To this very hour we go hungry, thirsty, and naked; we are beaten; we are homeless;

We meet slander with gentle appeals. We have been treated as the scum of the earth, the vilest of the vile, to this very hour.

Some, I hear, are puffed up with pride, thinking that I am not coming to you.

There is a wide-spread report respecting a case of immorality among you, and that, too, of a kind that does not occur even among the Gentiles-a man, I hear, is living with his father's wife!

Or do not you know that a man who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body (for 'the two,' it is said, 'will become one');

But, owing to the prevalence of immorality, I advise every man to have his own wife, and every woman her husband.

A husband should give his wife her due, and a wife her husband.

It is not the wife, but the husband, who exercises power over her body; and so, too, it is not the husband, but the wife, who exercises power over his body.

To those who are married my direction is-yet it is not mine, but the Master's-that a woman is not to leave her husband

(If she has done so, let her remain as she is, or else be reconciled to her husband) and also that a man is not to divorce his wife.

To all others I say-I, not the Master-If a Brother is married to a woman, who is an unbeliever but willing to live with him, he should not divorce her;

And a woman who is married to a man, who is an unbeliever but willing to live with her, should not divorce her husband.

And so his interests are divided. Again, the unmarried woman, whether she is old or young, is anxious about the Master's Cause, striving to be pure both in body and in spirit, while the married woman is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please her husband.

If, however, a father thinks that he is not acting fairly by his unmarried daughter, when she is past her youth, and if under these circumstances her marriage ought to take place, let him act as he thinks right. He is doing nothing wrong-let the marriage take place.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but, if the husband should pass to his rest, the widow is free to marry any one she wishes, provided he is a believer.

While any woman, who prays or preaches in public bare-headed, dishonors him who is her Head; for that is to make herself like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.

Indeed, if a woman does not keep her head covered, she may as well cut her hair short. But, since to cut her hair short, or shave it off, marks her as one of the shameless women, let her keep her head covered.

And, therefore, a woman ought to wear on her head a symbol of her subjection, because of the presence of the angels.

Judge for yourselves. Is it fitting that a woman should pray to God in public with her head uncovered?

Does not nature herself teach us that, while for a man to wear his hair long is degrading to him,

A woman's long hair is her glory? Her hair has been given her to serve as a covering.

To begin with, I hear you and, to some extent, I believe it.

Love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs;

Why, too, do we risk our lives every hour?