being called by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek;

For indeed because of the time, you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again what are the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have become in need of milk, and not of solid food.

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, even those who because of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Therefore, having left the discourse of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to full growth, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

And this we will do, if God permits.

and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come,

and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put Him to an open shame.

(For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth plants fit for those by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself,

In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath,

so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.

without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually.

For the Law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw near to God.

Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.

who serve the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, He says "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you in the mountain."

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Now when these things were ordained in this way, the priests always went into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

But when Christ had become a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building

how much more shall the blood of Christ (who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God) purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined to you."

For Christ has not entered into the Holy of Holies made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

For the Law which has a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, appearing year by year with the same sacrifices, which they offer continually, they are never able to perfect those drawing near.

Then I said, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God."

then He said, "Lo, I come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first so that He may establish the second.

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God,

and having a High Priest over the house of God,

and let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works,

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise.

For by it the elders obtained a good report.

By faith we understand that the ages were framed by a word of God, so that the things being seen not to have come into being out of the things that appear.

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And by it he, being dead, yet speaks.

By faith Enoch was translated so as not to see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

By faith Noah, having been warned by God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

But now they stretch forth to a better fatherland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from where he even received him, in a figure.

choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time,

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise,

for God had provided some better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us.

looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?

looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God, or lest any root of bitterness springing up disturb you, and by it many are defiled,

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are written in Heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear,

for also, "Our God is a consuming fire."

Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Remember those leading you, who have spoken to you the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conduct:

Do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped.

Therefore Jesus also, so that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

By Him, then, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing His name.

But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Pray for us; for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Now may the God of peace (who brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant)

make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, greeting:

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

For the wrath of man does not work out the righteousness of God.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

and if you have respect to him who has the fancy clothing and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor, You stand there, or sit here under my footstool;

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?

and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it?

You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

By this we bless God, even the Father. And by this we curse men, who have come into being according to the image of God.

Who is wise and knowing among you? Let him show his works by his good conduct with meekness of wisdom.

But the wisdom that is from above is first truly pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones.

Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time;

those believing in God through Him, He who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living Word of God, and abiding forever.

For having been drawn to Him, a living Stone, indeed rejected by men, but elect, precious with God;

you also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

you who then were not a people, but now the people of God, those not pitied then, but now pitied.

having your conduct honest among the nations, in that which they speak against you as evildoers, they may glorify God in a day of His visitation, seeing your good works.

For such is the will of God, doing good to silence the ignorance of foolish men;

as free, and not having freedom as a cover of evil, but as servants of God.

Honor all. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those good and forbearing, but also to the perverse ones.

For this is a grace, if for conscience toward God anyone endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it if you patiently endure while sinning and being buffeted? But if you suffer while doing good, and patiently endure, this is a grace from God.

having witnessed your chaste behavior in the fear of God.

but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, the meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God.

For so once indeed the holy women hoping in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands;

as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose children you became, doing good and fearing no terror.

For he that wants to love life and to see good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.

Let him turn aside from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.