And Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,2 And asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues: that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.†3 And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him.4 And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?5 Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.6 And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?7 And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do. Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man.8 And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus.9 And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink.10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision: Ananias. And he said: Behold I am here, Lord.11 And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the street that is called Stait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prayeth.12 (And he saw a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands upon him, that he might receive his sight.)13 But Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem.14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke thy name.15 And the Lord said to him: Go thy way; for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.†16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.17 And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house. And laying his hands upon him, he said: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, he that appeared to thee in the way as thou camest; that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized.19 And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus, for some days.20 And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
I know both who I am, and to whom I write. I am a condemned man, ye have been the objects of mercy; I am subject to danger, ye are established in safety. Ye are the persons through whom those pass that are cut off for the sake of God. Ye are initiated into the mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the holy, the martyred, the deservedly most happy, at whose feet may I be found, when I shall attain to God; who in all his Epistles makes mention of you in Christ Jesus.
"O praise the Lord, all you heathen: praise Him, all you nations." These are the courts of the Lord's house, this all His people, this the true Jerusalem. Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations.
"For His merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us: and the truth of the Lord endures for ever." These are those two things, loving-kindness and truth, which in the CXVth Psalm I admonished you should be committed to memory. But "the merciful kindness of the Lord is ever more and more towards us," since the furious tongues of hostile nations have yielded to His Name, through which we have been freed: "and the truth of the Lord endures for ever," whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He has threatened to the ungodly.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?53 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.54 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.†55 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.59 These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.
(vii. de Trin. c. 14) Of the truth then of the body and blood of Christ, no room for doubting remains: for, by the declaration of our Lord Himself, and by the teaching of our own faith, the flesh is really flesh, and the blood really blood. This then is our principle of life. While we are in the flesh, Christ dwelleth in us by His flesh. (c.14:19) And we shall live by Him, according as He liveth. If then we live naturally by partaking of Him according to the flesh, He also liveth naturally by the indwelling of the Father according to the Spirit. His birth did not give Him an alien or different nature from the Father.
(de Trin. x. c. 18.) He calls Himself the bread, because He is the origin of His own body. And lest it should be thought that the virtue and nature of the Word had given way to the flesh, He calls the bread His flesh, that, inasmuch as the bread came down from heaven, it might be seen that His body was not of human conception, but a heavenly body. To say that the bread is His own, is to declare that the Word assumed His body Himself.
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.)