It is right, indeed, to share bread and the other necessities that human beings need for life. For even if for the moment you seem to some to be throwing it away, as though you were handing your bread over to the water (Ecclesiastes 11:1 ), yet as time goes on your kindness will not prove profitless to you. Give unsparingly, and divide what is yours among many; for you do not know what the coming day will bring about (Ecclesiastes 11:2 ).
Clouds do not hold back their abundant rain, but let the shower fall upon the earth; nor does any tree stand forever, but even if men spare it, the wind at least will overturn it (Ecclesiastes 11:3 ). Many wish to know beforehand even what will come from heaven. One man watches the clouds and waits for the wind, and keeps away from reaping or winnowing (Ecclesiastes 11:4 ); he is sure of nothing, and he does not know any of the things that will come from God, just as he does not know what kind of child the pregnant woman will bear (Ecclesiastes 11:5 ). When you have sown in season, gather in the fruits whenever their season comes; for it is not clear which of the crops that have grown will turn out better (Ecclesiastes 11:6 ). May everything turn out for good.
Greek Κοινωνεῖν γε μὴν ἄρτου καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων, ἃ πρὸς τὸν βίον ἀνθρώποις, δίκαιον. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ παραυτίκα τισὶ δόξεις ἀπολλύναι, ὥσπερ ὕδατι τὸν ἄρτον παραδιδοὺς, ἀλλ᾽ οὖν προϊόντος τοῦ χρόνου, οὐκ ἀνόνητός σοι φανεῖται ἡ φιλανθρωπία. Δίδου δὲ ἀφειδῶς, καὶ μέριζε τὰ σαυτοῦ πλείοσιν· οὐ γὰρ ἐπίστασαι τί ποτε ἡ ἐπιοῦσα ἐποίησεν ἡμέρα. Κατέχουσι δὲ οὐδὲ νεφέλαι τὸν ἑαυτῶν πολὺν ὑετὸν, ἀλλὰ τὸν ὄμβρον ἐπὶ γῆν ἀφιᾶσι· καὶ οὐδὲ δένδρον εἰς ἀεὶ ἕστηκεν, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ φείσωνται, ἀνέμῳ γοῦν ἀνατραπήσεται. Πολλοὶ δὲ βούλονται καὶ τὰ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐσόμενα προγινώσκειν, καί τις εἴς τε νεφέλας ἀφορῶν, καὶ περιμένων ἄνεμον, ἀμήτου ἢ λικμητοῦ ἀπέσχετο, ἐπὶ μηδενὶ πεπεισμένος, μηδὲ γινώσκων τὶ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐσομένων· ὥσπερ οὐδὲ οἷον ἡ κυοφοροῦσα τέξεται. Σπείρας δὲ ἐν καιρῷ, συγκόμιζε τοὺς καρποὺς, ὁπότ᾽ ἂν τούτου καιρὸς ἐνστῇ· ἄδηλον γὰρ, ὁποῖα αὐτῶν ἔσται ἀμείνω τῶν φυέντων. Γένοιτο δὲ ἅπαντα εἰς ἀγαθόν.
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About this text Third-century paraphrase of Ecclesiastes transmitted under Gregory Thaumaturgus.
Gregory Thaumaturgus retells the whole of Ecclesiastes in Solomon's voice: human affairs are empty, pleasure and wealth never satisfy, and the book ends with its charge to fear God and keep His commandments, for every person will be judged. A fresh English translation from the Greek.
Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote this paraphrase of Ecclesiastes for the whole Church of God. He was a third-century Christian bishop, born in Neocaesarea in Pontus to a wealthy pagan family and originally named Theodore.
The work is a paraphrase, not a commentary, presenting the teaching of Ecclesiastes in Gregory's own Greek. Gregory speaks in his own voice when he says he is addressing the Church and has given these matters sufficient thought.
A reader will meet Solomon, King David, and Gregory himself. The argument is that all human affairs and pursuits are empty and useless, because people are defeated by temporal things and refuse to look above the stars with the noble eye of the soul. Human life wears away like winter torrents pouring into the boundless deep. What God has established remains fixed, but human words and deeds have no measure, and idle talk brings no profit. Nothing new ever happens; what seems new was already known to the ancients, and both past and present fade into oblivion. The paraphrase then follows Ecclesiastes to its end: Solomon tries wisdom, pleasure and great works and finds them empty, weighs wisdom against folly, tells how he once reasoned that the righteous and the wicked meet the same end and rejects it, and closes with the charge to fear God and keep His commandments, for every person will be judged. The work paraphrases Ecclesiastes, so readers should use the Septuagint book name and numbering, cited as Ecclesiastes (LXX).
English translated from the Greek of the MGR / Documenta Catholica Omnia transcription (TLG 2063.006, from PG 10), read from its page images. From Ecclesiastes 1:13 to the end, each passage was also checked against the Greek and Latin columns of the Opera omnia print (Paris, 1622). The older Ante-Nicene Fathers English was used only as a sense check for the opening section.
Printed text used
Translated from MGR / Documenta Catholica Omnia concordance Translated from Greek of the opening section Also checked Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images Where the prints differ
Section 5.1 (Ecclesiastes 5:8) — The transcription brackets οὐ as an editor's supplement; the 1622 print has it as text ('there is no need to wonder'), and the English follows the 1622 print.Section 5.2 (Ecclesiastes 5:10) — The transcription's χόρος is read as κόρος ('fill, satiety') with the 1622 print.Section 7.1 (Ecclesiastes 6:12) — The transcription's πλέοντι is read as πλέον τι ('anything more') with the 1622 print.Section 10.2 (Ecclesiastes 10:9) — The transcription prints ἀλλὰ μή with the editor's conjecture μήν; the English follows μήν ('Moreover'), as the 1622 Latin does.Section 12.2 (Ecclesiastes 12:8) — The transcription's ἂ is read as the relative ἃ ('what I said before'), as the 1622 Latin requires.Chapters 6-12 — Small typing and accent errors in the transcription are corrected from the 1622 print.We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.
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