Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §7.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Mourning and rebuke teach more than laughter

Mourning, rebuke and a sober mind teach more than laughter and revelry.

A man who knows the pleasant things that will befall him in life gains nothing more by it, even if we grant that he knows them; and yet human curiosity still contrives to pry into what will happen even after each person's death, and to think it knows (Ecclesiastes 6:12). A good remembrance is sweeter to the soul than oil to the body, and the departure from life is better than birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1). It is a better choice to mourn than to revel, and to be with those who grieve rather than with those who are getting drunk (Ecclesiastes 7:2). For so it is: when someone has come to the end of life, he has no anxiety about the things around him.

Sensible anger is to be preferred to laughter, for by a stern look on the face the soul is set right (Ecclesiastes 7:3). So the souls of the wise are grave and hold themselves in, while the souls of fools are puffed up and run loose (Ecclesiastes 7:4). It is far more to be wished for to receive the rebuke of one wise man than to listen to a whole chorus of base and wretched men singing (Ecclesiastes 7:5). For the laughter of foolish men is like the crackling of many thorns burning in a fierce fire (Ecclesiastes 7:6). This too is wretched, and indeed a very great evil: false accusation. It plots against the souls of the wise and tries to destroy the noble steadfastness of the good (Ecclesiastes 7:7). One should praise a speaker not as he begins his words but as he ends them, and welcome a modest character rather than one that is lofty and puffed up (Ecclesiastes 7:8). One must by all means keep anger in check and not be carried away readily into wrath, which fools serve as slaves (Ecclesiastes 7:9).

Greek

Μηδαμῶς γὰρ πλέον τι ὠφελουμένου τοῦ γινώσκοντος τὰ αὐτῷ συμβησόμενα παρὰ τὸν βίον καταθύμια· θῶμεν γὰρ τοῦτο· ὅμως δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων περιεργίᾳ ἐπιτεχνᾶται, ὡς καὶ τὰ μετὰ θάνατόν τινος ἑκάστου ἐσόμενα, πολυπραγμονεῖν τε καὶ δοκεῖν εἰδέναι. Μνήμη δὲ ἀγαθὴ ψυχῇ προσηνεστέρα, ἤπερ σώματι ἔλαιον· καὶ βίου ἔξοδος, ἀμείνων γενέσεως· καὶ αἱρετώτερον πενθεῖν, ἢ κωμάζειν, καὶ τὸ παρεῖναι τοῖς λυπουμένοις, ἢ τοῖς μεθυσκομένοις. Ἔστι γὰρ οὕτω, λαβόντα τινὰ τοῦ βίου τέλος μὴ εὐλαβηθῆναι περὶ τῶν ἀμφ᾽ αὐτόν. Γέλωτος δὲ θυμὸς ἔμφρων προτιμότερος· αὐστηρᾷ γὰρ διαθέσει προσώπου, κατορθοῦται ψυχή. Αἱ μὲν τοίνυν τῶν σοφῶν ψυχαὶ, σκυθρωπάζουσι καὶ συστέλλονται, αἱ δὲ τῶν ἀφρόνων ἐπαιρόμεναι διαχέονται. Πολὺ δέ ἐστιν εὐκταιότερον ἐπίπληξιν σοφοῦ ἑνὸς δέξασθαι, ἢ ὅλου χοροῦ ἀνθρώπων φαύλων καὶ δυστήνων ᾀδόντων γενέσθαι ἀκροατήν. Τῶν γὰρ ἀφρόνων ἀνθρώπων ὁ γέλως, ἀκανθῶν πολλῶν λάβρῳ πυρὶ καιομένων ἤχῳ προσέοικεν. Ἄθλιον δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, κακόν γε μὴν μέγιστον ἡ συκοφαντία· αὕτη γὰρ σοφῶν ἐπιβουλεύει ψυχαῖς, καὶ ἐπιχειρεῖ διαφθείρειν τὴν γενναίαν ἔνστασιν τῶν ἀγαθῶν. Λόγων δὲ οὐκ ἀρχόμενον, ἀλλὰ παυόμενον ἐπαινεῖν προσήκει, καὶ τὸ μέτριον ἦθος ἀποδέχεσθαι, καὶ μὴ τὸ μετεωριζόμενον καὶ τετυφωμένον. Πάνυ δὲ χρὴ θυμοῦ φείδεσθαι, καὶ μὴ εἰς ὀργὴν προχείρως καταφέρεσθαι, ᾗτινι ἄφρονες δουλεύουσιν.

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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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