And I myself also, my brethren, am assured of you, that you also are full of love, replenished with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish one another.15 But I have written to you, brethren, more boldly in some sort, as it were putting you in mind: because of the grace which is given me from God.16 That I should be the minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles; sanctifying the gospel of God, that the oblation of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Ghost.†17 I have therefore glory in Christ Jesus towards God.18 For I dare not to speak of any of those things which Christ worketh not by me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,19 By the virtue of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Ghost, so that from Jerusalem round about as far as unto Illyricum, I have replenished the gospel of Christ.†20 And I have so preached this gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.21 But as it is written: They to whom he was not spoken of, shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand.
These things therefore being manifest to us, and since we look into the depths of the divine knowledge, it behooves us to do all things in [their proper] order, which the Lord has commanded us to perform at stated times. He has enjoined offerings [to be presented] and service to be performed [to Him], and that not thoughtlessly or irregularly, but at the appointed times and hours. Where and by whom He desires these things to be done, He Himself has fixed by His own supreme will, in order that all things, being piously done according to His good pleasure, may be acceptable unto Him. Those, therefore, who present their offerings at the appointed times, are accepted and blessed; for inasmuch as they follow the laws of the Lord, they sin not. For his own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministrations devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen.
A psalm for David himself. Sing ye to the Lord anew canticle: because he hath done wonderful things. His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his arm is holy.2 The Lord hath made known his salvation: he hath revealed his justice in the sight of the Gentiles.3 He hath remembered his mercy his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.3 He hath remembered his mercy his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.4 Sing joyfully to God, all the earth; make melody, rejoice and sing.
Along with my prayers I now add book 10 to the Church History and dedicate it to you, my most consecrated Paulinus, and blazon you as the seal of the whole work. It is appropriate that in a perfect number I shall here provide a completed account in celebration of the restoration of the churches, in obedience to the divine Spirit who urges us:
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things;
His right and his holy arm have wrought salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation:
His righteousness he has revealed in the sight of the heathen.
Accordingly, let me now sing the new song, since after those grim and horrifying scenes and narratives, I was now privileged to see and to celebrate what many righteous people and martyrs of God before me desired to see but did not see and to hear but did not hear. But they hurried on to far better things in the heavens, caught up into a paradise of divine bliss, while I, admitting that even the present circumstances are more than I deserve, have been totally astonished at the magnitude of grace he has conferred and offer him my total awe and worship, confirming the truth of the prophecies that declare:
Come and behold the works of the Lord,
What wonders he has wrought on the earth,
Making wars to cease to the ends of the world.
He will break the bow and shatter the spear,
And the shields he will burn with fire.
Rejoicing that all this has been clearly fulfilled, let me proceed with my narrative.
And he said also to his disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods.†2 And he called him, and said to him: How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship: for now thou canst be steward no longer.3 And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed.4 I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.5 Therefore calling together every one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord?6 But he said: An hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty.†7 Then he said to another: And how much dost thou owe? Who said: An hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him: Take thy bill, and write eighty.8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.†
(in Prov. 1:1.) But because the Gentiles say that wisdom is a virtue, and define it to be the experience of what is good, evil, and indifferent, or the knowledge of what is and what is not to be done, we must consider whether this word signifies many things, or one. For it is said that God by wisdom prepared the heavens. (Prov. 3:19.) Now it is plain that wisdom is good, because the Lord by wisdom prepared the heavens. It is said also in Genesis, according to the LXX, that the serpent was the wisest animal, wherein He makes wisdom not a virtue, but evil-minded cunning. And it is in this sense that the Lord commended the steward that he had done wisely, that is, cunningly and evilly. And perhaps the word commended was spoken not in the sense of real commendation, but in a lower sense; as when we speak of a man being commended in slight and indifferent matters, and in a certain measure clashings and sharpness of wit are admired, by which the power of the mind is drawn out.
The children of this world also are not called wiser but more prudent than the children of light, and this not absolutely and simply, but in their generation. For it follows, For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light, &c.
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.)