Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Ecclesiastes 1:18

There are 5 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 313, footnote 8 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1948 (In-Text, Margin)

... but from the theology of the ever-living Word. And He who brings again together the separate fragments, and makes them one, will without peril, be assured, contemplate the perfect Word, the truth. Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes: “And I added wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem; and my heart saw many things; and besides, I knew wisdom and knowledge, parables and understanding. And this also is the choice of the spirit, because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of knowledge.”[Ecclesiastes 1:16-18] He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be pre-eminently a gnostic. Now it is written, “Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it.” And again, what is said is confirmed more clearly by this saying, “All ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 69, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 439 (In-Text, Margin)

... wretchedness; and to pray confidently, as having already received of free gift the pledge of salvation through his only Saviour and Enlightener of man:—such an one, so acting, and so lamenting, knowledge does not puff up, because charity edifieth; for he has preferred knowledge to knowledge, he has preferred to know his own weakness, rather than to know the walls of the world, the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles of heaven. And by obtaining this knowledge, he has obtained also sorrow;[Ecclesiastes 1:18] but sorrow for straying away from the desire of reaching his own proper country, and the Creator of it, his own blessed God. And if among men such as these, in the family of Thy Christ, O Lord my God, I groan among Thy poor, give me out of Thy bread ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 94, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

No Fruit Good Except It Grow from the Root of Love. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 820 (In-Text, Margin)

It is evident, then, that the oldness of the letter, in the absence of the newness of the spirit, instead of freeing us from sin, rather makes us guilty by the knowledge of sin. Whence it is written in another part of Scripture, “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow,”[Ecclesiastes 1:18] —not that the law is itself evil, but because the commandment has its good in the demonstration of the letter, not in the assistance of the spirit; and if this commandment is kept from the fear of punishment and not from the love of righteousness, it is servilely kept, not freely, and therefore it is not kept at all. For no fruit is good which does not grow ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 118, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1083 (In-Text, Margin)

20. “Hear my prayer, O Lord” (ver. 12). Whereof shall I rejoice? Whereof should I groan? I rejoice on account of what is past, I groan longing for these which are not yet come. “Hear my prayer, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace at my tears.” For do I now no longer weep, because I have already “passed by,” have “left behind” so great things as these? “Do I not weep much the more?” For, “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.”[Ecclesiastes 1:18] The more I long for what is not here, do I not so much the more groan for it until it comes? do I not so much the more weep until it comes?…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 161, footnote 1 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Oceanus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2359 (In-Text, Margin)

... Indeed, when I call to mind our meeting, I seem to see her here now instead of in the past. Blessed Jesus, what zeal, what earnestness she bestowed upon the sacred volumes! In her eagerness to satisfy what was a veritable craving she would run through Prophets, Gospels, and Psalms: she would suggest questions and treasure up the answers in the desk of her own bosom. And yet this eager ness to hear did not bring with it any feeling of satiety: increasing her knowledge she also increased her sorrow,[Ecclesiastes 1:18] and by casting oil upon the flame she did but supply fuel for a still more burning zeal. One day we had before us the book of Numbers written by Moses, and she modestly questioned me as to the meaning of the great mass of names there to be ...

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