Ecclesiastes 7:20 ("There is no one righteous, not even one")

The primary writer of New Testament Epistles is

the Apostle Paul; he quotes Ecclesiastes 7:20

at Letter to the Romans 3:10

There is no one righteous, not even one.

along with a collage of other texts

predominantly from the BOOK OF PSALMS

in support to his point that

all human beings are sinners.

Even more provocatively, the Apostle

at Letter to the Romans alludes to

the message of the book ECCLESIASTES /

QOHELET when he pronounces the

world as subjected to matataiotes 

[Greek for vanity, transience, meaningless]

equivalent term [ Hebrew hebel ] that can

also mean "mist".  In Letter to Romans

8: 18 - 25, the Apostle reflects on the

effect of the introduction of SIN and thus

most pointedly on BOOK OF GENESIS,

chapter 3 esp.  Here we may see that Paul

interprets Qohelet / ECCLESIASTES as

describing a world of sin "under the sun"

and suffering the effects of God's punishment

( meaningless. . .meaningless ).  If so, then

the Apostle provides the earliest hint at

the Interpretation of this canonical book

of KETHUVIN [ Hebrew for 3rd part of

Tanakh : the Writings ].

-- from page 141, "Ecclesiastes 3: History

of Interpretation" Dictionary of the Old

Testament Wisdom, Poetry, Writings

(2008, IV Press, Downers Grove, IL).

Article written by Tremper Longman III.