Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §1.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Searching out wisdom brings only toil

Solomon searches out the nature of things and finds that wisdom and knowledge lead only to toil.

I searched with care and considered wisely the whole nature of things on the earth, and I found it most varied: it has been given to human beings to toil on the earth, wallowing now on one occasion of toil and now on another, and all for nothing (Ecclesiastes 1:13). Everything here below is full of a strange and foul spirit (Ecclesiastes 1:14), so that these things cannot be set right, nor can anyone even begin to reckon how much disorder has taken hold of human affairs (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

For once I reasoned with myself, and supposed that I was then wiser than all who had lived here before me (Ecclesiastes 1:16), and I set my mind on understanding parables and the natures of things. But I came to think that in this I was carried along to no purpose (Ecclesiastes 1:17), and that knowledge follows wisdom, and toil follows knowledge (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

Greek

Ζητήσας δὲ μεμελημένος, καὶ σοφῶς κατανοήσας τὴν περὶ γῆν φύσιν ἅπασαν, ποικιλωτάτην ἔγνων, ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ δέδοται πονεῖν ἐπὶ γῆς, ἄλλοτε ἀλλοίᾳ καμάτου προφάσει ἐγκαλινδουμένῳ εἰς τὸ μηδέν. Πνεύματος δὲ ἀλλοκότου καὶ μυσαροῦ τὰ κάτω ἅπαντα πλήθει, ὥστε μὴ εἶναι αὐτὰ ἀνακτήσασθαι, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ἀναθυμηθῆναι τὸ παράπαν ὅση τὰ κατὰ ἀνθρώπους πράγματα κατείληφεν ἀτοπία. Λογισάμενος γάρ ποτε ἐγὼ κατ᾽ ἐμαυτόν, καὶ οἰηθεὶς ὡς ἁπάντων εἴην τότε τῶν πρὸ ἐμαυτοῦ γεγονότων ἐνταυθοῖ σοφώτερος· ἔγνων παραβολάς τε συνεῖναι καὶ πραγμάτων φύσεις. ᾨήθην δὲ τηνάλλως ἐπὶ τούτῳ φέρεσθαι, καὶ σοφίᾳ μὲν γνῶσιν ἕπεσθαι, γνώσει δὲ πόνους ἐπακολουθεῖν.

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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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