Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §5.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Wealth never satisfies; enjoyment is God's gift

Greed never satisfies, but to enjoy honest labor with gladness is a gift of God.

Just as a possession seized by robbery is most harmful and most unholy, so the man who craves money never has his fill, nor does he win the goodwill of his neighbors, even if such men gain ever so vast a sum of silver (Ecclesiastes 5:10). For this is vain. But goodness gladdens beyond measure those who keep company with it and makes them strong, granting them the power to see each thing clearly (Ecclesiastes 5:11). It is a great thing, too, not to cling to such cares. The poor man, even if he is a slave and has not stuffed his belly full, enjoys the gentle rest that sleep brings; but the desire for wealth lives with sleepless nights and weariness of soul (Ecclesiastes 5:12). What could be more absurd than to hoard up wealth with great effort and care and keep it safe, guarding for oneself the source of countless evils (Ecclesiastes 5:13)? That wealth must one day perish and be destroyed, whether its owner has children or not (Ecclesiastes 5:14). And he himself, even if he does not wish it, must fall to the earth and depart just as he was when he first came into being (Ecclesiastes 5:15).

As he is about to depart with empty hands, he adds to his own wickedness, as if he did not consider that an end of life like his birth lies before him, and that he toils for nothing, serving some gust of wind rather than his own purpose (Ecclesiastes 5:16), after spending his whole life in most unholy desires and senseless impulses, and in griefs and sicknesses besides (Ecclesiastes 5:17). In short, for such a man the days are darkness and life is mourning. Yet this is good and not to be cast aside, for it is a gift of God: that a person can enjoy his own labors with gladness, having received possessions given by God and not seized by robbery (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19). For such a man is not sick with griefs, nor is he much enslaved to evil thoughts; he measures out his life in good deeds toward all, glad of heart and rejoicing in the gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:20).

Greek

Ὥσπερ δὲ κτῆμα τὸ ἐξ ἁρπαγῆς βλαβερώτατον καὶ ἀνοσιώτατον, οὕτω καὶ ἀνδρὶ ἐπιθυμητῇ χρημάτων οὐκ ἐκγίνεται κόρος, οὔθ᾽ ἡ παρὰ τῶν πέλας εὔνοια· κἂν ὁτιοῦν μάλιστα πάμπολυ ἀργύριον ἐπικτήσωνται. Τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ μάταιον. Ἀγαθότης δὲ τοὺς συνόντας αὐτῇ ὑπερευφραίνουσα, ἀνδρείους ἀπεργάζεται τοῦ καθορᾶν ἕκαστα τῶν πραγμάτων παρέχουσα τὴν δύναμιν. Μέγα δὲ καὶ τὸ μὴ προστετηκέναι τοιαύταις φροντίσιν· ὁ μέν γε πένης, κἂν δοῦλος ᾖ, καὶ μὴ ὑπερεμπλήσας τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γαστέρα, προσηνοῦς μεταλαμβάνει τῆς διὰ τοῦ ὕπνου ἀνέσεως· πλούτου δὲ ἐπιθυμία σύνεστι ἀγρυπνίαις καὶ καμάτοις ψυχῆς. Τί δ᾽ ἂν γένοιτο τούτου ἀτοπώτερον, ἢ τὸ μετὰ πολλῆς σπουδῆς καὶ ἐπιμελείας ἀποθησαυρίζοντα τὸν πλοῦτον συντηρεῖν, μυρίων ἑαυτῷ φυλάσσοντα κακῶν ἀφορμήν; Καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον ἐκεῖνον ἀνάγκη ἀπολέσθαι ποτὲ καὶ διαφθαρῆναι, εἴτε γένοιτο τῷ κτησαμένῳ τέκνα, εἴτε καὶ μή· αὐτόν τε εἰ καὶ μὴ βούλοιτο προσήκει τοιοῦτον εἰς τὴν γῆν πεσεῖν καὶ ἀπελθεῖν, οἷος καὶ ὁπότε εἰς τὸ εἶναι παρὼν ἐτύγχανε. Κεναῖς δὲ χερσὶν ἀπιέναι μέλλων, αὔξει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ κακίαν, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἐνθυμούμενος, ὅτι ἐπίκειται αὐτῷ τέλος τοῦ βίου τῇ γενέσει ὅμοιον, καὶ ὅτι ἀνόνητα μοχθεῖ, εἰς δέ τινα μᾶλλον ἀνέμου ὁρμήν, ἤπερ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ σπουδῇ χαριζόμενος, καταναλώσας τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον σύμπαντα, ἔν τε ἐπιθυμίαις ἀνοσιωτάταις, καὶ ἐν ὁρμαῖς ἀλόγοις, ἔτι δὲ λύπαις καὶ ἀρρωστίαις. Καὶ συνελόντι φάναι, σκότος μέν εἰσι τῷ τοιούτῳ αἱ ἡμέραι· πένθος δὲ ἡ ζωή. Ἀγαθόν γε μὴν ἐκεῖνο καὶ οὐκ ἀπόβλητον· Θεοῦ γάρ ἐστι δῶρον, τὸ δυνηθῆναι ἀπολαῦσαι ἄνθρωπον τῶν ἑαυτοῦ καματῶν ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ, θεόσδοτα, καὶ οὐχ ἁρπακτικὰ δεξάμενον κτήματα. Οὔτε γὰρ λύπαις οὖτός γε νοσεῖ, οὔτε ὡς ἐπὶ πολὺ ἐνθυμήσεσι πονηραῖς δουλεύει· συμμετρεῖται δὲ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον εὐποιίαις τοῖς πᾶσιν εὐθυμούμενος, καὶ ἀγαλλιώμενος τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ δωρεᾷ.

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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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