Thematic Bible: Folly


Thematic Bible



Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give out an evil smell; more valued is a little wisdom than the great glory of the foolish.


Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again.

This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of their gold. (Selah.)

The heart of the man of good sense goes in search of knowledge, but foolish things are the food of the unwise.


Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways--as the light is better than the dark.


But they will go no farther: for their foolish behaviour will be clear to all men, as theirs was in the end.


A sharp man keeps back his knowledge; but the heart of foolish men makes clear their foolish thoughts.

Knowledge is dropping from the tongue of the wise; but from the mouth of the foolish comes a stream of foolish words.

A foolish man has no pleasure in good sense, but only to let what is in his heart come to light.

And when the foolish man is walking in the way, he has no sense and lets everyone see that he is foolish.




And for a number of days he was seen by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses before the people.

For when we gave you news of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our teaching was not based on stories put together by art, but we were eye-witnesses of his glory.

As they were handed down to us by those who saw them from the first and were preachers of the word,

Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death.

And we are witnesses of all the things which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they put to death, hanging him on a tree.




Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose hearts are lifted up because of their stores. Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to God the payment for himself; (Because it takes a great price to keep his soul from death, and man is not able to give it.) read more.
So that he might have eternal life, and never see the underworld. For he sees that wise men come to their end, and foolish persons of low behaviour come to destruction together, letting their wealth go to others. The place of the dead is their house for ever, and their resting-place through all generations; those who come after them give their names to their lands. But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts. This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of their gold. (Selah.)

Their wisdom is a crown to the wise, but their foolish behaviour is round the head of the unwise.



Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again.

But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it. And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name. And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them. read more.
For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged; And did not have mercy on the world which then was, but only kept safe Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he let loose the waters over the world of the evil-doers; And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him; And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers (Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes): The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging; But specially those who go after the unclean desires of the flesh, and make sport of authority. Ready to take chances, uncontrolled, they have no fear of saying evil of those in high places: Though the angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not make use of violent language against them before the Lord. But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others; For the evil which overtakes them is the reward of their evil-doing: such men take their pleasure in the delights of the flesh even in the daytime; they are like the marks of a disease, like poisoned wounds among you, feasting together with you in joy; Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy; Turning out of the true way, they have gone wandering in error, after the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was pleased to take payment for wrongdoing; But his wrongdoing was pointed out to him: an ass, talking with a man's voice, put a stop to the error of the prophet. These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm; for whom the eternal night is kept in store. For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error; Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him. For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it. They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.


Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give out an evil smell; more valued is a little wisdom than the great glory of the foolish.


For these are they who go secretly into houses, making prisoners of foolish women, weighted down with sin, turned from the way by their evil desires, Ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of what is true. And as James and Jambres went against Moses, so do these go against what is true: men of evil minds, who, tested by faith, are seen to be false. read more.
But they will go no farther: for their foolish behaviour will be clear to all men, as theirs was in the end.


A sharp man does everything with knowledge, but a foolish man makes clear his foolish thoughts.


Foolish behaviour is joy to the unwise; but a man of good sense makes his way straight.




Foolish behaviour is the heritage of the simple, but men of good sense are crowned with knowledge.






Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain