But be zealous for the better gifts. And I shew unto you yet a more excellent way.1 If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.†2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;†5 Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth;7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.8 Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.12 We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know I part; but then I shall know even as I am known.13 And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small without the great. There is a kind of mixture in all things, and thence arises mutual advantage. Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head; yea, the very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body. But all work harmoniously together, and are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.
Give praise to the Lord on the harp; sing to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings.3 Sing to him a new canticle, sing well unto him with a loud noise.4 For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done with faithfulness.5 He loveth mercy and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.22 Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee.
The rule of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus saith the Scripture, to that effect "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth." And again, "All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." There is no exception or deduction stated; but the Father made all things by Him, whether visible or invisible, objects of sense or of intelligence, temporal, on account of a certain character given them, or eternal; and these eternal things He did not make by angels, or by any powers separated from His Ennoea. For God needs none of all these things, but is He who, by His Word and Spirit, makes, and disposes, and governs all things, and commands all things into existence,-He who formed the world (for the world is of all),-He who fashioned man,-He [who] is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, above whom there is no other God, nor initial principle, nor power, nor pleroma,-He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall prove.
And the Lord said: Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?32 They are like to children sitting in the marketplace, and speaking one to another, and saying: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have mourned, and you have not wept.33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and you say: He hath a devil.34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking: and you say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners.35 And wisdom is justified by all her children.
(Hom. 6. in Eccl.) But singing and lamentation are nothing else but the breaking forth, the one indeed of joy, the other of sorrow. Now at the sound of a tune played upon a musical instrument, man by the concordant beating of his feet, and motion of his body, pourtrays his inward feelings. Hence he says, We have sung, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
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.)