Salutation

The Church of God which sojourns in Rome to the Church of God which sojourns in Corinth, to those who are called and sanctified by the will of God, through Jesus the Messiah, son of Mary, His messenger. Grace and peace from God Almighty be multiplied to you through the guidance of His messenger, the Messiah.

I

1 Owing to the sudden and repeated misfortunes and calamities which have befallen us, we consider that our attention has been somewhat delayed in turning to the questions disputed among you, beloved, and especially the abominable and unholy sedition, alien and foreign to the elect of God, which a few rash and self-willed persons have made blaze up to such a frenzy that your name, venerable and famous, and worthy as it is of all men's love, has been much slandered.

2 For who has stayed with you without making proof of the virtue and steadfastness of your faith? Who has not admired the sobriety and gentle piety of your devotion to God? Who has not reported your character so magnificent in its hospitality? And who has not blessed your perfect and secure knowledge?

3 For you did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the laws of God, obedient to your rulers, and paying all fitting honour to the older among you. On the young, too, you enjoined temperate and seemly thoughts, and to the women you gave instruction that they should do all things with a blameless and seemly and pure conscience, yielding a dutiful affection to their husbands. And you taught them to remain in the rule of obedience and to manage their households with seemliness, in all circumspection.

II

1 And you were all humble-minded and in no wise arrogant, yielding subjection rather than demanding it, "giving more gladly than receiving," satisfied with the provision of God, and paying attention to His words you stored them up carefully in your hearts, and kept the sufferings of His messenger before your eyes.

2 Thus a profound and rich peace was given to all, you had an insatiable desire to do good, and the Holy Spirit was poured out in abundance on you all.

3 You were full of holy plans, and with pious confidence you stretched out your hands to Almighty God in a passion of goodness, beseeching Him to be merciful towards any unwilling sin.

4 Day and night you strove on behalf of the whole brotherhood that the number of His elect should be saved with mercy and compassion.

5 You were sincere and innocent, and bore no malice to one another.

6 All sedition and all schism was abominable to you. You mourned over the transgressions of your neighbours; you judged their shortcomings as your own.

7 You were without regret in every act of kindness, "ready unto every good work."

8 You were adorned by your virtuous and honourable citizenship and did all things in the fear of God. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were "written on the tables of your heart."

III

1 All glory and enlargement was given to you, and that which was written was fulfilled, "My Beloved ate and drank, and he was enlarged and waxed fat and kicked."

2 From this arose jealousy and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.

3 Thus "the worthless" rose up "against those who were in honour," those of no reputation against the renowned, the foolish against the prudent, the "young against the old."

4 For this cause righteousness and peace are far removed, while each deserts the fear of God and the eye of faith in Him has grown dim, and men walk neither in the ordinances of His commandments nor use their citizenship worthily before God, but each goes according to the lusts of his wicked heart, and has revived the unrighteousness and impious envy, by which also "death came into the world."

IV

1 For it is written thus: "And it came to pass after certain days that Cain offered to God a sacrifice of the fruits of the earth, and Abel himself also offered of the first-born of the sheep and of their fat.

2 And God looked on Abel and his gifts, but He had no respect to Cain and his sacrifices.

3 And Cain was greatly grieved and his countenance fell.

4 And God said to Cain, Why art thou grieved, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou offeredst rightly, but didst not divide rightly, didst thou not sin?

5 Be still: he shall turn to thee, and thou shalt rule over him.

6 And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go unto the plain. And it came to pass that, while they were in the plain, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him."

7 You see, brethren, jealousy and envy wrought fratricide.

8 Through jealousy our father Jacob ran from the face of Esau his brother.

9 Jealousy made Joseph to be persecuted to the death, and come into slavery.

10 Jealousy forced Moses to fly from the face of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, when his fellow countryman said to him, "Who made thee a judge or a ruler over us? Wouldest thou slay me as thou didst slay the Egyptian yesterday?"

11 Through jealousy Aaron and Miriam were lodged outside the camp.

12 Jealousy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive into Hades, because they rebelled against Moses the servant of God.

13 Through jealousy David incurred envy not only from strangers, but suffered persecution even from Saul, King of Israel.

V

1 But, to cease from the examples of old time, let us come to those who contended in the days nearest to us; let us take the noble examples of our own generation.

2 Through jealousy and envy the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church were persecuted and contended unto death.

3 Let us set before our eyes the good apostles:

4 Peter, who because of unrighteous jealousy suffered not one or two but many trials, and having thus given his testimony went to the glorious place which was his due.

5 Through jealousy and strife Paul showed the way to the prize of endurance;

6 seven times he was in bonds, he was exiled, he was stoned, he was a herald both in the East and in the West, he gained the noble fame of his faith,

7 he taught righteousness to all the world, and when he had reached the limits of the West he gave his testimony before the rulers, and thus passed from the world and was taken up into the Holy Place, the greatest example of endurance.

VI

1 To these men with their holy lives was gathered a great multitude of the chosen, who were the victims of jealousy and offered among us the fairest example in their endurance under many indignities and tortures.

2 Through jealousy women were persecuted as Danaids and Dircae, suffering terrible and unholy indignities; they steadfastly finished the course of faith, and received a noble reward, weak in the body though they were.

3 Jealousy has estranged wives from husbands, and made of no effect the saying of our father Adam, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh."

4 Jealousy and strife have overthrown great cities, and rooted up mighty nations.

VII

1 We are not only writing these things to you, beloved, for your admonition, but also to remind ourselves; for we are in the same arena, and the same struggle is before us.

2 Wherefore let us put aside empty and vain cares, and let us come to the glorious and venerable rule of our tradition,

3 and let us see what is good and pleasing and acceptable in the sight of our Maker.

4 Let us fix our gaze on the Messiah, and know how honourable he is before God, because in his steadfastness for our salvation he brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

5 Let us review all the generations, and let us learn that in generation after generation the Master has given a place of repentance to those who will turn to Him.

6 Noah preached repentance and those who obeyed were saved.

7 Jonah foretold destruction to the men of Nineveh, but when they repented they received forgiveness of their sins from God in answer to their prayer, and gained salvation, though they were aliens to God.

VIII

1 The ministers of the grace of God spoke through the Holy Spirit concerning repentance,

2 and even the Master of the universe Himself spoke with an oath concerning repentance: "For as I live, said the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner so much as his repentance," and He added a gracious declaration,

3 "Repent, O house of Israel, from your iniquity. Say to the sons of My people, If your sins reach from the earth to Heaven, and if they be redder than scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth, and ye turn to Me with all your hearts and say, 'Our Lord,' I will listen to you as a holy people."

4 And in another place He speaks thus: "Wash you, and make you clean, put away your wickedness from your souls before My eyes, cease from your wickedness, learn to do good, seek out judgment, rescue the wronged, give judgment for the orphan, do justice to the widow, and come and let us reason together, saith the Lord; and if your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow, and if they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool, and if ye be willing and hearken to Me, ye shall eat the good things of the land, but if ye be not willing, and hearken not to Me, a sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things."

5 Thus desiring to give to all His beloved a share in repentance, He established it by His Almighty will.

IX

1 Wherefore let us obey His excellent and glorious will; let us fall before Him as suppliants of His mercy and goodness; let us turn to His pity, and abandon the vain toil and strife and jealousy which leads to death.

2 Let us fix our gaze on those who have rendered perfect service to His excellent glory.

3 Let us take Enoch, who was found righteous in obedience, and was translated, and death did not befall him.

4 Noah was found faithful in his service, in foretelling a new beginning to the world, and through him the Master saved the living creatures which entered in concord into the Ark.

X

1 Abraham, who was called "the Friend," was found faithful in his obedience to the words of God.

2 He in obedience went forth from his country and from his kindred and from his father's house, that by leaving behind a little country and a feeble kindred and a small house he might inherit the promises of God. For God says to him,

3 "Depart from thy land and from thy kindred and from thy father's house to the land which I shall show thee, and I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed; and I will bless those that bless thee, and I will curse those that curse thee, and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee."

4 And again, when he was separated from Lot, God said to him, "Lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art now, to the North and to the South and to the East and to the West; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever.

5 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. If a man can number the dust of the earth thy seed shall also be numbered."

6 And again he says, "God led forth Abraham, and said to him, 'Look up to the Heaven and number the stars, if thou canst number them; so shall thy seed be.' And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."

7 Because of his faith and hospitality a son was given him in his old age, and in his obedience he offered him as a sacrifice to God on the mountain which He showed him.

XI

1 For his hospitality and piety Lot was saved out of Sodom when the whole countryside was judged by fire and brimstone, and the Master made clear that He does not forsake those who hope in Him, but delivers to punishment and torture those who turn aside to others.

2 For of this a sign was given when his wife went with him, but changed her mind and did not remain in agreement with him, so that she became a pillar of salt unto this day, to make known to all, that those who are double-minded, and have doubts concerning the power of God, incur judgment and become a warning to all generations.

XII

1 For her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved.

2 For when the spies were sent to Jericho by Joshua the son of Nun, the King of the land knew that they had come to spy out his country, and sent men to take them, that they might be captured and put to death.

3 So the hospitable Rahab took them in, and hid them in the upper room under the stalks of flax.

4 And when the King's men came upon her and said, "The spies of our land came in to thee; bring them out, for the King orders thus," she answered, "The men whom ye seek did indeed come to me, but they went away forthwith, and are proceeding on their journey," and pointed in the wrong direction.

5 And she said to the men, "I know assuredly that the Lord God is delivering to you this land; for the fear and dread of you has fallen on those who dwell in it. When therefore it shall come to pass, that ye take it, save me and my father's house."

6 And they said to her, "It shall be as thou hast spoken to us; when therefore thou knowest that we are at hand, thou shalt gather all thy folk under thy roof, and they shall be safe; for as many as shall be found outside the house shall perish."

7 And they proceeded to give her a sign, that she should hang out a scarlet thread from her house, foreshowing that all who believe and hope in God shall have deliverance by the mercy of God.

8 You see, beloved, that the woman is an instance not only of faith but also of prophecy.

XIII

1 Let us, therefore, be humble-minded, brethren, putting aside all arrogance and conceit and foolishness and wrath, and let us do that which is written (for the Holy Spirit says, "Let not the wise man boast himself in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches, but he that boasteth let him boast in the Lord, to seek Him out and to do judgment and righteousness"), especially remembering the words of Jesus the Messiah, God's messenger, which he spoke when he was teaching gentleness and longsuffering.

2 For he spoke thus: "Be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy. Forgive, that ye may be forgiven. As ye do, so shall it be done unto you. As ye give, so shall it be given unto you. As ye judge, so shall ye be judged. As ye are kind, so shall kindness be shown you. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you."

3 With this commandment and with these injunctions let us strengthen ourselves to walk in obedience to His hallowed words and let us be humble-minded, for the holy word says,

4 "On whom shall I look, but on the meek and gentle and him who trembles at My oracles."

XIV

1 Therefore it is right and holy, my brethren, for us to obey God rather than to follow those who in pride and unruliness are the instigators of an abominable jealousy.

2 For we shall incur no common harm, but great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the purposes of men who rush into strife and sedition, to estrange us from what is right.

3 Let us be kind to one another, according to the compassion and sweetness of our Maker.

4 For it is written, "The kind shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left on it, but they who transgress shall be destroyed from off it."

5 And again He says: "I saw the ungodly lifted high, and exalted as the cedars of Lebanon. And I went by, and behold he was not; and I sought his place, and I found it not. Keep innocence, and look on uprightness; for there is a remnant for a peaceable man."

XV

1 Moreover let us cleave to those whose peacefulness is based on piety and not to those whose wish for peace is hypocrisy.

2 For it says in one place: "This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me."

3 And again, "They blessed with their mouth, but cursed in their hearts."

4 And again it says, "They loved Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongue, and their heart was not right with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant."

5 Therefore "let the deceitful lips be dumb which speak iniquity against the righteous." And again, "May the Lord destroy all the deceitful lips, a tongue that speaketh great things, those who say, Let us magnify our tongue, our lips are our own, who is lord over us?

6 For the misery of the poor and groaning of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will place him in safety,

7 I will deal boldly with him."

XVI

1 For the Messiah is of those who are humble-minded, not of those who exalt themselves over his flock.

2 The messenger of the greatness of God, Jesus the Messiah, son of Mary, came not with the pomp of pride or of arrogance, for all his power, but was humble-minded, as the Holy Spirit spoke concerning him. For it says,

3 "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? We declared him before the Lord as a child, as a root in thirsty ground; there is no form in him, nor glory, and we saw him, and he had neither form nor beauty, but his form was without honour, less than the form of man, a man living among stripes and toil, and acquainted with the endurance of weakness; for his face was turned away, he was dishonoured, and not esteemed.

4 He it is who is grieved on our account, and is pained for us, and we regarded him as subject to pain, and stripes and affliction,

5 but he was wounded because of our sins and he has suffered because of our iniquities. The correction that brings our peace was laid upon him; through his patient message we were healed.

6 All we like sheep went astray, each man went astray in his path;

7 and the Lord allowed him to be tried because of our sins, and he openeth not his mouth because of his affliction. As a sheep he was brought to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before its shearer, so he openeth not his mouth. In humiliation his judgment was taken away.

8 Who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.

9 Because of the iniquities of my people he was brought to the point of death.

10 And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death; for he wrought no iniquity, nor was guile found in his mouth. And the Lord's will is to purify him from stripes.

11 If ye make an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed.

12 And the Lord's will is to take of the toil of his soul, to show him light and to form him with understanding, to justify a righteous man who serveth many well. And he shall bear the trouble caused by their sins.

13 For this reason shall he inherit many, and he shall share the spoils of the strong; because his soul was delivered into the hands of the wicked, and he was reckoned among the transgressors.

14 And he endured much because of the sins of many, and because of their sins was he delivered up."

15 And again he says himself, "But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

16 All they who saw me mocked me, they spoke with their lips, they shook their heads: He hoped on the Lord, let Him deliver him, let Him save him, for He hath pleasure in him."

17 You see, beloved, what is the example which is given to us; for if the messenger was thus humble-minded, what shall we do, who through him have come under the yoke of God's grace?

XVII

1 Let us also be imitators of those who went about "in the skins of goats and sheep," heralding the coming of the Messiah; we mean Elijah and Elisha, and moreover Ezekiel, the prophets, and in addition to them the famous men of old.

2 Great fame was given to Abraham, and he was called the Friend of God, and he, fixing his gaze in humility on the glory of God, says, "But I am dust and ashes."

3 Moreover it is also written thus concerning Job: "Now Job was righteous and blameless, true, a worshipper of God, and kept himself from all evil."

4 But he accuses himself, saying, "No man is clean from defilement, not even if his life be but for a single day."

5 Moses was called "Faithful with all his house," and through his ministry God judged Egypt with their scourges and torments; but he, though he was given great glory, did not use great words, but, when an oracle was given to him from the bush, said: "Who am I that Thou sendest me? Nay, I am a man of feeble speech, and a slow tongue."

6 And again he says, "But I am as smoke from a pot."

XVIII

1 But what shall we say of the famous David? Of him said God, "I have found a man after My own heart, David the son of Jesse, I have anointed him with eternal mercy;"

2 but he too says to God, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of Thy compassions, blot out my transgression.

3 Wash me yet more from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin; for I know my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against Thee only did I sin, and did evil before Thee, that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.

5 For, lo, I was formed in weakness, and in frailty did my mother bear me.

6 For, behold, Thou hast loved truth, Thou didst make plain to me the secret and hidden things of Thy wisdom.

7 Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Thou shalt make me hear joy and gladness; the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice.

9 Turn Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inmost parts.

11 Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

12 Give me back the gladness of Thy salvation, strengthen me with Thy governing spirit.

13 I will teach the wicked Thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted unto Thee.

14 Deliver me from all evil, O God, the God of my salvation.

15 My tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my mouth; and my lips shall tell of Thy praise.

16 For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; in whole burnt offerings Thou wilt not delight.

17 The sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit, a broken and a humbled heart God shall not despise."

XIX

1 The humility and obedient submission of so many men of such great fame, have rendered better not only us, but also the generations before us, who received His oracles in fear and truth.

2 Seeing then that we have received a share in many great and glorious deeds, let us hasten on to the goal of peace, which was given us from the beginning, and let us fix our gaze on the Lord and Creator of the whole world and cleave to His splendid and excellent gifts of peace, and to His good deeds to us.

3 Let us contemplate Him with our mind, let us gaze with the eyes of our soul on His long-suffering purpose, let us consider how free from wrath He is towards all His creatures.

XX

1 The heavens moving at His appointment are subject to Him in peace;

2 day and night follow the course allotted by Him without hindering each other.

3 Sun and moon and the companies of the stars roll on, according to His direction, in harmony, in their appointed courses, and swerve not from them at all.

4 The earth teems according to His will at its proper seasons, and puts forth food in full abundance for men and beasts and all the living things that are on it, with no dissension, and changing none of His decrees.

5 The unsearchable places of the abysses and the unfathomable realms of the lower world are controlled by the same ordinances.

6 The hollow of the boundless sea is gathered by His working into its allotted places, and does not pass the barriers placed around it, but does even as He enjoined on it;

7 for He said, "Thus far shalt thou come, and thy waves shall be broken within thee."

8 The ocean, which men cannot pass, and the worlds beyond it, are ruled by the same injunctions of the Master.

9 The seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter give place to one another in peace.

10 The stations of the winds fulfil their service without hindrance at the proper time. The everlasting springs, created for enjoyment and health, supply sustenance for the life of man without fail; and the smallest of animals meet together in concord and peace.