What is the complete meaning behind "nothing new under the sun" where does this quote come from ?

Question

What is the complete meaning behind "nothing new under the sun" where does this quote come from ?

Answer 1

nothing created lately.

Answer 2

VG is correct about the origin of the phrase.  What it means is that anything we experience now has already been experienced and to believe that you have a fresh new idea, way of thinking, activity or anything than you are mistaken.  Everything that can be thought of already has - only much of it is lost in history.

Even computers or computer programs were an idea in ancient times (though manifested in a different way).  There was a machinist who created plays using pullies, ropes and pegs that did three act plays "automated".  The pullies, ropes, etc were similar to the idea of computer programs used now - only it wasn't done electronically.  It may be "modern" but the idea isn't "new".  The more we learn about history the more we realize how true this phrase is.

Answer 3

Idioms: nothing new under the sun

Everything has been seen before, as in Those designs take me back to the 1950s--there really is nothing new under the sun. This world-weary view was already expressed in 1382 in the Bible translation attributed to John Wycliffe's followers: "No thing under the sun is new" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Bible Dictionary: nothing new under the sun

A phrase adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes; the author complains frequently in the book about the monotony of life. The entire passage reads, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

http://www.answers.com/There's%20nothing...

A phrase adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes; the author complains frequently in the book about the monotony of life. The entire passage reads, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q...

http://www.bartleby.com/59/1/nothingnewu...

Answer 4

the bible

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:8-10 (in Context) Ecclesiastes 1 (Whole Chapter)