St. Paul's Epistles (redaction CD, with variant readings)

The Epistle of Paul to the Romans 1 Paul, servant of Jesus Christ, a distinguished apostle, chosen for that Gospel of God, which was promised beforehand by his prophets through the holy books concerning his Son, who was born from the seed of David in the flesh, who appeared as the Son of God by power and by that Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord, from whom we have received grace and apostleship for the confirmation of the faith of all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, among whom you also are distinguished ones of Jesus Christ, all of you who are in Rome, beloved of God, distinguished holy ones, grace to you and peace from God through our Father and Lord Jesus Christ! First, I thank my God through Christ Jesus for all of you, for that faith of yours is proclaimed throughout the whole world, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my soul by the Gospel of his Son, how I make mention of you without fail always in my prayers and I beseech that now, if only three times, it may be granted to me by the will of God to come to you, for I desire to see you, so that I might impart to you some spiritual grace for your confirmation.

... the second half of this verse is displaced and difficult to read. But this is the consolation among you, that mutual faith of yours and mine. I do not desire your ignorance, brothers, for many times I wished to come to you and I remained to preach, so that among you also I might have some fruit, as among those other peoples. I am indebted to pagans and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish. And such is my zeal, that you also, who are in Rome, I might gladden. For I am not ashamed of that Gospel of Christ, for the power of God is for the salvation of every believer, of a Jew first and then of a pagan. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it as a faithful faith, as it is written: the righteous one is saved by faith. (1) Hab. 2,4

(1) The notation of chapters in B always precedes the title. In T, however, the second chapter begins here, therefore the count of chapters is shifted by one to the end, i.e., in T there are 22 chapters, in the others — 21. For the wrath of God is manifest from heaven upon every impiety and falsehood of men, who held truth as falsehood, for that knowledge of God is evident among them, for God himself revealed it to them. For his invisible [nature] from the beginning of the world is seen as knowable in those created things, and his eternal power and divinity, so that they might be unable to deny the word, for they knew God and did not magnify him as God, nor give thanks, but became vain in their intention, and their senseless heart was darkened. They called their own heads wise and understood and changed that glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man and of birds and quadrupeds and reptiles. In V, by another hand, the letters "e b" are added in the word "likeness". Therefore God gave them over to the desire of their hearts for the uncleanness and abomination of their flesh with them.2 Beside the 24th verse on the margin, by the same hand but in small script, there is an explanation: Ignorance gave them over to the passions of their desire, not God. IK.

Those who transformed the truth of God into falsehood and honored and served the created things and not the Creator, who is blessed unto eternity. Amen. Therefore God gave them over to that passion of blasphemy, because their mothers transformed the natural order into the unnatural. Likewise their fathers abandoned the natural order of mothers, and they were inflamed by their mutual lust. Men did shameful things with men, and they received from each other that which is fitting for their error. And because they did not test God, so that they might have knowledge, God gave them over to that untested mind for the doing of the unseemly deed; filled with all falsehood, fornication, wickedness, avarice, malice, full of envy, murder, deceit, cunning, evil habit, corruption, evil-speaking, God-tormenting, blasphemous, arrogant, proud, finders of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, lawless, loveless, merciless, pitiless, who knew the justice of God, for such doers are worthy of death; not only do they do this, but they also take pleasure in those who do it.