Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §5.1 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Guard the tongue and keep your vows

Guard the tongue, keep your vows and fear God, for many words are as empty as dreams.

It is good to spare the tongue, and to keep a steady heart in your eagerness to speak (Ecclesiastes 5:2). For we must not be careless about our words and let slip through the voice whatever comes into the mind, even when it is out of place. Rather, we must bear in mind that, though we stand far from heaven, we speak within God's hearing (Ecclesiastes 5:2), and that it pays to speak without stumbling. Just as all manner of dream images attend the varied cares of the soul, so idle chatter is yoked to folly (Ecclesiastes 5:3).

A promise made by a vow should be fulfilled in deed (Ecclesiastes 5:4). It is the mark of fools to be cast aside (Ecclesiastes 5:4); but you, be truthful, knowing that it is far better for you not to vow, and not to promise to do anything, than to vow and then leave it undone (Ecclesiastes 5:5). You must flee by every means the flood of such fine-sounding words, knowing that God will hear them (Ecclesiastes 5:6). For the one who sets his mind on such things gains nothing but to watch his own works being destroyed by God (Ecclesiastes 5:6). For as many dreams are empty, so too are many words (Ecclesiastes 5:7). The fear of God brings salvation to human beings, but it is rare (Ecclesiastes 5:7).

So there is no need to wonder when you look at the poor being oppressed and at judges who reason dishonestly (Ecclesiastes 5:8). But you must avoid seeming to be greater than those who are more powerful (Ecclesiastes 5:8). For even if you should manage this, still wickedness, of itself, will not rescue you from the terrors that are to come upon you.

Greek

Γλώσσης δὲ φείδεσθαι καλόν, καὶ εὐσταθούσῃ χρῆσθαι καρδίᾳ ἐν τῇ περὶ λόγους σπουδῇ. Οὐ γὰρ χρὴ ἀλογίστως αὐτῶν ἔχοντα, κἂν ἄτοπα, ἢ τὰ ἐπὶ νοῦν ἐλθόντα, ταῦτα προΐεσθαι διὰ τῆς φωνῆς· ἀλλ᾽ ἐνθυμουμένους, ὅτι εἰ καὶ πολὺ ἀφεστήκαμεν οὐρανοῦ, γινώσκειν χρή, ὅτι ἐπ᾽ ἐπηκόῳ φθεγγόμεθα Θεοῦ, καὶ ἔστι λυσιτελὲς λαλεῖν ἀπεριπτώτως. Ὥσπερ δὲ φροντίσι ψυχῆς ποικίλαις παρέπεται ὀνειράτων παντοδαπῇ φαντασίᾳ· οὕτω καὶ ἀφροσύνῃ φλυαρία συνέζευκται. Ἐπαγγελία δὲ δι᾽ εὐχῆς γινομένη, τέλος λαμβανέτω δι᾽ ἔργου. Ἀφρόνων δὲ ἴδιον, τὸ ἀποβλήτους εἶναι· σὺ δὲ ἀληθὴς ἔσο, γινώσκων ὡς πολλῷ ἄμεινον μὴ εὔξασθαί σε, μηδὲ ὑποσχέσθαι τὶ δρᾶσαι, ἢ εὐξάμενον, εἶτα παραλιπεῖν. Δεῖ δὲ παντοίως φεύγειν τὴν τῶνδε καλῶν ῥημάτων ἐπιρροήν, ὡς ἀκουσομένου θεοῦ. Τῷ γὰρ ταῦτα ἐνθυμουμένῳ πλέον οὐδέν ἐστιν, ἢ τὸ αἰσθάνεσθαι τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ἔργων ὑπὸ θεοῦ διαφθειρομένων. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ πολλὰ ἐνύπνια μάταια, οὕτω καὶ τὰ πολλὰ ῥήματα. Φόβος δὲ Θεοῦ, ἀνθρώπων σωτήριος, σπάνιος δέ. Ὅθεν οὐ χρὴ θαυμάζειν ἀφορῶντα πρός τε πένητας συκοφαντουμένους, καὶ πρὸς δικαστὰς παραλογιζομένους. Χρὴ δὲ ἐκτρέπεσθαι τὸ τῶν δυνατωτέρων μείζονας εἶναι δοκεῖν. Κἂν γὰρ ἐκγένηται τοῦτο, ἀλλ᾽ οὖν τῶν ἐσομένων σοι φοβερῶν, οὐ ῥύσεταί σε ἡ καθ᾽ αὑτὴν πονηρία.

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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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