who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all wickedness, and purify for himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

for perhaps he has been separated from you for a time that you may have him back forever,

And thou, Lord, in the beginning didst build from its foundations the earth, and the heavens are works of thy hands;

We ought therefore to attend the more to the things which we heard, lest at any time we should glide away [from them].

See, brothers, that there be not at any time in any one of you an evil mind of unbelief in departing from the living God;

For we enter into the rest who believed, as he said, I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest, although of works made from the foundation of the world.

For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day, thus; And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

For he [Christ] who entered into his rest, also himself rested from his works, as God from his.

For every chief priest taken from men is appointed in behalf of men over things relating to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins,

Who in the days of his flesh having offered both prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, with loud cries and tears, [and being heard and delivered] from fear,??8 although he was a Son, learned obedience from what he suffered,

Wherefore leaving the account of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of a change of mind from dead works, and of faith in God,

But the land which drinks in the rain that often falls on it, and produces plants beneficial to those by whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God;

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

And the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to tithe the people according to the law, that is their brothers, although descended from Abraham;

but he whose descent is not reckoned from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him who has the promises.

for it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, in respect to which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priests.

For such a chief priest also was suitable for us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens,

And they shall not teach every one his [fellow] citizen, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them.

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who with an eternal spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

since it was necessary that it should suffer often from the foundation of the world, but now once at the consummation of the world he has been manifested to destroy sins by the sacrifice of himself.

let us approach with a true heart in a full assurance of faith, sprinkled in heart from an evil conscience, and washed in body with pure water,

We know by faith that the worlds were made by the word of God, that the seen was not made from the apparent.

All these died in faith not having received the promises, but having seen and saluted them from a distance, and having professed that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth.

And if they had remembered that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return;

judging that God was able to raise even from the dead; whence also in a figure he received him.

extinguished the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put to flight encampments of foreigners;

women received their dead from a resurrection, others were tortured having not accepted redemption, that they might obtain a better resurrection;

For consider him that has endured such a contradiction from sinners, that you may not become faint and weary in your minds.

See that you refuse not him that speaks; for if they did not escape who refused him that gave answers on earth, much more shall we [not escape] who turn ourselves away from him in heaven;

And may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

Salute all your guides and all the saints. Those from Italy salute you.

For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing from the Lord,

All good giving, and every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow of turning.

Pure religion and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.

Does a fountain send forth sweet water and bitter from the same opening?

This wisdom comes not from above, but is earthly, natural, demoniacal.

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

Whence come wars and contentions among you? Come they not thence, from your pleasures that war in your members?

Be subject therefore to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you;

Brothers, if any one among you errs from the truth, and one converts him,

let him know that he who converts a sinner from an error of [his] way, shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to whom it was revealed that they ministered not to themselves but to us those things which have now been declared to you by those who preached to you the good news, with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the angels desire to look.

knowing that you were not redeemed from your vain mode of life received by tradition from your fathers, with destructible things, silver or gold,

who through him believed in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope may be in God.

Having purified your souls by obeying the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently, from the heart,

having been born again, not from destructible seed but from indestructible, through the word of God which lives and endures.

BELOVED, I exhort you as strangers and foreigners, abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul,

having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, from the good works which they see they may glorify God in the day of visitation,

For he that will love life and see good days, let him withhold his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit,

let him abstain from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it,

Christ therefore having suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

through which have been given us very great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption which is in the world by inordinate desire,

for a man that is without these is blind, not seeing to a distance, and has forgotten the purification from his former errors.

For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when this voice was brought to him from the magnificent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And this voice we heard brought from heaven when we were with him on the holy mount.

For prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but moved by the Holy Spirit men spoke from God,

and delivered righteous Lot, vexed by the lewd conduct of the wicked;??8 for that righteous man living among them vexed his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their wicked deeds;??9 the Lord knows how to deliver the pious from trial, and to keep the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished,

having eyes full of an adulteress, and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart exercised in covetousness, cursed children,

For speaking extravagant words of vanity, they entice with carnal desires of lewdness those scarcely escaped from them, those living in error,

For it is better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world.

Do you therefore, beloved, knowing [these things] before, be on your guard not to be carried away with the error of the wicked and fall from your steadfastness,

THAT which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the Word of life,??2 and the life was made manifest, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us,??3 that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

And this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, That God is light, and with him there is no darkness.

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I wrote to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God continues in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us; but [they went out from us] that they might be manifest that they are not all of us.

And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and know all things.

Let that which you heard from the beginning continue in you. If that which you heard from the beginning continues in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.

And the anointing which you received from him continues in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; but as his anointing teaches you of all things, and is true and is not a lie, even as it has taught you, continue in him.

he that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this was the Son of God manifested, to destroy the works of the devil.

For this is the message which you heard from the beginning; that we should love one another;

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers; he that loves not, continues in death.

And whoever has the goods of the world and sees his brother have need, and withholds his compassions from him, how continues the love of God in him?

and what we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.

And we have this commandment from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, shall be with you in truth and love.

I rejoiced exceedingly that I found your children walking in the truth as we received commandment from the Father.

And now I beseech you, Curia, not as if writing a new commandment to you, but [one] which we had from the beginning, that we should love one another.

And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

But I wish to remind you, though you once knew all, that the Lord having saved his people from Egypt, afterwards destroyed those that believed not,

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of them, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousand of his saints

and some save, plucking them from the fire, but have mercy on others with fear, hating even the garment that is defiled by the flesh.

John, to the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace be to you, from the Is and the Was and the Is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne,

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his blood,

Remember therefore whence you have fallen, and change your minds, and do the first works, otherwise I will come to you and remove your candlestick from its place, unless you change your minds.

And I gave her time to change her mind, and she will not change her mind from her fornication.

Behold, I will cast her on a [sick] bed, and those committing adultery with her into great affliction, unless they change their minds from her works.

He that conquers shall be clothed in white robes, and I will not obliterate his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which is to come on all the world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out of it no more, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.

And there proceeded from the throne lightnings and voices and thunders; and seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God,

And he came and took [the book] from the right hand of him that sat on the throne.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for thou wast killed and hast redeemed to God with thy blood [men] from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,