Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Solomon's opening: all human affairs are empty

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Solomon, son of King David, addresses the whole Church of God, declaring the emptiness of human pursuits.

Thus says Solomon, son of David the king and prophet, to the whole Church of God—the most honored king among all people, and the wisest prophet. How empty and useless are all human affairs and pursuits, everything that belongs to human life. For no one can point to any benefit attached to these things that people, crawling about the earth, are eager to accomplish with body and soul. They are defeated by temporal things, and they do not wish to see anything at all above the stars with the noble eye of the soul. Human life wears away day by day, through the cycles of hours and years and the fixed courses of the sun, as some things arrive and others slip away. The matter is like the passing of winter torrents that pour into the boundless deep of the sea with great turmoil. What God has established for human life remains fixed: being born from the earth, departing into the earth, the earth itself standing firm, the sun traveling around the whole earth and returning again to the same boundary, the winds likewise, and the rivers pouring into the sea—so many of them—and the winds that rush upon it, yet do not force it to overflow its limits, nor do they themselves transgress. These things that contribute to our life here have been fixed in this way. But the words and deeds devised by human beings have no measure. There is a great crowd of words, yet no benefit comes from this wandering idle talk. The human race is insatiable, both in speaking and in listening to another who speaks; and still more, it longs to gaze with careless eyes at everything that happens to come along. What could happen later that has not already been accomplished, or done by human beings? What new thing has not yet come to experience, that would be worth remembering? For I think there is nothing. Whatever someone might call recent or new, he will find upon reflection that it was not unknown even to the ancients. Just as former things are hidden in forgetfulness, so also present things will be dimmed in time for those who come after. And I am not improvising these things now as I address the Church; rather, having been entrusted with the kingdom of the Hebrews in Jerusalem, I have thought through all these things sufficiently.

Greek

Τάδε λέγει Σαλομὼν, ὁ τοῦ Δαβὶδ βασιλέως καὶ προφήτου παῖς ἁπάσῃ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, παρὰ πάντας ἀνθρώπους βασιλεὺς ἐντιμότατος, καὶ προφήτης σοφώτατος. Ὡς κενὰ καὶ ἀνόνητα τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πράγματά τε καὶ σπουδάσματα, ὅσα ἀνθρώπινα. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔχει τις εἰπεῖν ὄφελός τι τούτοις προσηρτημένον, ἅπερ ἄνθρωποι περὶ γῆν ἕρποντες, καὶ σώμασι καὶ ψυχαῖς ἐκτελέσαι σπεύδουσι, τῶν μὲν προσκαίρων ἡττημένοι, ἀνωτέρω δὲ τῶν ἄστρων τῷ γενναίῳ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμματι, οὐδ᾽ ὁτιοῦν κατιδεῖν βουλόμενοι. Καὶ κατατρίβεται ὁ τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίος ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας, καὶ ὡρῶν καὶ ἐνιαυτῶν περιόδους, ἡλίου τε δρόμους περιωρισμένους, τῶν μὲν παραγινομένων, τῶν δὲ ὑπαπαιρόντων. Ἔοικε δὲ τὸ πρᾶγμα, χειμάρρων παρόδῳ, ἀμετρήτῳ θαλάσσης ἐμπιπτόντων βυθῷ σὺν ταράχῳ πολλῷ. Καὶ τὰ μὲν δι᾽ ἀνθρώπους ὑπὸ Θεοῦ γεγονότα, μένει τὰ αὐτά, οἷον· τὸ ἀπὸ γῆς γεννᾶσθαι, τὸ εἰς γῆν ἀπιέναι, τὸ αὐτὴν ἑστάναι τὴν γῆν, τὸ τὸν ἥλιον ἅπασαν αὐτὴν ἐκπεριϊόντα, πάλιν εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν περιτρέχειν ὅρον, καὶ τὰ πνεύματα ὡσαύτως, τούς τε ποταμοὺς τοσούτους εἰς θάλασσαν ἐκδιδόντας, καὶ τοὺς ἀνέμους ἐμπίπτοντας, μὴ ἀναγκάζειν αὐτὴν ὑπερβαίνειν τὰ αὐτῆς μέτρα, μηδὲ αὐτοὺς παρανομεῖν. Καὶ τὰ μὲν ὡς εἰς τουτονὶ συντελοῦντα ἡμῖν τὸν βίον, οὕτως ἄραρε. Τὰ δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἐπιτεχνώμενα ῥήματά τε καὶ πράγματα, μέτρον οὐκ ἔχει. Καὶ λόγων πολὺς μὲν ὅμιλος, ὄνησις δὲ οὐδεμία ἀπὸ τῆς πεπλανημένης φλυαρίας· ἀλλ᾽ ἄπληστόν ἐστι τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φῦλον, πρός τε τὸ λέγειν, πρός τε τὸ ἑτέρου λέγοντος ἀκούειν· ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὸ ὄμμασιν εἰκαίοις ἕκαστα τῶν παραπιπτόντων ὁρᾶν γλίχεσθαι. Τί ἂν γένοιτο ὕστερον, ὅπερ οὐκ ἤδη τετέλεσται, ἢ πραχθείη πρὸς ἀνθρώπων; Τί καινὸν τὸ μηδέπω εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθόν, ὅτου καὶ μνησθῆναι ἄξιον; Ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι οὐδέν, ὅ τι δ᾽ ἂν εἴπῃ πρόσφατον, ἢ καινὸν ἀναλογιζόμενος εὑρήσει, μηδὲ τοῖς πάλαι ἄγνωστον. Ὥσπερ δὲ τὰ πρότερα λήθῃ κέκρυπται, οὕτω καὶ τὰ ἐνεστῶτα, εἰς τοὺς μετέπειτα χρόνῳ ἀμαυρωθήσεται. Καὶ οὐκ αὐτοσχεδιάζω ταῦτα νῦν ἐκκλησιάζων· ἀλλά μοι βασιλείαν Ἑβραίων ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις πεπιστευμένῳ, ἱκανῶς ἅπαντα πεφρόντισται.

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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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