CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER 6
ECCLESIASTES 6:1-7
AVARICE IS TO BE DESPISED
BECAUSE RICHES OFTEN GO TO
STRANGERS
1. There is also another evil, etc. He has shown above that riches are to be despised both because they do not benefit their owner and are often not handed on to the heirs. Here in a third point he shows they are to be contemned, because they often fall into the hands of strangers. He proceeds in the following order. First, he intimates the loss of riches hoarded. Second, a detestation of niggardliness where verse 3 reads: If a man beget, etc. Third, he adds the reason for this detestation where verse 4 states: For he came in vain, etc.
2. (Verses 1-2). First, Ecclesiastes has considered the vanity arising from riches and now states, develops, and concludes this consideration. He states it saying: There is also another evil that I have seen under the sun. This evil is increased from a circumstance frequent among men and women, that is, among the weak lovers of the world and the rich. About these Psalm 4:3 says: "O you children of men and women, how long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after lying?"
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
3. He develops his point about the vanity that consists in holding on to riches while another devours them. So he continues: A man, to whom God has given riches, in movable goods; and substance, in immovable goods; and honor, in sublime goods. For everything is from God. Riches are from God, as Proverbs 3:16 reads: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." And substance is from God, especially that of which Sirach 13:30 says: "Substantial riches are good to the person who has no sin on his conscience." Similarly, honor is from God, as seen in the words Daniel spoke to Belshazzar in Daniel
5:18: "O king, the most high God gave to . . . your father a kingdom and greatness . . . and honor." And to complete the perfect abundance of the goods of fortune, he adds:
And his soul wants nothing of all that he desires, because he has sufficient. In this text the word soul means carnal life, about which we read in John 12:25: "The person who loves his life will lose it." So the person has an abundance of possessions, but by hoarding them out of avarice he loses the ability to enjoy them. So he adds: Yet God does not give him power to eat thereof, because he continually holds on to them in vain. Thus, Sirach 14:3 reads: "Substantial riches make no sense in the hands of a covetous and niggardly man, and what will an envious person do with gold?"
Neither he nor his children get to use them, but strangers get them. So he adds: But a stranger will eat them up.
Thus, Sirach 14:4 states: "The person who gathers together by wronging his own soul, gathers for others. And another will live luxuriously off his goods." And Proverbs 13:22 says:
"The substance of a sinner is kept for the just." – And from this he infers vanity: And this is vanity and a great misery.
Vanity, because he does not enjoy it. Misery, because he is sad, as others take away his wealth. Isaiah 1:7 reads:
"Strangers devour your country before you."
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4. (Verse 3). If someone beget, etc. Here he states his despising of niggardliness because of the loss just mentioned.
And he blames this niggardliness which is aimed at being secure in the future. So he adds: If a man beget a hundred children, speaking in hyperbole, that is, many children, for evil people often have evil children who do not provide joy even if they be many. Sirach 16:1 states: "Rejoice not in ungodly children, if they be multiplied. Neither be delighted in them."1 To have an abundance of children is a temporary prosperity that is followed by another temporary prosperity: And live many years, that is, through many years. And attain to a great age, namely, more than others.
And this prosperity is also a passing one. Often the wicked have this prosperity. Ecclesiastes 7:16 below reads: "A wicked person lives a long time in his wickedness,"2 if he had an abundance of such prosperity. And his soul made no use of the goods of his substance, that is, he was parsimonious and greedy in life. And he will be without burial in death, as was said of Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 22:19: "He will be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth outside the gates of Jerusalem."3
5. After stating the conditions of prosperity and niggardliness, he adds how he despises them: Of this person I pronounce, like a judge in the land, that the untimely born is better than he, on account of the misery and great vanity which are lacking in an aborted infant. Wherefore, it is said in Job 3:11-12: "Why did I not die in the womb?4
1On p. 50 n. 5 QuarEd accurately indicate that the Vulgate reads super ipsos ("in them") whereas Bonaventure has super illos ("in them").
2On p. 50 n. 6 QuarEd correctly mention that the Vulgate has in malitia sua ("in his evilness") while Bonaventure reads in impietate sua ("in his wickedness").
3Hugh of St. Cher, 87q also cites Jeremiah 22:19.
4Hugh of St. Cher, 87t also cites Job 3:11.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
Why did I not perish immediately when I came from5 the womb? Why was I received upon the knees? Why was I suckled at the breast?"6 And also Job 10:18: "Why did you bring me forth out of the womb?"
6. (Verses 4-7). For he came in vain, etc. Third, he adds the reason for despising, namely, that an aborted child is better than this niggardliness, because just as an aborted child comes in vain and goes into darkness as it dies immediately, so too do the niggardly. There the text continues:
For he, namely, the niggardly person, came in vain and goes into darkness. Job 3:23 asks: "To a man whose way is hidden, has God surrounded him with darkness?" He shows that such an avaricious and niggardly person came into this world in vain because of the deletion of his name in death, and because of his non-experience of good in life, and because of his non-fulfillment of desire in both states.
Concerning the deletion of his name the text reads: And his name will be wholly forgotten, that is, he will not remain in reality or in name, as the Lord threatened Babylon in Isaiah 14:22: "I will destroy the name and the remains and the bud and the offspring of Babylon, says the Lord."
And Wisdom 2:4 speaks in the person of the wicked: "Our name in time will be forgotten, and no one will remember7 our works."
7. He continues about the non-experience of good: He has not seen the sun, in which is the delight and experience of good, according to what he says later in Ecclesiastes 11:7:
5On p. 50 n. 7 QuarEd rightly notice that the Vulgate reads ex ("out of") while Bonaventure has de ("from").
6Hugh of St. Cher, 87q also cites Job 3:12.
7On p. 51 n. 1 QuarEd correctly indicate that the Vulgate has memoriam ("have remembrance of") whereas Bonaventure reads memor
("remember").
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"The light is sweet, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun." The covetous man does not see this, because he is in error. Wisdom 5:6 reads: "We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shone on us.
And the sun of understanding has not risen upon us." And so he has not seen the sun, that is, he has no knowledge of the light nor known the distance between good and evil, because he has not experienced it.
8. So he says: Although he lived two thousand years,8 because our knowledge does not come from length of time, but from experience. Sirach 34:10 says: "The person who has no experience knows little." According to what the Philosopher says: "Experience makes art; inexperience makes chance."9 Because of the frustration of desire he adds: Do not all make haste to one place? As if to say, their bodies fall into the ground. Sirach 41:13 reads: "All things that have been made10 from the earth will return into the earth." And Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 above states: "All things are subject to vanity, and all things go to one place." So the body turns to ashes, while in the soul is an unfulfilled desire.
9. For this reason he continues: All human labor is for one's mouth. The mouth stands for the opening of desire, for whoever desires is like a person with an open mouth.
So the labor is for the mouth, that is, to work to realize the desire. Thus, Proverbs 16:26 states: "The soul of the per8Bonaventure does not comment on the next clause et non fuerit perfruitus bonis ("and has not enjoyed good things").
9On p. 51 n. 3 QuarEd cite Book I, n. 1 of Aristotle's Metaphysica:
"For experience, as Polus says correctly, makes art; inexperience makes luck." See WAE, vol. 8, 981a: "For 'experience made art', as Polus says,
'but inexperience luck'."
10On p. 51 n. 4 QuarEd accurately indicate that the Vulgate has sunt ("are") while Bonaventure reads facta sunt ("have been made").
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
son who labors, labors for himself, because his mouth has obliged him to it." Although the work is done to satisfy the desire, it is not satisfied. Therefore, he says: But one's soul, namely, of the rich and niggardly person, will not be filled with good things, as it had been said above in Ecclesiastes
5:9: "A covetous person will not be satisfied with money."
Thus, Habakkuk 2:5 reads: "He has enlarged his soul like hell, and is himself like death, and will not be satisfied."11
So what is true of covetous people with regard to money is also true with respect to knowledge. 2 Timothy 3:7 has:
"Always learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth."12
QUESTIONS 18
I. It is asked what he means by the words: God did not give him power to eat thereof.13
Contra: This is free will, but God gave free will and therefore also gave the power.
I reply: The reference is to the power to enjoy, namely, by which one is able to enjoy. But by a just judgment of God the person is impeded by some punishment, because the person incurs excessive care, fear, and sorrow. And since power means unhindered power, this power is limited by a just judgment.14 Therefore, etc.
11The Vulgate reads adimpletur ("is satisfied") while Bonaventure has adimplebitur ("will be satisfied").
12Hugh of St. Cher, 87g also cites 2 Timothy 3:7.
13Ecclesiastes 6:2.
14On p. 51 n. 6 QuarEd cite Book V, tractatus 2, c. 12 of Albert the Great's Metaphysica. See Alberti Magni Metaphysica, ed. Bernhardus
Geyer, Opera Omnia XVI Pars I (Aschendorff: Monasterium Westfalorum, 1960), 250: "It should be known that power differs from potency in this: power is a potency, brought into existence, by an action or habit, and therefore, is an active power. Potency, however, is still undetermined and incomplete and so properly speaking material potency is called potency."
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II. It is asked what he means by the words: His soul wants nothing of all that he desires.15
Contra: He said earlier in Ecclesiastes 5:9: A covetous person will not be satisfied with money. And Jerome says: "The avaricious lack both what they have and what they do not have."16 Therefore, he is wrong when he says: His soul lacks nothing.
I reply: To lack something can happen in two ways: either concerning sufficiency according to the thing and nature or according to an opinion. I say, therefore, that covetous people are well able to be so rich that they lack nothing according to things and nature. However, they will never be so rich as not to be lacking something according to their own way of thinking. For there is always the desire to have more, and so there is a lack.
III. It also is asked why an aborted child is preferred. This would seem to be wrong:
1. Because an aborted child has no knowledge of anything while a covetous person does. Further, the covetous, when they sin mortally, enjoy what ought to be used.17
2. Moreover, how can he say that he does not know the distance between good and evil,18 unless the person has
15Ecclesiastes 6:2.
16On p. 51 n. 7 QuarEd refer to Bonaventure's earlier reference to Epistula 100 n. 15 in his commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:9a (#11). See
PL 22:826: "A covetous person is always in need, knows no measure; a person for whom as much is lacking as is already possessed."
17On p. 51 n. 8 QuarEd cite Augustine. See Question 30 in Augustine's Eighty–Three Different Questions, trans. David L. Mosher, FC 70
(Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1982), 56:
"Consequently every human perversion (also called vice) consists in the desire to use what ought to be enjoyed and to enjoy what ought to be used. In turn, good order (also called virtue) consists in the desire to enjoy what ought to be enjoyed and to use what ought to be used."
18Ecclesiastes 6:5.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
greatly enjoyed possessions? Therefore, it seems that an aborted child is better than all who have not delighted in present possessions and who are not carnal. But this is heretical.
I reply: If Ecclesiastes is speaking here in the name of a carnal person, a response is easy. But if it is said that he is speaking the truth, I say that he puts an aborted child before such a niggardly rich person for the following reason. Although the aborted child has not experienced possessions, it has not experienced evil. But the niggardly rich person has experienced evil and has not tasted good things. Therefore, the aborted child is preferable, and this is how Ecclesiastes understands the statement.19
1. To the objection about the reason why he has not enjoyed possessions, I say that to enjoy means in one sense a love of something with contentment in its possession. In another sense it means contentment and love. Therefore, I say that the person who loves God possesses God, as Augustine says in his Book of Eighty-Three Questions.20 And 19On the literary styles of speech in Ecclesiastes see the response to question two of Quaestio #15, which occurs after Bonaventure's commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:17-19 above.
20On p. 52 n. 2 QuarEd provide a lengthy citation from Question 35.
Bonaventure does not quote Augustine verbatim, for Augustine nowhere says exactly: Qui diligit Deum habet ("The person who loves God possesses God"). For the best parallel see Question 35 of Sancti Avrelii
Avgvstini De diversis qvaestionibus octoginta tribvs; De octo dvlcitii qvaestionibvs, ed. Almut Mutzenbecher, CCSL xliva (Turnhout: Brepols,
1975), 51: Quamquam bonum quod non amatur nemo potest perfecte habere uel nosse. Quis enim potest nosse, quantum si bonum quo non fruitur? Non autem fruitur, si non amat; nec habet igitur quod amandum est qui non amat, etiamsi amare possit qui non habet. See FC 70 whose translation on p. 65 has been adjusted: "However, as far as a good which is not loved, no one can possess it or know it perfectly. For who can know to what extent something is good when he does not enjoy it? But he does not enjoy it if he does not love it, nor therefore does he who does not love it possess what is to be loved, even if he who does not possess it could love it."
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so whoever loves God delights in God. But money and earthly possessions bring sadness when they are loved, but not owned. There can be enjoyment of such things, that is, the greatest love, and a slight delight with great sadness. So it does not follow that, although such a covetous person might sin, he rests in any delight, but he does rest in love, because he loves for his own purposes.
2. To the objection that he does not know the distance, it has to be said that the person who always does good knows with a simple knowledge what is good and evil. It is similar with the person who always does evil. However, this is not an experiential knowledge, unless the person does both good and evil. And since the covetous person always does evil, never good, therefore, etc. – To the objection about a spiritual man, I say, that he is not without spiritual delight, and so sees the sun and knows the distance. But the niggardly, covetous person, since he is a sinner, does not have spiritual delight. Since he is niggardly, he does not have carnal delight. And so does not know the distance between good and evil.
ECCLESIASTES 6:8-7:23
THE REMEDY AGAINST THE
VANITY OF IMPRUDENCE
10. What has the wise person, etc. Ecclesiastes has discussed the remedy against the vanity of malice and against the vanity of avarice. Here in a third point he provides the remedy against the vanity of imprudence. Now the best remedy against this vanity is to grow in wisdom. But since no one is able to obtain wisdom except through the correct way of learning, this section has two parts. In the first he gives the method, and in the second he explains the sources of wisdom where 7:2 reads: A good name is better, etc.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
ECCLESIASTES 6:8-7:1
THE METHOD FOR ACQUIRING
WISDOM 11. Now the method for engaging in thinking and learning for the person who wants to be wise is handed down in this wise. First, that he learn useful matters. Second, that he leave aside what is hidden. Third, that he not search out the sublime.
ECCLESIASTES 6:8-11
LEARNING USEFUL MATTERS AND
LEAVING ASIDE WHAT IS HIDDEN
12. (Verse 8). First, he teaches to seek what is useful and to ponder it, that is, how a person can reach the life of glory.
So he asks: What more has the wise person than the fool, and what the poor person? He does well to join these two, namely, the poor and the wise. For the poor person represents contempt for present goods. Thus, Matthew 5:3 reads:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens."21 The wise person, through taste22 of what is eternal and right judgment. About these Proverbs 3:35 says: "The wise will possess glory; the exaltation of the fools is disgrace." Indeed, an earthly person is called a fool, because the fool despises what is eternal and longs for what is earthly. Job 5:3 states: "I have seen a fool with a strong root, and I cursed his beauty immediately."23 What more has a wise and poor person than a fool in this life?
Supply: little. But to go there where there is life, namely, to eternal life, for which a person should aspire and not aspiring to earthly things that cannot be retained. For this
21Hugh of St. Cher, p. 87v, a also cites Matthew 5:3.
22Bonaventure plays with the fact that both sapientia ("wisdom") and sapor ("taste") have the same root, that is, sap-.
2 See the NAB of Job 5:3: "I have seen a fool spreading his roots, but his household suddenly decayed."
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reason we have little in this mortal life, because as Ecclesiastes 2:16 above says: "The learned die in equal manner24 as the unlearned." But in eternal life a person has much more, because its existence is delightful, abundant, secure. A person will obtain all in open vision and in enjoyment of the highest good. About this life we read in John 17:3: "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God," etc. The wise journey to this life, since they fix their eyes on it, as was said earlier in Ecclesiastes 2:14: "The eyes of a wise person are in his head." And so the wise follow Christ, the light, who as it is said in John 14:6 is "the way, the truth, and the life." But the foolish do not journey forth. Thus, Ecclesiastes 10:15 below reads: "The labor of fools will afflict those who do not know how to journey to the city."
13. (Verse 9). It is not possible to reach this life correctly without knowledge. Therefore, he continues: It is better to see what you may desire, that is, to know the life you desire, than to desire what you do not know, that is, to want to reach there in ignorance. So it is necessary to fix one's attention on this. Proverbs 4:25 states: "Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids go before your steps."
It is indeed good to know this, but to desire what a person does not know is foolishness. Wherefore, he adds: But this also is vanity and presumption of spirit, namely, to desire what is not known, as when James and John desired and begged to sit at the right hand and asked for this presumptuously. Therefore, he said to them in Matthew 20:22:
"You do not know what you are asking for."25
24On p. 52 n. 8 QuarEd accurately intimate that the Vulgate has similiter ("in like manner") while Bonaventure reads pariter ("in equal manner").
25As Matthew 20:20-21 indicate, it is the mother of James and John who does the initial asking about her sons sitting on Jesus' right and left hand.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
14. The verse can also be interpreted as an approval of knowing what is useful. The meaning then is that it is better to know what is desirable and useful than to desire to know things hidden, namely, things forbidden for us to know, because this is a presumption of spirit, that is, to want to know what God in God's providence has decided.
15. (Verses 10-11). It is forbidden for us to examine what is hidden, and so he says: The person who will be, etc. Here he calls us back from searching out what is hidden such as divine decisions. For this reason he states: The person who will be, his name is already called, from the point of view of eternal election. Romans 4:17 reads: "Who calls those things that are not as those that are." And it is known that he is a human being from the point of view of a brief duration of time. Genesis 3:19 says: "Dust you are, and into dust you will return." And he cannot contend in judgment with him who is stronger than himself, in matters of justice. For no human being is so just that they can justify themselves at God's judgment. Job 9:2-3 states: "Indeed I know it is so, and that a human being cannot be justified compared with26 God. If he will contend with God, he cannot answer God one for a thousand." So Job said: "What am I then that I should answer him."27 And so Job adds, because God is stronger and says: "If strength be demanded, God is most strong. If equity of judgment, no 26On p. 53 n. 3 QuarEd accurately mention that the Vulgate reads compositus ("arranged against") while Bonaventure has comparatus
("compared with"). Hugh of St. Cher, 87v, o also cites Job 9-2 and reads comparatus ("compared with").
27Job 9:14.
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human being dare bear witness for me."28 We are told not to examine this hidden providence, because in our words little truth is found, especially when we want to expound things hidden from us.
16. So he adds: There are many words, that is, few things are known. Ecclesiastes 10:14 below states: "A fool multiplies words." There are many words that have much vanity in disputing, but little truth. Ecclesiastes 3:11 above reads: "He has made all things good in their time and has delivered the world to their disputation, so that a human being may not discover the work which God has made from the beginning to the end." Consequently, those who want to examine these things fade away, according to what the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 3:20: "God29 knows the thoughts of the wise that they are vain."
28Job 9:19. On p. 53 n. 3 QuarEd quote Book IX, chapter 2 n. 2 of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Iob. See S. Gregorii Magni Moralia in Iob, Libri I-X, ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL cxliii (Turnhout: Brepols, 1979),
456: "A person subordinate to God receives justice, but the person arranged against God loses it, for the person who compares himself to the author of good things, deprives himself of the good he had received.
For the person who arrogates to herself the goods she has received is contending against God with God's very gifts."
29On p. 53 n. 4 QuarEd rightly notice that the Vulgate reads Dominus ("The Lord") while Bonaventure has Deus ("God").
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES