To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of?? am playing the part of a fool?? will dare to boast of too.

When I was at Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city gates watched in order to catch me,

but I was lowered in a basket from an opening in the wall, and got out of his clutches.

And I know that this man?? do not know whether it was in the body or out of it, God knows??4 was caught up into Paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no human being can repeat.

So to keep me from being too much elated a bitter physical affliction was sent to me, a very messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too much elated.

The signs that mark a true apostle were most patiently shown when I was among you, in signs, wonders, and marvels.

But granting that I did not burden you myself, I was clever about it, you say, and took you in by a trick.

Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is.

That is why I write this while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be harsh in my use of the authority the Lord has given me, for it was to build you up, not to pull you down.

I did not receive it from any man, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

You have heard of my former conduct when I was attached to the Jewish religion??ow furiously I used to persecute the church of God and ravage it,

and how I surpassed many of my own age among my people in my devotion to Judaism, I was so fanatically devoted to what my forefathers had handed down.

I was still personally unknown to the Christian churches of Judea;

It was in obedience to a revelation that I went. I laid before them the good news that I preach to the heathen, presenting it privately to the leaders, for fear my efforts might be or might have been futile.

But they did not insist that even my companion Titus, although he was a Greek, should be circumcised,

The other Jewish Christians followed his example in concealing their real views, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pose.

Just as Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as uprightness.

If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham.

Then what about the Law? It was a later addition, designed to produce transgressions, until the descendant to which the promise was made should come, and it was enacted by means of angels, through an intermediary;

But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed.

I begin to be afraid that perhaps the labor I spent on you was wasted.

though you know that it was because of an illness that I preached the good news to you that first time;

But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise.

You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised,

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

and how the secret was made known to me by revelation, as I have just briefly written.

(which in past ages was not disclosed to mankind as fully as it has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets)

For he has been longing to see you all, and has been greatly distressed because you heard that he was sick.

For he was sick, and nearly died, but God took pity on him, and not only on him, but on me, to save me from having one sorrow after another.

for he came near dying for the Lord's work, and risked his life to make up for what was lacking in the service you have done me.

I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee;

as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church; and by the Law's standard of uprightness, no fault could be found with me.

I was very glad, as a Christian, to have your interest in me revive again after so long; for you have always been interested, but you have had no opportunity to show it.

But it was very kind of you to share my difficulties.

Even when I was at Thessalonica you sent money more than once for my needs.

for it was through him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, angelic thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities??ll things were created through him and for him.

That was all only the shadow of something that was to follow; the reality is found in Christ.

You know yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was far from ineffectual.

That was the kind of affection we had for you, which made us ready to share with you not only God's good news but our own lives too, because you were so dear to us.

That was why, when I could not bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter might have tempted you and all our labor might be lost.

the adversary of every being that is called a god or an object of worship, and so overbearing toward them as to enter God's sanctuary and take his seat there, proclaiming himself to be God??5 do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you this?

For you know yourselves what you must do to follow my example, for I was not idle when I was with you;

When I was with you, I gave you this rule: "If anyone refuses to work, give him nothing to eat!"

As I asked you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus in order to warn certain people there not to teach strange views

who gave himself as a ransom for all men. This is what was testified to at the proper times,

and I was appointed a herald and apostle of it?? am telling the truth, I am not lying??o teach the heathen faith and truth.

For Adam was formed first, and then Eve;

and it was not Adam who was deceived, it was the woman who was deluded and fell into sin.

No one can deny the profundity of the divine truth of our religion! "He was revealed in flesh, He was vindicated by the Spirit, He was seen by the angels, He was proclaimed among the heathen, He was believed in throughout the world, He was taken up into glory."

Do not neglect the gift you have, that was given you with predictions of your work, when the elders laid their hands upon you.

of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also.

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often cheered me and was not ashamed of my being in prison.

But the Lord stood by me, and gave me strength, so that I might make a full presentation of the message and let all the heathen hear it. So I was saved from the jaws of the lion.

standing by the message that can be relied on, just as he was taught it, so that he may be qualified both to encourage others with wholesome teaching and to show the error of those who oppose him.

It was a Cretan, a prophet of their own, who said, "Cretans are always liars, savage brutes, lazy gluttons,"

It was little by little and in different ways that God spoke in old times to our forefathers through the prophets,

how can we escape if we pay no attention to such a salvation as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and it was guaranteed to us by those who heard him,

For it was not for angels that he destined the control of that world to be, that we are speaking of.

You have put everything under his feet!" In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him,

but we do see Jesus, who was "made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being.

For it was appropriate that he who is the great First Cause of the universe should, in guiding his many children to his glorious salvation, make their leader in it fully qualified through what he suffered.

For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help.

has been to the God who appointed him, just as Moses was, in all the house of God.

Now the faithfulness of Moses in all the house of God was that of a servant, in faithfully repeating what he was told to say;

but Christ's faithfulness was that of a son set over the house of God. And we are that house, if we keep up our courage and our triumphant hope to the very end.

That was why I was angry with that generation, And I said, 'Their minds are always wandering, And they have never found my paths.'

For who was it that heard him speak and yet provoked him? Was it not all those who had escaped from Egypt under Moses' leadership?

And who was it with whom God was angry forty whole years? Was it not with those who had sinned, who dropped dead in the desert?

And who was it to whom God made oath that they should not be admitted to his Rest, if it was not to those who had disobeyed him?

So we see that it was their unbelief that kept them from being admitted to it.

For we who have believed are admitted to that Rest, of which he said, "As I made oath in my anger, They shall never be admitted to my Rest!" And yet God's work was finished at the creation of the world,

And no one takes the office upon himself, but men assume it only when called to it by God, as Aaron was.

So even Christ did not claim for himself the dignity of the high priesthood, but he was appointed to it by him who said to him, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father!"

For Jesus in his life on earth offered prayers and entreaties, crying aloud with tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and because of his piety his prayer was heard.

And although he was a son, he learned to obey, through what he suffered,

and when he was fully qualified, he became a source of unending salvation for all who obey him,

For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to make oath by, he did so by himself,

Therefore, God in his desire to make it perfectly clear to those to whom he made his promise, that his purpose was unalterable, bound himself with an oath,

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

for none of Abraham's posterity was yet begotten at the time of his meeting with Melchizedek.

Now if anything final had been really accomplished through the Levitical priesthood, for even the giving of the Law was based upon it, what further need would there have been of appointing a different priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek, instead of choosing one of the priesthood of Aaron?

For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar.

So an earlier regulation is abrogated because it was poor and ineffective

(for there was nothing final about the Law), and a better hope begins to dawn, through which we may approach God.

And in proportion as Jesus was not appointed priest without God's making oath to it,

Further, if he were still on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests enough provided to offer the gifts the Law prescribes??5 though the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven. For when Moses was going to make the tent of worship he was warned, "Be sure to make it all just like the pattern you were shown on the mountain."

Even the first agreement provided regulations for worship, and a sanctuary that was fully equipped.

For a tent was erected, with the lamp and the table and the presentation bread in the outer part, which was called the sanctuary.

and above the chest were the winged creatures of the Divine Presence overshadowing the lid on which the blood was sprinkled??f which I cannot now speak in detail.

In all this the holy Spirit was seeking to show that there was no free access to the sanctuary while the outer tent was still standing.

And all this looked toward the present time and was symbolic of the fact that the mere offering of material gifts and sacrifices cannot inwardly qualify the worshiper to approach God,

For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands and only copied after the true one that Christ entered, but he went into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me.

For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting.

For it was by it that the men of old gained God's approval.

It is faith that enables us to see that the universe was created at the command of God, so that the world we see did not simply arise out of matter.

Faith made Abel's sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain's; through faith he gained God's approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke.

Faith caused Enoch to be taken up from the earth without experiencing death; he could not be found, because God had taken him up. For before he was taken up there is evidence that he pleased God,

Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.