3 [1:12]A certain one of them, their own poet, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gormandizers. [1:13]This testimony is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, [1:14]not attending to Jewish myths, and commandments of men who subvert the truth. [1:15]To the pure all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but their mind and conscience are defiled. [1:16]They profess to know God, but by works deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and as to every good work reprobate.

4 [2:1]Speak things which become sound teaching. [2:2]That the aged men be sober, grave, of sound mind, sound in faith, in love, in patience; [2:3]that the aged women, in like manner, be of behavior becoming holiness, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of what is good, [2:4]that they may instruct the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, [2:5]sober, pure, fond of home, kind, subject to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

5 [2:6]In like manner exhort the younger to be of a sound mind, [2:7] presenting yourself as an example of good works in all things, in teaching [exhibiting] integrity, gravity, [2:8]sound argument not to be condemned, that the adversary may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of us. [2:9]Let servants be subject to their masters, please them in all things, not contradicting, [2:10]not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of our Saviour God in all things.

6 [2:11]For the grace of God that pertains to salvation appeared to all men, [2:12]teaching us, that denying impiety and worldly desires we should live soberly, and righteously, and piously in the present life, [2:13]looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, [2:14]who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all wickedness, and purify for himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

7 [2:15]These things speak, and exhort, and reprove with all authority; let no man despise you. [3:1]Admonish them to be subject to principalities, to powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work, [3:2]to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all meekness to all men. [3:3]For we formerly were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, detestable, and hating one another; [3:4] but when the goodness and philanthropy of the Saviour our God appeared, [3:5] not by works of righteousness which we did but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, [3:6]which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; [3:7] that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. [3:8]The word is true, and I wish you to insist strongly concerning these things, that those who have believed in God may be careful to maintain good works. For these things are honorable and useful to men. [3:9]But foolish questions, and genealogies, and strifes and contentions about the law, avoid; for they are unprofitable and vain. [3:10]A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject, [3:11]knowing that such a one is subverted, and sins, being self-condemned.

8 [3:12]When I send you Artemas, or Tychicus, make haste to come to me at Nicopolis; for there I have determined to spend the winter. [3:13]Send forward Zenas the lawyer and Apollos with diligence, and let nothing be wanting to them; [3:14]and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary purposes, that they may not be unfruitful. [3:15]All who are with me salute you. Salute those who love us in the faith. The grace be with you all.



FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

PHILIPPI, A.D. 65.



CHAPTER I.

A CHARGE TO TIMOTHY CONCERNING THE GOSPEL, PUBLIC PRAYER, AND THE DUTIES OF WOMEN.

1 [1:1]PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope, [1:2]to Timothy my true son in the faith; grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 [1:3]As I requested you to remain at Ephesus, when going into Macedonia, that you might charge some not to preach another doctrine, [1:4]nor attend to myths or interminable genealogies, which occasion disputes rather than a dispensation of God by faith, [do.] [1:5]But the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned, [1:6]which some having missed turned aside to vain words, [1:7]desiring to be teachers of the law, not understanding what they say nor about what they make confident assertions. [1:8] But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully; [1:9]knowing this, that a law is not made for a righteous man, but for the wicked and disorderly, the impious and sinful, the unholy and profane, murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers and murderers of their fellow-men, [1:10]fornicators, sodomites, men-stealers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, [1:11]according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been intrusted. [1:12]And I thank our Lord Jesus Christ who has empowered me [to preach,] that he accounted me faithful, putting me in the ministry, [1:13]who formerly was a blasphemer and persecutor and an injurious man; but I obtained mercy because I did those things ignorantly in unbelief; [1:14]and the grace of our Lord greatly abounded with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. [1:15]The word is true and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief; [1:16]but on this account I obtained mercy, that Jesus Christ might exhibit in me first all long-suffering, for an example to those who should hereafter believe in him to life eternal. [1:17]And to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever; amen.

3 [1:18]This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before concerning you, that by them you may perform an honorable service, [1:19]having faith and a good conscience, which some having cast away have suffered shipwreck of the faith; [1:20]of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

4 [2:1]I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings should be offered for all men, [2:2]for kings and all in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives in all piety and sanctity. [2:3]For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, [2:4]who wishes all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth. [2:5] For there is one God, and one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus, [2:6]who gave himself a ransom for all, a testimony for its own times, [2:7]of which I was made a herald and an apostle,—I speak the truth, I lie not,—a teacher of nations in faith and truth.

5 [2:8]I wish also that men should pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputations; [2:9]and in like manner also, that women in becoming apparel with modesty and sobriety adorn themselves, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing, [2:10]but with good works, which become women professing godliness. [2:11]Let a woman learn quietly in all subjection; [2:12]but I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have authority over a man, but to be quiet. [2:13]For Adam was first formed, then Eve. [2:14]And Adam was not deceived; but the woman being deceived fell into transgression; [2:15]but she shall be saved through child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and love, and holiness, with sobriety.



CHAPTER II.

THE APPOINTMENT OF MINISTERS, THE DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL, WIDOWS, ELDERS, SERVANTS, ETC.

1 [3:1]IT is a true saying, If any one desires an episcopate he desires a good work. [3:2]It is necessary therefore that a bishop should be blameless, a husband of one wife, circumspect, sober, well-behaved, hospitable, apt to teach, [3:3]not a wine-drinker, not a quarrelsome man, but gentle, not contentious, not avaricious, [3:4]ruling well his own house, having his children in subjection with all dignity,— [3:5]but if any one knows not how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?— [3:6]not a novice, lest being inflated with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. [3:7] And he must also have a good name from those without, that he may not fall into reproach and a snare of the devil.

2 [3:8]The deacons in like manner ought to be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not devoted to base gain, [3:9]having the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. [3:10]And let these be proved first, then let them serve, being found blameless. [3:11]The women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, circumspect, faithful in all things. [3:12]Let the deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling well their children and their own houses. [3:13] For they who exercise the deaconship well, procure for themselves an honorable standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

3 [3:14]These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly; [3:15]but if I delay, that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. [3:16]And confessedly great is the mystery of piety; [Christ,] who was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached to the nations, was believed on in the world, was received up into glory.

4 [4:1]But the Spirit says expressly, that in the last times some shall apostatize from the faith, attending to lying spirits and doctrines of demons, [4:2][misled] by the hypocrisy of false teachers, whose consciences are cauterized, [4:3]who forbid to marry, [command] to abstain from meat, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and those who know the truth. [4:4]For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected, [but] to be received with thanksgiving; [4:5]for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

5 [4:6]Suggesting these things to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished with the words of the faith and the good instruction which you have followed; [4:7]but avoid profane and silly myths; exercise yourself in piety; [4:8]for bodily exercise profits little; but piety is profitable in all things, having a promise of the present life and of the life to come. [4:9]It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. [4:10] For to this end we also labor and suffer reproach, because we hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.

6 [4:11]These things command and teach. [4:12]Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the faithful, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. [4:13]Till I come attend to reading, exhortation, teaching. [4:14] Neglect not the gift which is in you, which was given you by prophecy, with the imposition of hands of the eldership. [4:15]Study these things, be much in them, that your improvement may be manifest to all. [4:16]Attend to yourself, and to teaching; continue in it, for doing this you will both save yourself and those that hear you.

7 [5:1]Rebuke not an aged man, but entreat him as a father, the younger men as brothers, [5:2]the aged women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity. [5:3]Support the widows who are widows indeed. [5:4]But if any widow has children or relatives, let them learn first to support their family and to make returns to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. [5:5] But one that is a widow indeed and alone hopes in God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day; [5:6]but a woman that lives voluptuously is dead while she lives. [5:7]And command these things, that they be blameless. [5:8]And if any one provides not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

8 [5:9]Let not a widow be enrolled under sixty years of age, a wife of one husband, [5:10]well reputed for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has exercised hospitality, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the distressed, if she has pursued every good work. [5:11]But reject the younger widows; for when they fall into pleasure to the neglect of Christ, they wish to marry, [5:12]being condemned because they have rejected the first faith; [5:13]and at the same time also, being idle, they learn to go from house to house, and not only are they idle, they are also tattlers and mischief makers, saying what they ought not. [5:14]I wish therefore the younger women to marry, bear children, keep house, give no occasion of reproach to the enemy; [5:15]for some have already turned back after Satan. [5:16]If any faithful man or faithful woman has widows, let them give them relief, and let not the church be burdened, that it may be able to relieve those really widows.

9 [5:17]Let the elders who rule well be accounted worthy of a double compensation, especially those who labor in word and teaching. [5:18]For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox that threshes; and, The laborer is worthy of his reward. [5:19]Against an elder receive not an accusation, except by two or three witnesses. [5:20]Those that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

10 [5:21]I charge you before God, and Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that you keep these things without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality. [5:22] Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither partake of others' sins. Keep yourself pure. [5:23]Drink no longer water, but use a little wine on account of your stomach and your frequent infirmities. [5:24]The sins of some men are manifest, going before to judgment; but some they follow; [5:25]in like manner also good works are manifest, and those which are otherwise cannot be hid.

11 [6:1]Let as many servants as are under the yoke account their masters worthy of all honor, that the name and doctrine of God may not be blasphemed. [6:2]And let those who have believing masters not despise them, because they are brothers, but rather serve, because they are believers and beloved, who partake of the benefit.

12 These things teach and exhort. [6:3]If any one teaches differently, and consents not to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to piety, [6:4]he is blinded and knows nothing, but has a sickly longing for debates and wars of words, from which arise envy, contention, blasphemies, evil suspicions, [6:5]and wranglings of men of unsound judgments and destitute of the truth, supposing that piety is gain. [6:6]But piety with contentment is great gain. [6:7]For we brought nothing into the world; it is clear that we can carry nothing out of it; [6:8]but having food and clothing let us be contented with them. [6:9]But those who wish to be rich fall into trial and a snare, and many foolish and injurious desires, which plunge men into destruction and perdition. [6:10]For the love of money is a root of all evils, which some having desired have been misled from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

13 [6:11]But do you, O man of God, avoid these things; but pursue righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, meekness. [6:12]Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were called and made the good profession before many witnesses. [6:13]I charge you before the God who gives life to all [creatures], and Christ Jesus who made the good profession before Pontius Pilate, [6:14]that you keep the charge without spot, without blame, till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, [6:15]which the blessed and only Potentate will show in its times, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, [6:16]who only has immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man has seen nor can see; to whom be honor and power eternal; amen.

14 [6:17]Charge the rich in the present life not to be high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us all things richly to enjoy, [6:18]to perform good works, to be rich in good works, to be liberal, benevolent, [6:19]treasuring up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold on the true life.

15 [6:20]O Timothy, keep the trust, turning away from profane and empty words, and contradictions of mis-named science, [6:21]which some having professed have erred from the faith. The grace be with you.



SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

ROME, A.D. 65.



CHAPTER I.

INFORMATION, ADMONITION, ETC.

1 [1:1]PAUL, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, [1:2]to Timothy my beloved son. Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 [1:3]I thank God, whom I serve from my ancestors with a pure conscience, that I mention you incessantly in my prayers night and day, [1:4]desiring to see you, remembering your tears, that I might be filled with joy, [1:5]having a remembrance of the unfeigned faith in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that [it dwells] also in you. [1:6]For which cause I admonish you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the imposition of my hands. [1:7]For God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

3 [1:8]Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but endure affliction with us in the gospel according to the power of God, [1:9]who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus from eternity, [1:10]but made known now through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, [1:11]of which I was made a herald, and an apostle, and a teacher of the nations; [1:12]for which cause I suffer these things; but I am not ashamed; for I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep my trust to that day.

4 [1:13]Retain the form of sound words which you heard from me in faith and the love in Christ Jesus. [1:14]Guard the good trust, through the Holy Spirit which dwells in us. [1:15]You know this, that all those in Asia left me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. [1:16]May the Lord show mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains, [1:17] but being at Rome he sought most diligently, and found me. [1:18]The Lord grant him to find mercy with the Lord in that day. And what services he performed at Ephesus, you know very well.

5 [2:1]Do you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace in Christ Jesus, [2:2] and what you heard from me through many witnesses, these things commit to faithful men, who shall be competent to teach others also. [2:3]Endure evil as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [2:4]No one who serves as a soldier is involved in the business of life, that he may please him who has employed him as a soldier. [2:5]And if a man contends as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he contends lawfully. [2:6]The husbandman who labors must first partake of the fruits of the earth. [2:7]Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give you understanding in all things.

6 [2:8]Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David, according to my gospel, [2:9]in which I suffer even to chains as an evil doer; but the word of God is not bound. [2:10]Therefore I endure all things for the elect, that they may obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. [2:11]The saying is true, For if we died together we shall live together; [2:12]if we endure patiently we shall reign together; if we deny him he will deny us; [2:13]if we believe not he continues faithful; for he cannot deny himself.

7 [2:14]Call to mind these things, charging [men] before the Lord not to debate about words, to no profit, to the subversion of the hearers. [2:15]Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman that will not be put to shame, rightly dividing the word of truth. [2:16]But profane and vain words, avoid; for they greatly increase impiety, [2:17]and their word will eat like a gangrene; of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus, [2:18]who have erred from the truth, saying that the resurrection has passed already, and overturn the faith of some. [2:19]But the foundation of God stands firm, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from wickedness. [2:20]But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but those also of wood and clay, and some for honor and some for dishonor; [2:21]if therefore any one purifies himself from these [errors], he shall be a vessel for honor, sanctified, of good use to the master, prepared for every good work.

8 [2:22]But avoid youthful desires, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. [2:23]But foolish and trifling disputes avoid, knowing that they produce contentions; [2:24]and the servant of the Lord must not contend, but must be gentle to all, apt to teach, patient under evil, [2:25]in meekness correcting the adversaries, that God may give them a change of mind to a knowledge of the truth, [2:26]and that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil, who are made captives by him to his will.



CHAPTER II.

THE LAST TIME, HIS APPROACHING MARTYRDOM, ETC.

1 [3:1]AND know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [3:2] Men will be selfish, avaricious, vain, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3:3]without natural affection, covenant breakers, slanderers, intemperate, ungentle, despisers of the good, [3:4]traitors, rash, boasters, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, [3:5]having a form of piety but denying its power; and these avoid. [3:6]Of these are those who go into the houses and take captive foolish women loaded with sins, and led by various desires, [3:7]always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. [3:8]As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these oppose the truth, men of no judgment, reprobate in respect to the faith. [3:9]But they shall proceed no further; for their foolishness shall become manifest to all, as theirs also was. [3:10]But you have followed my instruction,—mode of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, patience, [3:11]persecutions, sufferings, which befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; the great persecutions which I suffered, and the Lord delivered me from all. [3:12]And all who will live piously in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. [3:13]But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. [3:14]But do you continue in what you learned and understood, knowing from whom you learned, [3:15]and that from a child you have known the sacred Scriptures, which can make you wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [3:16]All Scripture is divinely inspired and is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, for education in righteousness, [3:17]that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fitted for every good work.

2 [4:1]I earnestly charge you before God and Christ Jesus who is about to judge the living and dead, and [by] his appearing and his kingdom, [4:2]preach the word, press it in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and instruction; [4:3]for the time will come when they will not endure sound instruction, but will accumulate for themselves teachers according to their desires, pleasing their ear, [4:4]and they will turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned to myths. [4:5]But do you be sober in all things, endure evil, do the work of an evangelist, perform fully your ministry. [4:6] For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. [4:7]I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; [4:8]henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give me in that day, and not me only but all who love his appearing.

3 [4:9]Make haste to come to me quickly; [4:10]for Demas forsook me having loved the present life and went to Thessalonica, Cresces to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; [4:11]Luke only is with me. Take Mark and bring him with you; for [he will be] useful to me for service. [4:12]But I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. [4:13] The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring, and the books, especially the parchments.

4 [4:14]Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; may the Lord reward him according to his work. [4:15]And do you beware of him, for he greatly opposed our words. [4:16]At my first defense no one stood by me, but all forsook me; may it not be set to their account; [4:17]but the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that the word should be fully declared by me, and all the nations should hear, and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion. [4:18]The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom; to whom be the glory forever and ever; amen.

5 [4:19]Salute Prisca [Priscilla] and Aquila and the house of Onesiphorus. [4:20]Erastus remained at Corinth, and Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. [4:21] Make haste to come before winter. Eubulus and Pudens and Linus and Claudia, and all the brothers, salute you. [4:22]The Lord be with your spirit. The grace be with you.



THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES.

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES.

JERUSALEM, A.D. 61-66.



CHAPTER I.

TRIALS, PRAYER, FAITH AND WORKS.

1 [1:1]JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greeting. [1:2]Account it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, [1:3]knowing that the trial of your faith produces patience. [1:4]But let patience have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. [1:5]And if any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and upbraids not, and it shall be given him. [1:6]But let him ask in faith, not doubting; for he that doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and agitated. [1:7]For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing from the Lord, [1:8]a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. [1:9]But let the brother that is humble rejoice in his exaltation, [1:10]and the rich in his humiliation, for he shall pass away like a flower of the grass. [1:11]For the sun rose hot, and withered the grass, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also shall the rich man perish in his ways.

2 [1:12]Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when proved he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. [1:13]Let no tempted one say, I am tempted by God; for God is not subject to temptation by evils, and he tempts no one. [1:14]But every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his desires, and enticed; [1:15]then the desire taking effect produces sin, and sin being finished brings forth death.

3 [1:16]Be not deceived, my beloved brothers. [1:17]All good giving, and every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow of turning. [1:18]Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruit of his creatures.

4 [1:19]Understand, my beloved brothers, and let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; [1:20]for man's anger performs not God's righteousness. [1:21]Wherefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding vice, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. [1:22]But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. [1:23]For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man perceiving his natural face in a glass; [1:24]for he perceived himself, and went away, and immediately forgot what kind of a man he was. [1:25]But he that looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of work, he shall be blessed in his doing. [1:26]But if any one among you thinks he is religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his mind, that man's religion is vain. [1:27]Pure religion and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.

5 [2:1]My brothers, have not the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with a respect of persons. [2:2]For if there comes into your assembly a man with a gold ring, in splendid clothing, and there also comes in a poor man in vile clothing, [2:3]and you look upon him who wears the splendid clothing, and say to him, Sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, Stand there, or sit under my footstool, [2:4]are you not condemned in yourselves and judges of evil thoughts?

6 [2:5]Hear, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen the poor of the world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? [2:6] But you dishonor the poor. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you to tribunals? [2:7]And do they not blaspheme the good name by which you are called? [2:8]If you keep indeed the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well; [2:9]but if you respect persons, you commit sin, convicted by the law as transgressors. [2:10]For whoever shall keep the whole law, and offend in one point, is guilty of all. [2:11]For he that said, You shall not commit adultery, said also, You shall not kill; and if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you are a transgressor of the law. [2:12]So speak and so do, as being about to be judged by the law of liberty. [2:13]For he shall have judgment without mercy who shows not mercy; mercy rejoices over judgment.

7 [2:14]What is the profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has not works? Can faith save him? [2:15]And if a brother or sister is naked, or destitute of daily food, [2:16]and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and be filled, but gives them not the necessary supplies for the body, what is the profit? [2:17]So also faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. [2:18]But some one will say, You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by works. [2:19]You believe that there is one God? You do well; demons also believe and tremble. [2:20]But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? [2:21] Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? [2:22]You see that faith cooperated with his works, and by works was faith made perfect, [2:23]and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him a righteousness, and he was called God's friend. [2:24]You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. [2:25]And in like manner also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? [2:26]For as the body without a spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.



CHAPTER II.

ON CENSORIOUSNESS, WISDOM, CONTENTION, ETC.

1 [3:1]BE not many of you teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive a severer judgment. [3:2]For in many things we all offend; if one offends not in word he is a perfect man, able to keep in subjection also the whole body. [3:3]But we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, and direct their whole body; [3:4]behold also the ships, though of so great size and driven by powerful winds, are directed by a very small helm wherever the will of the pilot chooses; [3:5]so also the tongue is a small member and boasts of great things. Behold, how much wood a little fire kindles! [3:6]And the tongue is a fire, the tongue is made a world of wickedness among our members, it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. [3:7]For every kind of beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, [3:8]but the tongue can no man tame; it is a disorderly evil, full of a deadly poison. [3:9]With it bless we the Lord and Father, and with it curse we men made in the likeness of God. [3:10]Out of the same mouth proceeds a blessing and a curse. My brothers, these things ought not so to be. [3:11]Does a fountain send forth sweet water and bitter from the same opening? [3:12]Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine, figs? So you cannot make salt water sweet.

2 [3:13]What wise and intelligent man is there among you? Let him show his works by good conduct, in the meekness of wisdom. [3:14]But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, boast not and lie not against the truth. [3:15]This wisdom comes not from above, but is earthly, natural, demoniacal. [3:16]For where envy and strife are, there are disorder and every evil work. [3:17]But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be persuaded, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. [3:18]And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to those who make peace.

3 [4:1]Whence come wars and contentions among you? Come they not thence, from your pleasures that war in your members? [4:2]You desire and have not; you kill, and envy, and cannot obtain; you fight and carry on war. You have not, because you do not ask; [4:3]you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, to expend on your pleasures. [4:4]Adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Whoever therefore wishes to be a friend of the world, is made an enemy of God. [4:5]Or do you suppose that the Scripture says in vain, The spirit which dwells in us desires to envy? [4:6]But he gives more grace; wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. [4:7]Be subject therefore to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you; [4:8]draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, purify your hearts, double-minded. [4:9]Lament, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow. [4:10]Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

4 [4:11]Speak not one against one another, brothers. He that speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. [4:12]There is one law-giver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you that judge a neighbor?

5 [4:13]Come now, you that say, To-day and to-morrow we will go to such a city and engage in business there a year, and trade and make profits, [4:14]who know not what will be on the morrow; for what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away; [4:15]for you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall both live and do this or that. [4:16]But now you glory in your boasting; all such glorying is evil. [4:17]He therefore that knows how to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.

6 [5:1]Come now, rich men, weep and lament for the miseries which are coming upon you. [5:2]Your riches have decayed, and your garments are moth-eaten, [5:3]your gold and silver are destroyed with rust, and their rust will be a witness against you, and consume your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasures for the last days. [5:4]Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, kept back by you, cry, and the loud calls of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. [5:5]You have lived in luxury on the earth and in pleasure, you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. [5:6]You have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you.

7 [5:7]Wait patiently therefore, brothers, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and is of long patience, till he receives the autumnal and vernal rain. [5:8]Do you also have long patience, confirm your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. [5:9] Complain not, brothers, against one another, that you be not judged; behold, the judge stands before the doors. [5:10]You have the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, my brothers, as an example of patience and long-suffering. [5:11]Behold, we account them blessed who are patient. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you know the purpose of the Lord, that he is very merciful and compassionate.

8 [5:12]Above all things, my brothers, swear not, neither by heaven, nor the earth, nor any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no, no, that you may not fall under condemnation.

9 [5:13]If any one among you is afflicted, let him pray; if any one is happy, let him sing psalms; [5:14]if any one is sick among you, let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray for him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [5:15]And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. [5:16]Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be cured, for the prayer of the righteous operates with great power. [5:17]Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed that it might not rain, and it rained not on the land for three years and six months; [5:18] and again he prayed, and heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded her fruit.

10 [5:19]Brothers, if any one among you errs from the truth, and one converts him, [5:20]let him know that he who converts a sinner from an error of [his] way, shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.



FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

BABYLON, A.D. 64.



CHAPTER I.

A FIRM ADHERENCE TO CHRIST, ETC.

1 [1:1]PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, [1:2]according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you.

2 [1:3]Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [1:4]to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you [1:5]who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. [1:6]In which you rejoice, though now for a little while if need be made sad by manifold trials, [1:7]that the trial of your faith, which is much more precious than gold that is destroyed but proved by fire, may be found to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, [1:8]whom not having seen you love, in whom believing though now you see him not you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious, [1:9] receiving the end of the faith, the salvation of souls. [1:10]Concerning which salvation the prophets also who prophesied concerning the grace [bestowed] on us inquired diligently and sought, [1:11]inquiring as to what person or what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them signified, when it declared before the sufferings of Christ and after these the glories, [1:12]to whom it was revealed that they ministered not to themselves but to us those things which have now been declared to you by those who preached to you the good news, with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the angels desire to look.

3 [1:13]Wherefore, girding up the loins of your minds, be sober, and hope to the end for the gift to be brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. [1:14]As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the desires of your former ignorance, [1:15]but as he that called you is holy be you also holy in all [your] conduct, [1:16]because it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy. [1:17]And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each one's work, spend the time of your life with fear, [1:18] knowing that you were not redeemed from your vain mode of life received by tradition from your fathers, with destructible things, silver or gold, [1:19] but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without a spot; [1:20]who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but made manifest in these last times for you, [1:21]who through him believed in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope may be in God.

4 [1:22]Having purified your souls by obeying the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently, from the heart, [1:23]having been born again, not from destructible seed but from indestructible, through the word of God which lives and endures. [1:24]For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass has withered, and its flower fell off; [1:25]but the word of the Lord continues forever. And this is the word preached to you.

5 [2:1]Laying aside therefore all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, [2:2]as new born babes desire earnestly the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it to salvation, [2:3]if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. [2:4]To whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but approved by God, elect, precious, [2:5]do you also yourselves be built up living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ, [2:6]for it is said in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed. [2:7]To you therefore who believe he is precious; but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of a corner [2:8]and a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. [2:9]But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should declare the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light; [2:10] who formerly were not a people, but now are a people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.



CHAPTER II.

PERSONAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL DUTIES, ETC.

1 [2:11]BELOVED, I exhort you as strangers and foreigners, abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul, [2:12]having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, from the good works which they see they may glorify God in the day of visitation.

2 [2:13]Be subject therefore to every human government, for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as superior, [2:14]to governors, sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do well; [2:15]for this is the will of God, that by well-doing you may silence the ignorance of foolish men; [2:16]as free, and not using freedom for a cloak of vice, but as servants of God. [2:17]Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

3 [2:18]Let servants be subject with all fear to masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse. [2:19]For this deserves thanks, if on account of a knowledge of God one endures pain, suffering unjustly. [2:20]For what glory is it if when you sin and are punished you bear it patiently? But if you do well and suffer and bear it patiently, [this deserves thanks], for it is acceptable to God. [2:21]For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you a copy that you should follow his steps, [2:22]who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, [2:23]who being reviled reviled not, suffering threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously, [2:24]who himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we having died to sins, may live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. [2:25]For you were like lost sheep, but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

4 [3:1]In like manner let the women be subject to their husbands, that even if some disobey the word, they may be gained through the conduct of their wives without the word, [3:2]seeing your pure mode of life in the fear [of God]. [3:3]Whose ornament let it not be the external [ornament] of braided hair and the putting on of chains of gold or of clothing, [3:4]but let the hidden man of the heart be adorned with the imperishable [ornaments] of a meek and quiet spirit, which are of great price before God. [3:5]For so formerly also the holy women who hoped in God adorned themselves, being subject to their husbands, [3:6]as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose children you are, doing good and having no fear. [3:7]In like manner let the husbands [do], living together in knowledge with the wife as with a vessel of less strength, deeming them precious, co-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

5 [3:8]Finally, be all of one mind, sympathising, loving as brothers, compassionate, humble, [3:9]not returning evil for evil or railing for railing, but on the contrary blessing [your enemies], because to this you are called, that you may inherit blessing. [3:10]For he that will love life and see good days, let him withhold his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit, [3:11]let him abstain from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, [3:12]for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

6 [3:13]And who is he that will injure you if you are followers of what is good? [3:14]But even if you suffer on account of righteousness, you are blessed. But fear not with their fear, neither be troubled; [3:15]and sanctify the anointed Lord in your hearts, and be always ready with a defense to every one that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you; but with meekness and fear, [3:16]having a good conscience, that in what they speak evil of you they may be ashamed who slander your good conduct in Christ. [3:17]For it is better to suffer doing good, if the will of God allows, than doing evil. [3:18]For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might lead us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, [3:19] in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, [3:20]who were formerly disobedient when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. [3:21]The archetype of which, baptism, also now saves us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience in God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, [3:22]who is on the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

7 [4:1]Christ therefore having suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, [4:2]that you may no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh according to the desires of men, but according to the will of God. [4:3]For the time past is sufficient for us to have performed the will of the gentiles, walking in lewdness, inordinate desires, drunkenness, revellings, drinkings and unlawful idolatries, [4:4]in which they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excessive intemperance, blaspheming, [4:5]who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the living and dead. [4:6]And for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

8 [4:7]But the end of all things is at hand. Be sober therefore, and watch in prayers; [4:8]above all things have fervent love one for another, for love hides a multitude of sins. [4:9]Be hospitable one to another, without complaining; [4:10]as each has received a gift, minister the same among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. [4:11]If any one speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God, if any one serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the power for ever and ever; amen.



CHAPTER III.

TRIALS, ADMONITIONS TO PRESBYTERS, ETC.

1 [4:12]BELOVED, think not strange of the fiery trial which is to try you, as if some strange thing happened to you, [4:13]but as you partake of the sufferings of Christ rejoice, that you may also rejoice exulting at the revelation of his glory. [4:14]If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. [4:15]But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or as a meddler in other men's affairs; [4:16]but as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, let him glorify God on this account. [4:17]For it is time for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it first begins with us, what will the end be of those that obey not the gospel of God? [4:18]And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? [4:19]Let those therefore who suffer by the will of God, commit their souls to him in well doing as a faithful creator.

2 [5:1]The elders among you I exhort, who am a co-elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed; [5:2]feed the flock of God which is among you, not by constraint but willingly, not for base gain but of a ready mind, [5:3]not as having a lordship over God's inheritance but being examples to the flock; [5:4]and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive an unfading crown of glory.

3 [5:5]Let the younger in like manner be subject to the elder, and do you all be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. [5:6]Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; [5:7]casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

4 [5:8]Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; [5:9]whom resist, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished by your brothers in the world. [5:10]And may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when you have suffered a little while, himself make you perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you. [5:11]To him be the glory and the power for ever; amen.

5 [5:12]I have written to you in a few words by Silvanus [Silas], a faithful brother as I suppose, exhorting you, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. [5:13]The co-elect [church] at Babylon salutes you, and Mark my son. [5:14]Salute one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all in Christ.



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER.

BABYLON, A.D. 67.



CHAPTER I.

THE PURSUIT OF THE VIRTUES, THE GLORY OF CHRIST, FALSE TEACHERS, ETC.

1 [1:1]SIMEON Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. [1:2]Grace and peace be multiplied to you by a knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2 [1:3]As his divine power has given us all things which pertain to life and piety, through the knowledge of him that has called us to his own glory and virtue, [1:4]through which have been given us very great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption which is in the world by inordinate desire, [1:5]and for the same purpose also, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, [1:6]and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience piety, [1:7]and to piety brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. [1:8]For if these are in you and abound, they will make you not inactive nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; [1:9]for a man that is without these is blind, not seeing to a distance, and has forgotten the purification from his former errors. [1:10]Wherefore, brothers, use the greater diligence to make your calling and election sure; for doing these things you shall never fall. [1:11]For thus shall you have an abundant entrance given you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

3 [1:12]Wherefore I will not neglect always to remind you of these things, although you have known them, and have been established in the present truth. [1:13]I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle, to excite you by remembrance, [1:14]knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is at hand, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. [1:15]But I will also be diligent and especially that you may be able to make mention of these things after my departure. [1:16]For we did not follow skilfully constructed myths in making known to you the power and appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty. [1:17]For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when this voice was brought to him from the magnificent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. [1:18]And this voice we heard brought from heaven when we were with him on the holy mount. [1:19]And we have the more sure prophetic word, to which you will do well to attend, as to a light shining in a dark place, till the day dawns and the day-star arises in your hearts, [1:20]knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of its own solution. [1:21]For prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but moved by the Holy Spirit men spoke from God.

4 [2:1]But there were also false prophets among the people, as there shall also be false teachers among you, who shall bring in by stealth destructive heresies, even denying the master that bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction; [2:2]and many shall follow their lewdness, on account of whom the way of truth shall be reviled, [2:3]and with covetousness they will make a gain of you with feigned words, whose judgment a long time lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not. [2:4]For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but plunging them into Tartarus delivered them up in chains to be kept in darkness till the judgment, [2:5]and spared not the old world, but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, bringing the flood on the world of the ungodly, [2:6]and condemned Sodom and Gomorrah to be overthrown, reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those who should afterwards be wicked, [2:7]and delivered righteous Lot, vexed by the lewd conduct of the wicked;— [2:8]for that righteous man living among them vexed his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their wicked deeds;— [2:9]the Lord knows how to deliver the pious from trial, and to keep the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished, [2:10]but especially those who walk after the flesh, in corrupt desires, and despise government. Presumptuous, self-complacent, they fear not to revile glories, [2:11]where the angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring against them a reproachful judgment; [2:12]but these, like irrational animals, brutes made to be taken and destroyed, reviling things which they do not understand, will also be destroyed in their depravity, [2:13] receiving the wages of wickedness, accounting luxury in the day-time a pleasure, spots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions while feasting with you, [2:14]having eyes full of an adulteress, and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart exercised in covetousness, cursed children, [2:15]having left the right way they have gone astray, following in the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of wickedness, [2:16]but had a rebuke of his transgression; the dumb ass, speaking with a man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet.

5 [2:17]These are fountains without water, clouds driven by a tempest, to which is reserved the blackness of darkness. [2:18]For speaking extravagant words of vanity, they entice with carnal desires of lewdness those scarcely escaped from them, those living in error, [2:19]promising them liberty, when they themselves are servants of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, to this is he made a servant. [2:20]For if having escaped the defilements of the world by a knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome by them, the last state of those persons is worse than the first. [2:21]For it is better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. [2:22] But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog returned to his vomit, and the swine that was washed to wallowing in filth.



CHAPTER II.

THE COMING OF CHRIST, ETC.

1 [3:1]THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in which I excite your pure minds by remembrance, [3:2]to remember the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, [3:3] knowing this first, that in the last days scoffers shall come with scoffing walking after their inordinate desires, [3:4]and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world. [3:5]For of this they are willingly ignorant, that the heavens were of old, and the earth was made of water and by water by the word of God, [3:6]by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, was destroyed. [3:7]But the present heavens and the earth have been preserved by his word, being kept for fire, at the day of the judgment and destruction of wicked men.

2 [3:8]But let not this one thing escape you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [3:9]The Lord is not slow in respect to his promise, as some men account slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a change of mind.

3 [3:10]But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a crash, and the elements be melted with heat, and the earth and the works in it be consumed. [3:11]All these things therefore being dissolved, what persons ought we to be in holy conduct and piety, [3:12] expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being burnt up will be dissolved and the elements be melted with heat. [3:13]But we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.

4 [3:14]Wherefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent that you may be found in him without a spot and blemish, in peace, [3:15]and consider the long-suffering of the Lord our salvation; as also our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given to him wrote to you, [3:16]as also in all his epistles speaking of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they also do the other Scriptures to their destruction. [3:17]Do you therefore, beloved, knowing [these things] before, be on your guard not to be carried away with the error of the wicked and fall from your steadfastness, [3:18]but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever.



THE EPISTLE OF JUDAS

A.D. 67.

FALSE TEACHERS, ETC.

1 [1:1]JUDAS, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the beloved in God the Father, and the called who are kept by Jesus Christ. [1:2]Mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

2 [1:3]Beloved, giving all diligence to write to you concerning the common salvation, I was under a necessity to write and exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. [1:4]For some men have come in by deception, who were of old appointed to this judgment, impious, changing the grace of our God into lewdness, and denying our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

3 [1:5]But I wish to remind you, though you once knew all, that the Lord having saved his people from Egypt, afterwards destroyed those that believed not, [1:6] and the angels who kept not their own province, but left their habitation, he has kept under darkness in eternal chains, for the judgment of the great day; [1:7]as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, committing fornication in the same manner as these and going after unnatural lewdness, are made an example, enduring the punishment of eternal fire.

4 [1:8]In like manner also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject government, and blaspheme glories. [1:9]But Michael the arch-angel, when disputing with the devil he reasoned about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a charge of blasphemy, but said, The Lord rebuke you. [1:10]But these blaspheme what they do not understand, and what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. [1:11]Woe to them; for they have gone in the way of Cain, and rushed into the error of Balaam for a reward, and perished in the contradiction of Korah. [1:12]These are breakers at your love-feasts, feasting with you without fear, feeding themselves, clouds without water driven about by winds, autumnal trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, [1:13]wild waves of the sea foaming with their own shame, wandering stars to which is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

5 [1:14]And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of them, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousand of his saints [1:15]to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the wicked among them of all the deeds of impiety which they have impiously committed, and of all the hard speeches which impious sinners have spoken against him. [1:16]These are complainers, censorious, walking after their inordinate desires, and their mouth speaks proud words, showing admiration of persons for the sake of gain.

6 [1:17]But do you, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, [1:18]that they said to you, That in the last time there shall be scoffers, walking in their own impious desires. [1:19]These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. [1:20]But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, pray with the Holy Spirit. [1:21]Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. [1:22]And reprove some, separatists, [1:23]and some save, plucking them from the fire, but have mercy on others with fear, hating even the garment that is defiled by the flesh.

7 [1:24]And to him that is able to keep you without falling, and to present you blameless before his glory, with great joy, [1:25]to God our only Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority before all worlds, both now and for ever more; amen.



FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN.

A. D. 68.



CHAPTER I.

CHRIST THE LIFE, GOD IS LIGHT, WALKING WITH HIM, FALSE TEACHERS, ETC.

1 [1:1]THAT which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the Word of life,— [1:2]and the life was made manifest, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us,— [1:3]that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. [1:4]And these things we write to you, that your joy may be complete.

2 [1:5]And this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, That God is light, and with him there is no darkness. [1:6]If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and observe not the truth; [1:7]but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. [1:8]If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [1:9]If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all wickedness. [1:10]If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

3 [2:1]My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. But if any one has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, [2:2]and he is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for all the world. [2:3]And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. [2:4]He that says, I have known him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; [2:5]but whoever keeps his word, in him truly is the love of God perfected. By this we know that we are in him. [2:6]He that says he continues in him, ought also himself so to walk as he walked.

4 [2:7]Beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard. [2:8]Again, a new commandment I write you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now appears. [2:9]He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness till now. [2:10] He that loves his brother continues in the light, and there is no offense in him; [2:11]but he that hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

5 [2:12]I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. [2:13]I write to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I wrote to you, little children, because you have known the Father. [2:14]I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God continues in you, and you have overcome the evil one. [2:15]Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; [2:16]for all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. [2:17]And the world passes away, and its desires; but he that does the will of God continues for ever.

6 [2:18]Little children, it is the last time; and as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many have become anti-christs; whence we know that it is the last time. [2:19]They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us; but [they went out from us] that they might be manifest that they are not all of us. [2:20]And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and know all things. [2:21]I have not written to you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. [2:22]Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anti-christ, [the man that] denies the Father and the Son. [2:23]No one that denies the Son has the Father; he that confesses the Son has the Father also. [2:24]Let that which you heard from the beginning continue in you. If that which you heard from the beginning continues in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. [2:25]And this is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.

7 [2:26]I have written these things to you concerning those who deceive you. [2:27]And the anointing which you received from him continues in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; but as his anointing teaches you of all things, and is true and is not a lie, even as it has taught you, continue in him.

8 [2:28]And now, little children, continue in him, that when he shall appear we may have boldness, and not be put to shame by him at his coming. [2:29]If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one who does righteousness has been born of him.

9 [3:1]See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. The world therefore knows us not, because it knew him not.

10 [3:2]Beloved, now are we children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. We know, that if he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [3:3]And every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, as he is pure. [3:4]Every one that commits sin commits also wickedness, and sin is wickedness. [3:5]And we know that he was manifested to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. [3:6]No one that continues in him sins; no one that sins has seen him, or known him.

11 [3:7]Little children, let no one deceive you. He that does righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous; [3:8]he that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this was the Son of God manifested, to destroy the works of the devil. [3:9]No one that has been born of God commits sin, for his seed continues in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. [3:10]By this are the children of God manifest, and the children of the devil; no one that does not righteousness is of God, and no one that loves not his brother. [3:11]For this is the message which you heard from the beginning; that we should love one another; [3:12]not as Cain was of the evil one and killed his brother; and why did he kill him? because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

12 [3:13]Wonder not, brothers, if the world hates you. [3:14]We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers; he that loves not, continues in death. [3:15]Every one that hates his brother is a murderer; and we know that no murderer has eternal life continuing in him. [3:16]By this we have known love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. [3:17]And whoever has the goods of the world and sees his brother have need, and withholds his compassions from him, how continues the love of God in him?

13 [3:18]My little children, let us not love in word nor tongue, but in work and truth. [3:19]And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him; [3:20]for if our minds condemn us, God is greater than our minds and knows all things.

14 [3:21]Beloved, if our minds do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, [3:22]and what we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things which are pleasing in his sight. [3:23]And this is his commandment; that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave commandment. [3:24]And he that keeps his commandments continues in him and he in him; and by this we know that he continues in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.



CHAPTER II.

FALSE SPIRITS, BROTHERLY LOVE, THE LOVE OF GOD, THE THREE WITNESSES, ETC.

1 [4:1]BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. [4:2]By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, [4:3]and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.

2 [4:4]You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. [4:5]They are of the world; therefore they speak of the world and the world hears them. [4:6]We are of God; he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

3 [4:7]Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loves has been born of God and knows God. [4:8]He that loves not has not known God; for God is love. [4:9]The love of God was manifested to us in this; that God has sent his only Son into the world that we may live through him. [4:10]In this is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.

4 [4:11]Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. [4:12] No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God continues in us and his love is perfected in us. [4:13]By this we know that we continue in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. [4:14]And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son, the Saviour of the world. [4:15]Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God continues in him and he in God. [4:16]And we have known and believed the love which God has for us. God is love; and he that continues in love continues in God and God in him.

5 [4:17]By this is love perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as he is we also are in this world. [4:18]There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has pain; and he that is afraid is not made perfect in love. [4:19]We love, because he first loved us. [4:20] If any one says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? [4:21]And we have this commandment from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.

6 [5:1]Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and every one who loves the Father loves also the Son who is born to him. [5:2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. [5:3]For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous; [5:4]for every child that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our faith. [5:5]Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

7 [5:6]This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus, the Christ; not by water only, but by water and by blood; and the Spirit is that which testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. [5:7]For there are three that testify; the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are one. [5:9]If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son. [5:10]He that believes on the Son of God has the testimony in himself; he that believes not God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning his Son. [5:11]And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [5:12]He that has the Son has the life; he that has not the Son has not the life.

8 [5:13]These things have I written to you, that you who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that you have eternal life. [5:14]And this is the confidence which we have in respect to him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he hears us. [5:15]And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. [5:16]If any one sees his brother commit a sin, not to death, he shall ask, and he will give him life, for those who sin not to death. There is a sin to death; I say not that you should pray for it. [5:17]All wickedness is sin, and there is sin not to death.

9 [5:18]We know that every one who has been born of God does not sin, but he that has been born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. [5:19]We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. [5:20]And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding that we may know the true One; and we are in the true One, in his Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God, and eternal life. [5:21]Little children, keep yourselves from idols.



SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN.

A.D. 68.

A COMMENDATION OF CURIA'S CHILDREN, ETC.

1 [1:1]THE elder to the elect Curia and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth, [1:2]on account of the truth which continues in you, and shall be with you forever. [1:3]Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, shall be with you in truth and love.

2 [1:4]I rejoiced exceedingly that I found your children walking in the truth as we received commandment from the Father. [1:5]And now I beseech you, Curia, not as if writing a new commandment to you, but [one] which we had from the beginning, that we should love one another. [1:6]And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. [1:7]For many deceivers have gone out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh; this is the deceiver, and the antichrist. [1:8]Take heed to yourselves, that ye lose not the labor which you performed, but receive a full reward. [1:9]Every one who goes beyond, and continues not in the doctrine of Christ, is without God. He that continues in the doctrine has both the Son and the Father. [1:10] If any one comes to you and brings not this doctrine, receive him not into your houses, and salute him not; [1:11]for he that salutes him is a partaker of his evil works.

3 [1:12]Having many things to write, I do not wish to write with paper and ink, but I hope to be with you and to speak face to face, that our joy may be full. [1:13]The children of your elect sister salute you.



THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN.

A.D. 68.

A COMMENDATION OF GAIUS AND DEMETRIUS, AND A DENUNCIATION OF DIOTREPHES.

1 [1:1]THE elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. [1:2]Beloved, I desire above all things that you may prosper and be in health, as your soul prospers. [1:3]For I rejoiced exceedingly when the brothers came and testified of your truth, as you walk in truth. [1:4]I have no greater joy than this, that I hear of my children walking in the truth.

2 [1:5]Beloved, you did faithfully whatever you do to the brothers, and that to strangers, [1:6]who testified of your love before the church, whom you will do well to send forward worthily of God. [1:7]For they went out for his name, taking nothing of the gentiles. [1:8]We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be co-laborers for the truth.

3 [1:9]I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes desiring the pre-eminence does not receive us. [1:10]Therefore if I come I will remember his works which he performs, prating against us with evil words, and not being satisfied, in addition to these [things] he does not receive the brothers, and forbids and casts out of the church those wishing to do it.

4 [1:11]Beloved, do not imitate evil but good. He that does good is of God; he that does evil has not seen God. [1:12]Testimony is borne to Demetrius by all, and by the truth itself; and we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.

5 [1:13]I had many things to write, but wish not to write to you with ink and pen; [1:14]but hope soon to see you, and we will speak face to face. Peace be to you. The friends salute you; salute the friends by name.



[THE EPISTLE] TO THE HEBREWS.

A.D. 68.



CHAPTER I.

CHRIST THE SON OF GOD SUPERIOR TO ANGELS AND TO MOSES.

1 [1:1]GOD, who at many times and in many ways spoke anciently to the fathers by the prophets, [1:2]in these last days spoke to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, [1:3]who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his substance, and sustaining all things by the word of his power, having made a purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, [1:4]being made as much greater than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. [1:5]For to which of the angels said he at any time, You are my Son, to-day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son? [1:6]And again, when he brings the first-born into the world he says, And let all the angels of God worship him. [1:7]And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire; [1:8]but of the Son, Thy throne, God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of rectitude. [1:9]Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions. [1:10]And thou, Lord, in the beginning didst build from its foundations the earth, and the heavens are works of thy hands; [1:11]they shall perish, but thou shalt continue; and they shall all become old like a garment, [1:12]and like a mantle thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail. [1:13]And to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool? [1:14]Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?

2 [2:1]We ought therefore to attend the more to the things which we heard, lest at any time we should glide away [from them]. [2:2]For if the word spoken by angels was firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, [2:3]how shall we escape who have neglected so great a salvation? which began to be spoken by the Lord, and was affirmed to us by those who heard, [2:4]God bearing them witness with signs and prodigies, and various mighty works and gifts of the holy Spirit, according to his will.

3 [2:5]For he did not subject to angels the world to come, of which we speak. [2:6]But one somewhere testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or a son of man that thou visitest him? [2:7]Thou didst make him a little lower than angels, thou didst crown him with glory and honor, [2:8]thou didst subject all things under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing not subjected to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. [2:9]But we see Jesus, made a little less than angels, on account of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste death for every [man]. [2:10]For it became him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, to perfect by sufferings the prince of their salvation, bringing many sons to glory. [2:11]For both he that sanctifies and the sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers, [2:12]saying, I will declare thy name to my brothers, in the midst of the assembly will I sing to thee. [2:13]And again, I will trust in him. And again, Behold me and the children which God gave me. [2:14]Since then the children have partaken of blood and flesh, he in like manner also partook of them, that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death, that is the devil, [2:15]and liberate those who all their life were subjects of servitude to the fear of death. [2:16]For indeed he helped not angels, but he helped the descendants of Abraham. [2:17]Whence he ought in all things to be assimilated to the brothers, that he may be a merciful and faithful chief priest as to things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. [2:18]For because he has himself suffered, having been tried, he is able to help the tried.

4 [3:1]Whence, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly call, consider the apostle and chief priest of our profession, Jesus, [3:2]who is faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was in his house. [3:3]For this man is judged worthy of more glory than Moses, as much as he has more honor than the house [tabernacle] which he built. [3:4]For every house is built by some one; but he that built all things is God. [3:5]And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of things to be spoken; [3:6]but Christ as a son over his house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope.

5 [3:7]Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit says, To-day if you will hear his voice, [3:8]harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of the trial in the wilderness, [3:9]where your fathers fully proved and saw my works forty years. [3:10]Wherefore I was displeased with that generation and said, They always err in mind, and they did not know my ways, [3:11]so I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. [3:12]See, brothers, that there be not at any time in any one of you an evil mind of unbelief in departing from the living God; [3:13]but exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, that no one of you may be hardened by the deception of sin; [3:14]for we have been made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of the confidence firm to the end. [3:15]It was said, To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation; [3:16]for who having heard committed provocation? Did not all indeed who came out of Egypt with Moses? [3:17]And with whom was he displeased forty years? Was it not with those that sinned? whose bodies fell in the wilderness? [3:18]And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest? was it not to them that disobeyed? [3:19]And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

6 [4:1]Let us fear, therefore, lest at any time a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to come short. [4:2]For we have also received the good news as they did; but the word of the report did not profit them, not being accompanied with faith in those who heard. [4:3]For we enter into the rest who believed, as he said, I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest, although of works made from the foundation of the world. [4:4]For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day, thus; And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. [4:5]And in this place again, They shall not enter into my rest. [4:6]Since then it remains that some entered into it, and those to whom it was first preached entered not in on account of unbelief, [4:7]again he defines a certain day, To-day, saying in David, after so long a time, as it was said before, To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. [4:8]For if Joshua caused them to rest he would not have spoken of another day afterwards.

7 [4:9]Therefore a sabbatism remains for the people of God. [4:10]For he [Christ] who entered into his rest, also himself rested from his works, as God from his.

8 [4:11]Let us use diligence, therefore to enter into that rest [the heavenly rest], that no one may fall, after the same example of disobedience. [4:12]For the word of God is living, and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrows, and distinguishes thoughts and intentions of mind; [4:13]and there is nothing which is not manifest in his sight; for all things are naked and exposed to his eyes, to whom our discourse relates.



CHAPTER II.

CHRIST A CHIEF PRIEST AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC.

1 [4:14]HAVING therefore a great chief priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the profession. [4:15]For we have not a chief priest who cannot sympathise with our infirmities, but one tried in all respects as we are, without sin. [4:16]Let us therefore approach with boldness the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace for timely aid.

2 [5:1]For every chief priest taken from men is appointed in behalf of men over things relating to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, [5:2] being able to deal gently with the ignorant and erring, since he is himself encompassed with infirmity, [5:3]and as for the people, so also for himself, he is obliged to present offerings for sins. [5:4]And no one takes the honor on himself but he that is called by God, even as Aaron also was. [5:5]So also Christ did not put on himself the honor of being made a chief priest, but he that said to him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee; [5:6]as also in another place he says, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. [5:7]Who in the days of his flesh having offered both prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, with loud cries and tears, [and being heard and delivered] from fear,— [5:8]although he was a Son, learned obedience from what he suffered, [5:9]and being made perfect became to all who obey him an author of eternal salvation, [5:10]being called by God a chief priest after the order of Melchisedec.