I think that, had they met, Solomon and Luke would have got on well, for they both observed the same thing. People running hither and thither to endless conferences; people reading and writing endless books; people tuning in and tuning out of endless talk shows. All looking for something. Something to give them a leg up in life. Anything to shine light on why we’re on this planet and what we’re meant to be doing.

Luke describes a scene when Paul is people-watching in Athens: ‘All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.’ The verse has a context, and Luke is not simply making disparaging remarks about his fellow Greeks. He is describing the endless quest for meaning, and those in Athens hadn’t yet found it, hence the gab-fest. But soon they would, if they listened to Paul speak about Jesus.

Solomon said: “Be warned my son…. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body”. His point, no matter the wishful thinking of many school students, is not that text books should be exchanged for video games, but that the meaning of life is not yet to be discovered in some new book. It’s already revealed, and is this, as he puts it: ‘To fear God and keep his commandments’. “No, there must be another way! Some other answer!” And so the endless chat goes on.