Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §6.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Wealth unenjoyed and the vanity of restless desire

A man who has everything yet never enjoys it fares worse than a stillborn child, and restless desire is vanity.

I will bring forward in my discourse the misfortune that is most widespread among human beings (Ecclesiastes 6:1). It is when God supplies everything their hearts desire and takes from a man nothing whatever of what he has longed for, neither wealth, nor great renown, nor any of the other things people are infatuated with; and yet the man who prospers in everything, as though held fast by this one evil sent by God, that he does not enjoy them, stores them up for a companion of his, and falls, bearing no fruit for himself or for his neighbors (Ecclesiastes 6:2). I count this a great sign and a plain proof of surpassing wickedness. And that man who has been called the father of a great many children without mishap, and has lived a long time, yet in all that time his soul was not filled with goodness, untouched by death: I for my part would not envy him either his many children or his many days, and I rank above him an untimely embryo fallen from its mother's womb (Ecclesiastes 6:3). For as it came in vain, so it departs unnoticed into oblivion, having touched no evils and never looked upon the sun (Ecclesiastes 6:4-5). This is lighter than the lot of the wicked man, even if he should measure out his life at a thousand years and not come to know goodness (Ecclesiastes 6:6). The end of both is death.

The fool stands exposed above all in this, that he finds no fill for any desire (Ecclesiastes 6:7); but the self-controlled man is not held fast by these passions, and as a rule uprightness of life leads a person into poverty (Ecclesiastes 6:8). Spectacles for greedy eyes drive many out of their senses: they stir up the soul and drag it toward fruitless striving through the empty desire to be seen (Ecclesiastes 6:9). What has now come to be is already known, and it is plain that a man cannot stand against those who are above him (Ecclesiastes 6:10). Idle talk, indeed, goes round among people and increases the folly of those who indulge in it (Ecclesiastes 6:11).

Greek

Παρέξομαι δὲ τῷ λόγῳ, τὴν μάλιστα ἐπιπολάζουσαν ἀνθρώποις κακοπραγίαν. Ὅταν Θεὸς μὲν τὰ καταθύμια αὐτῶν ἅπαντα ἐπιχορηγήσας. μηδένος οὐτινοσοῦν τῶν εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν ἐλθόντων αὐτὸν ἀφέληται, μὴ περιουσίας, μὴ πολυδοξίας, μὴ τῶν λοιπῶν περὶ ὅσα ἄνθρωποι ἐπτόηνται· ὁ δὲ τοῖς πᾶσιν εὐθηνούμενος, ὥσπερ τούτῳ μόνῳ θεηλάτῳ κακῷ συνεχόμενος, τῷ μὴ ἀπολαύειν, ἑταίρῳ τῷ αὐτοῦ ταμιεύσεται, πεσὼν ἄκαρπος καὶ ἑαυτῷ, καὶ τοῖς πλησίον. Τοῦτο μέγα τεκμήριον καὶ ἔλεγχον περιφανῆ ὑπερβαλλούσης ἐγὼ τίθεμαι πονηρίας· ἄνδρα τε ἐκεῖνον, ὃς πλείστων πατὴρ ὀνομασθεὶς τέκνων ἀσινῶς, βιοὺς δὲ χρόνον μακρόν, οὐκ ἐπλήσθη χρηστότητος τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον, θάνατον πεῖραν οὐ λαβών· τοῦτον ἔγωγε, οὔτε τῆς πολυπαιδίας, οὔτε τῆς πολυημερίας ζηλώσαιμ᾽ ἄν· καὶ προκρίνω δὲ αὐτοῦ ἄωρον γαστρὸς μητρῴας ἐκπεσὸν ἔμβρυον. Ἐκεῖνο γὰρ ὥσπερ ἦλθε ματαίως, οὕτως ἄπεισι καὶ λαθραίως ἐν ἀμνηστίᾳ, οὐχ ἁψάμενον κακῶν, οὐδὲ προσβλέψαν ἡλίῳ. Τοῦτο κουφότερον, ἤπερ τῷ πονηρῷ, κἂν χιλίοις ἔτεσι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ζωὴν ἀναμετρησαμένῳ ἀγαθότητα μὴ ἐπιγνῷ. Τέλος δὲ ἀμφοῖν θάνατος. Ἐλεγχομένου ἄφρονος, μάλιστα τῷ πλησμονὴν μηδεμιᾶς λαμβάνειν ἐπιθυμίας. Ὁ δὲ σώφρων, τούτοις οὐκ ἐνίσχεται τοῖς πάθεσιν. Ὡς δ᾽ ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον εὐθύτης ζωῆς ἄνθρωπον τῇ πενίᾳ ὁδηγεῖ. Ἐξίστησι δὲ πολλοὺς ὀφθαλμῶν λίχνων θεάματα, τὴν ψυχὴν ἐρεθίζοντα, ἐπ᾽ ἀνόνητον σπουδὴν ἕλκοντα, διὰ τῆς τοῦ ὀφθῆναι κενῆς ἐπιθυμίας. Τὰ μέν τοι νῦν γεγεννημένα ἤδη ἔγνωσται· καὶ σαφὲς τυγχάνει, ὡς τοῖς ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν ἄνθρωπος ἀντιτάσσεσθαι οὐχ οἷός τε. Φλυαρίαι γε μὴν κατὰ ἀνθρώπους στρέφονται, τὴν τῶν χρωμένων ἄνοιαν ἐπαυξάνουσαι.

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About this text

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 (Greek · Whole work)
Translated from Greek of the opening section (Greek · Ecclesiastes 1:1-12)
Also checked Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images (Greek and Latin · Ecclesiastes 1:13 to the end)

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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