a blurred reflection of reality, through a dim window, squinting in a fog, and peering through a mist.

Perhaps Paul was inspired to extend Solomon's metaphor when he compared our incomplete perception of reality to the reflection of light in an imperfect mirror or any shiny but warped surface for that matter -- a magical process that laterally inverts reality, so that, if looking in a mirror to trim a hair, for example, we tend to move our hand to the right when we should move to the left, and vice versa. Is it significant that human nature has a similar effect on our actions? -- so that we often find ourselves inclined to do the precise opposite of what we should do, to the extent that even mass murderers apparently rationalize that they are actually doing good and right when they kill their victims.

How hard it is, then, for us to grasp reality even when we academically understand it, the fact, for example, that human beings are mere shadows, fleshly sculptures of a spiritual reality -- that the bodies of the most beautiful, talented, exciting and powerful people are no more than skin bags of flesh and blood, containing intestines, organs and bones, with toe and finger nails that need regular trimming, emitting body odour that needs washing off each day, and possessing bodily functions that require regular visits to the toilet to discharge accumulated waste materials – the whole organism slowly aging, wrinkling, weakening and waiting to die.

Like little children playing with toys, we are easily absorbed by the physical things of this world, which are mere shadows of reality, as Solomon saw – with the result that money, security, possessions, fame and fortune can become all-important, to the point where some people will lie, cheat, steal and even kill to attain and retain them.

Perhaps Solomon was, in fact, somewhat like a highly precocious child who looks at his toys and suddenly sees them for what they are – bits of wood, metal and plastic, mere playthings. As a result, he saw that all the success he had toiled and striven to attain in this transient existence was ultimately futile, because, like all men, he would die and leave it behind.

Perhaps Paul has such matters in mind when, in the verse following the one just cited, he urges Christians to grow up spiritually and get real, saying, Quote: “When I was a child, I though like a child. But I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11).