Ecclesiastes 3:11 - John Trapp Complete Commentary

Bible Comments

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.

Ver. 11. He hath made everything beautiful, a &c.] Plato was wont to say that God did always γεωμετρειν - work by geometry. Another sage said, Pondere, mensura, numero, Deus omnia fecit, God hath done all in number, weight, and measure; made and set all things in comely and curious order and equipage; he hath also prefined beforehand a convenient and beautiful season for everything; ordering the disorders of the world to his own glory and his Church's good.

Also he hath set the world in their heart,] i.e., He hath given to men the creature to contemplate, together with an earnest desire to search into nature's secrets. The Vulgate renders this text thus: Et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, And he hath delivered the world to their disputations. But so foolishly b and impiously have men disputed of God, of his providence, of his judgments, of the chief happiness, &c., that they have reasoned, or rather wrangled away the truth, being able to find out neither the beginning nor end of the causes or uses of God's works. Rom 1:21-22 Veritatem philosophia quaerit, theologia invenit, religio possidet, said Picus Mirandula; Philosophy inquires after truth, divinity finds it out, and religion only improves it.

a Kοσμος, ab ornatu; Mundus, a mundicie.

b εμωρανθησαν. Rom 1:22

Ecclesiastes 3:11

11 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.