For just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For just as in the days before the Flood people went on eating and drinking, marrying and being married, until the very day Noah entered the ark, read more. and knew nothing about it until the Flood came and swept them all away, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

It was so in the time of Lot; people continued to eat, drink, buy, sell, plant, and build; and the very day Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. read more. It will be so on the day when the Son of Man appears The man who is on the roof of his house that day, and his goods in the house, must not come down to carry them out; and the man in the field, too, must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife!

"Brothers, I may confidently say to you about the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and that his grave is here among us to this very day.

And with Abraham He made the sacred compact of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac. For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them, read more. she was told, "The elder will be a slave to the younger." As the Scripture says, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says? For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave girl, the other by a free woman. read more. But the child of the slave girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born to fulfill the promise. This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia) and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one." Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children born to fulfill the promise. But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born by the power of the Spirit, so it is today. But what does the Scripture say? "Drive off the slave girl and her son, for the slave girl's son shall never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are children, not of a slave girl but of a free woman.

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was coming back from the defeat of the kings, and put his blessing on him, to whom Abraham contributed a tenth of all his spoils, who first of all, in accordance with the meaning of his name, is king of righteousness, and then king of Salem, which means king of peace; read more. with no father, no mother, no ancestry; no beginning to his days, no end to his life, but, like the Son of God, as priest continues on and on with no successor. Now see how great this man must have been that even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils.

Now see how great this man must have been that even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils. And those of the descendants of Levi who accept the priesthood are authorized by the law to collect a tenth from the people; that is, from their own brothers, though they have sprung from Abraham. read more. But in this case, the man whose ancestry is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham, and put his blessing on the man who had the promises from God. Now beyond any contradiction, it is always the inferior that is blessed by the superior.