Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §4.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Two are better than one; the wise poor youth

Partnership is better than a solitary life, and a sensible poor youth is better than a foolish old king.

Far better than he are those who have joined their lives in partnership, from which they may reap the best of fruits (Ecclesiastes 4:9). For when two men rightly devote themselves to the same affairs, even if some mishap befalls one of them, he still has no small help in the one who is with him; but for a man in trouble the greatest misfortune is to have no one to lift him up again (Ecclesiastes 4:10). Those who share a common life, on the other hand, double their good fortune and comfort each other through the winter of unwelcome events, so that by day they shine with the confidence they have in one another, and by night they are graced with gladness (Ecclesiastes 4:11). But the man who drags out a solitary life leads a grim existence for himself, never realizing that anyone who attacks men who stand close together makes a rash and unsafe plan, and that a threefold cord does not easily break (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

I prefer a poor young man of sound mind to an old and foolish king (Ecclesiastes 4:13), who never took it to heart that it is possible for someone from prison to be set up as king, and for himself to fall in the end, and justly, from his unjust power (Ecclesiastes 4:14). For it turns out that all those of the older generation who are placed under the young but sensible ruler live free from grief (Ecclesiastes 4:15). For those born afterward, having no experience of the other, cannot praise even this one, led as they are by thoughtless judgment and by the drive of a hostile spirit (Ecclesiastes 4:16).

When you take part in the assembly, keep this before your eyes: to walk the path of your own life rightly, and to pray for the foolish, that they may receive understanding and know how to turn away from doing evil (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

Greek

Πολλῷ δὲ τούτου βελτίους οἳ κοινωνίαν ἅμα βίου ἐστείλαντο, ἐξ ἧς καρποῖντο ἂν τὰ βέλτιστα; Δύο γὰρ ἀνδρῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς πράγμασιν ὀρθῶς προσκειμένων, εἰ καὶ θατέρῳ τινὶ προσπέσῃ τι· ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐ μικρὰν ἐπικουρίαν ἔχει, τὸν αὐτῷ συνόντα. Μεγίστη δὲ καὶ συμφορὰ ἀνθρώπῳ δυσπραγοῦντι, καὶ ἡ ἐρημία τοῦ ἀνακτησομένου. Οἱ δ᾽ αὖ ὁμοδίαιτοι, καὶ τὴν εὐπραγίαν αὐτοῖς ἐδιπλασίασαν, καὶ πραγμάτων ἀβουλήτων χειμῶνα παρεμυθήσαντο· ὥστε καὶ μεθημέραν τῇ ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλοις λαμπρύνεσθαι παρρησίᾳ, καὶ νύκτωρ φαιδρότητι σεμνύνεσθαι. Ὁ δὲ βίον ἀκοινώνητον ἕλκων, φρικώδη τινὰ ἑαυτῷ διεξάγει ζωήν, οὐκ ᾐσθημένος, ὡς εἰ καὶ ἐπίθοιτό τις ἀνθρώποις συμπεφραγμένοις, θρασέως καὶ οὐκ ἀσφαλῶς βουλεύεται, καὶ ὅτι οὐδὲ σχοῖνος τριπλῇ ῥᾳδίως ἀπορρήγνυσθαι πέφυκεν. Ἐγὼ δὲ προκρίνω νέον πένητα σώφρονα, γέροντος βασιλέως ἄφρονος, ᾧ ἐνθύμιον οὐ γεγένηται, ὡς δυνατόν ἐστι, τῶν μὲν ἐκ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου τινὰ εἰς τὸ βασιλεῦσαι καταστῆναι, αὐτὸν δὲ τῆς ἀδίκου δυναστείας, δικαίως ὕστερον ἐκπεσεῖν. Συμβαίνει γὰρ τοὺς ὑπὸ τῷ νέῳ μέν, ἔμφρονι δὲ τασσομένους, ἀλύπους εἶναι τοὺς ὅσοι προγενέστεροι. Οἱ γὰρ μετέπειτα γενόμενοι, διὰ τὸ ἑτέρου ἀπειράτως ἔχειν, οὐδὲ τοῦτον ἐπαινεῖν δύνανται, ἀγόμενοί τε γνώμῃ ἀλογίστῳ, καὶ ὁρμῇ πνεύματος ἐναντίου. Ἐκκλησιάζων δὲ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχε τόν τ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ βίον ὀρθῶς διαπορεύεσθαι, καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀφρόνων εὔχεσθαι, ὅπως ἐπίσταιντο σύνεσιν λαβόντες, ἐκκλίνειν τὴν πρᾶξιν τῶν πονηρῶν.

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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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