It is impossible for a human being to know, or to learn from another human being, anything of what was from the beginning or of what is still to come. For who will be there to tell him (Ecclesiastes 10:14 )? The man who does not know how to make his way to the good city suffers harm in his eyes and in his whole face (Ecclesiastes 10:15 ). I foretell evils for that city whose king is young and whose rulers are gluttons (Ecclesiastes 10:16 ). But I call blessed the good land whose king is the son of a free man, where those found worthy to rule will enjoy good things at the proper time (Ecclesiastes 10:17 ).
The sluggish and the idle bring a house to decline, turning into mockers (Ecclesiastes 10:18 ). Squandering everything on their own gluttony, easily led by silver, they stoop to doing anything, shamefully and basely, for the sake of a small price (Ecclesiastes 10:19 ). It is right to obey a king, rulers, or men in power, and not to make oneself hateful to them, nor to fling any wounding word at them at all. For there is reason to fear that what is said even in private may somehow come into the open (Ecclesiastes 10:20 ). For to the only King, rich and great, swift and winged angels carry everything, performing a service at once spiritual and rational.
Greek Ἀνθρώπῳ δὲ ἀδύνατόν τι γνῶναι, καὶ παρὰ ἀνθρώπου μαθεῖν τὰ ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, ἢ τὰ ἐπιόντα. Τίς γὰρ ἔσται ὁ μηνύσων; Ἄνθρωπος δὲ ὃς οὐκ οἶδεν εἰς τὴν ἀγαθὴν πορευθῆναι πόλιν, κάκωσιν ὑπομένει, τοῖς τε ὀφθαλμοῖς, καὶ τῷ παντὶ προσώπῳ. Πόλει δὲ ἐκείνῃ κακὰ προλέγω, ἧς ὅ τε βασιλεὺς νέος, καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες γαστρίμαργοι. Μακαρίζω δὲ γῆν τὴν ἀγαθὴν, ἧς βασιλεύει ὁ τοῦ ἐλευθέρου υἱός· ἔνθα εὐκαίρως ἀπολαύσουσιν ἀγαθῶν, οἱ ἐκεῖσε ἄρχειν ἠξιωμένοι. Ὀκνηρὸς δὲ καὶ ἀργὸς, οἶκον ἐλαττοῦσι χλευασταὶ γενόμενοι· καὶ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν λαιμαργίαν, τοῖς πᾶσι καταχρώμενοι, ἀργυρίῳ ἀγώγιμοι, ἕνεκα ὀλίγου τιμήματος πάντα αἰσχρῶς καὶ ταπεινῶς πράσσειν ὑπομένοντες. Βασιλεῖ δὲ, καὶ ἄρχουσιν, ἢ δυνάσταις ὑπακούειν προσήκει, καὶ οὐκ ἀπεχθάνεσθαι, οὐδ᾽ ὅλως λυπηρόν τι εἰς αὐτοὺς ῥῆμα ἀποῤῥίπτειν. Δέος γὰρ, μὴ τὸ καὶ τὸ καταμόνας εἰρημένον, εἰς φανερόν πως ἔλθῃ. Τῷ γὰρ μόνῳ καὶ πλουσίῳ καὶ μεγάλῳ βασιλεῖ ἄγγελοι ὀξεῖς καὶ ὑπόπτεροι ἅπαντα διακομίζουσι, πνευματικὴν ὁμοῦ καὶ λογικὴν τελοῦντες ὑπηρεσίαν.
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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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