Exegetical Fragments

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. “The words of the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem.”

In like manner also Matthew calls the Lord the son of David.

3. “What profit has a man of all his labour which he takes under the sun?”

For what man is there who, although he may have become rich by toiling after the objects of this earth, has been able to make himself three cubits in stature, if he is naturally only of two cubits in stature? Or who, if blind, has by these means recovered his sight? Therefore we ought to direct our toils to a goal beyond the sun: for there, too, do the exertions of the virtues reach.

4. “One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth abides for ever” (unto the age).

Yes, unto the age, but not unto the ages.

16. I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

17. I knew parables and science: that this indeed is also the spirit's choice.

18. For in multitude of wisdom is multitude of knowledge: and he that increases knowledge increases grief.

I was vainly puffed up, and increased wisdom; not the wisdom which God has given, but that wisdom of which Paul says, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” For in this Solomon had also an experience surpassing prudence, and above the measure of all the ancients. Consequently he shows the vanity of it, as what follows in like manner demonstrates: “And my heart uttered many things: I knew wisdom, and knowledge, and parables, and sciences.” But this was not the genuine wisdom or knowledge, but that which, as Paul says, puffs up. He spoke, moreover, as it is written, three thousand parables. But these were not parables of a spiritual kind, but only such as fit the common polity of men; as, for instance, utterances about animals or medicines. For which reason he has added in a tone of raillery, “I knew that this also is the spirit's choice.” He speaks also of the multitude of knowledge, not the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, but that which the prince of this world works, and which he conveys to men in order to overreach their souls, with officious questions as to the measures of heaven, the position of earth, the bounds of the sea. But he says also, “He that increases knowledge increases sorrow.” For they search even into things deeper than these—inquiring, for example, what necessity there is for fire to go upward, and for water to go downward; and when they have learned that it is because the one is light and the other heavy, they do but increase sorrow: for the question still remains, Why might it not be the very reverse?

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. “I said in mine heart, Go to now, make trial as in mirth, and behold in good. And this, too, is vanity.”

For it was for the sake of trial, and in accordance with what comes by the loftier and the severe life, that he entered into pleasure, And he makes mention of the mirth, which men call so. And he says, “in good,” referring to what men call good things, which are not capable of giving life to their possessor, and which make the man who engages in them vain like themselves.

2. “I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What are you doing?”

Laughter has a twofold madness; because madness begets laughter, and does not allow the sorrowing for sins; and also because a man of that sort is possessed with madness, in the confusing of seasons, and places, and persons. For he flees from those who sorrow. “And to mirth, What are you doing?”Why do you repair to those who are not at liberty to be merry? Why to the drunken, and the avaricious, and the rapacious? And why this phrase, as wine? Because wine makes the heart merry; and it acts upon the poor in spirit. The flesh, however, also makes the heart merry, when it acts in a regular and moderate fashion.

3. “And my heart directed me in wisdom, and to overcome in mirth, until I should know what is that good thing to the sons of men which they shall do under the sun for the number of the days of their life.”

Being directed, he says, by wisdom, I overcame pleasures in mirth. Moreover, for me the aim of knowledge was to occupy myself with nothing vain, but to find the good; for if a person finds that, he does not miss the discernment also of the profitable. The sufficient is also the opportune, and is commensurate with the length of life.

4. I made me great works; I built me houses; I planted me vineyards.

5. I made me gardens and orchards.

6. I made me pools of water, that by these I might rear woods producing trees.

7. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had large possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.

8. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as cups and the cupbearer.

9. And I was great, and increased more than all that were before mein Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

10. And whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure.

You see how he reckons up a multitude of houses and fields, and the other things which he mentions, and then finds nothing profitable in them. For neither was he any better in soul by reason of these things, nor by their means did he gain friendship with God. Necessarily he is led to speak also of the true riches and the abiding property. Being minded, therefore, to show what kinds of possessions remain with the possessor, and continue steadily and maintain themselves for him, he adds: “Also my wisdom remained with me.” For this alone remains, and all these other things, which he has already reckoned up, flee away and depart. Wisdom, therefore, remained with me, and I remained in virtue of it. For those other things fall, and also cause the fall of the very persons who run after them. But, with the intention of instituting a comparison between wisdom and those things which are held to be good among men, he adds these words, “And whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them,” and so forth; whereby he describes as evil, not only those toils which they endure who toil in gratifying themselves with pleasures, but those, too, which by necessity and constraint men have to sustain for their maintenance day by day, labouring at their different occupations in the sweat of their faces. For the labour, he says, is great; but the art by the labour is temporary, adding nothing serviceable among things that please. Wherefore there is no profit. For where there is no excellence there is no profit. With reason, therefore, are the objects of such solicitude but vanity, and the spirit's choice. Now this name of “spirit” he gives to the “soul.” For choice is a quality, not a motion. And David says: “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” And in good truth “did my wisdom remain with me,” for it made me know and understand, so as to enable me to speak of all that is not advantageous under the sun. If, therefore, we desire the righteously profitable, if we seek the truly advantageous, if in is our aim to be incorruptible, let us engage those labours which reach beyond the sun. For in these there is no vanity, and there is not the choice of a spirit at once inane and hurried here and there to no purpose.

12. “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what man is there that shall come after counsel in all those things which it has done?”

He means the wisdom which comes from God, and which also remained with him. And by madness and folly he designates all the labours of men, and the vain and silly pleasure they have in them. Distinguishing these, therefore, and their measure, and blessing the true wisdom, he has added: “For what man is there that shall come after counsel?”For this counsel instructs us in the wisdom that is such indeed, and gifts us with deliverance from madness and folly.

13. “Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as much as light excels darkness.”