Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand;2 By which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.3 For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures:5 And that he was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven.6 Then he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep.7 After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.8 And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time.†9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and his grace in me hath not been void, but I have laboured more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will oversee it, and your love [will also regard it]. But as for me, I am ashamed to be counted one of them; for indeed I am not worthy, as being the very last of them, and one born out of due time. But I have obtained mercy to be somebody, if I shall attain to God. My spirit salutes you, and the love of the Churches that have received me in the name of Jesus Christ, and not as a mere passer-by. For even those Churches which were not near to me in the way, I mean according to the flesh, have gone before me, city by city, [to meet me.]
And again going out of the coasts of Tyre, he came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.32 And they bring to him one deaf and dumb; and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him.33 And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue:34 And looking up to heaven, he groaned, and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.†35 And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right.36 And he charged them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it.37 And so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well; he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
(ap. Aug. non occ. sed ap. Bed. ubi sup.) If however He, as one Who knew the present and the future wills of men, knew that they would proclaim Him the more in proportion as He forbade them, why did He give them this command? If it were not that He wished to prove to men who are idle, how much more joyfully, with how much greater obedience, they whom He commands to proclaim Him should preach, when they who were forbidden could not hold their peace.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)