the joy set before him despised the shame and endured the cross, and sat down on the right hand of God. For consider him that has endured such a contradiction from sinners, that you may not become faint and weary in your minds. CHAPTER V. DIVINE CHASTENING, MOUNT SINAI AND MOUNT ZION, MORAL DUTIES, ETC. 1 You have not yet resisted to blood contending against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which says to you as to sons, My son, despise not the correction of the Lord and faint not when rebuked by him, for the Lord corrects those whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. If you endure correction, God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not correct? But if you are without correction of which all are partakers, then you are of foreign birth, and not sons. Moreover, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they for a few days corrected us as seemed good to them, but he for the best, that we may partake of his holiness. And no correction seems to be joyful for the present but painful, but afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it. 2 Wherefore hold up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight courses for your feet, that the lame may not be turned out of the way, but may rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord, taking care that no one may come short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up may make trouble and by it many be defiled, that no one may be a fornicator or unholy person like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. For you know that afterwards, wishing also to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind, though he sought it with tears. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, and to a burning fire, and blackness and darkness and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which those who heard desired that the word might not be spoken to them any more, - for they could not bear what was commanded, And if a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the sight, that Moses said, I fear and tremble, but you have come to Zion, the mountain and city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in general assembly, and to the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge the God of all, and to spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to a sprinkled blood which speaks better than Abel. 3 See that you refuse not him that speaks; for if they did not escape who refused him that gave answers on earth, much more shall we [not escape] who turn ourselves away from him in heaven; whose voice then shook the earth, but now it has been promised, saying, Hereafter once for all I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven. And this, Hereafter once for all, signifies the removal of the things shaken as of things made, that those not shaken may continue. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that can not be shaken, let us have grace through which we may serve God acceptably, with piety and fear; for our God is also a consuming fire. 4 Let brotherly love continue. Forget not hospitality; for by this some without knowing it have entertained angels. Remember those bound as bound with them, and those injured as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and married life without blame; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your life be without avarice, and be contented with what you have; for he said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you; so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear; what can man do to me? 5 Remember your guides who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the end of their life follow the faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Be not carried about with various and strange doctrines; for it is good that the mind should be established with grace, not with aliments, in which those walking are not profited. 6 We have an altar of which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is carried into the sanctuary by the chief priest are burnt without the encampment. Wherefore also Jesus, that he might purify the people through his blood, suffered without the gate. Let us therefore go out to him without the encampment, bearing his reproach; for we have not here a city that continues, but we seek that which is to come. Through him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing his name. And forget not beneficence and liberality; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 7 Obey your guides and be in subjection; for they watch for your souls as having to give an account, that they may do this with joy and not with grief; for this is unprofitable for you. 8 Pray for us; for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things wishing to live well. And I exhort you do this the more, that I may sooner be restored to you. 9 And may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, perfect you in every good work to do his will, doing in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever; amen. 10 And I beseech you, brothers, suffer the word of exhortation; for I have sent to you a letter in a few words. Know that brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Salute all your guides and all the saints. Those from Italy salute you. The grace be with you all; amen. REVELATION BY PATMOS, A.D. 68. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION, A VISION OF CHRIST 1 A REVELATION of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his servants [things] which must shortly occur, and he sent and made them known by his angel to his servant John, who declared the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ which he saw. Blessed is he that reads, and those that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time is at hand. 2 John, to the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace be to you, from the Is and the Was and the Is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to God even his Father, to him be the glory and the power forever; amen. 3 Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him and those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. Yes, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God; the Is, and the Was, and the Is to come, the Almighty. 4 I, John, your brother and companion in the affliction and kingdom and patience in Christ Jesus, was in the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet, saying, What you see write in a 897 34 book, and send to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamus and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. 5 And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me; and having turned around I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the candlesticks one like the Son of man, clothed with a robe extending down to his feet, girded about the breasts with a golden girdle; and his head and hairs were white as white wool, as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass as if they were burned in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun in his strength. 6 And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead; and he put his right hand on me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last and the living, and I was dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of hades. Write therefore the things which you saw, and which are, and which are about to appear hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks the seven churches. CHAPTER II. LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, These things says he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know your works and your labor and your patience, and that you cannot bear the wicked, and you tried those who say they are apostles and are not, and found them false; and you have patience, and suffered for my name, and did not faint. But I have against you that you have left your first love. Remember therefore whence you have fallen, and change your minds, and do the first works, otherwise I will come to you and remove your candlestick from its place, unless you change your minds. But you have this, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let him that has an ear |