Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §3.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

A time for every opposite, and God's work stands fixed

Human affairs swing between opposites, while what God has fixed can be neither added to nor taken away.

This present time is full of every kind of opposite: births, then deaths; the sprouting of plants, then their uprooting (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2); healings and killings, the building of houses and their pulling down (Ecclesiastes 3:3); weeping and laughter, mourning and dancing (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Now someone gathers what comes from the earth, and now he has thrown it away; at one time he is mad with passion for a woman, at another he loathes her (Ecclesiastes 3:5). Now someone has sought something, and now he has lost it; now he has kept it, and now he has let it go (Ecclesiastes 3:6); at one time he killed, at another he was killed; he spoke, then fell silent (Ecclesiastes 3:7); he loved, then hated (Ecclesiastes 3:8). For human affairs are now at war and now at peace (Ecclesiastes 3:8), as things swing quickly from what seemed good into what all admit is evil.

Let us stop, then, our useless toils (Ecclesiastes 3:9). For all these things, it seems to me, were set there to drive human beings into frenzy with venomous stings (Ecclesiastes 3:10). A wicked one who watches for his chance gapes greedily over this age, straining with all his might to destroy what God has formed, for he has chosen to make war on it from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

I am convinced, then, that the greatest goods for a human being are good cheer and doing good (Ecclesiastes 3:12), and that even this passing enjoyment comes from God only if righteousness guides one's actions (Ecclesiastes 3:13). But from the eternal and incorruptible things that God has firmly fixed, nothing can be taken away and nothing added (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Yet to anyone at all, those things are at once fearful and wonderful. What has come to be stands fast, and what is still to be has already come to be, in that it is foreknown; and the one who suffers wrong has God for his helper (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

Greek

Χρόνος δὲ οὗτος πάντων γέμει τῶν ἐναντιωτήτων, τοκετῶν, εἶτα θανάτων, βλαστήσεως φυτῶν, εἶτα ἀνατροπῆς· ἰάσεων καὶ ἀναιρέσεων, οἴκων τε εὐορθώσεως καὶ καταλύσεως, κλαυθμῶν καὶ γελώτων, κοπετῶν καὶ ὀρχημάτων. Νῦν μὲν συνάγει τις τὰ ἀπὸ γῆς, νῦν δὲ ἐξέβαλε· καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ἐπιμέμηνε γυναικί, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτὴν ἀποστυχεῖ. Καὶ νῦν μὲν ἐζήτησέ τις ὁτιοῦν, νῦν δὲ ἀπώλεσε· καὶ νῦν μὲν ἐφύλαξε, νῦν δὲ προήκατο· ἄλλοτε ἀπέκτεινεν, ἄλλοτε ἐφονεύθη· ἐλάλησεν, εἶτα ἡσύχασεν· ἠγάπησεν, εἶτα ἐμίσησε. Τὰ γὰρ ἐν ἀνθρώποις πράγματα ποτὲ μὲν πολεμεῖται, ἄλλοτε δὲ εἰρηνεύεται, ὀξυρρόπως τῶν πραγμάτων ἐξ ἀγαθῶν εἶναι δοκούντων εἰς ὁμολογούμενα κακὰ μεταπιπτόντων. Παυσώμεθα τοίνυν ἐξ ἀνονήτων μόχθων. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἅπαντα, ὥς γέ μοι δοκεῖ, κέντροις ἰοβόλοις ἀνθρώπους ἐξοιστρεῖν ἐτέθη. Καιροσκόπος δή τις πονηρὸς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον περικέχηνεν, ἀφανίσαι ὑπερδιατεινόμενος τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλάσμα, ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῷ μέχρι τέλους πολεμεῖν ᾑρημένος. Πέπεισμαι τοίνυν τὰ μέγιστα ἀγαθὰ ἀνθρώπῳ εὐθυμίαν καὶ εὐποιΐαν ὑπάρχειν, καὶ μέν τοι καὶ τὴν πρόσκαιρον ταύτην ἀπόλαυσιν ἐκ Θεοῦ παραγενέσθαι μόνον, εἰ δικαιοσύνη τῶν πράξεων ἡγοῖτο. Τῶν δὲ αἰωνίων καὶ ἀφθάρτων πραγμάτων, ὅσα ὁ Θεὸς παγίως ὥρισεν, οὔτε τι ἀφελεῖν, οὔτε τι προσθεῖναι δυνατόν. ᾯ τινι οὖν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστιν, ἐκεῖνα φοβερά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ θαυμαστά· καὶ τὰ μὲν γενόμενα, ἕστηκε· τὰ δὲ ἐσόμενα, ἤδη κατὰ τὸ προεγνῶσθαι γεγένηται. Θεῷ δὲ κέχρηται ὁ ἀδικούμενος βοηθῷ.

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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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