Letter 195

To Cyrenus the Bishop. You asked me what "Vanity of vanities" [Ecclesiastes 1:2] means. The "vain" would be understood as that which is without substance, having its existence in the mere utterance of the word alone. But "vanity of vanities" is as though one were to say "more dead than the dead" and "more lifeless than the lifeless"—even though the comparative intensification has no place in cases of this kind; yet all the same it is expressed by this phrase for the sake of making clear the hyperbole of what is being said.

Ἠρώτησάς με, τί ἐστι « Ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων. » Μάταιον νοηθείη ἂν τὸ ἀνυπόστατον ἐν μόνῃ τῇ τοῦ ῥήματος προφορᾷ τὸ εἶναι ἔχων. Ματαιότης δὲ ματαιοτήτων, ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις λέγοι, τοῦ νεκροῦ νεκρότερον, καὶ τοῦ ἀψύχου ἀψυχότερον· καίτοι ἡ συγκριτικὴ ἐπίτασις χώραν ἐπὶ τῶν τοιούτων οὐκ ἔχει, ἀλλ’ ὅμως λέγεται τούτῳ τῷ ῥήματι πρὸς τὴν τῆς ὑπερβολῆς τοῦ λεγομένου σαφήνειαν.