The letter never mentions the name "Clement," nor does it ever suppose itself to have been written by any lone individual. Instead, the letter purports itself to represent the views of the entire group of Christians at Rome. This letter, normally alleged to have been written c. 96, is attributed to a supposed overseer in Rome named Clement, although no information is extant which would verify Clement's existence. Later lists of Roman "bishops" exist, but since many of those lists arose out of a perceived need to justify their position through apostolic succession, we have no verifiable knowledge that any of those men existed - apart from their appearance as names on a list. Still, someone wrote the letter, alleging to represent the views of the Christians at Rome. For all intents and purposes, we may as well call that person "Clement." Whether or not his views really did represent the opinions of the entire group at Rome is a matter of debate.
There are six manuscripts (two in Greek, one in Latin, one in Syriac, and two in Coptic) which provide the text for 1 Clement. The earlier of the two Greek manuscripts is Codex Alexandrinus, which dates to the fifth century. The only complete manuscript dates to the 11th century. The manuscripts display differences, and it is distinctly possible that the text saw editing in order to make it support various later views. The letter reads more like it belongs to the period c. 115-140 CE than to the late First Century, and so it is possibly best to date it to the middle of the II century. There were brief periods of some degree of Roman toleration of Christianity during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian; given the nature of "Clement's" own tolerance toward the government, one of these periods seems to best fit the date for the letter.
With the absence of the envoys and the separation of gentile Christianity from Judaism (66 - 74 AD), the gentiles who inherited Christianity had trouble understanding the Jewish writings which they had inherited. Furthermore, various people - some of them would-be prophets and others who claimed positions for themselves - had begun to seek political dominance. The authors of this letter appear to have been older people, for they seek to establish a system which would give them and those like them authority over other Christians. The Korinthian group had ceased to listen to certain old people who had been friends of the authors. The author views this as tantamount to the Israelites opposing Moses. The letter's view of God is highly legalistic, centering on the precision of certain Old Covenant statutes. With such a precise deity, certain things are only able to be performed by certain people. In particular, the readers are urged to elevate the older people as though they are the logical successors to the envoys.
With such an attitude being expressed, it is quite natural that later "bishops" would regard the letter of "Clement" very highly, and in fact, the letter was included together with some copies of the New Testament, even though it was known not to have been written by anyone who knew Jesus and the envoys. Clement misapplies several writings in order to make his point, including a misstatement of Isa 60:17 so that it appears to justify having positions called "overseer" and "servant." With the letter probably being a second century forgery, concocted by later gentiles in order to combat anyone who still believed in a prophetic model for the church, it cannot provide any portrait of Christianity prior to the destruction of the temple. Still, it represents a snapshot of a period in Christian history which is reasonably early and is therefore useful to study.
INTRODUCTION
God's assembly that dwells in Rome
To God's assembly that dwells in Korinth, chosen ones, made holy in what
God wants through our Lord, Anointed Jesus.
Favor and peace be multiplied to you from almighty God through Anointed Jesus.
ONE
On account of the suddenties and the results and things that befall which have been happening to us (upon one another), brothers, we think ourselves late in turning to be persuaded about those things that are being hunted around you and being practiced, beloved ones, things both strange and foreign to God's chosen ones, standing in shameful things and ungodliness, which a few reckless and self-pleasing faces are causing to be, igniting for so much mental lapse, and so your dignified and illustrious name which is worthy of love from all people has been greatly spoken evil of.
For who was given over to you who did not think your trust to be full of virtue and firm? And who didn't wonder at your prudent and reasonable piety in the Anointed? And didn't your relationships herald the magnificence of your love for strangers? And who didn't bless your complete and certain knowledge?
For you did all things without personal bias, and you were going toward God's lawful things: submissive to those who were leading you, and assigning appropriate value to the older people among you. You solidified the young people to mind both measures and dignities, and you charged women to complete all things with a harmless and dignified and pure conscience, having familial love for their husbands appropriately. And you taught them that to be busy at home in a dignified manner, being in the tenet of submission, sober in everything.
TWO
And all of you were humble-minded, in no way being proud. You were submissive rather than making other submit, and willing to give rather than to receive, satisfied with God's provisions. And, heeding his words, you were filled, embracing them with your deep feelings. And his emotions were before your eyes. In that way, a deep and fine peace was given to all, and an insatiable thirst for doing good, and a full outpouring of holy breath happened upon you all.
And, full of pious plans, in good eagerness with pious persuasion you stretched out your hands to the Almighty God, begging him to become merciful if you had sinned at something unknowingly. You were contesting both day and night on behalf of all the brotherhood, for the salvation (with mercy and consciousness) of the number of his chosen ones. You were sincere and harmless, and you did not remember bad things about one another. Every rebellion and every division was an abomination to you. You mourned about the wanderings of your neighbors; you judged their deficiencies to be your own. You were unregretting about any doing of good, "prepared for every good deed." Adorned with a fully virtuous and august lifestyle, you did all things in the fear of him. The arrangements and the right things of the Lord "were written on the tablets of your hearts."
THREE
All glory and enlargement was given to you, and what was written was fulfilled: "The beloved one ate, and drank, and grew, and became fat, and kicked." From this came jealousy, and envy, and strife, and rebellion, persecution and chaos, war and captivity. Thus, "the honorless ones rose up on the honored ones," those without glory upon those with glory, the mindless upon the mindful, the young upon the old.
On account of this, "justification and peace have gone far away" with the leaving behind of the fear of God, and with being blinded in his trust. You have left these neither to go in the codes of his place nor to be a citizen according to what is appropriate with the Anointed One. On the contrary, each one has left to walk according to the evil strong desires of his heart, being left anew to unjust and impious jealousy, through which also "death entered into creation."
FOUR
For it was written this way: "And after days, it happened that Kain brought a sacrifice to God from the fruits of the land, and Abel too brought his, from the first fruits of the sheep, and from its fat. And God had regard for Abel and for his offerings, but he did not heed Kain and his sacrifices. And Kain was filled with sorrow, and his countenance fell. And God said to Kain, "What have you become sorrowful about? And why has your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, haven't you sinned? Be tranquil: it has returned to itself, and you will rule it." And Kain said to Abel his brother, "Let's go out into the field." And it happened during the time when they were in the field that Kain rose up on Abel his brother, and he killed him."
Brothers, you see that jealousy and envy worked out fratricide. On account of jealousy, our ancestor Jacob walked away from the presence of Esau his brother. Jealousy made Yosef be persecuted until death and until entering slavery. Jealousy necessitated Moses to flee from the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, upon hearing from his yoke-fellow, "Who set you down to be a judge or ruler over us? Are you wanting to kill me in the way that you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" On account of jealousy, Aaron and Miriam made their dwelling outside of the encampment. Jealousy led Dathan and Abiram down to Hades, on account of their rebellion toward Moses, God's healer. On account of jealousy, David was afflicted by hatred, not only from foreigners but he was also persecuted by Saul, king of Israel.
FIVE
But, so that we would not dwell upon ancient examples, let's come to those who have become heroes recently. Let us take the examples born in our generation. On account of jealousy and envy, the greatest and most just pillars have been persecuted and have come to death. Let us take the good envoys before our eyes:
Peter, who through wrong jealousy endured not one or two but many labors. And when he had testified, he went into the place of glory which was owed to him.
On account of jealousy and strife, Paulus displayed the reward of endurance, after being carried into bondage seven times, made to flee, stoned, having become a herald both in the East and in the West. He received the reputation of his trust, teaching what is right to the whole of creation and having gone to the terminal point of the West, and he testified before the governors. Thus, he was removed from creation and went into his holy place, having become a great example of endurance.
SIX
To these men who lived out their citizenship piously, a great crowd of chosen ones will be added, who on account of jealousy suffered many indignities and torments. They happened among us as an excellent example.
On account of jealousy, women (Danaides and Dirkae) were persecuted. After suffering terrifying and impious torments, they completed the race with certainty of trust, and they received a noble prize -- these who were weak bodily.
Jealousy has alienated wives from husbands and has altered the declaration of our ancestor Adam, "This one is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Jealousy and strife have overturned great cities and have uprooted great nations.
SEVEN
Beloved ones, we are writing these things to you not only to admonish but also to remind ourselves. For we are gladiators in the same arena, and we are assigned the same struggle. So, let us leave behind the vain and worthless attitudes, and let us come to the good and dignified standard of our tradition. And let us look to what is nice, and what is pleasant, and what is accepted in the presence of the one who made us. Let us look attentively at the Anointed One's blood, and let us know how valuable it is to his Father: because after being shed on account of our salvation, it has conferred the generosity of mental change on all the creation.
Let us pass by every generation, and let us learn that from generation to generation the Master has given a place for mental change to those who wish to turn to him. Noah heralded mental change, and those who listened were saved. Yonah heralded the overturning of the Ninevites, but when they changed their minds away from their sins, they petitioned God with supplications and received salvation, although they were foreigners to God.
EIGHT
The religious servants of God's generosity have spoken through holy breath about mental change. Now the Master of all things has himself spoken about mental change with an oath: "'For I am alive,' says the Lord, 'I do not wish for the death of the sinner; I wish for his mental change.'" He also adds this good fact, "Change your minds, O house of Israel, away from your lawlessness." "Tell the sons of my people, "If your sins are from the land to the sky, and if they are more red than scarlet and more black than sackcloth, if you also turn to me out of your whole hearts and say, 'Father,' I will listen to you like to a holy people.""
And in another place, he says it this way, ""Wash yourselves and become clean. Put away the evil from your souls in the presence of my eyes. Stop your evil things; learn to do good; seek out judgment, rescue those who have been wronged, judge orphans, and to justice for widows; and come and let's discuss."
"He says, "Even if your sins are like crimson, I will whiten them like snow. Now if they are like scarlet, I will whiten them like wool. And if you want to, and if you listen to me, you will eat the land's good things. But if you don't want to, if you do not listen to me, the sword will devour you. For the Lord's mouth has spoken these things.""
Therefore, wishing that all his beloved ones partake of mental change, he has established it with his almighty plan.
NINE
So, let us listen to his magnificent and glorious plan, and let us become beggars for his mercy and his gentleness, leaving behind worthless deeds, and strife, and jealousy (which leads to death). Let us gaze at those who have completely performed religious service, to his magnificent glory. Let us take Henoch, who, in listening, was found just. He was transposed, and his death was not found. Noah, who was found trustworthy through his religious service, heralded a regeneration to creation, and through him the Master saved those animals who entered into the ark in unity of mind.
TEN
Abraham, addressed as "the friend", was found trustworthy as he became a listener to God's declarations. Through listening, he exited from his land, and from his countrymen, and from his father's house, so that by abandoning a little land, and weak countrymen, and a small house, he would inherit God's promises. For God had told him, "Go away from your land, and from your countrymen, and from your father's house, into the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be blessed. And I will praise those who praise you, and I will curse those who curse you. And in you all the tribes of the land will be blessed."
And again, during his departure from Lot, God told him: "Look up with your eyes. Look from the place where you are to the north, and south, and east, and west. Because all the land that you see, I will give it to you and too your descendants until the age. And I will make your descendants like the sand of the ground. If someone is able to total the sand of the ground, then your descendants will also be totaled."
And again, it says, "God led Abraham out and said to him, "Look up to the sky and count the stars. If you are able to total them, it will be the same way for your descendants." Now Abraham trusted God, and it was recorded for him as justification."
On account of trust and hospitality, a son was given to him in his old age. And through listening, he offered him as a sacrifice to God toward one of the mountains which he had showed him.
ELEVEN
On account of hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom when all of the surrounding countryside was judged (through fire and sulphur). The Master made it plain that he does not forsake those who hope in him, but he places those who lean otherwise into chastisement and pain. For his wife, who went out along with him, had a different attitude (and was not likeminded). She was placed as an example, so as to become a pillar of salt until this day, for all to be knowledgeable that the two-souled ones and those who are hesitant about God's power happen into judgment and for a sign to all the generations.
TWELVE
On account of trust and hospitality, Rahab the prostitute was saved. For when the spies were sent out from Yoshua (son of Nun) into Jericho, the king of the land knew that they had come to do reconnaissance on their country, and he sent out men to capture them, so that (after they were captured), they would be put to death. Therefore, the hospitable Rahab showed them in and hid them in the roof, under the thatch. Now those who had been sent forth by the king arrived and said, "Those who are doing reconnaissance on the land came to you. Lead them out, for the king has said so." But she answered, "Indeed, the men you are seeking came in to me, but they left immediately and went on their way." Alternatively, she did not reveal them.
And she said to the men, "I know (knowledgeably) that the Lord your god has given you this city, for the fear of you and trembling have fallen on its residents. Therefore, when it happens that you take it, keep me and my father's household safe." And they said to her, "It will be just as you have spoken to us. Therefore, when you know that we are happening by, gather all of yours under your roof, and they will be kept safe. For if they are found outside of the house, they will be destroyed."
And they brought a sign to give to her, so that she would hang a scarlet thread from her house, making it obvious that through the Lord's blood there would be a ransom of all those who trust and hope in God. Beloved, you see that not only trust but prophecy happened in this woman.
THIRTEEN
Therefore brothers, we should be humble-minded, putting aside all pride and nonsense and foolishness and angry feelings. And we should do what was written. For the holy Spirit says, "The wise person should not boast in his wisdom, nor should the strong person boast in his strength, nor should the wealthy one boast in his wealth. On the contrary, the one who boasts should boast in the Lord: to chase him and to do justice and what is right."
Remember especially the words of the Lord Jesus that he spoke while teaching meekness and longsuffering. For he said it this way, "Be merciful, so that you would be shown mercy. Forgive, so that it would be forgiven of you. As you do, so it will be done to you. As you give, so it will be given to you. As you judge, so you will be judged. As gentle as you are, so you will be shown gentleness. You will be measured with whatever measure you use."
With this precept and these charges we should establish ourselves, to the point of walking as humble listeners to his holy words. For they holy saying says, "On whom should I look, but one the one who is meek, and quiet, and who trembles at my sayings?"
FOURTEEN
Therefore, men, brothers, it is just and godly to become listeners of God rather than to follow around those who are founders of a defiled jealousy, in pride and chaos. For no small harm will befall us, but rather we will endure great danger if we should give ourselves over recklessly to the wishes of human beings who launch into strife and discord to the point of alienating us from what we hold as nice. We should be gentle toward one another according to the good deep feeling and sweetness of the one who made us. For it was written, "The gentle will have the land as inheritance; the innocent will be left upon it. But the wanderers will be shattered upon it."
And again it says, "I saw the impious exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. And I went by, and look, he was not, and I chased after his place, and I did not find it. Guard innocence, and look at straightness, because it will be remembered for the peaceful person."
FIFTEEN
So now, let us cling to those who make piece with piety and not to those who plan peace with hypocrisy. For it says somewhere, "This people honors me with the lips, but their hearts are far from me." And again, "They praised with their mouths, but they cursed with their hearts." And again it says, "They loved him with their mouths, and with their tongues they lied to him, but their hearts were not good with him, nor were they trustworthy in his covenant." On account of this, "Let the deceitful lips become mute, according to the judgment of their lawlessness." And again, "May the Lord shatter all of the deceitful lips, the big-talking tongue of those who have said, "Let's greaten our tongues, for our lips are ours: who is our lord?" the Lord says, "I will oppression of the poor and from the groaning of the needy, I will now arise. I will place him in safety. I will speak freely with him.""
SIXTEEN
For the Anointed One is of the humble-minded, not of those who elevate themselves over his flock. The scepter [of God's majesty], [our] Lord, Anointed Jesus, did not come in the pomp of pride or high-mindedness--although he was able--but with humility, just as the holy Spirit had spoken about him. For it says, "O Lord, who has trusted our report? And the arm of the Lord, to whom was it revealed? We have announced a message in his presence: he is as a child, as a root in thirsty ground. He has neither image nor glory. And we saw him, and he had neither image nor beauty; on the contrary, his image was honorless, left out alongside people's images. He is a person who has disease and grief, and he knew how to carry sorrow: because his face was turned away, deemed honorless and not considered.
"This one carries our sins and is in sorrow concerning us, and we considered him to be in grief, and with disease, and in harm. But he was wounded on account of our sins, and he was bruised on account of our lawlessness. The education of our peace was on him; we are healed with his scourging. We have all gone astray like sheep, each person going astray to his own way, and the Lord gave him over on behalf of our sins. And throughout being harmed, he did not open his mouth. He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb is mute in the presence of its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. In the humiliation, his justice was removed. Who will declare his generation, because his life was taken from the land?
"From the lawless acts of my people, he went into death . And I will give the evil ones for his sepulcher, and the wealthy ones for his death, because he did not do any lawlessness, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And the Lord wished to cleanse him of the scourging. If he gives himself concerning sin, your life will see its seed prolonged. And the Lord wanted to release him from the grief of his soul, to show him light, and to form understanding--to justify the just one who serves many people well--and he will carry away their sins. On account of this, he will inherit many things and will divide the strong people's spoils. Because of this, his life was given over to death, and he was considered to belong to the lawless people. And he carried away the sins of many people, and he was given up on account of their sins."
And again, it says: "But I am a worm and not a human being: a reproach to human beings and despised by the people. All who observe me have mocked me. They have spoken with their lips; they have nodded their heads. "He hoped in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him save him, because he wants him.""
Beloved men, you see what example has been traced out for us. For if the Lord humbled himself this way, what should we do, we who have come under the yoke of his favor through him?
SEVENTEEN
We should become imitators, too, of those who walked around in goatskins and in sheepskins heralding the coming of the Anointed One. Now we are talking about Elijah, and Elisha, and also Ezekiel (of the prophets). And to them (and the others) there is testifying. It testifies greatly of Abraham, who was addressed as God's friend. And, attentively regarding God's glory, he says, "But I am ground and ashes."
But still it was written, too, about Job, "Now Job was just and blameless: truthful; God-fearing; one who kept away from all badness." But, swearing against himself, he said, "No one is clean from defilement, not even the one whose life is one day."
Moses was called "trustworthy in the whole of his house," and by his help, God judged Egypt through the plagues and torments. But though honored greatly in this way, he did not magnify his declarations, but, at the time when the warning was given to him at the bush, he said, "Who am I, that you are sending me? Now I am weak-voiced and slow-tongued." And again he said, "Now I am steam from a pot."
EIGHTEEN
Now what will we say of David, who was testified about and to whom God said, "I have found a man according to my heart, David the son of Yeshai. I have anointed him with ageless mercy." But also, this one said to God, "Have mercy on me, God, according to your great mercy, and wipe away my lawless acts according to your crowd of compassions. Wash me even more from my lawless acts, and cleanse me from my sins, because I know my lawlessness, and my sin is always in my presence. I have sinned toward you alone, and I have done evil in your presence. Have mercy so that you would be just in your sayings and would be victorious during your judgment. For look, I was conceived in a lawless act, and my mother craved over me in sins.
"For look, you have loved truth; you have shown me the unseen and hidden things of your wisdom. You sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be cleansed. You wash me, I will be made more white than snow.. You make me hear gladness and merriment; my humbled bones will be gladdened. Turn your face away from my sins, and wipe away all my lawless acts. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in my insides a straight spirit. Do not cast me from your presence, and do not remove your holy spirit from me. Give the gladness of your salvation back to me, and make me stand with your governing spirit. I will teach your ways to lawless people, and the impious will turn to you.
"Rescue me out of blood-guilt, O God, the god of my salvation. My tongue will be gladdened at your ethics. O the Lord, you will open my mouth, and my lips will announce your praise, because if you had wanted a sacrifice, I would have given one. In burnt offerings you will not delight. A sacrifice to God is a humbled spirit; God will not despise a broken and humbled heart."
NINETEEN
And therefore, the humility and the self-binding (through listening) testifying about such great people as these makes not only us better but also those generations before us, those who were shown his oracles in fear and truth. Therefore also, with many great and glorious practices, we should run back to what we saw: that peace that was delivered over to us from the beginning, and we should gaze at the Father and Creator of the entire creation, and let us cling to his majestic and overwhelming gifts and good workings of peace. Let us think of him with our minds and look with the soul's eyes at his longsuffering will. Let us be mindful of how angerless he is toward all of his creation.
TWENTY
The heavens, which are tossing by his housekeeping, submit to him in peace. Both day and night finish the course that was arranged by him, never hindering one another. Both sun, and moon, and the choruses of stars, roll out according to his direction with oneness of mind, without any deviation from their directed limits. Fruitful land brings up all abundance of food according to his wishes at its own seasons, both for people, and the wild animal, and for all those living beings who are on it, neither hesitating nor altering any of the things that have been decreed by him. Both the unsearchable deep waters and the indescribable underground places hold together by the same arrangement. The vast and unmeasurable sea, combined according to his labor "into the basins," does not go beyond the shores which are placed around it; on the contrary, it does just as he arranged for it. For he said, "You will come as far as this, and your waves will break together within you."
An ocean is impassible to human beings, and the worlds beyond it are kept straight by the same arrangements of the Master. Seasons of spring, and summer, and autumn, and winter are transferred in peace from one to another. The stations of the winds fulfill their religious service at their own season without supervision. Ever-flowing springs, formed both for enjoyment and health, without fail hand over their breasts for human lives. And the smallest of the animals do their coming together in likemindeness and peace.
The great Creator and Master of All has arranged these things to be in peace and likemindedness, as he does good to all things-but overabundantly to us, who have fled to his compassions through our Lord, Anointed Jesus. To God be the glory and the majesty to the most remote age. A-mein.
TWENTY-ONE
Brothers, look, lest his many good deeds happen as judgment for us all, if we do not walk around worthy of him, doing with likemindedness the things that are nice and well-pleasing to him. For it is written how, "A spirit is the Lord's candle, searching out the parts of the stomach." We should notice how near he is, and that none of our thoughts or our reasonings that we make escape his notice. Therefore, it is just for us not to desert what he wants. Rather than making God stumble, let us make the unwise, and mindless, and haughty, people stumble-and those who boast in the pride of their speech. We should turn toward the Lord Jesus, whose blood was given on our behalf. We should have respect for those who are going out ahead of us; we should honor our older people. We should educate the young ones with the education of the fear of God.
We should reconcile our women to what is good. They should display the lovely custom of purity. They should make obvious the unalloyed plan of their gentleness. They should make the hold of their tongues apparent through silence. They should hold out their love, not according to an inclination but to all those who fear God piously.
Your children should partake of the education in the Anointed One. They should learn how strong humility is with God-how powerful pure love is with God-how nice and great his fear is-and that it saves all those who turn themselves piously to it with clean minds. For he is a searcher of minds and desires, whose breath is in us, and when he wants he will take it.
TWENTY-TWO
Now trust in the Anointed One makes all of these things sure. For also through the holy Spirit, he calls to us this way, "Come, children: listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the person who wants life, loving to see good days? Keep your tongue from what is bad, and do not speak guilt with your lips. Depart from what is bad, and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. the Lord's eyes are on the just, and his ears are opened toward their prayers. Now the Lord's face is on those who do what is bad, to cut off their remembrance from the land. The just one called out, and the Lord heard him and led him out of all his afflictions. Many are the afflictions of the just, and the Lord rescues him from all of them." "Many are the whippings of the sinner, but mercy will come to those who hope in the Lord."
TWENTY-THREE
Merciful according to all things and doing good, the Father has deep feelings toward those who fear him. He both kindly and gently gives out his free gifts to those who come to him with single minds. So, we should not be double-minded; neither should our souls be flashed at his surpassing and glorious gifts. This writing has become far from us which says, "The double-minded, are low--those who doubt in the hearts-those who say, 'We have heard these things even at the times of our fathers. And look, we have aged, and none of them has befallen us.'" Oh mindless ones! Compare yourselves to a tree: take a wood tree. First indeed it drops its leaves, then buds happen, then leaves, then flowers; and after these things the grape, then the ripe fruit. You see that in a short season the fruit of the wood tree arrives at maturity. From truth, quickly and suddenly his plan will be completed, with the writing also testifying that "He is coming quickly and is not delaying," and "the Lord---even the Holy One that you are looking for--is coming suddenly into his temple."
TWENTY-FOUR
Beloved, we should consider how the Master continues to prove to us that the resurrection is about to be. By raising him from among the dead, he has made the Lord, Anointed Jesus, a first-fruit of this. Beloved, we should notice the resurrection which is happening seasonally. Day and night are declaring a resurrection to us: night sleeps; daytime gets up; daytime leaves, night comes. We should take the fruits: how also the spore becomes in a certain place. The sower exits and throws each of the seeds to the ground, being scattered to the ground dry and naked, it is dissolved. Then from the dissolution, the majesty of the foreknowledge of the Master resurrects it, and from the one arise many, and they yield fruit.
TWENTY-FIVE
We should notice the incredible sign which happens in the Eastern places-those near Arabia. For there is a bird that is called by the name phoenix. This one happens to be unique, living for five hundred years. And when it already happens to be dissolved to its death, it makes itself a nest of incense, and balsam, and other spices. In the fullness of time, it enters this nest and is completed. But a certain maggot is born as the flesh is decaying, which overturns from the moisture of the dead bird and grows wings. Next, becoming true to its birth, it takes up that nest, in which are the bones of its parents, and accomplishes a trip with these from the Arabian countryside to Egypt-into what is called Heliopolis. And flying by day, seen by all, it places them on the high place of the sun, and so it returns to the other place. Therefore, the priests oversee the registers of the times, and they find that it has come when five hundred years are fulfilled.
TWENTY-SIX
Therefore, should we consider it to be great and wonderful if the Author of All Things makes a resurrection of those who were his slaves in a godly way-in a persuasion of good trust, when also he shows us through a bird the majesty of his promise? For it says in a place, "And you will raise me up, and I will acknowledge to you." And, "I laid down and slept." "I woke up because you are with me." And again Job said, "And you will raise up this flesh of mine which has been flooded with all of these things."
TWENTY-SEVEN
Therefore, with this hope our souls should be bound to the one who is trustworthy in the promises and just in his judgments. The one who charged not to lie rather more will not lie. For nothing is impossible for God except to lie. Therefore, let his trust be stirred up within us, and let us think that all things are near to him. With a saying of his majesty he made all things to stand, and he is powerful enough to overturn them with a saying. "Who will say to him, "What have you done?" Or who will stand against the control of his strength?" When he wants to, and as he wants, he will do all things, and none of what is fixed by him will pass away. All things are open to him, and nothing is hidden from his plan, since, "The heavens declare God's glory, and the solid place announces that it is made by his hands. Day to day issues a declaration, and night to night announces knowledge. And there are no sayings or speeches whose voices are not heard."
TWENTY-EIGHT
Therefore, since all things are seen and heard, we should fear him and put away foul deeds
of blood-stained desires, so that we would be sheltered with his mercy from the coming judgments. For how is one of us able to flee from the control of his right hand? Now what universe would receive any of the ones who desert him? For the writing says someplace: "Where will I go and where will I hide from your presence? If I go up into the sky, you are there. If I go down into the most remote parts of the land, your right hand is there. If I make my bed in the deep waters, your spirit is there." Therefore, where will anyone go, or where is there an escape from the one who surrounds all things?
TWENTY-NINE
Therefore, we should approach him with piousness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands toward him, loving our merciful and compassionate Father, who made for us a part with the chosen ones. For it was written this way: When the Highest One divided nations, as he scattered Adam's descendants, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of God's messengers. "His people of Jacob became the Lord's portion, and Israel became the lot of his inheritance." And in another place, it says: "Look, the Lord is taking for himself a nation out of the midst of the nations, just as "a person takes his first-fruit of the threshing floor". And "the Most Holy One will come from that nation."
THIRTY
Therefore, since we exist from holy parts, we should do all those things that are from holiness, fleeing bad speech, both hated and impure intertwinings, drunkenness and also sexual innovations and disgusting desires, hated adultery, and disgusting high-mindedness. "For God," it says, "stands opposed to the high-minded, but he gives favor to the humble." Therefore, we should cling to the ones to whom favor from God has been given. We should clothe ourselves with unity, being humble, exercising self-control, making ourselves far away from all gossip and bad speech, being justified by deeds and not words. For it says, "The one who says many things will hear many things in return. Or does the one who praises, is he presumed to be just? Praised is the one born of a woman who lives a short time. Do not become verbose in declaration." Our praise should be in God, and not from ourselves. For God hates those who praise themselves. The testimony to our good practices should be given by others, just as it was given to our just ancestors. Brashness, and self-pleasing, and daring were given to those who are cursed by God. Reason, and humility, and meekness are for those who have been blessed by God.
THIRTY-ONE
Therefore, we should cling to his praise, and we should notice what are the paths of praise. We should unroll the things that have happened from the beginning. For what favor was our ancestor Abraham praised? Wasn't it that he made justification and truth through trust? With persuasion, knowing what was about to happen, Isaak led himself as a sacrifice. With humility, Jacob went out from his land on account of a brother, and he went to Laban and served-and the scepter of the twelve tribes of Israel was given to him.
THIRTY-TWO
If anyone will pay attention to each thing, in a manner tested by sunlight, he will recognize the greatness of the gifts that were given by Abraham. For from him were the priests and all the Levites, who performed religious service to God's altar. From him was the Lord Jesus (according to the flesh). From him were kings, and rulers, and leaders (according to the tribe of Judah). Now the rest of his tribes exist with no small glory, as God has promised that, "Your seed will be as the stars of the sky." Therefore all were honored and magnified--not on account of themselves, or their deeds, or right practices that they worked out, but through his wishes. Therefore we too were called through his wishes in Anointed Jesus and were justified not on account of ourselves, nor on account of our wisdom, or understanding, or piety, or deeds that we worked out with godliness of heart, but through trust. Through this, from the age, the Almighty God has justified all people. To him be the glory for ever and ever. A-mein.
THIRTY-THREE
Therefore, what will we do, brothers? Should we be lazy in doing good, and stop loving? May the Master make not even one of us become like this. On the contrary, with energy and forethought we should hurry to complete every good deed. For the author and master of all things rejoices at his deeds. For by his ever-great control he established the heavens, and by his incomprehensible understanding he adorned them. And he divided the land from the water that surrounds it, and it fixed it on the firm foundation of his own planning. And, by giving word, he arranged the animals that walk in the sky to be. And ahead of time he authored the sea and those animals that are in it, and he enclosed them with his power. On top of all of this, with sacred and undefiled hands he molded humanity, the most prominent and ever-great (mentally), the sculpture of his image. For God says it this way, "Let us make humanity according to our image and according to our likeness. And God made humanity...male and female he made them." Therefore, having finished all of these things, he elevated and praised them, and said, "Increase and multiply."
We see that all just people have been adorned with good deeds. Therefore also, The Lord himself rejoiced, adorning himself with good deeds. Therefore, having this inscription, we should without delay go toward what he wants; we should work the work of justification from the whole of our strength.
THIRTY-FOUR
The good worker takes the bread of his work with freedom of speech; the sluggish and slack one does not look his boss in the eyes. Therefore, it is necessary for us to be ready for doing good, for all things are from him. For he said to us ahead of time, "Look, it is the Lord, and his reward is ahead of his presence, to repay each person according to his work." Therefore, he directs us to trust from our whole heart in him and to be neither lazy nor slack at every good deed. Our boasting and our freedom of speech should be in him. We should submit ourselves to what he wants. Let us consider the full multitude of his messengers-how they stand by performing religious service for what he wants. For the writing says, "Ten thousand times ten thousand stood by him, and thousands of thousands performed religious service for him and called out, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the creation is full of his glory!'" Therefore we too should gather with shared knowledge, with our minds on the same wavelength, and we should shout to him earnestly as from one mouth so that we might become partakers of his great and glorious promises. For it says, "The eye has not seen-- and the ear has not heard, and it has not gone up into the human heart-the things that he has prepared for those who wait for him."
THIRTY-FIVE
Beloved, God's gifts are so blessed and wonderful! Life in immortality, brilliance in justification, truth in freedom of speech, trust in persuasion, self-control in holiness! And all of these things fall under our minds. Therefore, so what are those things that are prepared for those who wait? The author and father of the ages, the ever-holy one, he knows their amount and beauty. Therefore, we should struggle to be found among the number of those who are waiting for him, so we might partake of the promised gifts. But how will this be, beloved? If our minds are fixed by trust toward God, if we seek out the things that are well-pleasing and acceptable to him, if we finish the things that are unified with his blameless plan and follow the path of truth...throwing away from us all wrong, and lawlessness, greed, strife, both craftiness and deceit, both worthless conceit and lack of love for strangers. For the ones who practice these things exist as detestable to God-not only those who practice such things, but also those who give their consent to those who practice them.
For the writing says, "Now God said to the sinner, 'For what reason are you declaring my right deeds and taking my covenant into your mouth? But you hate education, and you throw away my sayings behind you. If you were watching a thief, you were running with him, and you cast your lot with adulterers. Your mouth has been full of badness, and your tongue has woven deceit. You sit and speak against your brother, and you place a stumbling block for your mother's son. You did these things, and I was silent. Lawless one, you took this to mean that I was like you. I will reprove you, and I will set you against your presence. Now take hold of these things, you who forget God. Otherwise, he will rend you like a lion, and no rescuer will be there. A sacrifice of praise will glorify me, and there is a path which I will show him-God's salvation.'"
THIRTY-SIX
Beloved, this is the path in which we find our salvation, Anointed Jesus, the high priest of our offerings, the helper and assistant of our weakness.
Through him, we look up into the heights of the heavens.
Through him, we see the reflection of his spotless and highest aspect.
Through him, the eyes of our hearts are opened.
Through him, our minds, without understanding and darkened, are revived into the light.
Through him, the Master wished that we should taste the knowledge of immortality, "who was the
shining brightness of his" majesty and "is as much greater than the messengers as the name he has
inherited is more excellent than theirs."
For it was written this way: "The one who makes the winds his messengers, and fiery flame his religious servants." But the Master says on his son, "You are my son. Today I have fathered you. Ask of me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and your possession will be the most remote parts of the land." And again it says to him, "Sit at my right side until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet." Therefore, who are the 'enemies'? The foul people, and those who place themselves against what God wants.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Therefore, men, brothers, let us be soldiers with all eagerness in his spotless directions. We should consider those who are soldiers to those who are guiding us: how orderly, how habitually, how submissively they complete the things that they are instructed. Not all are national governors, nor commanders, nor centurions, nor leaders of a company of fifty, nor the like, but each one with his own arrangement carries out the things directed by the king and his leaders.
The great ones are unable to be without the small - nor the small without the great. There is a mixture in all things, and an advantage in these. Let's take our bodies: neither is the head without the feet; in the same way nor are the feet without the head. But the smallest parts of our bodies are necessities and useful things to the whole of the body. But they all breathe together and make one useful submission for the salvation of the whole of the body.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Therefore, our whole body should be saved in Anointed Jesus, and each should submit to his neighbor, just as also he has been placed in his gift. The strong should not neglect the weak, but the weak should turn to the strong. The wealthy should provide the needs of the poor, but the poor should be thankful to God, because he gave him someone through whom his necessity may be fulfilled. The wise person should display his wisdom not with words but with good deeds. The humble person should not testify about himself, but let it be upon another to testify about him. The one who is pure in the flesh should not also boast about it, knowing that it is another who gifted him with self-control. Brothers, we should consider out of what kind of forest we happened, and what kind of someones entered creation, out of what kind of sepulcher and darkness. The one who molded us, the author, made us enter creation - after preparing his good deeds for us ahead of our being born. Therefore, since we have all of these things from him, we should look to thank him for everything. To him be the glory to the most remote age. A-mein.
THIRTY-NINE
Mindless people, and without understanding, and foolish, and uneducated - they mock us and sneer, planning to elevate themselves with their own minds. For what is a mortal able to do? Or what strength in one born from the ground? For it was written, "There was no form in front of my eyes, but I heard a sound and a voice: 'For what? Will a mortal be clean in the presence of the Lord? Or will such a man be spotless in his deeds, if he does not trust his servant boys, but he perceives something perverse against his messengers?' Now the sky is not clean in his presence; 'what about those who stay in houses of clay' - from which also we ourselves were made? They are ashamed in the moth's place, and from morning to evening they still are not. They are destroyed, unable to get help for themselves. He breathed on them, and they were completed, since they did not have wisdom.' But call on him, if anyone will answer you, or if someone will look to the holy messengers. For also rage destroys the unwise person, but jealousy makes dead of the wanderers. Now I have seen the unwise taking root, but their dwelling was immediately cursed. Let his sons be far from salvation; they are crushed at the gate, and there is no one to save them. For the just will eat what was prepared for them, but they will not be saved from bad things."
FORTY
Therefore, since these things are obvious to us, and since we see into the depths of the divine knowledge, it becomes a necessity to do all the things appropriately that the Master directed to be done. At directed seasons, he directed both offerings and religious service to be completed, and not without purpose or arrangement, but at regular seasons and hours. Now where and through what people he wants these things to be completed, he regulated with his own surpassing plan, so that all things will happen in a godly way in delight, acceptable their offerings seasonally, are both accepted and blessed. For since they follow the Master's codes, they are not sinning. For his own religious services have been given to his high priest, and his priests have been arranged their own places, and their own services fall to the Levites. The civilian person has been given civilian arrangements.
FORTY-ONE
Brothers, each of you should give thanks to God in his own arrangement, being with a good conscience, not going beyond the regular ruler of religious service with sobriety. Brothers, the daily sacrifices are not offered in every place - nor the peace offerings; nor those about sin and wandering -- but in Jerusalem alone. Now they are not offered in every place there, but at the altar in the presence of the temple, after what is offered is inspected by the high priests and those religious servants who were previously mentioned. Therefore, those who do something beyond what agrees with his plan have the further reward of death. Brothers, you see that as we are worthy of greater knowledge, we lie under rather so much danger.
FORTY-TWO
The envoys have given the good message to us from the Lord, Anointed Jesus. Anointed Jesus was sent from God. Therefore, the Anointed One was from God, and the envoys were from the Anointed One. Therefore, both things happened in an orderly way, from God's wishes. Therefore, they took their charges, and being fully assured through the resurrection of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, and trusting in God's message with full assurance of holy breath, they went out telling the message that God's kingdom was about to come. Therefore, heralding in the countryside and in cities, they set down their first fruits, testing as to the breath, to the point of their being overseers and servants of those who were about to trust. And this was not new, for already from many times it had been written about overseers and servants. For the writings says this in one place to them, "I will set down their overseers in justification and their servants in trust."
FORTY-THREE
And what wonder is it if those who are in the Anointed who were entrusted by God with such a deed set down those who were previously mentioned, when the blessed Moses, "a trustworthy servant in the whole household," also noted in the sacred scrolls all the directions that were marked for him, and the remaining prophets that followed after him also testified with him to the code set down by him? For when jealousy came up about the priesthood, and when the tribes stood against one another as to which should be adorned with the glorious name, he gave word to the twelve tribes to bring rods to him (each one inscribed according to the name of the tribe). And he took them, and bound them, and sealed them with the rings of the tribal leaders, and he placed them up in the tent of the testimony on God's table. And after closing the tent, he sealed the keys in the same way as he had sealed the doors. And he said to them, "Men, brothers, the tribe whose rod blossoms is the one that God has chosen for the priesthood and to give religious service to him." Now after morning happened, he called together all of Israel - six hundred thousand men - and he showed the seals to the tribal leaders, and he opened the tent of the testimony brought out the rods. And Aaron's rod was found not only to have blossomed but also to have fruit.
Beloved, what do you think? Didn't Moses know in advance that this was about to be? Above all, he knew. But so that chaos would not happen in Israel, he did it this way, to glorify the name of the true and only the Lord. To him be glory to the most remote age. A-mein.
FORTY-FOUR
And our envoys knew, through our Lord, Anointed Jesus, that there would be strife at the name of oversight. On account of this, therefore, since they had complete knowledge ahead of time, they put into place those who have been previously mentioned, and afterwards they gave elaboration how if they fell asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their religious service. Therefore, those who were set down by them, or afterward by other accountable men (together with the opinion of all the assembly) - these who also provided spotless religious service to the Anointed One's flock with a humble, quiet, and unmechanical attitude (testified to by all for a long time) - we give the opinion that these people are not being justly cast out from religious service.
For our sin will not be small if we cast out those who have spotlessly and in a godly manner applied the gifts of oversight. Blessed are the old people who have traveled ahead of us and who have made a fruitful and complete departure. For they do not behave like someone will unseat them from the places where they are seated. For we see that you have moved some of nice behavior from their blameless, honored religious service.
FORTY-FIVE
Brothers, you are friendly toward quarrels, and you are jealous about things which do not come to salvation. Step down into the true writings, those which are of the holy Spirit. Put it down that nothing unjust or falsely made is written in them. You will not find a just person cast away from godly men. The just were persecuted, but by the lawless. They were imprisoned, but by the ungodly. They were stoned by those who eluded the code. They were killed by the cursed and by those who took unjust jealousy into their hands. Suffering these things, they endured famously. For what should we say, brothers? Was Daniel cast into the lions' den by those who feared God? Were Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael shut into a fiery furnace by those who were devoted to the great and glorified devotion to the Highest One? Let it by no means happen!
Therefore, who did these things? The hateful, who were also full of every kind of badness, went into such stubborn emotion that they tossed around mistreatment on those who were enslaved to God with godly and blameless standing, not knowing that the Highest One is the defender and protector of those who perform religious service to his all-excellent name with clean consciences. To him be the glory to the most remote age. A-mein.
Now those who underwent with persuasion have inherited glory and honor. They happen to have been elevated and inscribed to God in their remembrance, to the most remote age. A-mein.
FORTY-SIX
Therefore, brothers, it is necessary that we cling to such examples. For it was written, "Cling to the holy things, because the ones who cling to them will be made holy." And again in an other place, it says, "You will be proven harmless with a harmless man, and you will be proven chosen with a chosen person, and you will be proven perverse with a perverse person." Therefore, we should cling to those who are harmless and just; now these are God's chosen ones. Why is there strife, and emotional outbursts, and separations, and divisions, and war among you? Or don't we have one God, and one Anointed One, and one breath of the gift poured out on us? And isn't there one calling in the Anointed? Why do we divide and separate the parts of the Anointed One? And we rebel to our own body? And have we come to such mindlessness that we allow it to escape notice that "we are parts of one another?" Remember the sayings of Jesus our Lord, for he said, "Woe to that person! It was a nicer thing for him if he had not been born than to have caused one of my chosen ones to stumble. It was better for him to have a millstone hung on him and to be cast into the sea than for him to turn away one of my chosen ones." Your division has turned away many people, has cast many into emotionlessness, has cast many into doubt, has cast us all into grief, and yet your stand continues.
FORTY-SEVEN
Take up the letter of the blessed Paulus the envoy. What did he write to you at first, at the beginning of the good message? From truth, he wrote spiritually to you about both himself and Kefa and Apollos, on account of which even then your partiality had been made. But that partiality of preference was a less weak sin for you. For your partialities were toward witnessed envoys and toward a man approved by them. But now think about who has turned you away and have lessened the chastity of your well-known brotherly affection. Beloved, it is a social disgrace, and an excessive disgrace, and a thing unworthy of your leading in the Anointed One, to hear that the sure and old Korinthian assembly should rebel at the old people on account of one or two faces! And this report has come not only to us but also to those who happen to lean against us. And so, this has caused even evil speaking at the Lord's name, on account of your mindlessness, but danger has also affected you.
FORTY-EIGHT
Therefore, we should soon remove this, and we should fall down to the Master, and we should wish to cry as we approach him, so that he would become merciful and be reconciled to us, and so that he would restore us to our pure leading of august brotherly affection. For it is a gate of justification opening into life, just as it was written, "Open to me the gates of justification, so that I will enter through them and acknowledge the Lord. This is the Lord's gate; the just will enter through it." Therefore, with many gates open, the one of justification is the one in the Anointed One; all those who have entered through it are blessed and have directed their goings with godliness and justification, completing everything without disorder. Someone should be trustworthy. He should be powerful in the expression of knowledge. He should be wise in judging sayings. He should be vigorous in deeds. He should be pure. For he is bound to be so much rather humble, the one who seems to be rather greater. And he is to seek the common good of all people, and not his own.
FORTY-NINE
The one who has love in the Anointed One should do the Anointed One's charges. Who is able to relate the bond of God's love? Who is strong enough to tell of the greatness of its beauty? The height to which love lifts is indescribable! Love unites us to God. "Love covers a multitude of sins." Love holds on to all things; it suffers long with all things. There is nothing mechanistic in love; there is nothing high-minded. Love has no division. Love does not form discord. Love does everything with the same mindset. All of God's chosen ones have been made complete in love. Nothing is a delight to God without love. The Master has taken us to himself in love. On account of the love he had toward us, Anointed Jesus our Lord gave his blood on our behalf, as God wished- and his flesh on behalf of our flesh, and his soul on behalf of our souls.
FIFTY
Beloved, do you see how great and wonderful love is? And there is no relating its completion! Who is strong enough to be found in it, except those whom God makes worthy? Therefore, pray and ask of his mercy, so that we would be found as blameless in love, without human partialities. The generations, all of them from Adam up to the present day have passed, but those who were made complete in love according to God's generosity have a country among the pious. They will appear at the oversight of God's kingdom. For it was written, "Enter your chambers....for such a short time, until the rage and my emotion have passed." And, "I will remember a good day and will lift you up from your tombs."
Beloved, we are blessed we do God's instructions with oneness of mind in love, to the point of our sins being forgiven through love. For it was written, "Blessed is the one whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not record sin, in whose mouth there is no deceit." This blessing happens to those who have been chosen by God through Anointed Jesus our Lord. To God be the glory to the most remote age. A-mein.
FIFTY-ONE
Therefore, we should be worthy to be forgiven of what we sat by and did on account of those who belong to the opponent. But also everyone who happens to be a beginner of rebellion and separation is bound to look to the common hope. For those who are citizens with fear and love want rather that they should fall into torture than their neighbor. But they carry blame for themselves, rather than blame that nice and just oneness of mind that has been handed down to us. For it is a nicer thing for a person to acknowledge about his faults than that he should stupify his heart, as those who were rebellious toward God's attendant, Moses, and whose judgment became obvious. For they went down into Hades alive, and "death feeds them." Pharaoh, and his army, and all Egypt's governors, "and the chariots and their riders," on account of certain guilt, sank into the Red Sea and were destroyed. But it happened on account of the stupidities of their mindless hearts, after the signs and miracles had happened in the land of Egypt, through God's attendant, Moses.
FIFTY-TWO
Brothers, the Master happens to be without need of anything. He requires nothing of anyone except to acknowledge him. For David, the chosen one, declares, "I will acknowledge the Lord, and it will please him more than a young bull that has horns and hooves. The poor should see this and be glad." And again he says, "Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and repay debts to the Highest One. And call on me in the day of affliction, and I will free you, and you will glorify me." For, "a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit."
FIFTY-THREE
For, beloved, you trust and trust well the sacred writings, and you have stepped down into God's oracles. Therefore, we write these things toward remembrance. For Moses went up into the mountain and did forty days and forty nights in fasting and humility, and God said to him, "Moses, Moses, go down quickly from here, because your people - whom you brought out of the land of Egypt - have been lawless. They have quickly left the path that I gave them the precept about, making themselves molten images." And the Lord said to him, "I spoke to you once and a second time, saying, 'I have seen this people, and look, it is stiff-necked.' Allow me to wipe them out, and to blot out their name under the sky, and I will make you into a great and wondrous nation - and more numerous than this." And Moses said, "No way, Lord! Forgive this people's sin, or also blot me out from the scroll of the living."
Oh great love! Oh unsurpassable completion! The assistant is speaking freely to the lord, asking forgiveness for the crowd, or also to blot out himself with them in kind.
FIFTY-FOUR
Therefore, who among you is noble? Who is compassionate? Who is fully carried by love? He should say, "If, on account of me there are rebellion, and strife, and division, I will leave if you prefer it, and I will do the things arranged by the crowd. Only let the Anointed One's flock be at peace with those old people who have been set down. This person who does this will cause himself a great calling in the Anointed One, and every place will accept him. For "The land is the Lord's, and its fullness." Those who are citizens, living God's citizenship without regret, have done and will do these things.
FIFTY-FIVE
But so that we might also bring out examples to the nations, many kings and governors, at various seasonal placements, when their matters had been advised by an oracle, they handed themselves over to the point of death, so that through their blood they would rescue the citizens. Many have left their cities in the same way, so that there would not be greater rebellion. We trust many among us, who have handed themselves over into bondage, so that they would be ransomed for others. Many have handed themselves over into slavery, and taking their value, they fed others.
Many women have been empowered through God's generosity and have completed many manly things: Judith the blessed one, during the siege of her city, placed it by the old people to ask for her to go out into the foreigners' camp. Therefore, she gave herself over to danger and went out on account of love of the country and those people who were under siege. And the Lord handed over Holofernes by a woman's hands. And Esther, who was complete according to trust, handed herself over to no weaker danger, so that she would rather rescue the twelve tribes of Israel from destruction. For through fasting and humility, she asked the almighty Master, the eternal God. When he saw the humility of her soul, he rescued the people, for whom she had risked favor.
FIFTY-SIX
Therefore, we too should fall in with those who have happened into any wandering, so that gentleness and humility would be given to them to the point of their giving way not to us but to what God wants. For in the same way, they will be fruitful and complete in memory, with compassions both toward God and the holy ones. Beloved, we should receive education, at which everyone is bound not to be indignant. The warnings that we make to one another are nice and are highly profitable, for they unite us to what God wants. For the holy message makes this known, "the Lord has educated me with education and has not handed me over to death."
"For the Lord educates the one he loves, and every son whom he receives is chastened."
It makes this known: "For the just one will educate me in mercy, and he will reprove me, but do not let sinners' oil fatten my head." And again it says, "Blessed is the person whom the Lord reproves. Now do not reject the Almighty's warning. For he makes sorrow and again restores. He wounds, and his hands heal. He will bring you out of six necessities, but in the seventh nothing bad will touch you. In famine he will rescue you from death, now in war he will free you from the hand of the sword, and he will hide you from the scourge of the tongue, and by no means will you fear when bad things come. You will laugh at the unjust and lawless ones. Now you will not fear anything from the field animals, for the wild animals will come to peace with you.
"Then you will know that your household will be peaceful. Now your tent's way of life will not sin. Now you will know that your descendants will be many; your children will be like the grass of the field. Now you will go into the grave just as ripe corn is reaped at the season, or as a pile on the threshing floor is gathered at the hour."
Beloved, you see what great "protection belongs to those who are educated by the Master. For since the Father is good, he educates us to the point of our admonition," through his pious education.
FIFTY-SEVEN
Therefore, you who made the foundation of this chaos should submit yourselves to the old people, and you should be educated to the point of mental change, bending the knees of your hearts. You should learn to submit, putting aside the proud and high-minded arrogance of your tongues. For it makes more sense for you to be found small and yet counted in the Anointed One's flock than that you should assume yourself to surpass and yet be cast out from his hope.
For the all-excellent wisdom says this, "Look, I will bring you my spirit's declarations; I will teach you my message. Since I called, and you did not listen; I held out my sayings, and you did not approach (on the contrary, you made my plans nothing, and you were not persuaded by my reproofs) - and so then I too will laugh at your destruction. Now I will rejoice whenever ruin comes to you, and whenever confusion appears and overtakes you, or when and overturning shows itself as a storm, or when affliction and oppression come to you.
"For it will be that when you call on me, I will not hear you. The bad people will seek me, and they will not find. For they hated wisdom, but they did not come to the fear of the Lord, nor would they come to my plans, but they despised my reproofs. And so then they will eat the fruit of their path, and they will fill up with their impiety. For they will be slaughtered against the injustice they did to babies; there will be visitation for the impious, but the one who hears me will make his rest in hope and he will be unmoved and unafraid of anything bad."
FIFTY-EIGHT
Therefore, we should listen to his ever-holy and glorious name, fleeing from the warnings to the unpersuaded (which came through wisdom), so that we might make steady our persuasion at the godly name of his greatness. Receive our counsel, and you will be without regret. For God liveso, and both the trust and the hope of the chosen, that the one who does the right things and directions that were given from God in humility and with immediate gentleness, he will be placed and will be counted in the number of those who are being saved through Anointed Jesus. Through him is glory to God forever and ever. A-mein.
FIFTY-NINE
But if some are unpersuaded by the things that have been spoken by him through us, let them know that they will be involving themselves in wandering and no small danger. But we will be innocent of this sin, and we will be quickly making prayer and asking, and so the author of all things will guard unbroken the completed number of his chosen ones in the whole universe, through his beloved servant boy, Anointed Jesus, through whom he called us from darkness into light, from ignorance into recognition of the glory of his name. [Oh Lord,] to hope in your name - the foremost thing for every creature! You have opened the eyes of our hearts for the knowledge of you, the one who alone "rests in the highest and holiest of places," who "makes humble the highness of the high-minded," who "lets the reasonings of the gentiles go," who "makes the low things high" and "the high things low," who "makes wealthy and makes poor," who "kills and makes alive" - the only good doer of spirits and god of all flesh, the one who "examines the deep waters," the one who sees human deeds, the help to those in danger, the "savior of the despairing," the creator and overseer of every spirit, the multiplier of nations on the land, and the one who chose your loved ones from all people through Anointed Jesus your beloved servant boy. Through him you educated, made holy, and honored.
Master, let us be worthy that you would become our "helper and protector." Save those of us in affliction, show mercy to the humble, lift the fallen, make things apparent to those in need, heal the [sick], return the wanderers of your people, feed the hungry, redeem those of us in bondage, raise up the weak, advise those with little souls. Make all the nations know that, "you alone are God," and that Anointed Jesus is your servant boy, and that "we are the sheep of your flock."
SIXTY
You made the fabric of the universe to stand, through your hand-made workings. Lord, you created the habitation - you who are trustworthy in all generations, just in judgments, wonderful in strength and majesty, the wise one in creating and with understanding in securing the things that happen, the good one among those who are seen, and trustworthy among those who are persuaded by you. "Merciful and Compassionate One," forgive us of our sins, and wrongs, and wanderings, and errors of judgment. Do not record every sin of your slaves and servant-children, but cleanse us with the cleansing of the your truth. And "straighten our paths to go in godliness," and justification, and sincerity of heart, and "to do what things are nice and well-pleasing in your presence" and in the presence of our rulers. Yes, Master, "let your face appear to us" for goodness in peace, to the point of our being shielded by your hand of might and rescued from all sins with your uplifted arm. And rescue us from those who hate us unjustly. Give unity of mind and peace both to us and to everyone who dwells in the land, just as you gave to our ancestors when they called on you in godly manner in trust and truth, since we happen to be submissive to your almighty and all-excellent name.
SIXTY-ONE
To those who rule and govern us on the land, you Lord gave the authority of their kingdom, through your majestic and unspeakable might, to the point of our knowing glory and honor given to them by you and submitting to them, never opposing what you want. Oh Lord, give them health, peace, unity of mind, good standing, to the point of conducting themselves with the leadership given them by you without stumbling. For you, heavenly Master, King of the Ages, give to the sons of people glory and honor and authority over the things that are on the land. Lord, straighten their plans according to what is nice and well-pleasing in your presence, so that they would conduct themselves piously in peace and meekness with the authority given to them from you and would reach your mercy. You alone are powerful enough to do these things and to make abundant goodness with us. We praise you through the high priest and guardian of our souls, Anointed Jesus, through whom glory, and majesty are yours - both now and for a generation, and for ever and ever. A-mein.
SIXTY-TWO
Indeed men, brothers, we have written a long enough letter to you about the things that relate to our ceremonies, and to the things that are most profitable for a productive life (for those who want to make amends piously and justly). For we have touched at every place about trust, and mental change, and sincere love, and self-control, and sobriety, and patience, reminding that it is necessary in a godly manner for you to be well-pleasing in what is right, and truth, and longsuffering to almighty God, being united in mind, with love and peace not remembering badness with intense fairness, just as also our previously known ancestors were well-pleasing with their humble attitudes toward the Father (that is, God and Creator) and toward all people. And we remind you of these things with pleasure, since we were clearly assured that we were writing to trustworthy men who were also well-spoken of and who had stepped down into the oracles of God's education.
SIXTY-THREE
Therefore, it is allowed to approach such good and so many examples, and to place our necks under them, and to fulfill the place of listening, to lean toward the beginnings of your souls that you are beginning, so that - quieted from worthless standings - we might reach our goal that we see in truth, without any blame. For you will provide us joy and gladness if you listen to what was written by us through the holy breath and uproot the rage of your jealousy that is not allowed, according to the conversation that we made about peace and unity in this letter.
Now we have sent trustworthy and sober men whose conduct from youth to old age has been blameless among us - these ones will also be witnesses between you and us. Now we have done this so that you would know that our attitude both happened to be and is for you to be at peace quickly.
SIXTY-FOUR
Here is what remains: may the all-seeing God, who is also the Master of Spirits and Lord of All Flesh, who has chosen the Lord, Anointed Jesus (and us through him), for a special people give to every soul who calls on his majestic and holy name trust, fear, peace, endurance, longsuffering, self control, purity, and sobriety, to the point of his name being well-pleased, through our high priest and outstanding example, Anointed Jesus, through whom are glory and majesty, might, and honor to him, both now and for all of the ages. A-mein.
SIXTY-FIVE
Now send back to us those sent from us -- Klaudius, Efebos, and Valerius Bito, with Fortunatus also -- in peace, with joy quickly, so that they would soon relate to us your peace and unity, which has been prayed for and yearned for, and that we would rejoice about your good standing.
May the favor of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, be with you and with everyone everywhere who are called by God and through him. Through him are glory, honor, might, majesty, and the throne of the ages to God, from the ages and forever. A-mein.
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