Ecclesiastes 1

[1][2] The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called Qoheleth ("the Teacher"; 'one who speaks before an assembly') composed probably between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC.

[3] Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud, as well as most Jewish and Christian readership, attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon.

[4] This chapter contains the title of the book, the exposition of some fundamental observations and the problem of life, especially the failure of wisdom.

[6][a] Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: 4QQohb (4Q110; 30 BC – 30 AD; extant verses 8–15).

[25] Biblical commentator Stuart Weeks reads these verses with chapter 2 as a single "fictional memoir" recounting the preacher's "quest for understanding".

[3] The King James Version of this verse reads "I gave my heart ...",[30] words "expressive of the spirit of an earnest seeker, [and] eminently characteristic of this book".

Ecclesiastes 1 in Bíblia de Cervera (fl 366; between 1299 and 1300) at Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal.
A page containing Ecclesiastes 1:1–5:17 from Codex Gigas , Latin translation of 13th century.
Fool's Cap World MapFool's World Map, based on Ortelius's third 'Typus Orbis Terrarum,' (1590). A Latin quote from Ecclesiastes 1:2 is shown as engraved in the cup at the top of the jester's staff on the right: 'Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas' ("Vanity of vanities, all is vanity") and below the map is a text taken from the Vulgate translation of Ecclesiastes 1:15: 'Stultorum infinitus est numerus' [ 17 ] ("The number of fools is infinite").