2 Corinthians 11 Cross References - Moffatt

¹ I wish you would put up with a little 'folly' from me. Do put up with me, ² for I feel a divine jealousy on your behalf; I betrothed you as a chaste maiden to present you to your one husband Christ, ³ but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning. ⁴ You put up with it all right, when some interloper preaches a second Jesus (not the Jesus I preached), or when you are treated to a Spirit different from the Spirit you once received, and to a different gospel from what I gave you! Why not put up with me? ⁵ I hold I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles'! ⁶ I am no speaker, perhaps, but knowledge I do possess; I never failed to make myself intelligible to you. ⁷ But perhaps I did wrong in taking a humble place that you might have a high one — I mean, in preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing! ⁸ I made a levy on other churches, I took pay from them so as to minister to you; ⁹ even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way. ¹⁰ By the truth of Christ within me, I am going to make this my pride and boast unchecked throughout the regions of Achaia! ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. ¹² No, I intend to go on as I am doing, in order to checkmate those who would fain make out that in the apostolate of which they boast they work on the same terms as I do. ¹³ 'Apostles'? They are spurious apostles, false workmen — they are masquerading as 'apostles of Christ.' ¹⁴ No wonder they do, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their deeds. ¹⁶ I repeat, no one is to think me a fool; but even so, pray bear with me, fool as I am, that I may have my little boast as well as others! ¹⁷ (What I am now going to say is not inspired by the Lord: I am in the role of a 'fool,' now, on this business of boasting. ¹⁸ Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.) ¹⁹ You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much! ²⁰ You put up with a man who assumes control of your souls, with a man who spends your money, with a man who dupes you, with a man who gives himself airs, with a man who flies in your face. ²¹ I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!). ²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I. ²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death; ²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, ²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day; ²⁶ I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers — ²⁷ through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it. ²⁸ And then there is the pressing business of each day, the care of all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation? ³⁰ If there is to be any boasting, I will boast of what I am weak enough to suffer! ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, He knows I am telling the truth! ³² (At Damascus the ethnarch of king Aretas had patrols out in the city of the Damascenes to arrest me, ³³ but I was lowered in a basket from a loophole in the wall, and so managed to escape his clutches.)

⁹ instead of presuming to say to yourselves, 'We have a father in Abraham.' I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

¹ Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. ² He fasted forty days and forty nights and afterwards felt hungry. ³ So the tempter came up and said to him, "If you are God's son, tell these stones to become loaves." ⁴ He answered, "It is written, Man is not to live on bread alone, but on every word that issues from the mouth of God." ⁵ Then the devil conveyed him to the holy city and, placing him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ said to him, "If you are God's son, throw yourself down; for it is written, He will give his angels charge of you; they will bear you on their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone." ⁷ Jesus said to him, "It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God." ⁸ Once more the devil conveyed him to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the realms of the world and their grandeur; ⁹ he said, "I will give you all that if you will fall down and worship me." ¹⁰ Then Jesus told him, "Begone, Satan! it is written, You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone."

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruit; do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? No,

¹⁷ Beware of men, they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues,

¹⁷ Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long must I still be with you? How long have I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."

³⁵ but the vinedressers took his servants and flogged one, killed another, and stoned a third.

²⁴ for false Christs and false prophets will rise and bring forward great signs and wonders, so as to mislead the very elect, — if that were possible.

²⁴ Then the servant who had got the two hundred and fifty pounds came forward. He said, 'I knew you were a hard man, sir, reaping where you never sowed and gathering where you never winnowed.

⁹ Look to yourselves. Men will hand you over to Sanhedrins and you will be flogged in synagogues and brought before governors and kings for my sake, to testify to them.

²⁹ If a man strikes you on the one cheek, offer him the other as well: if anyone takes your coat, do not deny him your shirt as well;

¹⁷ (His disciples recalled the scripture saying, I am consumed with zeal for thy house.)

²⁴ Jesus, however, would not trust himself to them; he knew all men, ²⁵ and required no evidence from anyone about human nature; well did he know what was in human nature.

²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens to him, is heartily glad at the sound of the bridegroom's voice. Such is my joy, and it is complete.

³³ "We are Abraham's offspring," they retorted, "we have never been slaves to anybody. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be free'?" ³⁴ Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. ³⁵ Now the slave does not remain in the household for all time; the son of the house does. ³⁶ So, if the Son sets you free, you will be really free. ³⁷ I know you are Abraham's offspring! Yet you want to kill me, since my word makes no headway among you! ³⁸ I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you act as you have learned from your father." ³⁹ They answered him, "Abraham is our father." "If you are Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then do as Abraham did;

⁴⁴ You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires; he was a slayer of men from the very beginning, and he has no place in the truth because there is no truth in him: when he tells a lie, he is expressing his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

³⁰ I and my Father are one — ."

¹⁷ Jesus said, "Cease clinging to me. I have not ascended yet to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and yours, to my God and yours.'"

¹⁷ For the third time he asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Now Peter was vexed at being asked a third time, "Do you love me?" So he replied; "Lord, you know everything, you can see I love you." Jesus said, "Then feed my sheep.

¹² There is no salvation by anyone else, nor even a second Name under heaven appointed for us men and our salvation."

⁵⁸ Putting him outside the city, they proceeded to stone him (the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a youth called Saul). ⁵⁹ So they stoned Stephen, who called on the Lord, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

¹⁶ I will show him all he has to suffer for the sake of my Name."

²³ and the Jews, after a number of days had elapsed, conspired to make away with him. ²⁴ But their plot came to the ears of Saul, and, although they kept watch on the gates day and night in order to make away with him,

²⁴ But their plot came to the ears of Saul, and, although they kept watch on the gates day and night in order to make away with him, ²⁵ his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket.

²⁵ his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket.

²⁵ his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket. ²⁶ He got to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, unable to believe he was really a disciple. ²⁷ Barnabas, however, got hold of him and brought him to the apostles. To them he related how he had seen the Lord upon the road, how He had spoken to him, and how he had spoken freely in the name of Jesus at Damascus. ²⁸ He then went in and out among them at Jerusalem, speaking freely in the name of the Lord; ²⁹ he also held conversations and debates with the Hellenists. But when the brothers learned that the Hellenists were attempting to make away with him, ³⁰ they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

²⁵ So Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶ and on finding him he brought him to Antioch, where for a whole year they were guests of the church and taught considerable numbers. It was at Antioch too that the disciples were originally called "Christians."

¹ Now in the local church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Symeon (called Niger) and Lucius the Cyrenian, besides Manaen (a foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. ² As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

² As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." ³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and let them go.

³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and let them go. ⁴ Sent out thus by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ On reaching Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues, with John as their assistant. ⁶ They covered the whole island as far as Paphos, where they fell in with a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet called Bar-Jesus; ⁷ he belonged to the suite of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and demanded to hear the word of God. ⁸ But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith. ⁹ So Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the holy Spirit, looked steadily at him ¹⁰ and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord?

¹⁰ and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord? ¹¹ See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand. ¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened; he was astounded at the doctrine of the Lord. ¹³ Setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions reached Perga in Pamphylia; John left them and went back to Jerusalem, ¹⁴ but they passed on from Perga and arrived at Pisidian Antioch. On the sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down;

⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high rank and the leading men in the town, who stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their territory.

⁵ But, when the Gentiles and Jews along with their rulers made a hostile movement to insult and stone them,

¹⁹ But Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived, who won over the crowds, and after pelting Paul with stones they dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead.

²³ They chose presbyters for them in every church, and with prayer and fasting entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

¹ But certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and taught the brothers that "unless you get circumcised after the custom of Moses you cannot be saved." ² As a sharp dispute and controversy sprang up between them and Paul and Barnabas, it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas, along with some others of their number, should go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and presbyters at Jerusalem about this question. ³ The church sped them on their journey, and they passed through both Phoenicia and Syria informing the brothers, to the great joy of all, that the Gentiles were turning to God. ⁴ On arriving at Jerusalem they were received by the church, the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how God had been with them and what he had done.

⁸ The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us;

²⁴ Having learned that some of our number, quite unauthorized by us, have unsettled you with their teaching and upset your souls,

³⁶ Some days later, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come and let us go back to visit the brothers in every town where we have proclaimed the word of the Lord. Let us see how they are doing."

⁴⁰ while Paul selected Silas and went off, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴⁰ while Paul selected Silas and went off, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ He made his way through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

²² The crowd also joined in the attack upon them, while the praetors, after having them stripped and after ordering them to be flogged with rods, ²³ had many lashes inflicted on them and put them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safe.

²³ had many lashes inflicted on them and put them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safe. ²⁴ On receiving so strict a charge, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

³³ Then he took them at that very hour of the night and washed their wounds and got baptized instantly, he and all his family.

³⁷ But Paul replied, "They flogged us in public and without a trial, flogged Roman citizens! They put us in prison, and now they are going to get rid of us secretly! No indeed! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

⁵ But the Jews were aroused to jealousy; they got hold of some idle rascals to form a mob and set the town in an uproar; they attacked Jason's house in the endeavour to bring them out before the populace,

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ² There he came across a Jew called Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla, as Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul accosted them, ³ and as he belonged to the same trade he stayed with them and they all worked together. (They were workers in leather by trade.)

³ and as he belonged to the same trade he stayed with them and they all worked together. (They were workers in leather by trade.)

¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia the Jews without exception rose against Paul and brought him up before the tribunal,

¹⁴ Paul was just on the point of opening his lips to reply, when Gallio said to the Jews, "If it had been a misdemeanour or wicked crime, there would be some reason in me listening to you,O Jews.

¹⁸ After waiting on for a number of days Paul said goodbye to the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. (As the latter was under a vow, he had his head shaved at Cenchreae.) ¹⁹ When they reached Ephesus, Paul left them there. He went to the synagogue and argued with the Jews, ²⁰ who asked him to stay for a while. But he would not consent; ²¹ he said goodbye to them, telling them, "I will come back to you, if it is the will of God." Then, sailing from Ephesus, ²² he reached Caesarea, went up to the capital to salute the church, and travelled down to Antioch. ²³ After spending some time there he went off on a journey right through the country of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples.

²³ After spending some time there he went off on a journey right through the country of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples.

²⁷ As he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to give him a welcome. And on his arrival he proved of great service to those who by God's grace had believed,

¹ It was when Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, after passing through the inland districts, came down to Ephesus. There he found some disciples,

²³ It was about that time that a great commotion arose over the Way. This was how it happened.

² After passing through the districts of Macedonia and encouraging the people at length, he came to Greece,

⁵ They went on to wait for us at Troas, ⁶ while we sailed from Philippi, after the days of unleavened bread, and joined them five days later at Troas. There we spent seven days. ⁷ On the first day of the week we met for the breaking of bread; Paul addressed them, as he was to leave next day, and he prolonged his address till midnight ⁸ (there were plenty of lamps in the upper room where we met). ⁹ In the window sat a young man called Eutychus, and as Paul's address went on and on, he got overcome with drowsiness, went fast asleep, and fell from the third storey. He was picked up a corpse, ¹⁰ but Paul went downstairs, threw himself upon him, and embraced him. "Do not lament," he said, "the life is still in him." ¹¹ Then he went upstairs, broke bread, and ate; finally, after conversing awhile with them till the dawn, he went away.

¹⁸ When they came to him, he said, "You know quite well how I lived among you all the time ever since I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ how I served the Lord in all humility, with many a tear and many a trial which I encountered owing to the plots of the Jews,

¹⁹ how I served the Lord in all humility, with many a tear and many a trial which I encountered owing to the plots of the Jews, ²⁰ how I never shrank from letting you know anything for your good, or from teaching you alike in public and from house to house, ²¹ bearing my testimony, both to Jews and Greeks, of repentance before God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² Now here I go to Jerusalem under the binding force of the Spirit. What will befall me there, I do not know. ²³ Only, I know this, that in town after town the holy Spirit testifies to me that bonds and troubles are awaiting me.

²³ Only, I know this, that in town after town the holy Spirit testifies to me that bonds and troubles are awaiting me. ²⁴ But then, I set no value on my own life as compared with the joy of finishing my course and fulfilling the commission I received from the Lord Jesus to attest the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ I know to-day that not one of you will ever see my face again — not one of you among whom I moved as I preached the Reign. ²⁶ Therefore do I protest before you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you; ²⁷ I never shrank from letting you know the entire purpose of God. ²⁸ Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you guardians; shepherd the church of the Lord which he has purchased with his own blood. ²⁹ I know that when I am gone, fierce wolves will get in among you, and they will not spare the flock; yes. ³⁰ and men of your own number will arise with perversions of the truth to draw the disciples after them.

³⁰ and men of your own number will arise with perversions of the truth to draw the disciples after them.

³⁰ and men of your own number will arise with perversions of the truth to draw the disciples after them. ³¹ So be on the alert, remember how for three whole years I never ceased night and day to watch over each one of you with tears.

³¹ So be on the alert, remember how for three whole years I never ceased night and day to watch over each one of you with tears.

³¹ So be on the alert, remember how for three whole years I never ceased night and day to watch over each one of you with tears. ³² And now I entrust you to God and the word of his grace; he is able to upbuild you and give you your inheritance among all the consecrated. ³³ Silver, gold, or apparel I never coveted;

³³ Silver, gold, or apparel I never coveted; ³⁴ you know yourselves how these hands of mine provided everything for my own needs and for my companions.

³⁴ you know yourselves how these hands of mine provided everything for my own needs and for my companions. ³⁵ I showed you how this was the way to work hard and succour the needy, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, 'To give is happier than to get.'"

¹¹ He came to us, took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands, saying, "Here is the word of the holy Spirit: 'So shall the Jews bind the owner of this girdle at Jerusalem and hand him over to the Gentiles'."

²⁷ The seven days were almost over when the Asiatic Jews, catching sight of him in the temple, stirred up all the crowd and laid hands on him, ²⁸ shouting, "To the rescue, men of Israel! Here is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the People and the Law and this Place! And he has actually brought Greeks inside the temple and defiled this holy Place!" ²⁹ (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian along with him in the city, and they supposed Paul had taken him inside the temple.) ³⁰ The whole city was thrown into turmoil. The people rushed together, seized Paul and dragged him outside the temple; whereupon the doors were immediately shut. ³¹ They were attempting to kill him, when word reached the commander of the garrison that the whole of Jerusalem was in confusion.

³ "I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral Law, ardent for God as you all are to-day.

²⁴ till the commander ordered him to be taken inside the barracks and examined under the lash, so as to find out why the people shouted at him in this way.

¹⁰ The quarrel then became so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul in pieces; he therefore ordered the troops to march down and take him from them by force, bringing him inside the barracks.

¹² When day broke, the Jews formed a conspiracy, taking a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty of them in this plot. ¹⁴ They then went to the high priests and elders, saying, "We have taken a solemn oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now you and the Sanhedrin must inform the commander that you propose to investigate this case in detail, so that he may have Paul brought down to you. We will be all ready to kill him on the way down." ¹⁶ Now Paul's nephew heard about their treacherous ambush; so he got admission to the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul summoned one of the officers and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has some news to give him." ¹⁸ So the officer took him to the commander, saying, "The prisoner Paul has summoned me to ask if I would bring this young man to you, as he has something to tell you." ¹⁹ The commander then took him by the hand aside and asked him in private, "What is the news you have for me?" ²⁰ He answered, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to-morrow to the Sanhedrin, on the plea that they propose to examine his case in detail. ²¹ Now do not let them persuade you. More than forty of them are lying in ambush for him, and they have taken a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they have murdered him. They are all ready at this moment, awaiting your consent." ²² Then the commander dismissed the youth, bidding him "Tell nobody that you have informed me of this."

²⁶ (though at the same time he hoped Paul would give him a bribe). So he did send for him pretty frequently and conversed with him. ²⁷ But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and as Felix wanted to ingratiate himself with the Jews, he left Paul still in custody.

³ as a special favour, to send for him to Jerusalem, meaning to lay an ambush for him and murder him on the road.

¹⁴ As they were spending several days there, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. "There is a man," he said, "who was left in prison by Felix.

²⁹ "Long or short," said Paul, "I would to God that not only you but all my hearers to-day could be what I am — barring these chains!"

¹ When it was decided we were to sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to an officer of the Imperial regiment called Julius.

¹ When it was decided we were to sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to an officer of the Imperial regiment called Julius. ² Embarking in an Andramyttian ship which was bound for the Asiatic seaports, we set sail, accompanied by a Macedonian from Thessalonica called Aristarchus. ³ Next day we put in at Sidon, where Julius very kindly allowed Paul to visit his friends and be looked after. ⁴ Putting to sea from there, we had to sail under the lee of Cyprus, as the wind was against us; ⁵ then, sailing over the Cilician and Pamphylian waters, we came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶ There the officer found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, and put us on board of her. ⁷ For a number of days we made a slow passage and had great difficulty in arriving off Cnidus; then, as the wind checked our progress, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Cape Salmone, ⁸ and coasting along it with great difficulty we reached a place called Fair Havens, not far from the town of Lasea. ⁹ By this time it was far on in the season and sailing had become dangerous (for the autumn Fast was past), so Paul warned them thus: ¹⁰ "Men," said he, "I see this voyage is going to be attended with hardship and serious loss not only to the cargo and the ship but also to our own lives." ¹¹ However the officer let himself be persuaded by the captain and the owner rather than by anything Paul could say, ¹² and, as the harbour was badly placed for wintering in, the majority proposed to set sail and try if they could reach Phoenix and winter there (Phoenix is a Cretan harbour facing S.W. and N.W.). ¹³ When a moderate southerly breeze sprang up, they thought they had secured their object, and after weighing anchor they sailed along the coast of Crete, close inshore. ¹⁴ Presently down rushed a hurricane of a wind called Euroclydon; ¹⁵ the ship was caught and unable to face the wind, so we gave up and let her drive along. ¹⁶ Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we managed with great difficulty to get the boat hauled in; ¹⁷ once it was hoisted aboard, they used ropes to undergird the ship, and in fear of being stranded on the Syrtis they lowered the sail and lay to. ¹⁸ As we were being terribly battered by the storm, they had to jettison the cargo next day, ¹⁹ while two days later they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands; ²⁰ for many days neither sun nor stars could be seen, the storm raged heavily, and at last we had to give up all hope of being saved. ²¹ When they had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and spared yourselves this hardship and loss by refusing to set sail from Crete. ²² I now bid you cheer up. There will be no loss of life, only of the ship. ²³ For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve, stood before me, ²⁴ saying, 'Have no fear, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And God has granted you the lives of all your fellow-voyagers.' ²⁵ Cheer up, men! I believe God, I believe it will turn out just as I have been told. ²⁶ However, we are to be stranded on an island." ²⁷ When the fourteenth night arrived, we were drifting about in the sea of Adria, when the sailors about midnight suspected land was near. ²⁸ On taking soundings they found twenty fathoms, and a little further on, when they sounded again, they found fifteen. ²⁹ Then, afraid of being stranded on the rocks, they let go four anchors from the stern and longed for daylight. ³⁰ The sailors tried to escape from the ship. They had even lowered the boat into the sea, pretending they were going to layout anchors from the bow, ³¹ when Paul said to the officer and the soldiers, "You cannot be saved unless these men stay by the ship." ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. ³³ Just before daybreak Paul begged them all to take some food. "For fourteen days," he said, "you have been on the watch all the time, without a proper meal. ³⁴ Take some food then, I beg of you; it will keep you alive. You are going to be saved! Not a hair of your heads will perish." ³⁵ With these words he took a loaf and after thanking God, in presence of them all, broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all cheered up and took food for themselves ³⁷ (there were about seventy-six souls of us on board, all told); ³⁸ and when they had eaten their fill, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea. ³⁹ When day broke, they could not recognize what land it was; however, they noticed a creek with a sandy beach, and resolved to see if they could run the ship ashore there. ⁴⁰ So the anchors were cut away and left in the sea, while the crew unlashed the ropes that tied the rudders, hoisted the foresail to the breeze, and headed for the beach. ⁴¹ Striking a reef, they drove the ship aground; the prow jammed fast, but the stern began to break up under the beating of the waves. ⁴² Now the soldiers resolved to kill the prisoners, in case any of them swam off and escaped; ⁴³ but as the officer wanted to save Paul, he put a stop to their plan, ordering those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, ⁴⁴ while the rest were to manage with planks or pieces of wreckage. In this way it turned out that the whole company got safe to land.

¹⁰ they made us rich presents and furnished us, when we set sail, with all we needed. ¹¹ We set sail, after three months, in an Alexandrian ship, with the Dioscuri on her figure-head, which had wintered at the island.

¹⁶ When we did reach Rome, Paul got permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

³⁰ For two full years he remained in his private lodging, welcoming anyone who came to visit him;

⁹ God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers,

¹⁴ To Greeks and to barbarians, to wise and to foolish alike, I owe a duty.

²⁵ since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

¹³ The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if it is adherents of the Law who are heirs, then faith is empty of all meaning and the promise is void. ¹⁵ (What the Law produces is the Wrath, not the promise of God; where there is no law, there is no transgression either.) ¹⁶ That is why all turns upon faith; it is to make the promise a matter of favour, to make it secure for all the offspring, not simply for those who are adherents of the Law but also for those who share the faith of Abraham — of Abraham who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist. ¹⁸ For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations — even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be.

⁴ It is the same in your case, my brothers. The crucified body of Christ made you dead to the Law, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might be fruitful to God.

¹⁵ You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!",

³⁵ What can ever part us from Christ's love? Can anguish or calamity or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword? ³⁶ (Because, as it is written, For thy sake we are being killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.)

³⁶ (Because, as it is written, For thy sake we are being killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.)

¹ I am telling the truth in Christ — it is no lie, my conscience bears me out in the holy Spirit

⁴ for they are Israelites, theirs is the Sonship, the Glory, the covenants, the divine legislation, the Worship, and the promises; ⁵ the patriarchs are theirs, and theirs too (so far as natural descent goes) is the Christ. (Blessed for evermore be the God who is over all! Amen.)

¹ Then, I ask, has God repudiated his People? Never! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin!

¹³ I tell you this, you Gentiles, that as an apostle to the Gentiles I lay great stress on my office,

⁸ the speaker his words of counsel; the contributor must be liberal, the superintendent must be in earnest, the sick visitor must be cheerful.

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

¹ We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves.

⁶ that you may unite in a chorus of praise and glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

¹⁶ as a priest of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the service of God's gospel. My aim is to make the Gentiles an acceptable offering, consecrated by the holy Spirit.

¹⁹ by the force of miracles and marvels, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus from Jerusalem right round to Illyricum, I have been able to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ —

²⁴ whenever I went to Spain, I am hoping to see you on my way there, and to be sped forward by you after I have enjoyed your company for a while. ²⁵ At the moment I am off to Jerusalem on an errand to the saints. ²⁶ For Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. ²⁷ Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings. ²⁸ Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way.

⁴ who have risked their lives for me; I thank them, and not only I but all the Gentile churches as well. ⁵ Also, salute the church that meets in their house. Salute my beloved Epaenetus, the first in Asia to be reaped for Christ.

¹⁷ Brothers, I beg of you to keep your eye on those who stir up dissensions and put hindrances in your way, contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them. ¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!

¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!

¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you! ¹⁹ Everyone has heard of your loyalty to the gospel; it makes me rejoice over you. Still, I want you to be experts in good and innocents in evil.

¹⁷ Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And to preach it with no fine rhetoric, lest the cross of Christ should lose its power!

²¹ For when the world with all its wisdom failed to know God in his wisdom, God resolved to save believers by the 'sheer folly' of the Christian message.

¹ Thus when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come to proclaim to you God's secret purpose with any elaborate words or wisdom. ² I determined among you to be ignorant of everything except Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ the crucified. ³ It was in weakness and fear and with great trembling that I visited you;

³ It was in weakness and fear and with great trembling that I visited you;

¹³ And this is what we discuss, using language taught by no human wisdom but by the Spirit. We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language.

⁵ Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? They are simply used by God to give you faith, each as the Lord assigns his task.

¹¹ The foundation is laid, namely Jesus Christ, and no one can lay any other.

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself about this; whoever of you imagines he is wise with this world's wisdom must become a 'fool,' if he is really to be wise.

¹ This is how you are to look upon us, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's secret truths.

⁸ You Corinthians have your heart's desire already, have you? You have heaven's rich bliss already! You have come into your kingdom without us! I wish indeed you had come into your kingdom, so that we could share it with you!

¹⁰ We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute.

¹⁰ We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute. ¹¹ To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs,

¹¹ To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs, ¹² we work hard for our living; when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we put up with it;

¹⁵ You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel.

¹ It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality such as is unknown even among pagans — that a man has taken his father's wife! ² And yet you are puffed up! You ought much rather to be mourning the loss of a member! Expel the perpetrator of such a crime! ³ For my part, present with you in spirit though absent in body, I have already, as in your presence, passed sentence on such an offender as this, ⁴ by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ; I have met with you in spirit, and by the power of our Lord Jesus ⁵ I have consigned that individual to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ Your boasting is no credit to you. Do you not know that a morsel of dough will leaven the whole lump?

⁵ I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could decide a dispute between members of the brotherhood, ⁶ instead of one brother going to law with another — and before unbelievers too! ⁷ Even to have law-suits with one another is in itself evidence of defeat. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why not rather let yourselves be defrauded?

¹⁵ Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? Am I to take Christ's members and devote them to a harlot? Never! ¹⁶ Do you not know that he who joins himself to a harlot is one with her in body (for the pair, it is said, shall become one flesh), ¹⁷ while he who joins himself to the Lord is one with him in spirit. ¹⁸ Shun immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his body.

⁵ Do not withhold sexual intercourse from one another, unless you agree to do so for a time in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again. You must not let Satan tempt you through incontinence. ⁶ But what I have just said is by way of concession, not command.

¹² To other people I would say (not the Lord): — if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and if she consents to live with him, he must not put her away;

¹⁷ Only, everyone must lead the lot assigned him by the Lord; he must go on living the life in which God's call came to him. (Such is the rule I lay down for all the churches).

²⁵ I have no orders from the Lord for unmarried women, but I will give you the opinion of one whom you can trust, after all the Lord's mercy to him.

¹ With regard to food that has been offered to idols. Here, of course, 'we all possess knowledge'! Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

¹³ Therefore if food is any hindrance to my brother's welfare, sooner than injure him I will never eat flesh as long as I live, never!

⁶ What! are we the only ones, myself and Barnabas, who are denied the right of abstaining from work for our living?

¹¹ If we sowed you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great matter if we reap your worldly goods? ¹² If others share this right over you, why not we all the more? We did not avail ourselves of it, you say? No, we do not mind any privations if we can only avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

¹⁴ so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel? ¹⁵ Only, I have not availed myself of any of these rights, and I am not writing in order to secure any such provision for myself. I would die sooner than let anyone deprive me of this, my source of pride. ¹⁶ What I am proud of is not the mere preaching of the gospel; that I am constrained to do. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ I get a reward if I do it of my own accord, whereas to do it otherwise is no more than for a steward to discharge his trust. ¹⁸ And my reward? This, that I can preach the gospel free of charge, that I can refrain from insisting on all my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

²² to the weak I have become as weak myself, to win over the weak. To all men I have become all things, to save some by all and every means.

¹⁵ I am speaking to sensible people; weigh my words for yourselves.

²² What! have you no houses to eat and drink in? Do you think you can show disrespect to the church of God and put the poor to shame? What can I say to you? Commend you? Not for this.

⁴ There are varieties of talents, but the same Spirit; ⁵ varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ varieties of effects, but the same God who effects everything in everyone. ⁷ Each receives his manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ One man is granted words of wisdom by the Spirit, another words of knowledge by the same Spirit; ⁹ one man in the same Spirit has the gift of faith, another in the one Spirit has gifts of healing; ¹⁰ one has prophecy, another the gift of distinguishing spirits, another the gift of 'tongues' in their variety, another the gift of interpreting 'tongues.' ¹¹ But all these effects are produced by one and the same Spirit, apportioning them severally to each individual as he pleases.

²⁶ Thus if one member suffers, all the members share its suffering; if one member is honoured, all the members share its honour.

¹⁰ But by God's grace I am what I am. The grace he showed me did not go for nothing; no, I have done far more work than all of them — though it was not I but God's grace at my side.

¹² Now if we preach that Christ rose from the dead, how can certain individuals among you assert that 'there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead'? ¹³ If 'there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead,' then even Christ did not rise; ¹⁴ and if Christ did not rise, then our preaching has gone for nothing, and your faith has gone for nothing too. ¹⁵ Besides, we are detected bearing false witness to God by affirming of him that he raised Christ — whom he did not raise, if after all dead men never rise. ¹⁶ For if dead men never rise, Christ did not rise either; ¹⁷ and if Christ did not rise, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ More than that: those who have slept the sleep of death in Christ have perished after all. ¹⁹ Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most! ²⁰ But it is not so! Christ did rise from the dead, he was the first to be reaped of those who sleep in death. ²¹ For since death came by man, by man came also resurrection from the dead; ²² as all die in Adam, so shall all be made alive in Christ. ²³ But each in his own division: — Christ the first to be reaped; after that, all who belong to Christ, at his arrival. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over his royal power to God the Father, after putting down all other rulers, all other authorities and powers. ²⁵ For he must reign until all his foes are put under his feet. ²⁶ (Death is the last foe to be put down.) ²⁷ For God has put everything under his feet. When it is said that everything has been put under him, plainly that excludes Him who put everything under him; ²⁸ and when everything is put under him, then the Son himself will be put under Him who put everything under him, so that God may be everything to everyone. ²⁹ Otherwise, if there is no such thing as a resurrection, what is the meaning of people getting baptized on behalf of their dead? If dead men do not rise at all, why do people get baptized on their behalf? ³⁰ Yes, and why am I myself in danger every hour?

³⁰ Yes, and why am I myself in danger every hour? ³¹ (Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.)

³¹ (Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.) ³² What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

³² What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

³² What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow! ³³ Make no mistake about this: 'bad company is the ruin of good character.' ³⁴ Get back to your sober senses and avoid sin, for some of you — and I say this to your shame — some of you are insensible to God.

³⁶ Foolish man! What you sow never comes to life unless it dies.

¹⁵ I ask this favour of you, my brothers. The household of Stephanas, you know, was the first to be reaped in Achaia, and they have laid themselves out to serve the saints.

¹ PAUL an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and brother Timotheus, to the church of God at Corinth as well as to all the saints throughout the whole of Achaia:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort,

⁸ Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life; ⁹ in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead; ¹⁰ he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me.

¹² My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

¹⁷ Such was my intention. Now, have I shown myself 'fickle'? When I propose some plan, do I propose it in a worldly way, ready to mean 'no' as well as 'yes'?

²³ I call God to witness against my soul, it was to spare you that I refrained from revisiting Corinth. ²⁴ (Not that we lord it over your faith — no, we co-operate for your joy: you have a standing of your own in the faith.)

⁴ For I wrote you in sore distress and misery of heart, with many a tear — not to pain you but to convince you of my love, my special love for you. ⁵ If a certain individual has been causing pain, he has been causing pain not so much to me as to all of you — at anyrate (for I am not going to overstate the case) to a section of you.

¹¹ in case Satan should take advantage of our position — for I know his manœuvres!

¹⁷ I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.

⁶ and he has further qualified me to be the minister of a new covenant — a covenant not of written law but of spirit; for the written law kills but the Spirit makes alive.

⁹ If there was glory in the administration that condemned, then the administration that acquits abounds far more in glory

² I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

¹¹ every day of my life I am being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may come out within my mortal flesh.

¹⁴ sure that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise me too with Jesus and set me at your side in his presence.

¹¹ If I 'appeal to the interests of men,' then, it is with the fear of the Lord before my mind. What I am is plain to God without disguise, plain also, I trust, to your own conscience. ¹² This is not 'recommending myself to you again'; it is giving you an incentive to be proud of me, which you can use against men who are proud of externals instead of the inward reality. ¹³ 'I am beside myself,' am I? Well, that is between myself and God. I am 'sane,' am I? Well, that is in your interests;

⁴ I prove myself at all points a true minister of God, by great endurance, by suffering, by troubles, by calamities,

⁴ I prove myself at all points a true minister of God, by great endurance, by suffering, by troubles, by calamities, ⁵ by lashes, by imprisonment; mobbed, toiling, sleepless, starving;

⁵ by lashes, by imprisonment; mobbed, toiling, sleepless, starving;

⁹ 'unknown' but well-known, dying but here I am alive, chastened but not killed,

¹¹ O Corinthians, I am keeping nothing back from you; my heart is wide open for you. ¹² 'Restraint'? — that lies with you, not me.

² Make a place for me in your hearts; I have wronged no one, ruined no one, taken advantage of no one. ³ I am not saying this to condemn you. Condemn you? Why, I repeat, you are in my very heart, and you will be there in death and life alike.

⁵ For I got no relief from the strain of things, even when I reached Macedonia; it was trouble at every turn, wrangling all round me, fears in my own mind. ⁶ But the God who comforts the dejected comforted me by the arrival of Titus.

¹ Now, brothers, I have to tell you about the grace God has given to the churches of Macedonia. ² Amid a severe ordeal of trouble, their overflowing joy and their deep poverty together have poured out a flood of rich generosity;

² I know how willing you are, I am proud of it, I have boasted of you to the Macedonians: "Achaia," I tell them, "was all ready last year." And your zeal has been a stimulus to the majority of them.

⁴ in case any Macedonians accompany me and find you are not ready — which would make me (not to speak of yourselves) ashamed of having been so sure.

¹² for the service rendered by this fund does more than supply the wants of the saints, it overflows with many a cry of thanks to God.

¹ I appeal to you myself by the gentleness and consideration of Christ — the Paul who is 'humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he gets away from you.'

¹ I appeal to you myself by the gentleness and consideration of Christ — the Paul who is 'humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he gets away from you.' ² I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh.

⁷ Look at this obvious fact. So-and-so is perfectly sure he 'belongs to Christ'? Well then, let him understand, on second thoughts, that I 'belong to Christ' as much as he does.

¹⁰ My opponent says, 'Paul's letters are weighty and telling, but his personality is weak and his delivery is beneath contempt.'

¹² I do not venture to class myself or to compare myself with certain exalted individuals! They belong to the class of self-praisers; while I limit myself to my own sphere, I compare myself with my own standard, ¹³ and so my boasting never goes beyond the limit — it is determined by the limits of the sphere marked out for me by God. That sphere stretches to include yourselves; ¹⁴ I am not overstepping the limit, as if you lay beyond my sphere; I was the very first to reach you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ I do not boast beyond my limits in a sphere where other men have done the work; my hope rather is that the growth of your faith will allow me to enlarge the range of my appointed sphere

¹⁵ I do not boast beyond my limits in a sphere where other men have done the work; my hope rather is that the growth of your faith will allow me to enlarge the range of my appointed sphere ¹⁶ and preach the gospel in the lands that lie beyond you, instead of boasting within another's province over work that is already done. ¹⁷ However, let him who boasts boast of the Lord;

¹⁷ However, let him who boasts boast of the Lord; ¹⁸ for it is not the self-praiser with his own recommendations who is accepted, it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

¹ I wish you would put up with a little 'folly' from me. Do put up with me,

³ but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning. ⁴ You put up with it all right, when some interloper preaches a second Jesus (not the Jesus I preached), or when you are treated to a Spirit different from the Spirit you once received, and to a different gospel from what I gave you! Why not put up with me? ⁵ I hold I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles'!

⁹ even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way. ¹⁰ By the truth of Christ within me, I am going to make this my pride and boast unchecked throughout the regions of Achaia! ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. ¹² No, I intend to go on as I am doing, in order to checkmate those who would fain make out that in the apostolate of which they boast they work on the same terms as I do. ¹³ 'Apostles'? They are spurious apostles, false workmen — they are masquerading as 'apostles of Christ.'

¹³ 'Apostles'? They are spurious apostles, false workmen — they are masquerading as 'apostles of Christ.' ¹⁴ No wonder they do, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their deeds.

¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their deeds. ¹⁶ I repeat, no one is to think me a fool; but even so, pray bear with me, fool as I am, that I may have my little boast as well as others!

¹⁶ I repeat, no one is to think me a fool; but even so, pray bear with me, fool as I am, that I may have my little boast as well as others! ¹⁷ (What I am now going to say is not inspired by the Lord: I am in the role of a 'fool,' now, on this business of boasting.

¹⁷ (What I am now going to say is not inspired by the Lord: I am in the role of a 'fool,' now, on this business of boasting.

¹⁷ (What I am now going to say is not inspired by the Lord: I am in the role of a 'fool,' now, on this business of boasting. ¹⁸ Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.)

¹⁸ Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.)

¹⁸ Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.) ¹⁹ You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much!

¹⁹ You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much! ²⁰ You put up with a man who assumes control of your souls, with a man who spends your money, with a man who dupes you, with a man who gives himself airs, with a man who flies in your face. ²¹ I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!).

²¹ I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!).

²¹ I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!). ²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I.

²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I. ²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;

²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;

²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death; ²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews,

²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, ²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day;

²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day; ²⁶ I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers —

²⁶ I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers — ²⁷ through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it.

²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation?

³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, He knows I am telling the truth! ³² (At Damascus the ethnarch of king Aretas had patrols out in the city of the Damascenes to arrest me,

¹ There is nothing to be gained by this sort of thing, but as I am obliged to boast, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. In the body or out of the body? That I do not know: God knows. ³ I simply know that in the body or out of the body (God knows which)

⁵ Of an experience like that I am prepared to boast, but not of myself personally — not except as regards my weaknesses.

⁵ Of an experience like that I am prepared to boast, but not of myself personally — not except as regards my weaknesses. ⁶ (If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that — I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.)

⁶ (If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that — I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.)

⁶ (If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that — I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.) ⁷ My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up; ⁸ three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me, ⁹ but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life.

⁹ but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life. ¹⁰ It makes me satisfied, for Christ's sake, with weakness, insults, trouble, persecution, and calamity; for I am strong just when I am weak. ¹¹ Now this is playing the fool! But you forced me to it, instead of coming forward yourselves and vouching for me. That was what I deserved; for, 'nobody' as I am, I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles.'

¹¹ Now this is playing the fool! But you forced me to it, instead of coming forward yourselves and vouching for me. That was what I deserved; for, 'nobody' as I am, I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles.'

¹¹ Now this is playing the fool! But you forced me to it, instead of coming forward yourselves and vouching for me. That was what I deserved; for, 'nobody' as I am, I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles.' ¹² You had all the miracles that mark an apostle done for you fully and patiently — miracles, wonders, and deeds of power.

¹² You had all the miracles that mark an apostle done for you fully and patiently — miracles, wonders, and deeds of power. ¹³ Where were you inferior to the rest of the churches? — unless in this, that your apostle did not choose to make himself a burden to you. Pray pardon me this terrible wrong!

¹³ Where were you inferior to the rest of the churches? — unless in this, that your apostle did not choose to make himself a burden to you. Pray pardon me this terrible wrong! ¹⁴ Here am I all ready to pay you my third visit. And I will not be a burden to you; I want yourselves and not your money. Children have not to put money by for their parents; that is what parents do for their children. ¹⁵ And for your souls I will gladly spend my all and be spent myself. Am I to be loved the less because I love you more than others?

¹⁵ And for your souls I will gladly spend my all and be spent myself. Am I to be loved the less because I love you more than others? ¹⁶ But let that pass, you say; I was not a burden to you, no, but I was clever enough to dupe you with my tricks? Was I?

¹⁹ You think all this time I am defending myself to you? No, I am speaking in Christ before the presence of God, and speaking every word, beloved, in order to build you up. ²⁰ For I am afraid I may perhaps come and find you are not what I could wish, while you may find I am not what you could wish; I am afraid of finding quarrels, jealousy, temper, rivalry, slanders, gossiping, arrogance, and disorder — ²¹ afraid that when I come back to you, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn for many who sinned some time ago and yet have never repented of the impurity, the sexual vice, and the sensuality which they have practised.

⁹ I am glad to be weak if you are strong; mend your ways, that is all I ask. ¹⁰ I am writing thus to you in absence, so that when I do come I may not have to deal sharply with you; I have the Lord's authority for that, but he gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you.

² with all the brothers who are beside me, to the churches of Galatia; ³ grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

⁶ I am astonished you are hastily shifting like this, deserting Him who called you by Christ's grace and going over to another gospel.

⁶ I am astonished you are hastily shifting like this, deserting Him who called you by Christ's grace and going over to another gospel. ⁷ It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁷ It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁷ It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him!

⁸ Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him!

⁸ Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him!

⁸ Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him! ⁹ I have said it before and I now repeat it: whoever preaches a gospel to you that contradicts the gospel you have already received, God's curse be on him!

⁹ I have said it before and I now repeat it: whoever preaches a gospel to you that contradicts the gospel you have already received, God's curse be on him! ¹⁰ Now is that 'appealing to the interests of men' or of God? Trying to 'satisfy men'? Why, if I still tried to give satisfaction to human masters, I would be no servant of Christ.

¹⁷ instead of going up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I went off at once to Arabia, and on my return I came back to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to make the acquaintance of Cephas. I stayed a fortnight with him. ¹⁹ I saw no other apostle, only James the brother of the Lord. ²⁰ (I am writing you the sheer truth, I swear it before God!)

²⁰ (I am writing you the sheer truth, I swear it before God!) ²¹ Then I went to the districts of Syria and of Cilicia.

⁴ There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again.

⁴ There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again. ⁵ But we refused to yield for a single instant to their claims; we were determined that the truth of the gospel should hold good for you. ⁶ Besides, the so-called 'authorities' (it makes no difference to me what their status used to be — God pays no regard to the externals of men), these 'authorities' had no additions to make to my gospel.

⁶ Besides, the so-called 'authorities' (it makes no difference to me what their status used to be — God pays no regard to the externals of men), these 'authorities' had no additions to make to my gospel. ⁷ On the contrary, when they saw I had been entrusted with the gospel for the benefit of the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised ⁸ (for He who equipped Peter to be an apostle of the circumcised equipped me as well for the uncircumcised), ⁹ and when they recognized the grace I had been given, then the so-called 'pillars' of the church, James and Cephas and John, gave myself and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Our sphere was to be the Gentiles, theirs the circumcised.

¹⁴ But I saw they were swerving from the true line of the gospel; so I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, though you are a Jew yourself, why do you oblige the Gentiles to become Jews?" —

¹ O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you — you who had Jesus Christ the crucified placarded before your very eyes?

¹ O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you — you who had Jesus Christ the crucified placarded before your very eyes? ² I simply want to ask you one thing: did you receive the Spirit by doing what the Law commands or by believing the gospel message?

² I simply want to ask you one thing: did you receive the Spirit by doing what the Law commands or by believing the gospel message? ³ Are you such fools? Did you begin with the spirit only to end now with the flesh?

³ So with us. When we were under age, we lived under the thraldom of the Elemental spirits of the world;

⁸ In those days, when you were ignorant of God, you were in servitude to gods who are really no gods at all; ⁹ but now that you know God — or rather, are known by God — how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them?

⁹ but now that you know God — or rather, are known by God — how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and festal seasons and years! ¹¹ Why, you make me afraid I may have spent my labour on you for nothing!

¹¹ Why, you make me afraid I may have spent my labour on you for nothing! ¹² Do take my line, brothers, I beg of you — just as I once took yours. I have no complaint against you; ¹³ no, although it was because of an illness (you know) that I preached the gospel to you on my former visit, ¹⁴ and though my flesh was a trial to you, you did not scoff at me nor spurn me, you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus. You congratulated yourselves. ¹⁵ Now, what has become of all that? (I can bear witness that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and given me them.) ¹⁶ Am I your enemy to-day, because I have been honest with you? ¹⁷ These men make much of you — yes, but for dishonest ends; they want to debar you from us, so that you may make much of them.

¹⁷ These men make much of you — yes, but for dishonest ends; they want to debar you from us, so that you may make much of them.

¹⁷ These men make much of you — yes, but for dishonest ends; they want to debar you from us, so that you may make much of them. ¹⁸ Now it is fine for you to be made much of honestly and all the time — not simply when I can be with you.

¹⁸ Now it is fine for you to be made much of honestly and all the time — not simply when I can be with you. ¹⁹ O my dear children, you with whom I am in travail over again till Christ be formed within you,

¹⁹ O my dear children, you with whom I am in travail over again till Christ be formed within you, ²⁰ would that I could be with you at this moment, and alter my tone, for I am at my wits' end about you!

²⁵ for mount Sinai is away in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for the latter is in servitude with her children.

¹ with the freedom for which Christ set us free. Make a firm stand then, do not slip into any yoke of servitude. ² Here, listen to Paul! I tell you, if you get circumcised, Christ will be no use to you. ³ I insist on this again to everyone who gets circumcised, that he is obliged to carry out the whole of the Law. ⁴ You are for justification by the Law? Then you are done with Christ, you have deserted grace,

¹⁰ I feel persuaded in the Lord that you will not go wrong. But he who unsettles you will have to meet his doom, no matter who he is.

² Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

¹² These men who are keen upon you getting circumcised are just men who want to make a grand display in the flesh — it is simply to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ Why, even the circumcision party do not observe the Law themselves! They merely want you to get circumcised, so as to boast over your flesh! ¹⁴ But no boasting for me, none except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I crucified to the world.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly sphere!

¹ For this reason I Paul, I whom Jesus has made a prisoner for the sake of you Gentiles —

⁴ you can understand my insight into that secret of Christ

¹⁴ For this reason, then, I kneel before the Father

¹ As the Lord's prisoner, then, I beg of you to live a life worthy of your calling,

⁴ For there is one Body and one Spirit — as you were called for the one hope that belongs to your call — ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

¹⁴ instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error;

²⁶ to consecrate her by cleansing her in the bath of baptism as she utters her confession, ²⁷ in order to have the church as his very own, standing before him in all her glory, with never a spot or wrinkle or any such flaw, but consecrated and unblemished.

¹² For we have to struggle, not with blood and flesh but with the angelic Rulers, the angelic Authorities, the potentates of the dark present, the spirit-forces of evil in the heavenly sphere.

²⁰ for the sake of which I am in custody as its envoy. Pray that I may have freedom to declare it as I should.

²⁴ Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ (God is my witness that I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself!)

¹³ throughout the whole of the praetorian guard and everywhere else it is recognized that I am imprisoned on account of my connexion with Christ,

¹⁵ Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, others from goodwill;

¹⁵ Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, others from goodwill; ¹⁶ the latter do it from love to me, knowing that I am set here to defend the gospel,

¹⁶ the latter do it from love to me, knowing that I am set here to defend the gospel, ¹⁷ but the former proclaim Christ for their own ends, with mixed motives, intending to annoy me as I lie in prison. ¹⁸ What does it matter? Anyhow, for ulterior ends or honestly, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over that; yes and I will rejoice over it. ¹⁹ The outcome of all this, I know, will be my release, as you continue to pray for me, and as I am provided with the Spirit of Jesus Christ — ²⁰ my eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage. Whether that means life or death, no matter! ²¹ As life means Christ to me, so death means gain. ²² But then, if it is to be life here below, that means fruitful work for me. So — well, I cannot tell which to choose; ²³ I am in a dilemma between the two. My strong desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far the best. ²⁴ But for your sakes it is necessary I should live on here below. ²⁵ I am sure it is, and so I know I shall remain alive and serve you all by forwarding your progress and fostering the joy of your faith. ²⁶ Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me — over my return to you. ²⁷ Only, do lead a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Whether I come and see you or only hear of you in absence, let me know you are standing firm in a common spirit, fighting side by side like one man for the faith of the gospel. ²⁸ Never be scared for a second by your opponents; your fearlessness is a clear omen of ruin for them and of your own salvation — at the hands of God. ²⁹ For on behalf of Christ you have the favour of suffering no less than of believing in him, ³⁰ by waging the same conflict that, as once you saw and now you hear, I wage myself.

¹⁷ Even if my life-blood has to be poured as a libation on the sacred sacrifice of faith you are offering to God, I rejoice, I congratulate you all —

²⁵ As for Epaphroditus, however, my brother, my fellow-worker, my fellow-soldier, and your messenger to meet my wants, I think it necessary to send you him at once,

² Beware of these dogs, these wicked workmen, the incision-party! ³ We are the true Circumcision, we who worship God in spirit, we who pride ourselves on Christ Jesus, we who rely upon no outward privilege.

³ We are the true Circumcision, we who worship God in spirit, we who pride ourselves on Christ Jesus, we who rely upon no outward privilege. ⁴ Though I could rely on outward privilege, if I chose. Whoever thinks he can rely on that, I can outdo him.

⁴ Though I could rely on outward privilege, if I chose. Whoever thinks he can rely on that, I can outdo him. ⁵ I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law,

⁵ I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law, ⁶ in point of ardour a persecutor of the church, immaculate by the standard of legal righteousness.

¹⁸ For many — as I have often told you and tell you now with tears — many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god, they glory in their shame, these men of earthly mind!

¹⁹ Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god, they glory in their shame, these men of earthly mind!

¹⁰ It was a great joy to me in the Lord that your care for me could revive again; for what you lacked was never the care but the chance of showing it. ¹¹ Not that I complain of want, for I have learned how to be content wherever I am. ¹² I know how to live humbly; I also know how to live in prosperity. I have been initiated into the secret for all sorts and conditions of life, for plenty and for hunger, for prosperity and for privations.

¹² I know how to live humbly; I also know how to live in prosperity. I have been initiated into the secret for all sorts and conditions of life, for plenty and for hunger, for prosperity and for privations. ¹³ In him who strengthens me I am able for anything. ¹⁴ But you were kind enough to take your share in my trouble. ¹⁵ You Philippians are well aware that in the early days of the gospel, when I had left Macedonia, no church but yourselves had any financial dealings with me; ¹⁶ even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent money more than once for my needs.

¹⁸ Your debt to me is fully paid and more than paid! I am amply supplied with what you have sent by Epaphroditus, a fragrant perfume, the sort of sacrifice that God approves and welcomes.

³ We always thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you,

²⁴ I am suffering now on your behalf, but I rejoice in that; I would make up the full sum of all that Christ has to suffer in my person on behalf of the church, his Body;

²⁸ This is the Christ we proclaim; we train everyone and teach everyone the full scope of this knowledge, in order to set everyone before God mature in Christ; ²⁹ I labour for that end, striving for it with the divine energy which is a power within me.

¹ Striving? Yes, I want you to understand my deep concern for you and for those at Laodicea, for all who have never seen my face.

⁴ I say this to prevent you from being deluded by plausible arguments from anybody;

⁸ Beware of anyone getting hold of you by means of a theosophy which is specious make-believe, on the lines of human tradition, corresponding to the Elemental spirits of the world and not to Christ.

¹⁸ Let no one lay down rules for you as he pleases, with regard to fasting and the cult of angels, presuming on his visions and inflated by his sensuous notions,

⁷ Thus you became a pattern to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia; ⁸ for the word of the Lord has resounded from you not only through Macedonia and Achaia — no, your faith in God has reached every place. We never need to speak about it.

⁵ We never resorted to flattery (you know that), nor to any pretext for self-seeking (God is witness to that); ⁶ we never sought honour from men, from you or from anybody else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power of claiming to be men of weight;

⁹ Brothers, you recollect our hard labour and toil, how we worked at our trade night and day, when we preached the gospel to you, so as not to be a burden to any of you. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, to our behaviour among you believers, how pious and upright and blameless it was, ¹¹ how (as you know) we treated each of you as a father treats his children, beseeching you, encouraging you, and charging you

¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who harassed ourselves, who offend God and oppose all men ¹⁶ by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!

² I sent Timotheus our brother, a minister of God in the gospel of Christ, for your strengthening and encouragement in the faith,

⁵ Well then, unable to bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, in case the Tempter had tempted you and our labour had been thrown away.

⁵ Well then, unable to bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, in case the Tempter had tempted you and our labour had been thrown away. ⁶ But when Timotheus reached me a moment ago, on his return from you, bringing me the good news of your faith and love and of how you always remember me kindly, longing to see me as I long to see you, ⁷ then, amid all my own distress and trouble, I was cheered — this faith of yours encouraged me. ⁸ It is life to me now, if you stand firm in the Lord.

³ Let nobody delude you into this belief, whatever he may say. It will not come till the Rebellion takes place first of all, with the revealing of the Lawless One, the doomed One, ⁴ the adversary who vaunts himself above and against every so-called god or object of worship, actually seating himself in the temple of God with the proclamation that he himself is God. ⁵ Do you not remember I used to tell you this when I was with you? ⁶ Well, you can recall now what it is that restrains him from being revealed before his appointed time. ⁷ For the secret force of lawlessness is at work already; only, it cannot be revealed till he who at present restrains it is removed. ⁸ Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival —

⁸ Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival — ⁹ that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood,

⁹ that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood, ¹⁰ and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them.

¹⁰ and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them. ¹¹ Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood,

¹¹ Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood, ¹² so that all may be doomed who refuse faith in the Truth but delight in evil.

⁸ we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

⁸ we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you. ⁹ Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy.

³ As I asked you when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus and warn certain individuals against teaching novelties ⁴ and studying myths and interminable genealogies; such studies bear upon speculations rather than on the divine order which belongs to faith. ⁵ Whereas the aim of the Christian discipline is the love that springs from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. ⁶ Certain individuals have failed here by turning to empty argument; ⁷ doctors of the Law is what they want to be, but they have no idea either of the meaning of the words they use or of the themes on which they harp.

¹¹ as laid down by that glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

¹⁷ To the King of eternity, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever: Amen.

⁵ For "there is one God" and "one intermediary between God and men,

⁷ and I was appointed to be its herald and apostle (I am not telling a lie, it is quite true), to teach the Gentiles faith and truth.

¹⁴ and Adam was not deceived, it was Eve who was deceived and who fell into sin.

¹ But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach

¹ But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach ² through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience —

² through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience — ³ men who prohibit marriage and insist on abstinence from foods which God created for believing men, who understand the Truth, to partake of with thanksgiving.

³ men who prohibit marriage and insist on abstinence from foods which God created for believing men, who understand the Truth, to partake of with thanksgiving. ⁴ Anything God has created is good, and nothing is to be tabooed — provided it is eaten with thanksgiving,

⁶ Lay this before the brotherhood, and you will be an excellent minister of Christ Jesus, brought up on the truths of the faith and on the lessons of the good doctrine you have already followed.

¹⁴ So I prefer young widows to marry again, to bear children, to look after their households, and not to afford our opponents any chance of reviling us.

³ Anyone who teaches novelties and refuses to fall in with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine that tallies with piety, ⁴ is a conceited, ignorant creature, with a morbid passion for controversy and argument which only leads to envy, dissension, insults, insinuations, ⁵ and constant friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the Truth. They imagine religion is a paying concern.

¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells in light that none can approach, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion: Amen.

⁸ So do not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, and do not be ashamed of a prisoner of the Lord like me; join me in bearing suffering for the gospel by the power of the God

¹⁶ May the Lord show favour to the household of Onesiphorus, for many a time he braced me up; he was not ashamed of my imprisonment —

⁹ for which I have to suffer imprisonment as if I were a criminal. (But there is no prison for the word of God.)

¹⁷ and their doctrine spreads like a gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus; ¹⁸ they have failed in the Truth by arguing that the resurrection has taken place already, and they are undermining some people's faith. ¹⁹ But the solid foundation laid by God remains, and this is its inscription: the Lord knows who are his, and 'let everyone who names the name of the Lord give up evil.'

¹ Mark this, there are hard times coming in the last days. ² For men will be selfish, fond of money, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreverent, ³ callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness, ⁴ they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God — ⁵ for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such. ⁶ Some of them worm their way into families and get hold of the women-folk who feel crushed by the burden of their sins — wayward creatures of impulse, ⁷ who are always curious to learn and never able to attain the knowledge of the Truth. ⁸ For these guides of theirs are hostile to the Truth, just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to Moses; they are depraved in mind and useless for all purposes of faith. ⁹ However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.

¹³ Bad characters and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves;

³ for the time will come when people will decline to be taught sound doctrine and will accumulate teachers to suit themselves and tickle their own fancies; ⁴ they will give up listening to the Truth and turn to myths.

¹⁰ For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism;

¹⁰ For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism; ¹¹ they must be silenced, for they are undermining whole families by teaching objectionable doctrine for the base end of making money.

⁹ I prefer to appeal to you on the ground of love. Well then, as Paul the old man, who now-a-days is a prisoner for Christ Jesus,

¹³ And no created thing is hidden from him; all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

² can deal gently with those who err through ignorance, since he himself is beset with weakness —

³⁴ for you did sympathize with the prisoners, and you took the confiscation of your own belongings cheerfully, conscious that elsewhere you had higher, you had lasting, possessions.

³⁷ they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated

⁹ Never let yourselves be carried away with a variety of novel doctrines; for the right thing is to have one's heart strengthened by grace, not by the eating of food — that has never been any use to those who have had recourse to it.

¹⁵ Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; ¹⁶ if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that?

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a life of hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

²⁴ for All flesh is like the grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass: the grass withers and the flower fades,

¹ Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves,

¹ Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves, ² and many will follow their immorality (thanks to them the true Way will be maligned);

² and many will follow their immorality (thanks to them the true Way will be maligned); ³ in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments — men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

³ in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments — men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

³ in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments — men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail. ⁴ For if God did not spare angels who had sinned, but committing them to pits of the nether gloom in Tartarus, reserved them under punishment for doom: ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world but kept Noah, the herald of righteousness, safe with seven others, when he let loose the deluge on the world of impious men: ⁶ if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorra to ashes when he sentenced them to devastation, and thus gave the impious an example of what was in store for them, ⁷ but rescued righteous Lot who was sore burdened by the immoral behaviour of the lawless ⁸ (for when that righteous man resided among them, by what he saw and heard his righteous soul was vexed day after day with their unlawful doings) — ⁹ then be sure the Lord knows how to rescue pious folk from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment till the day of doom, ¹⁰ particularly those who fall in with the polluting appetite of the flesh and despise the Powers celestial. Daring, presumptuous creatures! they are not afraid to scoff at the angelic Glories; ¹¹ whereas even angels, superior in might and power, lay no scoffing charge against these before the Lord. ¹² But those people! — like irrational animals, creatures of mere instinct, born for capture and corruption, they scoff at what they are ignorant of; and like animals they will suffer corruption and ruin, ¹³ done out of the profits of their evil-doing. Pleasure for them is revelling in open daylight — spots and blots, with their dissipated revelling, as they carouse in your midst! —

¹³ done out of the profits of their evil-doing. Pleasure for them is revelling in open daylight — spots and blots, with their dissipated revelling, as they carouse in your midst! — ¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation!

¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation! ¹⁵ they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing — ¹⁶ but he got reproved for his malpractice: a dumb ass spoke with human voice and checked the prophet's infatuation. ¹⁷ These people are waterless fountains and mists driven by a squall, for whom the nether gloom of darkness is reserved. ¹⁸ By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct — ¹⁹ promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him). ²⁰ After escaping the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if they get entangled and overpowered again, the last state is worse for them than the first. ²¹ Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them. ²² They verify the truth of the proverb: "The dog turns back to what he has vomited, the sow when washed will wallow in the mire."

³ To begin with, you know that mockers will come with their mockeries in the last days, men who go by their own passions,

¹⁵ And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord means salvation; as indeed our beloved brother Paul has written to you out of the wisdom vouchsafed to him, ¹⁶ speaking of this as he has done in all his letters — letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction. ¹⁷ Now, beloved, you are forewarned: mind you are not carried away by the error of the lawless and so lose your proper footing;

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour. You have learned that 'Antichrist is coming.' Well, but many antichrists have appeared — which makes us sure it is the last hour.

¹ Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.

⁷ I say this, because a number of impostors have emerged in the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; that marks the real 'impostor' and 'antichrist.' ⁸ Watch yourselves; you must not lose what you have been working for, but gain a full reward. ⁹ Anyone who is 'advanced' and will not remain by the doctrine of Christ, does not possess God: he who remains by the doctrine of Christ possesses both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house — do not even greet him, ¹¹ for he who greets him shares in his wicked work.

³ Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you on the subject of our common salvation, but I am forced to write you an appeal to defend the faith which has once for all been committed to the saints; ⁴ for certain persons have slipped in by stealth (their doom has been predicted long ago), impious creatures who pervert the grace of our God into immorality and disown our sole liege and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁴ for certain persons have slipped in by stealth (their doom has been predicted long ago), impious creatures who pervert the grace of our God into immorality and disown our sole liege and Lord, Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ But these people scoff at anything they do not understand; and whatever they do understand, like irrational animals, by mere instinct, that proves their ruin. ¹¹ Woe to them! they go the road of Cain, rush into Balaam's error for what it brings them, and perish in Korah's rebellion. ¹² These people are stains on your love-feasts; they have no qualms about carousing in your midst, they look after none but themselves — rainless clouds, swept along by the wind, trees in autumn without fruit, doubly dead and so uprooted, ¹³ wild waves foaming out their own shame, wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved eternally.

² I know your doings, your hard work and your patient endurance; I know that you cannot bear wicked men, and that you have tested those who style themselves apostles (no apostles they!) and detected them to be liars;

⁹ I know your distress and your poverty (but you are rich!): I know how you are being slandered by those who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but a mere synagogue of Satan!).

²⁰ Still I have this against you: you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who styles herself a prophetess and seduces my servants by teaching them to give way to sexual vice and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.

²³ and her children I will exterminate. So shall all the churches know that I am the searcher of the inmost heart; I will requite each of you according to what you have done.

¹⁵ I know your doings, you are neither cold nor hot — would you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You declare, 'I am rich, I am well off, I lack nothing!' — not knowing you are a miserable creature, pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

¹⁷ You declare, 'I am rich, I am well off, I lack nothing!' — not knowing you are a miserable creature, pitiful, poor, blind, naked. ¹⁸ I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, white raiment to clothe you and prevent the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to rub on your eyes, that you may see.

¹¹ they had a king over them, the angel of the abyss — his Hebrew name is Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon.

⁹ So the huge dragon was thrown down — that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, the seducer of the whole world — thrown down to the earth, and his angels thrown down along with him.

² The Beast I saw resembled a leopard, his feet were like a bear's, and his mouth like a lion's. To him the dragon gave his own power and his own throne and great authority.

¹⁴ and by dint of the miracles he is allowed to perform in presence of the Beast, he seduces the dwellers on earth; he bids the dwellers on earth erect a statue to the Beast who lived after being wounded by the sword,

¹⁹ And I saw the Beast and the kings of earth and their troops mustered to wage war on him who was seated on the horse and on his troops. ²⁰ But the Beast was seized, together with the false Prophet who had performed in his presence the miracles by means of which he seduced those who received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his statue; both of them were flung alive into the lake of fire that blazes with brimstone,

²⁰ But the Beast was seized, together with the false Prophet who had performed in his presence the miracles by means of which he seduced those who received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his statue; both of them were flung alive into the lake of fire that blazes with brimstone, ²¹ while the rest were killed by the sword of him who is seated on the horse, by the sword that issues from his lips. And all the birds were glutted with their flesh.

² he gripped the dragon, that old serpent (who is the devil and Satan), and bound him for a thousand years,

² he gripped the dragon, that old serpent (who is the devil and Satan), and bound him for a thousand years, ³ flinging him into the abyss and shutting and sealing it on the top of him, to prevent him seducing the nations again until the thousand years were completed — after which he has to be released for a little while.

⁷ But when the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸ and he will emerge to seduce the nations at the four corners of the earth, even Gog and Magog, mustering them for the fray. Their number was like the sand of the sea, ⁹ and they swarmed over the broad earth, encircling the leaguer of the saints and the beloved City; but fire descended from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰ and their seducer, the devil, was flung into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the false Prophet also lie, to be tortured day and night for ever and ever.