John 16 Cross References - WNT

¹ "These things I have spoken to you in order to clear stumbling-blocks out of your path. ² You will be excluded from the synagogues; nay more, the time is coming when any one who has murdered one of you will suppose he is offering service to God. ³ And they will do these things because they have failed to recognize the Father and to discover who I am. ⁴ But I have spoken these things to you in order that when the time for their accomplishment comes you may remember them, and may recollect that I told you. I did not, however, tell you all this at first, because I was still with you. ⁵ But now I an returning to Him who sent me; and not one of you asks me where I am going. ⁶ But grief has filled your hearts because I have said all this to you. ⁷ "Yet it is the truth that I am telling you--it is to your advantage that I go away. For unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And He, when He comes, will convict the world in respect of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement; -- ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ of judgement, because the Prince of this world is under sentence. ¹² "I have much more to say to you, but you are unable at present to bear the burden of it. ¹³ But when He has come--the Spirit of Truth--He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak as Himself originating what He says, but all that He hears He will speak, and He will make known the future to you. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because He will take of what is mine and will make it known to you. ¹⁵ Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said that the Spirit of Truth takes of what is mine and will make it known to you. ¹⁶ "A little while and you see me no more, and again a little while and you shall see me." ¹⁷ Some of His disciples therefore said to one another, "What does this mean which He is telling us, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" ¹⁸ So they asked one another repeatedly, "What can that 'little while' mean which He speaks of? We do not understand His words." ¹⁹ Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask Him, and He said, "Is this what you are questioning one another about--my saying, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me'? ²⁰ In most solemn truth I tell you that you will weep aloud and lament, but the world will be glad. You will mourn, but your grief will be turned into gladness. ²¹ A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has given birth to the babe, she no longer remembers the pain, because of her joy at a child being born into the world. ²² So you also now have sorrow; but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be glad, and your gladness no one will take away from you. ²³ You will put no questions to me then. "In most solemn truth I tell you that whatever you ask the Father for in my name He will give you. ²⁴ As yet you have not asked for anything in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your hearts may be filled with gladness. ²⁵ "All this I have spoken to you in veiled language. The time is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language, but will tell you about the Father in plain words. ²⁶ At that time you will make your requests in my name; and I do not promise to ask the Father on your behalf, ²⁷ for the Father Himself holds you dear, because you have held me dear and have believed that I came from the Father's presence. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and am going to the Father." ²⁹ "Ah, now you are using plain language," said His disciples, "and are uttering no figure of speech! ³⁰ Now we know that you have all knowledge, and do not need to be pressed with questions. Through this we believe that you came from God." ³¹ "Do you at last believe?" replied Jesus. ³² "Remember that the time is coming, nay, has already come, for you all to be dispersed each to his own home and to leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³ "I have spoken all this to you in order that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction. But keep up your courage: *I* have won the victory over the world."

⁶ and blessed is every one who does not stumble and fall because of my claims."

²¹ It has struck no root, however, within him. He continues for a time, but when suffering comes, or persecution, because of the Message, he at once stumbles and falls.

⁵⁷ So they turned angrily away from Him. But Jesus said to them, "There is no prophet left without honour except in his own country and among his own family."

¹⁰ Then WILL MANY STUMBLE AND FALL, and they will betray one another and hate one another.

³¹ Then said Jesus, "This night all of you will stumble and fail in your fidelity to me; for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK WILL BE SCATTERED IN ALL DIRECTIONS.' ³² But after I have risen to life again I will go before you into Galilee." ³³ "All may stumble and fail," said Peter, "but I never will."

¹¹ "These things I have spoken to you in order that I may have joy in you, and that your joy may become perfect.

¹⁸ If the world hates you, remember that it has first had me as the fixed object of its hatred. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own property. But because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world--for that reason the world hates you. ²⁰ Bear in mind what I said to you, 'A servant is not superior to his master.' If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ But they will inflict all this suffering upon you on account of your bearing my name--because they do not know Him who sent me. ²² "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have had no sin; but as the case stands they are without excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them, as I have, such miracles as no one else ever did, they would have had no sin; but they have in fact seen and also hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this has been so, in order that the saying may be fulfilled which stands written in their Law, 'THEY HAVE HATED ME WITHOUT ANY REASON.' ²⁶ "When the Advocate is come whom I will send to you from the Father's presence--the Spirit of Truth who comes forth from the Father's presence--He will be a witness concerning me. ²⁷ And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the first.

⁴ But I have spoken these things to you in order that when the time for their accomplishment comes you may remember them, and may recollect that I told you. I did not, however, tell you all this at first, because I was still with you.

²¹ The right course is to forego eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything that tends to your brother's fall.

¹⁰ so that you may be men of transparent character, and may be blameless, in preparation for the day of Christ,

⁸ and "A STONE FOR THE FOOT TO STRIKE AGAINST, AND A ROCK TO STUMBLE OVER." Their foot strikes against it because they are disobedient to God's Message, and to this they were appointed.

²⁸ "And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

⁹ "At that time they will deliver you up to punishment and will put you to death; and you will be objects of hatred to all the nations because you are called by my name.

²² "Blessed are you when men shall hate you and exclude you from their society and insult you, and spurn your very names as evil things, for the Son of Man's sake.

²¹ "Believe me," said Jesus, "the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²² Such was their answer, because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already settled among themselves that if any one should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogue.

³⁴ "You," they replied, "were wholly begotten and born in sin, and do *you* teach *us*?" And they put him out of the synagogue.

⁴² Nevertheless even from among the Rulers many believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not avow their belief, for fear they should be shut out from the synagogue.

³³ Infuriated at getting this answer, they were disposed to kill the Apostles.

¹³ Here they brought forward false witnesses who declared, "This fellow is incessantly speaking against the Holy Place and the Law. ¹⁴ For we have heard him say that Jesus, the Nazarene, will pull this place down to the ground and will change the customs which Moses handed down to us."

⁵⁶ "I can see Heaven wide open," he said, "and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand."

¹ Now Saul, whose every breath was a threat of destruction for the disciples of the Lord, ² went to the High Priest and begged from him letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, in order that if he found any believers there, either men or women, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem.

³ "I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I was carefully trained at the feet of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers, and, like all of you to-day, was zealous for God. ⁴ I persecuted to death this new faith, continually binding both men and women and throwing them into prison;

¹⁹ "'Lord,' I replied, 'they themselves well know how active I was in imprisoning, and in flogging in synagogue after synagogue those who believe in Thee; ²⁰ and when they were shedding the blood of Stephen, Thy witness, I was standing by, fully approving of it, and I held the clothes of those who were killing him.' ²¹ "'Go,' He replied; 'I will send you as an Apostle to nations far away.'" ²² Until they heard this last statement the people listened to Paul, but now with a roar of disapproval they cried out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He ought not to be allowed to live." ²³ And when they continued their furious shouts, throwing their clothes into the air and flinging dust about,

⁹ "I myself, however, thought it a duty to do many things in hostility to the name of Jesus, the Nazarene. ¹⁰ And that was how I acted in Jerusalem. Armed with authority received from the High Priests I shut up many of God's people in various prisons, and when they were about to be put to death I gave my vote against them. ¹¹ In all the synagogues also I punished them many a time, and tried to make them blaspheme; and in my wild fury I chased them even to foreign towns.

² For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm. ³ Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to God's righteousness.

¹³ when slandered, we try to conciliate. We have come to be regarded as the mere dirt and filth of the world--the refuse of the universe, even to this hour.

¹³ For you have heard of my early career in Judaism--how I furiously persecuted the Church of God, and made havoc of it; ¹⁴ and how in devotion to Judaism I outstripped many men of my own age among my people, being far more zealous than they on behalf of the traditions of my forefathers.

⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the Church; as to the righteousness which comes through Law, blameless.

⁹ When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed because of the word of God and of the testimony which they had given.

²² All things are delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, nor who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son may choose to reveal Him."

¹⁹ "Where is your Father?" they asked. "You know my Father as little as you know me." He replied; "if you knew me, you would know my Father also."

⁵⁵ You do not know Him, but I know Him perfectly; and were I to deny my knowledge of Him, I should resemble you, and be a liar. On the contrary I do know Him, and I obey His commands.

²¹ But they will inflict all this suffering upon you on account of your bearing my name--because they do not know Him who sent me.

²³ He who hates me hates my Father also.

³ And in this consists the Life of the Ages--in knowing Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

²⁵ And, righteous Father, though the world has failed to recognize Thee, I have known Thee, and these have perceived that Thou didst send me.

⁸ a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses, for if they had possessed it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

³ If, however, the meaning of our Good News has been veiled, the veil has been on the hearts of those who are on the way to perdition, ⁴ in whom the god of this present age has blinded their unbelieving minds so as to shut out the sunshine of the Good News of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ (For we do not proclaim ourselves, but we proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for the sake of Jesus.) ⁶ For God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," is He who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory, which is radiant on the face of Christ.

⁸ He will come in flames of fire to take vengeance on those who have no knowledge of God, and do not obey the Good News as to Jesus, our Lord.

¹⁰ and by every kind of wicked deception for those who are on the way to perdition because they did not welcome into their hearts the love of the truth, so that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God sends them a misleading influence that they may believe the lie; ¹² in order that all may come under judgement who have refused to believe the truth and have taken pleasure in unrighteousness.

¹³ though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and had been insolent in outrage. Yet mercy was shown me, because I had acted ignorantly, not having as yet believed;

¹ See what marvellous love the Father has bestowed upon us--that we should be called God's children: and that is what we are. For this reason the world does not recognize us--because it has not known Him.

⁸ He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we know the true One, and are in union with the true One--that is, we are in union with His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the Life of the Ages.

¹⁵ "Can the bridegroom's party mourn," He replied, "as long as the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them) and then they will fast.

⁷ And as you go, preach and say, 'The Kingdom of the Heavens is close at hand.'

²⁵ Remember, I have forewarned you.

¹⁹ "Can a wedding party fast while the bridegroom is among them?" replied Jesus. "So long as they have the bridegroom with them, fasting is impossible.

²³ But as for yourselves, be on your guard: I have forewarned you of everything.

¹² "But before all these things happen they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you up to synagogues and to prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my sake. ¹³ In the end all this will be evidence of your fidelity.

¹⁹ From this time forward I tell you things before they happen, in order that when they do happen you may believe that I am He.

²⁹ I have now told you before it comes to pass, that when it has come to pass you may believe.

¹² While I was with them, I kept them true to Thy name--the name Thou hast given me to bear--and I kept watch over them, and not one of them is lost but only he who is doomed to destruction--that the Scripture may be fulfilled. ¹³ "But now I am coming to Thee, and I speak these words while I am in the world, in order that they may have my gladness within them filling their hearts.

¹⁶ For I will let him know the great sufferings which he must pass through for My sake."

²³ except that the Holy Spirit, at town after town, testifies to me that imprisonment and suffering are awaiting me. ²⁴ But even the sacrifice of my life I count as nothing, if only I may perfect my earthly course, and be faithful to the duty which the Lord Jesus has entrusted to me of proclaiming, as of supreme importance, the Good News of God's grace.

¹⁴ For I know that the time for me to lay aside my body is now rapidly drawing near, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to me.

⁶² "Does this seem incredible to you? What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascending again where He was before?

³³ So Jesus said, "Still for a short time I am with you, and then I go my way to Him who sent me.

³ although He knew that the Father had put everything into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was now going to God,

³⁶ "Master," inquired Simon Peter, "where are you going?" "Where I am going," replied Jesus, "you cannot be my follower now, but you shall be later."

⁴ And where I am going, you all know the way." ⁵ "Master," said Thomas, "we do not know where you are going. In what sense do we know the way?" ⁶ "I am the Way," replied Jesus, "and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

²⁸ "You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and yet I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I am.

¹⁰ of righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will no longer see me;

¹⁶ "A little while and you see me no more, and again a little while and you shall see me."

²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and am going to the Father."

⁴ I have glorified Thee on earth, having done perfectly the work which by Thine appointment has been mine to do.

¹³ "But now I am coming to Thee, and I speak these words while I am in the world, in order that they may have my gladness within them filling their hearts.

⁷ Yet to each of us individually grace was given, measured out with the munificence of Christ. ⁸ For this reason Scripture says: "HE RE-ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." ⁹ (Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the same as He who ascended again far above all the Heavens in order to fill the universe.) ¹¹ And He Himself appointed some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers,

³ He brightly reflects God's glory and is the exact representation of His being, and upholds the universe by His all-powerful word. After securing man's purification from sin He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

² simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself-- where He still sits--at the right hand of the throne of God.

⁴⁵ When He rose from his prayer and came to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow.

¹⁷ "What is the subject," He asked them, "on which you are talking so earnestly, as you walk?" And they stood still, looking full of sorrow.

¹ "Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God: trust in me also.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you: my own peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives its greetings that I give you peace. Let not your hearts be troubled or dismayed. ²⁸ "You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and yet I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I am.

²⁰ In most solemn truth I tell you that you will weep aloud and lament, but the world will be glad. You will mourn, but your grief will be turned into gladness. ²¹ A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has given birth to the babe, she no longer remembers the pain, because of her joy at a child being born into the world. ²² So you also now have sorrow; but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be glad, and your gladness no one will take away from you.

¹¹ Meanwhile Mary remained standing near the tomb, weeping aloud. She did not enter the tomb, but as she wept she stooped and looked in, ¹² and saw two angels clothed in white raiment, sitting one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. ¹³ They spoke to her. "Why are you weeping?" they asked. "Because," she replied, "they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have put him." ¹⁴ While she was speaking, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but did not recognize Him. ¹⁵ "Why are you weeping?" He asked; "who are you looking for?" She, supposing that He was the gardener, replied, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will remove him."

²⁵ But I tell you in truth that there was many a widow in Israel in the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three years and six months and there came a severe famine over all the land;

²⁷ I tell you truly that there are some of those who stand here who will certainly not taste death till they have seen the Kingdom of God."

⁴⁹ And remember that I am about to send out my Father's promised gift to rest upon you. But, as for you, wait patiently in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

³⁹ He referred to the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not bestowed as yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which of *you* convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?

⁵⁰ You do not reflect that it is to your interest that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish." ⁵¹ It was not as a mere man that he thus spoke. But being High Priest that year he was inspired to declare that Jesus was to die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but in order to unite into one body all the far-scattered children of God.

³ And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me, that where I am you also may be.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be for ever with you--the Spirit of truth. ¹⁷ That Spirit the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him, because He remains by your side and is in you.

²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will teach you everything, and will bring to your memories all that I have said to you.

²⁶ "When the Advocate is come whom I will send to you from the Father's presence--the Spirit of Truth who comes forth from the Father's presence--He will be a witness concerning me.

⁴ And while in their company He charged them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promised gift. "This you have heard of," He said, "from me. ⁵ For John indeed baptized with water, but before many days have passed you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

³³ "Being therefore lifted high by the mighty hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out this which you see and hear.

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak. "I clearly see," he said, "that God makes no distinctions between one man and another;

²⁸ Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

¹⁷ For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a preponderating, yes, a vastly preponderating, and eternal weight of glory;

⁸ For this reason Scripture says: "HE RE-ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." ⁹ (Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the same as He who ascended again far above all the Heavens in order to fill the universe.) ¹¹ And He Himself appointed some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, ¹² in order fully to equip His people for the work of serving--for the building up of Christ's body-- ¹³ till we all of us arrive at oneness in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at mature manhood and the stature of full-grown men in Christ.

⁹ They listened to Him, and then, beginning with the eldest, took their departure, one by one, till all were gone. And Jesus was left behind alone--and the woman in the centre of the court.

⁴⁶ Which of *you* convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?

³⁷ Stung to the heart by these words, they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, "Brethren, what are we to do?"

²⁹ Then, calling for lights, he sprang in and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas; ³⁰ and, bringing them out of the prison, he exclaimed, "O sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

²⁴ If, on the other hand, every one is prophesying and an unbeliever or an ungifted man comes in, he is convicted by all and closely examined by all,

¹⁵ and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which in their ungodliness they have committed, and of all the hard words which they, ungodly sinners as they are, have spoken against Him."

¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who disbelieves will be condemned.

¹⁸ He who trusts in Him does not come up for judgement. He who does not trust has already received sentence, because he has not his trust resting on the name of God's only Son. ¹⁹ And this is the test by which men are judged--the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than they loved the Light, because their deeds were wicked. ²⁰ For every wrongdoer hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear his actions should be exposed and condemned. ²¹ But he who does what is honest and right comes to the light, in order that his actions may be plainly shown to have been done in God.

⁴⁰ and yet you are unwilling to come to me that you may have Life. ⁴¹ "I do not accept glory from man, ⁴² but I know you well, and I know that in your hearts you do not really love God. ⁴³ I have come as my Father's representative, and you do not receive me. If some one else comes representing only himself, him you will receive. ⁴⁴ How is it possible for you to believe, while you receive glory from one another and have no desire for the glory that comes from the only God?

²³ "You," He continued, "are from below, I am from above: you are of this present world, I am not of this present world. ²⁴ That is why I told you that you will die in your sins; for, unless you believe that I am He, that is what will happen."

⁴² "If God were your Father," said Jesus, "you would love me; for it is from God that I came and I am now here. I have not come of myself, but *He* sent me. ⁴³ How is it you do not understand me when I speak? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my words. ⁴⁴ The father whose sons you are is the Devil; and you desire to do what gives him pleasure. *He* was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth--for there is no truth in him. Whenever he utters his lie, he utters it out of his own store; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which of *you* convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ He who is a child of God listens to God's words. You do not listen to them: and why? It is because you are not God's children."

⁴⁷ And if any one hears my teachings and regards them not, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ He who sets me at naught and does not receive my teachings is not left without a judge: the Message which I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

²² "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have had no sin; but as the case stands they are without excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them, as I have, such miracles as no one else ever did, they would have had no sin; but they have in fact seen and also hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this has been so, in order that the saying may be fulfilled which stands written in their Law, 'THEY HAVE HATED ME WITHOUT ANY REASON.'

²² "Listen, Israelites, to what I say. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man accredited to you from God by miracles and marvels and signs which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know, Him-- ²³ delivered up through God's settled purpose and foreknowledge--you by the hands of Gentiles have nailed to a cross and have put to death. ²⁴ But God has raised Him to life, having terminated the throes of death, for in fact it was not possible for Him to be held fast by death. ²⁵ For David says in reference to Him, "'I CONSTANTLY FIXED MY EYES UPON THE LORD, BECAUSE HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND IN ORDER THAT I MAY CONTINUE UNSHAKEN. ²⁶ FOR THIS REASON MY HEART IS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTS. MY BODY ALSO SHALL REST IN HOPE. ²⁷ FOR THOU WILT NOT LEAVE ME IN THE UNSEEN WORLD FORSAKEN, NOR GIVE UP THY HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. ²⁸ THOU HAST MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE: THOU WILT FILL ME WITH GLADNESS IN THY PRESENCE.' ²⁹ "As to the patriarch David, I need hardly remind you, brethren, that he died and was buried, and that we still have his tomb among us. ³⁰ Being a Prophet, however, and knowing that God had solemnly sworn to him to seat a descendant of his upon his throne, ³¹ with prophetic foresight he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, to the effect that He was not left forsaken in the Unseen World, nor did His body undergo decay. ³² This Jesus, God has raised to life-- a fact to which all of us testify. ³³ "Being therefore lifted high by the mighty hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out this which you see and hear. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into Heaven, but he says himself, "'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND ³⁵ UNTIL I MAKE THY FOES A FOOTSTOOL UNDER THY FEET.' ³⁶ "Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified." ³⁷ Stung to the heart by these words, they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, "Brethren, what are we to do?" ³⁸ "Repent," replied Peter, "and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, with a view to the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴ Yes, you disowned the holy and righteous One, and asked as a favour the release of a murderer. ¹⁵ The Prince of Life you put to death; but God has raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses as to that. ¹⁶ It is His name-- faith in that name being the condition--which has strengthened this man whom you behold and know; and the faith which He has given has made this man sound and strong again, as you can all see. ¹⁷ "And now, brethren, I know that it was in ignorance that you did it, as was the case with your rulers also. ¹⁸ But in this way God has fulfilled the declarations He made through all the Prophets, that His Christ would suffer. ¹⁹ Repent, therefore, and reform your lives, so that the record of your sins may be cancelled, and that there may come seasons of revival from the Lord,

⁵¹ "O stiff-necked men, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you also are continually at strife with the Holy Spirit--just as your forefathers were. ⁵² Which of the Prophets did not your forefathers persecute? Yes, they killed those who announced beforehand the advent of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become-- ⁵³ you who received the Law given through angels, and yet have not obeyed it." ⁵⁴ As they listened to these words, they became infuriated and gnashed their teeth at him.

⁹ "I myself, however, thought it a duty to do many things in hostility to the name of Jesus, the Nazarene. ¹⁰ And that was how I acted in Jerusalem. Armed with authority received from the High Priests I shut up many of God's people in various prisons, and when they were about to be put to death I gave my vote against them.

¹⁹ But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God. ²⁰ For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

⁹ Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died;

¹⁵ Those Jewish persecutors killed both the Lord Jesus and the Prophets, and drove us out of their midst. They are displeasing to God, and are the enemies of all mankind; ¹⁶ for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them.

¹² see to it, brethren, that there is never in any one of you--as perhaps there may be--a sinful and unbelieving heart, manifesting itself in revolt from the ever-living God.

²⁸ Any one who bids defiance to the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted high the serpent in the Desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

³² There is Another who gives testimony concerning me, and I know that the testimony is true which He offers concerning me.

³² This Jesus, God has raised to life-- a fact to which all of us testify.

¹⁴ Yes, you disowned the holy and righteous One, and asked as a favour the release of a murderer.

⁵² Which of the Prophets did not your forefathers persecute? Yes, they killed those who announced beforehand the advent of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become--

³¹ seeing that He has appointed a day on which, before long, He will judge the world in righteousness, through the instrumentality of a man whom He has pre-destined to this work, and has made the fact certain to every one by raising Him from the dead."

¹⁷ For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the Scripture has it, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

²¹ But now a righteousness coming from God has been brought to light apart from any Law, both Law and Prophets bearing witness to it-- ²² a righteousness coming from God, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ and extends to all who believe. No distinction is made; ²³ for all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of God, ²⁴ gaining acquittal from guilt by His free unpurchased grace through the deliverance which is found in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ He it is whom God put forward as a Mercy-seat, rendered efficacious through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness-- because of the passing over, in God's forbearance, of the sins previously committed-- ²⁶ with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.

¹⁷ For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race. ¹⁹ For as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous. ²⁰ Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed; ²¹ in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

³³ Who shall impeach those whom God has chosen? God declares them free from guilt. ³⁴ Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.

³ Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to God's righteousness. ⁴ For as a means of righteousness Christ is the termination of Law to every believer.

³⁰ But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

¹⁴ And if Christ has not risen, it follows that what we preach is a delusion, and that your faith also is a delusion. ¹⁵ Nay more, we are actually being discovered to be bearing false witness about God, because we have testified that God raised Christ to life, whom He did not raise, if in reality none of the dead are raised. ¹⁶ For if none of the dead are raised to life, then Christ has not risen; ¹⁷ and if Christ has not risen, your faith is a vain thing--you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ It follows also that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this present life we have a *hope* resting on Christ, and nothing more, we are more to be pitied than all the rest of the world. ²⁰ But, in reality, Christ *has* risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep.

²¹ He has made Him who knew nothing of sin to be sin for us, in order that in Him we may become the righteousness of God.

⁵ *We* have not, for through the Spirit we wait with longing hope for an acceptance with God which is to come through faith.

⁷ Yet all that was gain to me--for Christ's sake I have reckoned it loss. ⁸ Nay, I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And for His sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and reckon it all as mere refuse, in order that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him, ⁹ not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the Law, but that which arises from faith in Christ--the righteousness which comes from God through faith.

¹⁶ And, beyond controversy, great is the mystery of our religion-- that Christ appeared in human form, and His claims justified by the Spirit, was seen by angels and proclaimed among Gentile nations, was believed on in the world, and received up again into glory.

⁵ That is why, when He comes into the world, He says, "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING THOU HAS NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY THOU HAST PREPARED FOR ME. ⁶ IN WHOLE BURNT-OFFERINGS AND IN SIN-OFFERINGS THOU HAST TAKEN NO PLEASURE. ⁷ THEN I SAID, 'I HAVE COME--IN THE ROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN CONCERNING ME--TO DO THY WILL, O GOD.'" ⁸ After saying the words I have just quoted, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS OR WHOLE BURNT-OFFERINGS AND SIN-OFFERINGS THOU HAST NOT DESIRED OR TAKEN PLEASURE IN" --all such being offered in obedience to the Law-- ⁹ He then adds, "I HAVE COME TO DO THY WILL." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ It is through that divine will that we have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all. ¹¹ And while every priest stands ministering, day after day, and constantly offering the same sacrifices--though such can never rid us of our sins-- ¹² this Priest, on the contrary, after offering for sins a single sacrifice of perpetual efficacy, took His seat at God's right hand, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be put as a footstool under His feet.

¹⁸ because Christ also once for all died for sins, the innocent One for the guilty many, in order to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,

¹⁸ "THIS IS MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN, MY DEARLY LOVED ONE IN WHOM MY SOUL TAKES PLEASURE. I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE WILL ANNOUNCE JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS.

³⁶ But I tell you that for every careless word that men shall speak they will be held accountable on the day of Judgement.

¹⁸ "I saw Satan fall like a lightning-flash out of Heaven," He replied.

²² The Father indeed does not judge any one, but He has entrusted all judgement to the Son, ²³ that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father. The man who withholds honour from the Son withholds honour from the Father who sent Him. ²⁴ "In most solemn truth I tell you that he who listens to my teaching and believes Him who sent me, has the Life of the Ages, and does not come under judgement, but has passed over out of death into Life. ²⁵ "In most solemn truth I tell you that a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. ²⁶ For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has also given to the Son to have life in Himself. ²⁷ And He has conferred on Him authority to act as Judge, because He is the Son of Man.

³¹ Now is a judgement of this world: now will the Prince of this world be driven out.

³⁰ In future I shall not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world is coming. And yet in me he has nothing;

⁴² And He has commanded us to preach to the people and solemnly declare that this is He who has been appointed by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.

³⁰ Those times of ignorance God viewed with indulgence. But now He commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ seeing that He has appointed a day on which, before long, He will judge the world in righteousness, through the instrumentality of a man whom He has pre-destined to this work, and has made the fact certain to every one by raising Him from the dead."

²⁵ But when he dealt with the subjects of justice, self-control, and the judgement which was soon to come, Felix became alarmed and said, "For the present leave me, and when I can find a convenient opportunity I will send for you."

¹⁸ that they may turn from darkness to light and from the obedience to Satan to God, in order to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified through faith in Me.'

² and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth. ³ And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs--do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when God judges? ⁴ Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance?

¹⁶ on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.

¹⁰ But you, why do you find fault with your brother? Or you, why do you look down upon your brother? We shall all stand before God to be judged; ¹¹ for it is written, "'AS I LIVE,' says the Lord, 'TO ME EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL MAKE CONFESSION TO GOD.'" ¹² So we see that every one of us will give account of himself to God.

²⁰ And before long, God the giver of peace will crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

⁵ Therefore form no premature judgements, but wait until the Lord returns. He will both bring to light the secrets of darkness and will openly disclose the motives that have been in people's hearts; and then the praise which each man deserves will come to him from God.

³ Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels--to say nothing of things belonging to this life? ⁴ If therefore you have things belonging to this life which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the Church--is it *they* whom you make your judges?

⁴ in whom the god of this present age has blinded their unbelieving minds so as to shut out the sunshine of the Good News of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God.

¹⁰ For we must all of us appear before Christ's judgement-seat in our true characters, in order that each may then receive an award for his actions in this life, in accordance with what he has done, whether it be good or whether it be worthless. ¹¹ Therefore, because we realize how greatly the Lord is to be feared, we are endeavouring to win men over, and God recognizes what our motives are, and I hope that you, in your hearts, recognize them too.

² which were once habitual to you while you walked in the ways of this world and obeyed the Prince of the powers of the air, the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience--to you God has given Life.

¹⁵ And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by the Cross He triumphed over them.

¹⁴ Since then the children referred to are all alike sharers in perishable human nature, He Himself also, in the same way, took on Him a share of it, in order that through death He might render powerless him who had authority over death, that is, the Devil,

² or of teaching about ceremonial washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgement.

²⁷ And since it is reserved for all mankind once to die, and afterwards to be judged;

⁴ For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but hurling them down to Tartarus consigned them to caves of darkness, keeping them in readiness for judgement. ⁵ And He did not spare the ancient world, although He preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a deluge on the world of the ungodly. ⁶ He reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and condemned them to overthrow, making them an example to people who might in future be living godless lives. ⁷ But when righteous Lot was sore distressed by the gross misconduct of immoral men He rescued him. ⁸ (For their lawless deeds were torture, day after day, to the pure soul of that righteous man--all that he saw and heard whilst living in their midst.) ⁹ Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the unrighteous under punishment in readiness for the Day of Judgement,

⁷ But the present heavens and the present earth are, by the command of the same God, kept stored up, reserved for fire in preparation for a day of judgement and of destruction for the ungodly. ⁸ He who is habitually guilty of sin is a child of the Devil, because the Devil has been a sinner from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the Devil.

⁷ He is coming in the clouds, and every eye will see Him, and so will those who pierced Him; and all the nations of the earth will gaze on Him and mourn. Even so. Amen.

⁷ And war broke out in Heaven, Michael and his angels engaging in battle with the Dragon. ⁸ The Dragon fought and so did his angels; but they were defeated, and there was no longer any room found for them in Heaven. ⁹ The great Dragon, the ancient serpent, he who is called 'the Devil' and 'the Adversary' and leads the whole earth astray, was hurled down: he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice speaking in Heaven. It said, "The salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God have now come, and the sovereignty of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren has been hurled down--he who, day after day and night after night, was wont to accuse them in the presence of God.

² He laid hold of the Dragon--the ancient serpent--who is the Devil and the Adversary, and bound him for a thousand years, and hurled him into the bottomless pit. ³ He closed the entrance and put a seal upon him in order that he might be unable to lead the nations astray any more until the thousand years were at an end. Afterwards he is to be set at liberty for a short time.

¹⁰ and the Devil, who had been leading them astray, was thrown into the Lake of fire and sulphur where the Wild Beast and the false Prophet were, and day and night they will suffer torture until the Ages of the Ages. ¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and One who was seated on it, from whose presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing in front of the throne. And books were opened; and so was another book--namely, the Book of Life; and the dead were judged by the things recorded in the books in accordance with what their conduct had been. ¹³ Then the sea yielded up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades yielded up the dead who were in them, and each man was judged in accordance with what his conduct had been. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of fire; this is the Second Death--the Lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if any one's name was not found recorded in the Book of Life he was thrown into the Lake of fire.

³³ With many such parables He used to speak the Message to them according to their capacity for receiving it.

¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you.

³ He had also, after He suffered, shown Himself alive to them with many sure proofs, appearing to them at intervals during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God.

¹ And as for myself, brethren, I found it impossible to speak to you as spiritual men. It had to be as to worldlings--mere babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are not strong enough:

¹¹ Concerning Him we have much to say, and much that it would be difficult to make clear to you, since you have become so dull of apprehension. ¹² For although, considering the long time you have been believers, you ought now to be teachers of others, you really need some one to teach you over again the very rudiments of the truths of God, and you have come to require milk instead of solid food. ¹³ By people who live on milk I mean those who are imperfectly acquainted with the teaching concerning righteousness. ¹⁴ Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.

³² What He has seen and heard, to that He bears witness; but His testimony no one receives.

¹⁶ Jesus answered their question by saying, "My teaching does not belong to me, but comes from Him who sent me. ¹⁷ If any one is willing to do His will, he shall know about the teaching, whether it is from God or originates with me. ¹⁸ The man whose teaching originates with himself aims at his own glory. He who aims at the glory of Him who sent him teaches the truth, and there is no deception in him.

³⁸ The words I speak are those I have learnt in the presence of the Father. Therefore you also should do what you have heard from your father."

⁴⁹ Because I have not spoken on my own authority; but the Father who sent me, Himself gave me a command what to say and in what words to speak.

⁶ "I am the Way," replied Jesus, "and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

¹⁷ That Spirit the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him, because He remains by your side and is in you.

¹⁷ "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS, GOD SAYS, THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL HAVE DREAMS; ¹⁸ AND EVEN UPON MY BONDSERVANTS, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, AT THAT TIME, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT, AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY.

²⁸ one of whom, named Agabus, being instructed by the Spirit, publicly predicted the speedy coming of a great famine throughout the world. (It came in the reign of Claudius.)

²³ except that the Holy Spirit, at town after town, testifies to me that imprisonment and suffering are awaiting me.

⁹ Now Philip had four unmarried daughters who were prophetesses; ¹⁰ and during our somewhat lengthy stay a Prophet of the name of Agabus came down from Judaea. ¹¹ When he arrived he took Paul's loincloth, and bound his own feet and arms with it, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So will the Jews in Jerusalem bind the owner of this loincloth, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"

²⁴ and he said, "'Dismiss all fear, Paul, for you must stand before Caesar; and God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you.'

¹⁰ For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature. ¹¹ For, among human beings, who knows a man's inner thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God's Spirit is acquainted with God's inner thoughts. ¹² But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God. ¹³ Of these we speak--not in language which man's wisdom teaches us, but in that which the Spirit teaches--adapting, as we do, spiritual words to spiritual truths.

⁷ Yet to each of us individually grace was given, measured out with the munificence of Christ. ⁸ For this reason Scripture says: "HE RE-ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." ⁹ (Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the same as He who ascended again far above all the Heavens in order to fill the universe.) ¹¹ And He Himself appointed some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, ¹² in order fully to equip His people for the work of serving--for the building up of Christ's body-- ¹³ till we all of us arrive at oneness in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at mature manhood and the stature of full-grown men in Christ. ¹⁴ So we shall no longer be babes nor shall we resemble mariners tossed on the waves and carried about with every changing wind of doctrine according to men's cleverness and unscrupulous cunning, making use of every shifting device to mislead. ¹⁵ But we shall lovingly hold to the truth, and shall in all respects grow up into union with Him who is our Head, even Christ.

³ Let no one in any way deceive you, for that day cannot come without the coming of the apostasy first, and the appearing of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sets himself against,

¹² in order that all may come under judgement who have refused to believe the truth and have taken pleasure in unrighteousness.

¹ Now the Spirit expressly declares that in later times some will fall away from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons; ² through the hypocrisy of men who teach falsely and have their own consciences seared as with a hot iron; ³ forbidding people to marry, and insisting on abstinence from foods which God has created to be partaken of, with thankfulness, by those who believe and have a clear knowledge of the truth.

¹ But of this be assured: in the last days grievous times will set in. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, profane. They will be disobedient to parents, thankless, irreligious, ³ destitute of natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers. They will have no self-control, but will be brutal, opposed to goodness, ⁴ treacherous, headstrong, self-important. They will love pleasure instead of loving God, ⁵ and will keep up a make-believe of piety and yet live in defiance of its power. Turn away from people of this sort.

¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be teachers of falsehood among you also, who will cunningly introduce fatal divisions, disowning even the Sovereign Lord who has redeemed them, and bringing on themselves swift destruction. ² And in their immoral ways they will have many eager disciples, through whom religion will be brought into disrepute. ³ Thirsting for riches, they will trade on you with their canting talk. From of old their judgement has been working itself out, and their destruction has not been slumbering. ⁴ For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but hurling them down to Tartarus consigned them to caves of darkness, keeping them in readiness for judgement. ⁵ And He did not spare the ancient world, although He preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a deluge on the world of the ungodly. ⁶ He reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and condemned them to overthrow, making them an example to people who might in future be living godless lives. ⁷ But when righteous Lot was sore distressed by the gross misconduct of immoral men He rescued him. ⁸ (For their lawless deeds were torture, day after day, to the pure soul of that righteous man--all that he saw and heard whilst living in their midst.) ⁹ Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the unrighteous under punishment in readiness for the Day of Judgement, ¹⁰ and especially those who are abandoned to sensuality--craving, as they do, for polluted things, and scorning control. Fool-hardy and self-willed, they do not tremble when speaking evil of glorious beings; ¹¹ while angels, though greater than they in might and power, do not bring any insulting accusation against such in the presence of the Lord. ¹² But these men, like brute beasts, created (with their natural instincts) only to be captured or destroyed, are abusive in matters of which they are ignorant, and in their corruption will perish, ¹³ being doomed to receive a requital for their guilt. They reckon it pleasure to feast daintily in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, while feeding luxuriously at their love-feasts, and banqueting with you. ¹⁴ Their very eyes are full of adultery--being eyes which never cease from sin. These men set traps to catch unstedfast souls, their own hearts being well trained in greed. They are fore-doomed to God's curse! ¹⁵ Forsaking the straight road, they have gone astray, having eagerly followed in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was bent on securing the wages of unrighteousness. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his transgression: a dumb ass spoke with a human voice and checked the madness of the Prophet. ¹⁷ These people are wells without water, mists driven along by a storm, men for whom the dense darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸ For, while they pour out their frivolous and arrogant talk, they use earthly cravings--every kind of immorality--as a bait to entrap men who are just escaping from the influence of those who live in error. ¹⁹ And they promise them freedom, although they are themselves the slaves of what is corrupt. For a man is the slave of any one by whom he has been worsted in fight. ²⁰ For if, after escaping from the pollutions of the world through a full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, people are once more entangled in these pollutions and are overcome, their last state has become worse than their first. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandments in which they were instructed. ²² Their case is that described in the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO WHAT HE HAS VOMITED," and also in the other proverb, "The sow has washed itself and now goes back to roll in its filth."

²⁰ As for you, you have an anointing from the holy One and have perfect knowledge.

²⁷ And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains within you, and there is no need for any one to teach you. But since His anointing gives you instruction in all things--and is true and is no falsehood--you are continuing in union with Him even as it has taught you to do.

⁶ The man who is beginning to know God listens to us, but he who is not a child of God does not listen to us. By this test we can distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

¹ The revelation given by Jesus Christ, which God granted Him, that He might make known to His servants certain events which must shortly come to pass: and He sent His angel and communicated it to His servant John.

¹⁹ Write down therefore the things you have just seen, and those which are now taking place, and those which are soon to follow:

¹ And when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals I saw it, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as if in a voice of thunder, "Come." ² And I looked and a white horse appeared, and its rider carried a bow; and a victor's wreath was given to him; and he went out conquering and in order to conquer. ³ And when the Lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come." ⁴ And another horse came out--a fiery-red one; and power was given to its rider to take peace from the earth, and to cause men to kill one another; and a great sword was given to him. ⁵ When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come." I looked, and a black horse appeared, its rider carrying a balance in his hand. ⁶ And I heard what seemed to be a voice speaking in the midst of the four living creatures, and saying, "A quart of wheat for a shilling, and three quarts of barley for a shilling; but do not injure either the oil or the wine." ⁷ When the Lamb broke the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come." ⁸ I looked and a pale-colored horse appeared. Its rider's name was Death, and Hades came close behind him; and authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword or with famine or pestilence or by means of the wild beasts of the earth. ⁹ When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed because of the word of God and of the testimony which they had given. ¹⁰ And now in loud voices they cried out, saying, "How long, O Sovereign Lord, the holy One and the true, dost Thou delay judgment and the taking of vengeance upon the inhabitants of the earth for our blood?" ¹¹ And there was given to each of them a long white robe, and they were bidden to wait patiently for a short time longer, until the full number of their fellow bondservants should also complete--namely of their brethren who were soon to be killed just as they had been. ¹² When the Lamb broke the sixth seal I looked, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became as dark as sackcloth, and the whole disc of the moon became like blood. ¹³ The stars in the sky also fell to the earth, as when a fig-tree, upon being shaken by a gale of wind, casts its unripe figs to the ground. ¹⁴ The sky too passed away, as if a scroll were being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. ¹⁵ The kings of the earth and the great men, the military chiefs, the wealthy and the powerful--all, whether slaves or free men--hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶ while they called to the mountains and the rocks, saying, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the day of His anger--that great day--has come, and who is able to stand?"

¹ Then he showed me the river of the Water of Life, bright as crystal, issuing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² On either side of the river, midway between it and the main street of the city, was the Tree of Life. It produced twelve kinds of fruit, yielding a fresh crop month by month, and the leaves of the tree served as medicine for the nations. ³ "In future there will be no curse," he said, "but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in that city. And His servants will render Him holy service and will see His face, ⁴ and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will be no night there; and they have no need of lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shine upon them, and they will be kings until the Ages of the Ages." ⁶ And he said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the Prophets, sent His angel to make known to His servants the things which must soon happen. ⁷ 'I am coming quickly.' Blessed is he who is mindful of the predictions contained in this book." ⁸ I John heard and saw these things; and when I had heard and seen them, I fell at the feet of the angel who was showing me them--to worship him. ⁹ But he said to me, "Oh, do not do that. I am a fellow bondservant of yours, and a fellow bondservant of your brethren the Prophets and of those who are mindful of the teachings of this book. Worship God." ¹⁰ "Make no secret," he added, "of the meaning of the predictions contained in this book; for the time for their fulfillment is now close at hand. ¹¹ Let the dishonest man act dishonestly still; let the filthy make himself filthy still; let the righteous practise righteousness still; and let the holy be made holy still." ¹² "I am coming quickly; and My reward is with Me, that I may requite every man in accordance with what his conduct has been. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes clean, that they may have a right to the Tree of Life, and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ The unclean are shut out, and so are all who practise magic, all fornicators, all murderers, and those who worship idols, and every one who loves falsehood and tells lies. ¹⁶ "I Jesus have sent My angel for him solemnly to declare these things to you among the Churches. I am the Root and the offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. ¹⁷ The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come;' and whoever hears, let him say, 'Come;' and let those who are thirsty come. Whoever will, let him take the Water of Life, without payment. ¹⁸ "I solemnly declare to every one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book, that if any one adds to those words, God will add to him the plagues spoken of in this book; ¹⁹ and that if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take from him his share in the Tree of Life and in the holy city--the things described in this book. ²⁰ "He who solemnly declares all this says, "'Yes, I am coming quickly.'" Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people.

⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will no longer see me;

³² This Jesus, God has raised to life-- a fact to which all of us testify. ³³ "Being therefore lifted high by the mighty hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out this which you see and hear. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into Heaven, but he says himself, "'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND ³⁵ UNTIL I MAKE THY FOES A FOOTSTOOL UNDER THY FEET.' ³⁶ "Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified."

¹⁰ be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that through the name of Jesus the Anointed, the Nazarene, whom *you* crucified, but whom *God* has raised from among the dead-- through that name this man stands here before you in perfect health. ¹¹ This Jesus is THE STONE TREATED WITH CONTEMPT BY YOU THE BUILDERS, BUT IT HAS BEEN MADE THE CORNERSTONE. ¹² And in no other is the great salvation to be found; for, in fact, there is no second name under Heaven that has been given among men through which we are to be saved."

⁸ a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses, for if they had possessed it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But--to use the words of Scripture--we speak of THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN NOR EAR HEARD, and which have never entered the heart of man: ALL THAT GOD HAS IN READINESS FOR THEM THAT LOVE HIM. ¹⁰ For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature.

³ For this reason I would have you understand that no one speaking under the influence of The Spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed," and that no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴ Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day during the reading of the book of the ancient Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only in Christ that it is to be abolished. ¹⁵ Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn. ¹⁷ Now by "the Lord" is meant the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is enjoyed. ¹⁸ And all of us, with unveiled faces, reflecting like bright mirrors the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same likeness, from one degree of radiant holiness to another, even as derived from the Lord the Spirit.

⁶ For God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," is He who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory, which is radiant on the face of Christ.

¹⁰ There were Prophets who earnestly inquired about that salvation, and closely searched into it--even those who spoke beforehand of the grace which was to come to you. ¹¹ They were eager to know the time which the Spirit of Christ within them kept indicating, or the characteristics of that time, when they solemnly made known beforehand the sufferings that were to come upon Christ and the glories which would follow. ¹² To them it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you, when they foretold the very things which have now been openly declared to you by those who, having been taught by the Holy Spirit which had been sent from Heaven, brought you the Good News. Angels long to stoop and look into these things.

⁷ To you believers, therefore, that honour belongs; but for unbelievers-- "A STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BEEN MADE THE CORNERSTONE,"

²³ And this is His command--that we are to believe in His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us to do.

¹³ We can know that we are continuing in union with Him and that He is continuing in union with us, by the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

⁶ Jesus Christ is He who came with water and blood; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit who gives testimony-- because the Spirit is the Truth.

¹⁰ Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he exclaimed, "Oh, do not do that. I am a fellow bondservant of yours and a fellow bondservant of your brethren who have borne testimony to Jesus. Worship God." Testimony to Jesus is the spirit which underlies Prophecy.

²⁷ "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one fully knows the Son except the Father, nor does any one fully know the Father except the Son and all to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

¹⁸ Jesus however came near and said to them, "All power in Heaven and over the earth has been given to me.

³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to His hands.

²⁹ What my Father has given me is more precious than all besides; and no one is able to wrest anything from my Father's hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one."

² even as Thou hast given Him authority over all mankind, so that on all whom Thou hast given Him He may bestow the Life of the Ages.

¹⁰ and everything that is mine is Thine, and everything that is Thine is mine; and I am crowned with glory in them.

¹⁹ For it was the Father's gracious will that the whole of the divine perfections should dwell in Him.

³ In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up, hidden from view.

⁹ For it is in Christ that the fulness of God's nature dwells embodied, and in Him you are made complete,

¹⁹ So the Lord Jesus after having thus spoken to them was taken up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

³⁵ "Yet a little while," He replied, "the light is among you. Be faithful to the light that you have, for fear darkness should overtake you; for a man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

³³ Dear children, I am still with you a little longer. You will seek me, but, as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going you cannot come,' so for the present I say to you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you bereaved: I am coming to you. ¹⁹ Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me: because I live, you also shall live. ²⁰ At that time you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you. ²¹ He who has my commandments and obeys them--he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will clearly reveal myself to him." ²² Judas (not the Iscariot) asked, "Master, how is it that you will reveal yourself clearly to us and not to the world?" ²³ "If any one loves me," replied Jesus, "he will obey my teaching; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ He who has no love for me does not obey my teaching; and yet the teaching to which you are listening is not mine, but is the teaching of the Father who sent me.

⁵ But now I an returning to Him who sent me; and not one of you asks me where I am going.

¹⁷ Some of His disciples therefore said to one another, "What does this mean which He is telling us, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" ¹⁸ So they asked one another repeatedly, "What can that 'little while' mean which He speaks of? We do not understand His words." ¹⁹ Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask Him, and He said, "Is this what you are questioning one another about--my saying, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me'?

²² So you also now have sorrow; but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be glad, and your gladness no one will take away from you.

⁵ And now, Father, do Thou glorify me in Thine own presence, with the glory that I had in Thy presence before the world existed.

¹⁹ On that same first day of the week, when it was evening and, for fear of the Jews, the doors of the house where the disciples were, were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you!" ²⁰ Having said this He showed them His hands and also His side; and the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Master. ²¹ A second time, therefore, He said to them, "Peace be to you! As the Father sent me, I also now send you." ²² Having said this He breathed upon them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you remit the sins of any persons, they remain remitted to them. If you bind fast the sins of any, they remain bound." ²⁴ Thomas, one of the twelve--surnamed 'the Twin' --was not among them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the rest of the disciples told him, "We have seen the Master!" His reply was, "Unless I see in his hands the wound made by the nails and put my finger into the wound, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it." ²⁶ A week later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them, when Jesus came--though the doors were locked--and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be to you." ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, "Bring your finger here and feel my hands; bring you hand and put it into my side; and do not be ready to disbelieve but to believe." ²⁸ "My Lord and my God!" replied Thomas. ²⁹ "Because you have seen me," replied Jesus, "you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

¹ After this, Jesus again showed Himself to the disciples. It was at the Lake of Tiberias. The circumstances were as follows. ² Simon Peter was with Thomas, called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zabdi, and two others of the Master's disciples. ³ Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." "We will go too," said they. So they set out and went on board their boat; but they caught nothing that night. ⁴ When, however, day was now dawning, Jesus stood on the beach, though the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ He called to them. "Children," He said, "have you any food there?" "No," they answered. ⁶ "Throw the net in on the right hand side," He said, "and you will find fish." So they threw the net in, and now they could scarcely drag it along for the quantity of fish. ⁷ This made the disciple whom Jesus loved say to Peter, "It is the Master." Simon Peter therefore, when he heard the words, "It is the Master," drew on his fisherman's shirt--for he had not been wearing it--put on his girdle, and sprang into the water. ⁸ But the rest of the disciples came in the small boat (for they were not far from land--only about a hundred yards off), dragging the net full of fish. ⁹ As soon as they landed, they saw a charcoal fire burning there, with fish broiling on it, and bread close by. ¹⁰ Jesus told them to fetch some of the fish which they had just caught. ¹¹ So Simon Peter went on board the boat and drew the net ashore full of large fish, 153 in number; and yet, although there were so many, the net had not broken. ¹² "Come this way and have breakfast," said Jesus. But not one of the disciples ventured to question Him as to who He was, for they felt sure that it was the Master. ¹³ Then Jesus came and took the bread and gave them some, and the fish in the same way. ¹⁴ This was now the third occasion on which Jesus showed Himself to the disciples after He had risen from among the dead. ¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?" "Yes, Master," was his answer; "you know that you are dear to me." "Then feed my lambs," replied Jesus. ¹⁶ Again a second time He asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Master," he said, "you know that you are dear to me." "Then be a shepherd to my sheep," He said. ¹⁷ A third time Jesus put the question: "Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?" It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, "Am I dear to you?" "Master," he replied, "you know everything, you can see that you are dear to me." "Then feed my much-loved sheep," said Jesus. ¹⁸ "In most solemn truth I tell you that whereas, when you were young, you used to put on your girdle and walk whichever way you chose, when you have grown old you will stretch out your arms and some one else will put a girdle round you and carry you where you have no wish to go." ¹⁹ This He said to indicate the kind of death by which that disciple would bring glory to God; and after speaking thus He said to him, "Follow me." ²⁰ Peter turned round and noticed the disciple whom Jesus loved following--the one who at the supper had leaned back on His breast and had asked, "Master, who is it that is betraying you?" ²¹ On seeing him, Peter asked Jesus, "And, Master, what about him?" ²² "If I desire him to remain till I come," replied Jesus, "what concern is that of yours? You, yourself, must follow me." ²³ Hence the report spread among the brethren that that disciple would never die. Yet Jesus did not say, "He is not to die," but, "If I desire him to remain till I come, what concern is that of yours?"

⁴⁰ That same Jesus God raised to life on the third day, and permitted Him to appear unmistakably, ⁴¹ not to all the people, but to witnesses--men previously chosen by God--namely, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

⁵ and was seen by Peter, and then by the Twelve. ⁶ Afterwards He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have now fallen asleep. ⁷ Afterwards He was seen by James, and then by all the Apostles. ⁸ And last of all, as to one of untimely birth, He appeared to me also. ⁹ For I am the least of the Apostles, and am not fit to be called an Apostle--because I persecuted the Church of God.

¹⁰ So they kept the matter to themselves, although frequently asking one another what was meant by the rising from the dead.

³² They, however, did not understand what He meant, and were afraid to question Him.

⁴⁵ But they did not understand His meaning: it was veiled from them that they might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.

³⁴ Nothing of this did they understand. The words were a mystery to them, nor could they see what He meant.

¹⁶ The meaning of this His disciples did not understand at the time; but after Jesus was glorified they recollected that this was written about Him, and that they had done this to Him.

⁵ "Master," said Thomas, "we do not know where you are going. In what sense do we know the way?"

²² Judas (not the Iscariot) asked, "Master, how is it that you will reveal yourself clearly to us and not to the world?"

¹ "These things I have spoken to you in order to clear stumbling-blocks out of your path.

¹⁹ Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask Him, and He said, "Is this what you are questioning one another about--my saying, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me'?

⁹ Do you not yet understand? nor even remember the 5,000 and the five loaves, and how many basketfuls you carried away, ¹⁰ nor the 4,000 and the seven loaves, and how many hampers you carried away? ¹¹ How is it you do not understand that it was not about bread that I spoke to you? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

²⁵ "O dull-witted men," He replied, "with minds so slow to believe all that the Prophets have spoken!

¹² For although, considering the long time you have been believers, you ought now to be teachers of others, you really need some one to teach you over again the very rudiments of the truths of God, and you have come to require milk instead of solid food.

⁸ Do not, however, imitate them; for your Father knows what things you need before ever you ask Him.

⁴ Knowing their thoughts Jesus said, "Why are you cherishing evil thoughts in your hearts?

³³ So they came to Capernaum; and when in the house He asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" ³⁴ But they remained silent; for on the way they had debated with one another who was the chief of them.

²⁴ But for His part, Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew them all, ²⁵ and did not need any one's testimony concerning a man, for He of Himself knew what was in the man.

¹⁹ Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me: because I live, you also shall live.

³⁰ Now we know that you have all knowledge, and do not need to be pressed with questions. Through this we believe that you came from God."

¹⁷ A third time Jesus put the question: "Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?" It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, "Am I dear to you?" "Master," he replied, "you know everything, you can see that you are dear to me." "Then feed my much-loved sheep," said Jesus.

¹³ And no created thing is able to escape its scrutiny; but everything lies bare and completely exposed before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

²³ Her children too shall surely die; and all the Churches shall come to know that I am He who searches into men's inmost thoughts; and to each of you I will give a requital which shall be in accordance with what your conduct has been.

⁴ "Blessed are the mourners, for they shall be comforted.

³⁸ "But the vine-dressers, when they saw the son, said to one another, "'Here is the heir: come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.'

³⁹ And the passers-by reviled Him. They shook their heads at Him ⁴⁰ and said, "You who would pull down the Sanctuary and build a new one within three days, save yourself. If you are God's Son, come down from the cross." ⁴¹ In like manner the High Priests also, together with the Scribes and the Elders, taunted Him. ⁴² "He saved others," they said, "himself he cannot save! He is the King of Israel! Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ His trust is in God: let God deliver him now, if He will have him; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'" ⁴⁴ Insults of the same kind were heaped on Him even by the robbers who were being crucified with Him.

⁶² On the next day, the day after the Preparation, the High Priests and the Pharisees came in a body to Pilate. ⁶³ "Sir," they said, "we recollect that during his lifetime that impostor pretended that after two days he was to rise to life again. ⁶⁴ So give orders for the sepulchre to be securely guarded till the third day, for fear his disciples should come by night and steal the body, and then tell the people that he has come back to life; and so the last imposture will be more serious than the first." ⁶⁵ "You can have a guard," said Pilate: "go and make all safe, as best you can." ⁶⁶ So they went and made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone besides setting the guard.

⁷² No sooner had he spoken than a cock crowed for the second time, and Peter recollected the words of Jesus, "Before the cock crows twice, you will three times disown me." And as he thought of it, he wept aloud.

²⁹ And all the passers-by reviled Him. They shook their heads at Him and said, "Ah! you who were for destroying the Sanctuary and building a new one in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself." ³¹ In the same way the High Priests also, as well as the Scribes, kept on scoffing at Him, saying to one another, "He has saved others: himself he cannot save! ³² This Christ, the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Even the men who were being crucified with Him heaped insults on Him.

¹⁰ She went and brought the tidings to those who had been with Him, as they were mourning and weeping.

²¹ "Blessed are you who hunger now, because your hunger shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you who now weep aloud, because you shall laugh.

⁶² And he went out and wept aloud bitterly.

²⁷ A vast crowd of the people also followed Him, and of women who were beating their breasts and wailing for Him.

⁴⁷ The Captain, seeing what had happened, gave glory to God, saying, "Beyond question this man was innocent." ⁴⁸ And all the crowds that had come together to this sight, after seeing all that had occurred, returned to the city beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ But all His acquaintances, and the women who had been His followers after leaving Galilee, continued standing at a distance and looking on.

²¹ But we were hoping that it was He who was about to ransom Israel. Yes, and moreover it was the day before yesterday that these things happened.

⁶ But grief has filled your hearts because I have said all this to you.

³³ "I have spoken all this to you in order that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction. But keep up your courage: *I* have won the victory over the world."

²⁵ Now standing close to the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. ²⁶ So Jesus, seeing His mother, and seeing the disciple whom He loved standing near, said to His mother, "Behold, your son!" ²⁷ Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that time the disciple received her into his own home.

²⁰ Having said this He showed them His hands and also His side; and the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Master.

⁴⁶ And, day by day, attending constantly in the Temple with one accord, and breaking bread in private houses, they took their meals with great happiness and single-heartedness, ⁴⁷ praising God and being regarded with favour by all the people. Also, day by day, the Lord added to their number those whom He was saving.

⁴¹ They, therefore, left the Sanhedrin and went their way, rejoicing that they had been deemed worthy to suffer disgrace on behalf of the NAME.

² through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory. ³ And not only so: we also exult in our sufferings, knowing as we do, that suffering produces fortitude;

¹¹ And not only so, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained that reconciliation.

¹⁰ as sad, but we are always joyful; as poor, but we bestow wealth on many; as having nothing, and yet we securely possess all things.

²² The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence;

⁶ And you followed the pattern set you by us and by the Master, after you had received the Message amid severe persecution, and yet with the joy which the Holy Spirit gives,

¹⁶ And may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself--and God our Father who has loved us and has given us in His grace eternal consolation and a bright hope-- ¹⁷ comfort your hearts and make you stedfast in every good work and word.

² Reckon it nothing but joy, my brethren, whenever you find yourselves hedged in by various trials.

⁶ Rejoice triumphantly in the prospect of this, even if now, for a short time, you are compelled to sorrow amid various trials. ⁷ The sorrow comes in order that the testing of your faith--being more precious than that of gold, which perishes and yet is proved by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the re-appearing of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Him you love, though your eyes have never looked on Him. In Him, though at present you cannot see Him, you nevertheless trust, and triumph with a joy which is unspeakable and is crowned with glory,

²⁴ But to Him who is able to keep you safe from stumbling, and cause you to stand in the presence of His glory free from blemish and full of exultant joy--

¹⁴ "My lord, you know," I replied. "They are those," he said, "who have just passed through the great distress, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ For this reason they stand before the very throne of God, and render Him service, day after day and night after night, in His sanctuary, and He who is sitting upon the throne will shelter them in His tent. ¹⁶ They will never again be hungry or thirsty, and never again will the sun or any scorching heat trouble them. ¹⁷ For the Lamb who is in front of the throne will be their Shepherd, and will guide them to watersprings of Life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

¹⁰ The inhabitants of the earth rejoice over them and are glad and will send gifts to one another; for these two Prophets had greatly troubled the inhabitants of the earth."

⁷ She has freely glorified herself and revelled in luxury; equally freely administer torment to her, and woe. For in her heart she boasts, saying, 'I sit enthroned as Queen: no widow am I: I shall never know sorrow.'

⁵⁷ Now when Elizabeth's full time was come, she gave birth to a son; ⁵⁸ and her neighbours and relatives heard how the Lord had had great compassion on her; and they rejoiced with her.

²⁷ For it is written, "REJOICE, THOU BARREN WOMAN THAT BEAREST NOT, BREAK FORTH INTO A JOYFUL CRY, THOU THAT DOST NOT TRAVAIL WITH CHILD. FOR THE DESOLATE WOMAN HAS MANY CHILDREN--MORE INDEED THAN SHE WHO HAS THE HUSBAND."

³ While they are saying "Peace and safety!" then in a moment destruction falls upon them, like birth-pains on a woman who is with child; and escape there is none.

² and she was crying out in the pains and agony of childbirth. ³ And another marvel was seen in Heaven--a great fiery-red Dragon, with seven heads and ten horns; and on his heads were seven kingly crowns. ⁴ His tail was drawing after it a third part of the stars of Heaven, and it dashed them to the ground. And in front of the woman who was about to become a mother, the Dragon was standing in order to devour the child as soon as it was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a son--a male child, destined before long to rule all nations with an iron scepter. But her child was caught up to God and His throne,

⁸ They quickly left the tomb and ran, still terrified but full of unspeakable joy, to carry the news to His disciples.

⁴² and yet only one thing is really necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion and she shall not be deprived of it."

²⁵ "'Remember, my child,' said Abraham, 'that you had all your good things during your lifetime, and that Lazarus in like manner had his bad things. But, now and here, he is receiving consolation and you are in agony.

²⁶ "'I tell you that to every one who has anything, more shall be given; and from him who has not anything, even what he has shall be taken away.

⁴¹ But, while they still could not believe it for joy and were full of astonishment, He asked them, "Have you any food here?"

⁵¹ And while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into Heaven. ⁵² They worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³ Afterwards they were continually in attendance at the Temple, blessing God.

¹⁴ but whoever drinks any of the water that I shall give him will never, never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain within him of water springing up for the Life of the Ages."

²⁷ Peace I leave with you: my own peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives its greetings that I give you peace. Let not your hearts be troubled or dismayed.

²⁰ In most solemn truth I tell you that you will weep aloud and lament, but the world will be glad. You will mourn, but your grief will be turned into gladness.

¹⁹ On that same first day of the week, when it was evening and, for fear of the Jews, the doors of the house where the disciples were, were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you!" ²⁰ Having said this He showed them His hands and also His side; and the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Master.

⁷ This made the disciple whom Jesus loved say to Peter, "It is the Master." Simon Peter therefore, when he heard the words, "It is the Master," drew on his fisherman's shirt--for he had not been wearing it--put on his girdle, and sprang into the water.

⁴⁶ And, day by day, attending constantly in the Temple with one accord, and breaking bread in private houses, they took their meals with great happiness and single-heartedness,

⁵² and as for the disciples, they were more and more filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

³⁵ Who shall separate us from Christ's love? Shall affliction or distress, persecution or hunger, nakedness or danger or the sword? ³⁶ As it stands written in the Scripture, "FOR THY SAKE THEY ARE, ALL DAY LONG, TRYING TO KILL US. WE HAVE BEEN LOOKED UPON AS SHEEP DESTINED FOR SLAUGHTER." ³⁷ Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present nor things future, nor the forces of nature, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁷ for this reason in our distress and trouble we have been comforted about you, brethren, by your faith. ⁸ For now life is for us life indeed, since you are standing fast in the Lord. ⁹ For what thanksgiving on your behalf can we possibly offer to God in return for all the joy which fills our souls before our God for you,

¹⁶ And may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself--and God our Father who has loved us and has given us in His grace eternal consolation and a bright hope--

¹⁸ He added an oath, in order that, through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for Him to prove false, we may possess mighty encouragement--we who, for safety, have hastened to lay hold of the hope set before us.

³⁴ For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

⁸ Him you love, though your eyes have never looked on Him. In Him, though at present you cannot see Him, you nevertheless trust, and triumph with a joy which is unspeakable and is crowned with glory,

¹³ On the contrary, in the degree that you share in the sufferings of the Christ, rejoice, so that at the unveiling of His glory you may also rejoice with triumphant gladness. ¹⁴ You are to be envied, if you are being reproached for bearing the name of Christ; for in that case the Spirit of glory-- even the Spirit of God--is resting upon you.

⁷ "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

²² and everything, whatever it be, that you ask for in your prayers, if you have faith, you shall obtain."

³⁶ "Master," inquired Simon Peter, "where are you going?" "Where I am going," replied Jesus, "you cannot be my follower now, but you shall be later." ³⁷ "Master," asked Peter again, "why cannot I follow you now? I will lay down my life on your behalf.

¹³ And whatever any of you ask in my name, I will do, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you make any request of me in my name, I will do it.

²⁰ At that time you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you.

⁷ "If you continue in me and my sayings continue in you, ask what you will and it shall be done for you.

¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ It is not you who chose me, but it is I who chose you and appointed you that you might go and be fruitful and that your fruit might remain; so that whatever petition you present to the Father in my name He may give you.

²⁶ At that time you will make your requests in my name; and I do not promise to ask the Father on your behalf,

²⁰ Peter turned round and noticed the disciple whom Jesus loved following--the one who at the supper had leaned back on His breast and had asked, "Master, who is it that is betraying you?" ²¹ On seeing him, Peter asked Jesus, "And, Master, what about him?"

¹⁸ because it is through Him that Jews and Gentiles alike have access through one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁴ For this reason, on bended knee I beseech the Father, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in Heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶ to grant you--in accordance with the wealth of His glorious perfections--to be strengthened by His Spirit with power penetrating to your inmost being. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ may make His home in your hearts through your faith; so that having your roots deep and your foundations strong, in love, you may become mighty to grasp the idea, ¹⁸ as it is grasped by all God's people, of the breadth and length, the height and depth-- ¹⁹ yes, to attain to a knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, so that you may be made complete in accordance with God's own standard of completeness. ²⁰ Now to Him who, in exercise of His power that is at work within us, is able to do infinitely beyond all our highest prayers or thoughts--

⁵ For there is but one God and but one Mediator between God and men--Christ Jesus, Himself man; ⁶ who gave Himself as the redemption price for all--a fact testified to at its own appointed time,

¹⁴ Inasmuch, then, as we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great High Priest who has passed into Heaven itself, let us hold firmly to our profession of faith. ¹⁵ For we have not a High Priest who is unable to feel for us in our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in every respect just as we are tempted, and yet did not sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our times of need.

²⁵ Hence too He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, seeing that He ever lives to plead for them. ²⁶ Moreover we needed just such a High Priest as this--holy, guileless, undefiled, far removed from sinful men and exalted above the heavens;

¹⁹ Since then, brethren, we have free access to the Holy place through the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil--that is to say, of His earthly nature-- ²¹ and since we have a great Priest who has authority over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with sincerity and unfaltering faith, having had our hearts sprinkled, once for all, from consciences oppressed with sin, and our bodies bathed in pure water. ²³ Let us hold firmly to an unflinching avowal of our hope, for He is faithful who gave us the promises.

¹ Dear children, I write thus to you in order that you may not sin. If any one sins, we have an Advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ the righteous;

¹⁴ And we have an assured confidence that whenever we ask anything in accordance with His will, He listens to us. ¹⁵ And since we know that He listens to us, then whatever we ask, we know that we have the things which we have asked from Him. ¹⁶ If any one sees a brother man committing a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and God shall give him life--for those who do not sin unto death. There is such a thing as sin unto death; for that I do not bid him make request.

⁹ "In this manner therefore pray: 'Our Father who art in Heaven, may Thy name be kept holy;

⁷ "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For it is always he who asks that receives, he who seeks that finds, and he who knocks that has the door opened to him.

²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; and the bridegroom's friend who stands by his side and listens to him, rejoices heartily on account of the bridegroom's happiness. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

²³ You will put no questions to me then. "In most solemn truth I tell you that whatever you ask the Father for in my name He will give you.

¹⁶ offer never ceasing thanks on your behalf while I make mention of you in my prayers. ¹⁷ For I always beseech the God of our Lord Jesus Christ--the Father most glorious--to give you a spirit of wisdom and penetration through an intimate knowledge of Him,

¹¹ But may our God and Father Himself--and our Lord Jesus--guide us on our way to you; ¹² and as for you, may the Lord teach you to love one another and all men, with a growing and a glowing love, resembling our love for you. ¹³ Thus He will build up your characters, so that you will be faultlessly holy in the presence of our God and Father at the Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.

² May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray; ³ or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.

³ that which we have seen and listened to we now announce to you also, in order that you also may have fellowship in it with us, and this fellowship with us is fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And we write these things in order that our joy may be made complete.

¹² I have a great deal to say to you all, but will not write it with paper and ink. Yet I hope to come to see you and speak face to face, so that your happiness may be complete.

¹⁰ (And His disciples came and asked Him, "Why do you speak to them in figurative language?" ¹¹ "Because," He replied, "while to you it is granted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of the Heavens, to them it is not.

³⁴ All this Jesus spoke to the people in figurative language, and except in figurative language He spoke nothing to them, ³⁵ in fulfilment of the saying of the Prophet, "I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, I WILL UTTER THINGS KEPT HIDDEN SINCE THE CREATION OF ALL THINGS."

¹³ "Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?" He added; "how then will you understand the rest of my parables?"

⁶ Jesus spoke to them in this figurative language, but they did not understand what He meant.

² You will be excluded from the synagogues; nay more, the time is coming when any one who has murdered one of you will suppose he is offering service to God.

¹² "I have much more to say to you, but you are unable at present to bear the burden of it.

¹⁶ "A little while and you see me no more, and again a little while and you shall see me." ¹⁷ Some of His disciples therefore said to one another, "What does this mean which He is telling us, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?"

²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and am going to the Father." ²⁹ "Ah, now you are using plain language," said His disciples, "and are uttering no figure of speech!

¹² Therefore, cherishing a hope like this, we speak without reserve, and we do not imitate Moses, ¹³ who used to throw a veil over his face to hide from the gaze of the children of Israel the passing away of what was but transitory.

² Nay, we have renounced the secrecy which marks a feeling of shame. We practice no cunning tricks, nor do we adulterate God's Message. But by a full clear statement of the truth we strive to commend ourselves in the presence of God to every human conscience.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be for ever with you--the Spirit of truth.

⁹ "I am making request for them: for the world I do not make any request, but for those whom Thou hast given me. Because they are Thine,

¹⁹ and on their behalf I consecrate myself, in order that they may become perfectly consecrated in truth.

²⁴ "Father, those whom Thou hast given me--I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see the glory--my glory--my gift from Thee, which Thou hast given me because Thou didst love me before the creation of the world.

³⁴ Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.

³⁷ Any one who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and any one who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

¹³ There is no one who has gone up to Heaven, but there is One who has come down from Heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in Heaven.

²⁹ I know Him, because I came from Him, and He sent me."

⁴² "If God were your Father," said Jesus, "you would love me; for it is from God that I came and I am now here. I have not come of myself, but *He* sent me.

²¹ He who has my commandments and obeys them--he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will clearly reveal myself to him."

²³ "If any one loves me," replied Jesus, "he will obey my teaching; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

⁷ Now they know that whatever Thou hast given me is from Thee. ⁸ For the truths which Thou didst teach me I have taught them. And they have received them, and have known for certain that I came out from Thy presence, and have believed that Thou didst send me.

²³ I in them and Thou in me; that they may stand perfected in one; that the world may come to understand that Thou didst send me and hast loved them with the same love as that with which Thou hast loved me.

²⁵ And, righteous Father, though the world has failed to recognize Thee, I have known Thee, and these have perceived that Thou didst send me. ²⁶ And I have made known Thy name to them and will make it known, that the love with which Thou hast loved me may be in them, and that I may be in them."

¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?" "Yes, Master," was his answer; "you know that you are dear to me." "Then feed my lambs," replied Jesus. ¹⁶ Again a second time He asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Master," he said, "you know that you are dear to me." "Then be a shepherd to my sheep," He said. ¹⁷ A third time Jesus put the question: "Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?" It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, "Am I dear to you?" "Master," he replied, "you know everything, you can see that you are dear to me." "Then feed my much-loved sheep," said Jesus.

³ For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

⁴⁷ The first man is a man of earth, earthy; the second man is from Heaven.

²² If any one is destitute of love to the Lord, let him be accursed. OUR LORD IS COMING.

¹⁴ For the love of Christ overmasters us, the conclusion at which we have arrived being this--that One having died for all, His death was their death,

⁴ But, when the time was fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born subject to Law,

²⁴ May grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with perfect sincerity.

¹⁵ Faithful is the saying, and deserving of universal acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; among whom I stand foremost.

⁶ FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES: AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE ACKNOWLEDGES."

¹⁹ We love because God first loved us.

²⁰ But you, my dearly-loved friends, building yourselves up on the basis of your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ must keep yourselves safe in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which will result in the Life of the Ages.

⁹ I will cause some belonging to Satan's synagogue who say that they themselves are Jews, and are not, but are liars--I will make them come and fall at your feet and know for certain that I have loved you.

¹⁹ All whom I hold dear, I reprove and chastise; therefore be in earnest and repent.

⁵¹ Now when the time drew near for Him to be received up again into Heaven, He proceeded with fixed purpose towards Jerusalem, and sent messengers before Him.

⁵¹ And while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into Heaven.

¹⁴ "Even if I am giving testimony about myself," replied Jesus, "my testimony is true; for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you know neither of these two things.

¹ Now just before the Feast of the Passover this incident took place. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father; and having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

¹¹ I am now no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to Thee. "Holy Father, keep them true to Thy name--the name which Thou hast given me to bear--that they may be one, even as we are.

⁹ When He had said this, and while they were looking at Him, He was carried up, and a cloud closing beneath Him hid Him from their sight. ¹⁰ But, while they stood intently gazing into the sky as He went, suddenly there were two men in white garments standing by them, ¹¹ who said, "Galilaeans, why stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven will come in just the same way as you have seen Him going into Heaven."

²⁵ "All this I have spoken to you in veiled language. The time is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language, but will tell you about the Father in plain words.

²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and reveals to Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater deeds than these will He reveal to Him, in order that you may wonder.

¹⁷ Some of His disciples therefore said to one another, "What does this mean which He is telling us, 'A little while and you do not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?"

²⁷ for the Father Himself holds you dear, because you have held me dear and have believed that I came from the Father's presence. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and am going to the Father."

⁸ For the truths which Thou didst teach me I have taught them. And they have received them, and have known for certain that I came out from Thy presence, and have believed that Thou didst send me.

⁴⁴ "As for you, store these my sayings in your memory; for, before long, the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men." ⁴⁵ But they did not understand His meaning: it was veiled from them that they might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.

³⁸ "You say you will lay down your life on my behalf!" said Jesus; "in most solemn truth I tell you that the cock will not crow before you have three times disowned me."

³¹ Then said Jesus, "This night all of you will stumble and fail in your fidelity to me; for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK WILL BE SCATTERED IN ALL DIRECTIONS.'

⁵⁶ But all this has taken place in order that the writings of the Prophets may be fulfilled." At this point the disciples all left Him and fled.

²⁷ Then said Jesus to them, "All of you are about to stumble and fall, for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED IN ALL DIRECTIONS.'

⁵⁰ Then His friends all forsook Him and fled.

²³ But a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the true worshippers will worship the Father with true spiritual worship; for indeed the Father desires such worshippers.

²⁵ "In most solemn truth I tell you that a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.

²⁸ Wonder not at this. For a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and will come forth--

¹⁶ And even if I do judge, my judgement is just; for I am not alone, but the Father who sent me is with me.

²⁹ And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone: for I do always what is pleasing to Him."

²³ His answer was, "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The things that I tell you all I do not speak on my own authority: but the Father dwelling within me carries on His own work. ¹¹ Believe me, all of you, that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me; or at any rate, believe me because of what I do.

¹⁰ Then they went away and returned home.

¹ And Saul fully approved of his murder. At this time a great persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem, and all except the Apostles were scattered throughout Judaea and Samaria.

¹⁶ At my first defence I had no one at my side, but all deserted me. May it not be laid to their charge. ¹⁷ The Lord, however, stood by me and filled me with inward strength, that through me the Message might be fully proclaimed and that all the Gentiles might hear it; and I was rescued from the lion's jaws.

¹⁴ "Glory be to God in the highest Heavens, And on earth peace among men who please Him!"

³⁸ "BLESSED IS the King," they cried, "WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD: in Heaven peace, and glory in the highest realms."

¹⁸ If the world hates you, remember that it has first had me as the fixed object of its hatred. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own property. But because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world--for that reason the world hates you. ²⁰ Bear in mind what I said to you, 'A servant is not superior to his master.' If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ But they will inflict all this suffering upon you on account of your bearing my name--because they do not know Him who sent me.

¹¹ of judgement, because the Prince of this world is under sentence.

³¹ The Church, however, throughout the whole of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria, had peace and was spiritually built up; and grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and receiving encouragement from the Holy Spirit.

²² Everywhere they strengthened the disciples by encouraging them to hold fast to the faith, and warned them saying, "It is through many afflictions that we must make our way into the Kingdom of God."

¹¹ The following night the Lord came and stood at Paul's side, and said, "Be of good courage, for as you have borne faithful witness about me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome."

²² But now take courage, for there will be no destruction of life among you, but of the ship only.

²⁵ "Therefore, Sirs, take courage; for I believe God, and am convinced that things will happen exactly as I have been told.

¹ Standing then acquitted as the result of faith, let us enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.

³⁶ As it stands written in the Scripture, "FOR THY SAKE THEY ARE, ALL DAY LONG, TRYING TO KILL US. WE HAVE BEEN LOOKED UPON AS SHEEP DESTINED FOR SLAUGHTER." ³⁷ Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.

³ Heartfelt thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--the Father who is full of compassion and the God who gives all comfort.

⁴ I have great confidence in you: very loudly do I boast of you. I am filled with comfort: my heart overflows with joy amid all our affliction.

¹¹ Finally, brethren, be joyful, secure perfection of character, take courage, be of one mind, live in peace. And then God who gives love and peace will be with you.

⁴ who gave Himself to suffer for our sins in order to rescue us from the present wicked age in accordance with the will of our God and Father.

¹⁴ But as for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world.

¹⁴ For He is our peace--He who has made Jews and Gentiles one, and in His own human nature has broken down the hostile dividing wall, ¹⁵ by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man, ¹⁶ thus effecting peace, and to reconcile Jews and Gentiles in one body to God, by means of His cross--slaying by it their mutual enmity. ¹⁷ So He came and proclaimed good news of peace to you who were so far away, and peace to those who were near;

⁷ And then the peace of God, which transcends all our powers of thought, will be a garrison to guard your hearts and minds in union with Christ Jesus.

²⁰ And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to Himself, making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross--to reconcile to Himself through Him, I say, things on earth and things in Heaven.

⁴ For even when we were with you, we forewarned you, saying, "We are soon to suffer affliction;" and this actually happened, as you well know.

⁷ for this reason in our distress and trouble we have been comforted about you, brethren, by your faith.

¹⁶ And may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every sense. The Lord be with you all.

¹² And indeed every one who is determined to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

² to whom also Abraham presented a tenth part of all--being first, as his name signifies, King of righteousness, and secondly King of Salem, that is, King of peace:

²⁵ having determined to endure ill-treatment along with the people of God rather than enjoy the short-lived pleasures of sin;

²⁰ Now may God who gives peace, and brought Jesus, our Lord, up again from among the dead--even Him who, by virtue of the blood of the eternal Covenant, is the great Shepherd of the sheep-- ²¹ fully equip you with every grace that you may need for the doing of His will, producing in us that which will truly please Him through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory to the Ages of the Ages! Amen.

⁹ Withstand him, firm in your faith; knowing that your brethren in other parts of the world are passing through just the same experiences.

⁴ As for you, dear children, you are God's children, and have successfully resisted them; for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

⁴ For every child of God overcomes the world; and the victorious principle which has overcome the world is our faith.

²¹ "'To him who overcomes I will give the privilege of sitting down with Me on My throne, as I also have overcome and have sat down with My Father on His throne.

¹⁴ "My lord, you know," I replied. "They are those," he said, "who have just passed through the great distress, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹¹ But they have gained the victory over him because of the blood of the Lamb and of the testimony which they have borne, and because they held their lives cheap and did not shrink even from death.