He brightly reflects God's glory and is the exact representation of His being, and upholds the universe by His all-powerful word. After securing man's purification from sin He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, for fear we should drift away from them.

see to it, brethren, that there is never in any one of you--as perhaps there may be--a sinful and unbelieving heart, manifesting itself in revolt from the ever-living God.

For, as we know, when speaking of the seventh day He has used the words, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;"

For He who has been admitted to His rest, has rested from His works as God did from His.

For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.

For every High Priest is chosen from among men, and is appointed to act on behalf of men in matters relating to God, in order to offer both gifts and sin-offerings,

For Jesus during his earthly life offered up prayers and entreaties, crying aloud and weeping as He pleaded with Him who was able to bring Him in safety out of death, and He was delivered from the terror from which He shrank.

Although He was God's Son, yet He learned obedience from the sufferings which He endured;

Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ, let us advance to mature manhood and not be continually re-laying a foundation of repentance from lifeless works and of faith in God,

And those of the descendants of Levi who receive the priesthood are authorized by the Law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brethren, though these have sprung from Abraham.

But, in this instance, one who does not trace his origin from them takes tithes from Abraham, and pronounces a blessing on him to whom the promises belong.

For it is undeniable that our Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing in connection with priests.

for these men hold office without any oath having been taken, but He holds it attested by an oath from Him who said to Him, "The Lord has sworn and will not recall His words, Thou art a Priest for ever" --

Moreover we needed just such a High Priest as this--holy, guileless, undefiled, far removed from sinful men and exalted above the heavens;

For if that first Covenant had been free from imperfection, there would have been no attempt to introduce another.

a Covenant unlike the one which I made with their forefathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt; for they would not remain faithful to that.' 'So I turned from them,' says the Lord.

And there shall be no need for them to teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all will know Me from the least of them to the greatest;

By using the words, "a new Covenant," He has made the first one obsolete; but whatever is decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether.

And this is a figure--for the time now present--answering to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, unable though they are to give complete freedom from sin to him who ministers.

how much more certainly shall the blood of Christ, who strengthened by the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, free from blemish, purify your consciences from lifeless works for you to serve the ever-living God?

Indeed we may almost say that in obedience to the Law everything is sprinkled with blood, and that apart from the outpouring of blood there is no remission of sins.

In that case Christ would have needed to suffer many times, from the creation of the world onwards; but as a matter of fact He has appeared once for all, at the Close of the Ages, in order to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

so the Christ also, having been once offered in sacrifice in order that He might bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, separated from sin, to those who are eagerly expecting Him, to make their salvation complete.

For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.

It is through that divine will that we have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all.

waiting from that time onward until His enemies be put as a footstool under His feet.

For by a single offering He has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin.

let us draw near with sincerity and unfaltering faith, having had our hearts sprinkled, once for all, from consciences oppressed with sin, and our bodies bathed in pure water.

How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

Therefore do not cast from you your confident hope, for it will receive a vast reward.

Through faith Enoch was taken from the earth so that he did not see death, and he could not be found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken we have evidence that he truly pleased God.

And thus there sprang from one man, and him practically dead, a nation like the stars of the sky in number, and like the sands on the sea shore which cannot be counted.

All these died in the possession of faith. They had not received the promised blessings, but had seen them from a distance and had greeted them, and had acknowledged themselves to be foreigners and strangers here on earth;

For he reckoned that God is even able to raise a man up from among the dead, and, figuratively speaking, it was from among the dead that he received Isaac again.

men who, as the result of faith, conquered whole kingdoms, brought about true justice, obtained promises from God, stopped lions' mouths,

Women received back their dear ones alive from the dead; and others were put to death with torture, refusing the deliverance offered to them--that they might secure a better resurrection.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried by temptation, they were killed with the sword. They went from place to place in sheepskins or goatskins, enduring want, oppression and cruelty.

for God had provided for them and us something better, so that apart from us they were not to attain to full blessedness.

but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord.

Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled;

Be careful not to refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they of old did not escape unpunished when they refused to listen to him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape who turn a deaf ear to Him who now speaks from Heaven.

Do not be drawn aside by all sorts of strange teaching; for it is well to have the heart made stedfast through God's grace, and not by special kinds of food, from which those who scrupulously attend to them have derived no benefit.

We Christians have an altar from which the ministers of the Jewish Tent have no right to eat.

And for this reason Jesus also, in order, by His own blood, to set the people free from sin, suffered outside the gate.

Now may God who gives peace, and brought Jesus, our Lord, up again from among the dead--even Him who, by virtue of the blood of the eternal Covenant, is the great Shepherd of the sheep--

Greet all your leaders and all God's people. The brethren from Italy send you greetings.

A person of that sort must not expect to receive anything from the Lord--

Let no one say when passing through trial, "My temptation is from God;" for God is incapable of being tempted to do evil, and He Himself tempts no one.

Every gift which is good, and every perfect boon, is from above, and comes down from the Father, who is the source of all Light. In Him there is no variation nor the slightest suggestion of change.

The religious service which is pure and stainless in the sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own self unspotted from the world.

Nay, some one will say, "You have faith, I have actions: prove to me your faith apart from corresponding actions and I will prove mine to you by my actions.

But, idle boaster, are you willing to be taught how it is that faith apart from obedience is worthless? Take the case of Abraham our forefather.

In a fountain, are fresh water and bitter sent forth from the same opening?

That is not the wisdom which comes down from above: it belongs to earth, to the unspiritual nature, and to evil spirits.

The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceful, courteous, not self-willed, full of compassion and kind actions, free from favouritism and from all insincerity.

Submit therefore to God: resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

In illustration, brethren, of persecution patiently endured take the Prophets who have spoken as messengers from the Lord.

My brethren, if one of you strays from the truth and some one brings him back,

let him know that he who brings a sinner back from his evil ways will save the man's soul from death and throw a veil over a multitude of sins.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His great mercy has begotten us anew to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

To them it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you, when they foretold the very things which have now been openly declared to you by those who, having been taught by the Holy Spirit which had been sent from Heaven, brought you the Good News. Angels long to stoop and look into these things.

knowing, as you do, that it was not with a ransom of perishable wealth, such as silver or gold, that you were set free from your frivolous habits of life which had been handed down to you from your forefathers,

are faithful to God, who raised Him from among the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are resting upon God.

For you have been begotten again by God's ever-living and enduring word from a germ not of perishable, but of imperishable life.

For it is an acceptable thing with God, if, from a sense of duty to Him, a man patiently submits to wrong, when treated unjustly.

He never sinned, and no deceitful language was ever heard from His mouth.

Married women, in the same way, be submissive to your husbands, so that even if some of them disbelieve the Message, they may, apart from the Message, be won over by the daily life of their wives, after watching your daily life--

For "He who wishes to be well-satisfied with life and see happy days-- let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from deceitful words;

Let him turn from evil, and do good; Let him inquire for peace and go in pursuit of it.

but in your hearts consecrate Christ as Lord, being always ready to make your defence to any one who asks from you a reason for the hope which you cherish.

Yet argue modestly and cautiously, keeping your consciences free from guilt, so that, when you are spoken against, those who slander your good Christian lives may be put to shame.

For the man in whom they are lacking is blind and cannot see distant objects, in that he has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his old sins.

He received honour and glory from God the Father, and out of the wondrous glory words such as these were spoken to Him, "This is My dearly-loved Son, in whom I take delight."

And we ourselves heard these words come from Heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

But, above all, remember that no prophecy in Scripture will be found to have come from the prophet's own prompting;

Thirsting for riches, they will trade on you with their canting talk. From of old their judgement has been working itself out, and their destruction has not been slumbering.

Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the unrighteous under punishment in readiness for the Day of Judgement,

Their very eyes are full of adultery--being eyes which never cease from sin. These men set traps to catch unstedfast souls, their own hearts being well trained in greed. They are fore-doomed to God's curse!

For, while they pour out their frivolous and arrogant talk, they use earthly cravings--every kind of immorality--as a bait to entrap men who are just escaping from the influence of those who live in error.

For if, after escaping from the pollutions of the world through a full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, people are once more entangled in these pollutions and are overcome, their last state has become worse than their first.

For it would have been better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandments in which they were instructed.

and, asking, "What has become of His promised Return? For from the time our forefathers fell asleep all things continue as they have been ever since the creation of the world."

Therefore, dear friends, since you have these expectations, earnestly seek to be found in His presence, free from blemish or reproach, in peace.

You, therefore, dear friends, having been warned beforehand, must continually be on your guard so as not to be led astray by the false teaching of immoral men nor fall from your own stedfastness.

That which was from the beginning, which we have listened to, which we have seen with our own eyes, and our own hands have handled concerning the Word of Life--

This is the Message which we have heard from the Lord Jesus and now deliver to you--God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness.

But if we live in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim to be already free from sin, we lead ourselves astray and the truth has no place in our hearts.

If we confess our sins, He is so faithful and just that He forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

My dearly-loved friends, it is no new command that I am now giving you, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning. By the old command I mean the teaching which you have already received.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the very beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the very beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and God's Message still has a place in your hearts, and you have overcome the Evil one.

For the things in the world--the cravings of the earthly nature, the cravings of the eyes, the show and pride of life--they all come, not from the Father, but from the world.

They have gone forth from our midst, but they did not really belong to us; for had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left us that it might be manifest that professed believers do not all belong to us.

As for you, you have an anointing from the holy One and have perfect knowledge.

I have written to you, not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you know it, and you know that nothing false comes from the truth.

As for you, let the teaching which you have received from the very beginning continue in your hearts. If that teaching does continue in your hearts, you also will continue to be in union with the Son and with the Father.