Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes · §7.2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Wisdom outweighs wealth; righteousness without excess

Wisdom is worth more than wealth, righteousness is not to be pushed beyond measure, and the fear of God keeps a person safe.

Those who say that a better life was granted to the people of former times are mistaken (Ecclesiastes 7:10). They do not understand that wisdom far surpasses an abundance of money, and is as much more conspicuous as silver shines brighter than its own shadow (Ecclesiastes 7:11-12). For a person's life comes not from acquiring perishable wealth but from wisdom (Ecclesiastes 7:12). Tell me, who will be able to describe in full the providence of God, so great and so kind? Or who will call back what God seems, and justly, to have left neglected (Ecclesiastes 7:13)? In earlier days, when I did not act rightly, I observed all things: a righteous man holding fast to righteousness and not turning from it even until death, and even plotted against because of it; and an ungodly man dying together with his own wickedness (Ecclesiastes 7:15).

If you are righteous, you should not appear exceedingly so, nor too wise, beyond measure, lest you stumble somewhere and sin many times over (Ecclesiastes 7:16). Do not be bold and rash, lest an untimely death snatch you away (Ecclesiastes 7:17). The greatest good is to lay hold of God and, remaining in this, to commit no sin. For to touch what is undefiled with an unclean hand is an abomination. He who submits with the fear of God escapes every adversity (Ecclesiastes 7:18). Wisdom can give greater help than a band of the mightiest men in a city (Ecclesiastes 7:19), and it often justly pardons those who fall short of what they ought to do; for there is not one who never stumbles (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Give the words of the ungodly no hearing at all, so that you do not hear with your own ears what is said against you, like the chatter of a wicked slave, and then, stung to the heart, you too later turn aside in many of your dealings to curse in return (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22).

Greek

Ἁμαρτάνουσι δὲ οἱ λέγοντες τοῖς προτέροις ἀμείνονα δεδόσθαι βίον, καὶ οὐ συνιᾶσιν, ὅτι πάμπολυ διαφέρει σοφία τῆς τῶν χρημάτων περιουσίας· καὶ τοσοῦτόν ἐστι φανερωτέρα, ὅσον ἄργυρος λαμπρότερος φαίνεται τῆς ἑαυτοῦ σκιᾶς. Ζωὴ γὰρ ἀνθρώπου, οὐκ ἐξ ἐπικήρου πλούτου κτήσεως, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ σοφίας περιγίνεται. Τίς δὲ καὶ δυνήσεται, εἰπέ μοι, τὴν τοσαύτην καὶ οὕτω χρηστὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ πρόνοιαν ἐξειπεῖν; ἢ τίς ἀνακαλέσασθαι τὰ δοκοῦντα παρημελῆσθαι ὑπὸ Θεοῦ δικαίως; Πράττων δὲ οὐκ ὀρθῶς πρότερον ἔγωγε κατενόησα τὰ σύμπαντα, καὶ δίκαιον ἐμμένοντα τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ μέχρι θανάτου μὴ ἐξιστάμενον, ἀλλὰ καὶ δι᾽ αὐτὴν ἐπιβουλευόμενον, καὶ ἀσεβῆ συναποθνήσκοντα τῇ ἑαυτοῦ κακίᾳ. Χρὴ δὲ δίκαιον ὄντα μὴ πάνυ τοιοῦτον εἶναι δοκεῖν, μηδὲ ἄγαν σοφὸν καὶ ὑπερμέτρως· ὅπως μή τι πταίσας, πολλαπλασίονα ἁμαρτήσῃ. Καὶ μὴ ἔσο τολμηρὸς καὶ προπετὴς, μή σε θάνατος ἁρπάσῃ ἄκαιρος. Μέγιστον δὲ ἀγαθὸν ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι Θεοῦ, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ ὄντα μηδὲν ἁμαρτάνειν. Τῶν γὰρ ἀμιάντων χειρὶ ἀνάγνῳ ψαύειν, μυσαρόν. Ὁ δὲ μετὰ φόβου Θεοῦ ὑπείκων ἅπαντα διαφεύγει τἀναντία. Σοφία δὲ βοηθείας, στίφους ἀνδρῶν τῶν δυνατωτάτων ἐν πόλει μείζονα δύναται, ἢ καὶ συγγινώσκει δικαίως πολλάκις τῶν δεόντων ἀποτυγχάνουσιν. Ἄπταιστος γάρ ἐστιν οὐδὲ εἷς. Ἀσεβῶν δὲ λόγοις, οὐδ᾽ ὁπωσοῦν τι χρὴ προσιέναι, ὅπως μὴ τῶν κατὰ σοῦ λόγων αὐτήκοος γενόμενος, ὥσπερ δούλου πονηροῦ φλυαρίας· ἔπειτα δηχθεὶς τὴν καρδίαν, ὕστερον ἐν πολλαῖς πράξεσιν εἰς τὸ ἀντικαταράσασθαι καὶ σὺ ἐκτραπῇς.

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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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