For at that time I thought that all people were counted worthy of the same things; and if any wise man cared for righteousness, turned away from injustice, and avoided enmity by dealing graciously with everyone, which is pleasing to God, he seemed to labor in vain (Ecclesiastes 9:1 ). One end seemed to belong to the righteous and the ungodly, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, the one who seeks God's favor and the one who does not (Ecclesiastes 9:2 ). For when the unjust man and the good, the perjurer and the one who shuns every oath, were expected to be driven toward the same end, a kind of condemning verdict crept in: that all come to a like end (Ecclesiastes 9:3 ).
But now I know that these are the reasonings of fools, errors and deceptions. They say many things: that the one who has died is wholly gone, and that the living man is to be preferred to the dead, even if he lies in darkness, even if he goes through life like a dog, over the lion that is dead (Ecclesiastes 9:4 ). "For the living at least know this, that they will die; but the dead know nothing at all (Ecclesiastes 9:5 ). No recompense for anything lies ahead once a man has met his fated end. Both the hatred and the love felt toward the dead come to an end. For whatever zeal they had has failed; whatever life they had has vanished. One who has once departed from here has a share in nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:6 )."
Greek Ὤιμην γὰρ ἅπαντας τότε τῶν αὐτῶν ἀνθρώπους ἠξιῶσθαι· καὶ εἴ τέ τις σοφὸς, δικαιοσύνης μὲν ἐπεμελήθη, ἀδικίαν δὲ ἐξετράπη, καὶ ἔχθραν ἔφυγε πρὸς ἅπαντας δεξιὸς ὢν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀρεστὸν Θεῷ, οὗτος ματαιοπονεῖν ἐφαίνετο. Τέλος δὲ ἓν ἐδόκει δικαίου τε καὶ ἀσεβοῦς, ἀγαθοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ, καθαροῦ τε καὶ ἀκαθάρτου, καὶ Θεὸν ἱλασκομένου καὶ μή. Ὅτε γὰρ ἄδικος καὶ ὁ ἀγαθὸς, ὅτε ἐπίορκος, καὶ ὁ τέλεον ὅρκον ἐκτρεπόμενος, εἰς ταὐτὸ τέλος ἐλαύνειν ἠλπίζετο, κατάγνωσίς τέ τις ὕπεισι τοῦ εἰς ὅμοια τελευτᾷν ἅπαντας. Γινώσκω δὲ νῦν ὡς ἀφρόνων ταῦτα ἐνθυμήματα, καὶ πλάναι καὶ ἐξαπάται. Καὶ πολλὰ λέγουσιν, ὡς ὁ ἀποθανὼν οἴχεται τέλεον· καὶ προτιμητέον τὸν ζῶντα τοῦ τεθνηκότος, κἂν ἐν σκότῳ κείμενος ᾖ, κἂν κυνὸς τρόπον, τὸν βίον διαπορεύηται, παρὰ τὸν λέοντα τὸν τεθνηκότα. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ ζῶντες τοῦτο γοῦν ἐπίστανται, ὅτι τεθνήξονται· οἱ δὲ νεκροὶ οὐδ᾽ ὁτιοῦν γινώσκουσιν. Ἀμοιβαὶ δὲ οὐδενὸς πρόκεινται μετὰ τὸ ἀποπληρῶσαι τὸ χρεών. Ἥ τε ἔχθρα καὶ ἡ φιλία ἡ πρὸς τοὺς τεθνηκότας, τέλος ἔχει. Ἐκείνων γὰρ, εἴτε ζῆλος, ἐξέλιπεν· εἴτε βίος, ἠφάνισται. Μέτεστι δὲ οὐδενὸς τῷ ἅπαξ ἐντεῦθεν ἀπελθόντι.
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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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