Creation And Vanity

VERANUS. Quid est quod dicit Ecclesiastes: Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas; cum scriptum sit in libro Genesis: Vidit Deus cuncta quae fecit et erant valde bona? Si cuncta quae fecit Deus, valde bona sunt, quomodo ergo omnia vanitas; et non solum vanitas, sed etiam vanitas vanitatum? SALONIUS. Coelum et terra, maria et omnia quae in hoc circulo continentur, per se quidem bona sunt, quoniam a bono Deo creata sunt, sed comparata Deo, utique pro nihilo habenda sunt, quia semper Deus permanebit id quod est, illa vero omnia transibunt. Nam quae videntur temporalia sunt, quia transitoria; quae autem non videntur aeterna sunt. VERANUS. Quare bis replicavit sententiam suam dicens: Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas? SALONIUS. Ad exaggerandam magnitudinem vanitatum iteravit sententiam suam, ut per hoc demonstraret quia omnis mundi gloria sicut flos feni marcescet, et sicut fumus pertransibit. Salonius Viennensis, Expositio Mystica in Ecclesiasten Source: Migne PL 53.994b-c

Veranus: Why is it that Ecclesiastes says, 'Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity,' when it has been written in the book of Genesis, 'God saw all the things He had made and they were very good.' 1 If everything which God made was very good, how then is everything a vanity, and not only a vanity, but even a vanity of vanities? Salonius: Heaven and earth, the sea and everything they is contained in its circuit, are in themselves good because they were created by God, but compared to God they are held as nothing because God always remains what He is, but they shall all pass away. For those things which are seen are temporal and pass away but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Veranus; Why does he twice repeat what he says, 'Vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities and all a vanity?' Salonius: He repeats himself to exaggerate the greatness of the vanity, so that he might show that all the glory of the world withers away like a flower of the field, and as smoke they shall pass away. 3 Salonius of Geneva, A Spiritual Exposition of Ecclesiastes 1 Eccl 1.2, Gen 1.31 2 2 Cor 4.18 3 Isaiah 40.8, 1 Pet 1.24, Ps 36.20