In Epistolas Sancti Pauli

I hope to see you in passing and to be brought on my way there by you. Because you so conduct yourselves that I have no place to stay longer among you, if I have first enjoyed you in part. In part: because you have already believed, to confirm you; therefore in part, because no length of time satisfies love. Now therefore I will set out for Jerusalem. This alone remains for me, that I may come. To minister to the saints. There were saints in Jerusalem who, despising all things and casting them before the feet of the apostles, devoted themselves to reading, prayer, and teaching. What sort of people, then, were they, that the Apostle himself should go to minister to them, and to whom he wishes his offering to be acceptable, if they deign to receive it, showing that this benefits not so much those who receive as those who give. For Macedonia and Achaia have approved. They have approved this to be useful for themselves. To make some contribution. To contribute something of expense. For the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. The poor of the saints, because they are poor for the Lord's sake. For it pleased them, and they are debtors to them. He urges them to this work, and shows that it pleased them not without reason. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things. Because they had teachers from among them, and had been made sharers of the root and fatness of the olive tree. They ought also to minister to them in carnal things. Each one in that in which he abounds.

Therefore, when I have completed this and have delivered this fruit to them, I will set out through you to Spain. If you conduct yourselves so abundantly, I will teach you well, because insofar as a disciple profits, so also the teacher is provoked to teach, as it says there: Our mouth is open to you. But I know that when I come to you, I will come in the abundance of the blessing of Christ. Whether you prepare abundantly what is to be reaped, or Christ is blessed in my coming. I beseech you therefore, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ. When James was killed, they pray for Peter, and he is delivered from prison, lest they themselves suffer harm. And through the love of the Holy Spirit. The love of the Spirit which he wrote to the Galatians, love makes the Holy Spirit's [work] that we pray for one another. That you may help me in your prayers for me to God. For the earnest prayer of many avails much. That I may be delivered from the unbelievers who are in Judea, and that the offering of my service may be acceptable in Jerusalem to the saints. Whether that all may believe, or that ministering to the faithful I may not fall among the unbelievers, and I may not be able to come to you: for he was foreseeing through the Spirit that he would suffer many things there, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. That I may come to you in joy. Then I will come with joy, if my offering has been accepted by them, and being secure I may speak the word of God more abundantly. For sorrow of mind greatly hinders doctrine, as Ecclesiastes says: Slander troubles even the mind of the wise. Through the will of God, and may I be refreshed with you.

If God wills it, not if I intend it without his will. But the God of peace be with all of you. Amen. God of peace dwells only in the peaceful. And beautifully he finished with peace, with the two peoples recalled to concord.

CH. 16. But I commend to you Phoebe, our sister. This now, as it were after the end, as is customary to be done at the end of letters. Who is in the ministry of the Church. Just as there are deacons, or in the ministry of the word: for women also at that time taught in their own sex, as we read of Priscilla, whose husband was called Aquila. Who is in Cenchreae. They say Cenchreae is the port of Corinth. That you receive her in the Lord worthily of the saints. That is, for the Lord's sake. And that you assist her in whatever business of yours she has need: for she herself also assisted many, and myself. And that you help her, whether with expense, or with some consolation, because she too, as long as she had means, helped very many. Greet Prisca and Aquila. Who strengthened Apollos, and were teaching, as we read. My helpers in Christ Jesus. In this they were helping in what Paul was laboring, namely in the word. Who for my soul's sake laid their own neck under. Proving my teaching. for they exposed themselves to dangers. To whom not I alone give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. By whom I was saved through them. And their household church. He shows that in whatever place the brothers have gathered, it is a church. Greet Epaenetus, beloved to me.

He greets those through whom the Romans had believed; for these are not Latin names but Greek. Who is the firstfruits of Asia in Christ Jesus. Who first of Asia believed. Greet Mary, who labored much among you. In word, for even then she was prophesying. Greet Andronicus and Julia, my kinsmen. From the Jews. And my fellow captives. They had suffered tribulation together with Paul. Who are noble among the apostles. Both in mind and in teaching. They, among the others sent to the Romans, through whom they might believe or be edified by their example, were held to be noble. Who also were before me in Christ; greet Ampliatus, most beloved to me in the Lord; greet Urbanus, our helper in Christ Jesus, and Stachys my beloved. Who also believed before I did. Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Approved or perfect. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion my kinsman. Greet those who are of Narcissus. It is a city or a place. Who are in the Lord. For not all of Narcissus's household were in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, most dear, who labors much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. By age, not by birth. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympias, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ greet you. Not falsely, nor under deceit, as Judas handed over the Savior. For this reason peace is first announced concerning the Church, that he may show himself to be peaceable with all, who is to be joined to the body of Christ. But I beseech you, brothers, that you observe those who cause dissensions. But they dissent from the doctrine, who were of the circumcision, who, destroying fasting and abstinence, taught new moons and sabbaths and festivals for the sake of the belly. And they make stumbling blocks before the doctrine which you have learned; and turn away from them. Because through these things you are able to stumble. For such men do not serve Christ our Lord, but their own belly. Like Jovinian. And through sweet speeches and blessings they seduce the hearts of the innocent. Speaking composedly, and building up well. For your obedience has been spread abroad into every place. If you obeyed those whom you ought not, how much more us? Therefore I have come to you, knowing that you can be quickly seduced: for it is good to be led, but in good. For not always: because frequently evil things also are taught. I rejoice therefore in you: but I want you to be wise in good, and simple in evil. Know wisdom by doing, ignore evil by avoiding it, and the enemy will be subjected under your feet. Be shrewd as serpents, simple as doves, but the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet quickly.

Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, that is, that they may not have dominion over you, and that you may walk free in all your members over them. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy my helper greets you, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen. This is always Paul's subscription. I, Tertius, who wrote the epistle, greet you in the Lord. Caius my host greets you, and the whole Church. Tertius by name, not by number. Erastus the treasurer of the city greets you, and Quartus a brother. That this Erastus was a disciple and preached, he says evidently to Timothy. To him who is able to confirm you. By signs and wonders. According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. According to the preaching of Jesus Christ, may you live. According to the revelation of the mystery kept silent in eternal times: which now is made manifest through the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, unto the obedience of faith in all nations. The mystery concerning the calling of the Gentiles had long been hidden in the law, which now through the preaching, or revelation, of Christ and the Gospel of Paul is made manifest through the testimonies of the prophets: for although the prophets preached this beforehand, yet even the prophets themselves did not know how it would come to pass. For they could believe that they were to be admitted to the faith as proselytes. Known to the only wise God. God alone foreknew these things: or alone naturally wise.

How is he alone good, when even a man is called good? For we can be good or wise by the gift of God, but he is so by nature. It must be noted that he did not say "to the wise Father alone," but "to the only wise God," who is the eternal Trinity. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Through Jesus Christ, not of ourselves.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

ARGUMENT.

The Corinthians are Achaeans; and these likewise heard the word of truth from the apostles, and were subverted in many ways by false apostles. Some were led astray by the wordy eloquence of philosophy, others by the sect of the Jewish law. These the Apostle recalls to the true evangelical wisdom, writing to them from Ephesus. Corinth is a metropolis, and therefore what he writes to them, he writes to all Achaia.

CHAPTER ONE. Paul. This is a name of authority. Called an apostle of Jesus Christ. Called on the way, that he might be an apostle. By the will of God. Called and enlightened by the will of God, he believed. And Sosthenes the brother. Not an apostle, but one who knew these things from among them. To the church of God, which is at Corinth. There is a church and not of God. To those sanctified. Through baptism. In Christ Jesus. His grace by which we are saved. Called saints with all. He shows which is the church of God, which has been washed in the saving laver. He reproves the saints, that they may convict the rest, because they themselves are not without sin: as the Savior says to the disciples on account of the Pharisees, Watch and beware of all covetousness: who had nothing.

Those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours, in every place. To call upon is to call inwardly, which pertains indeed to all, but most especially to priests: as it is there, Thus shall you bless the children of Israel, calling upon my name. And David says, And Samuel among those who call upon the name of the Lord. For he was a priest, who also succeeded a priest, and who offered sacrifices, and of whom it was said according to the history: I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be noted that he always places grace before peace. I give thanks to my God always for you, in the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus. I give thanks indeed that you have knowledge, but I want you to know what that knowledge is which is in agreement in all things with the catholic faith. As is his custom, he first encourages. Because in all things, he says, you have been made rich in him. In all doctrines by the gift of God through wisdom, which established the prophets and friends of God. In every word, and in all knowledge. Of both the Old Testament and the New. As the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you. The testimony of Christ, which he spoke: Every learned scribe is like a householder who brings forth from his treasury new things and old. So that nothing is lacking in any grace. As Solomon says, All things came to me together with her: that is, with wisdom. For those awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who now, as though absent, is not seen.

Who will also confirm you unto the end, blameless in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Prophet says, Confirm me in thy words, and that other, Great peace have they that love thy name, and there is no stumbling block for them. God is faithful, by whom you were called. Because God is faithful, he has confirmed you. Into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. John shows this fellowship, saying, For God is light, and in him there is no darkness: if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie. And Paul: If we die together, we shall also live together: if we endure, we shall also reign together: if we have been companions of his conduct and sufferings, we shall be companions also in glory. But I beseech you, brethren. Up to this point the preface has been with praise. From here he now pursues the cause of the dissension. Through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In which name you will see signs performed. That you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you. That you think or confess one thing. But be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment. If you both think and speak one thing, then you will be able to be perfect. For it has been signified to me concerning you, my brethren, by those who are of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. How did the Apostle believe concerning those who were absent, when it is written, Do not believe a vain report, and many other things?

But he had this grace, that he knew what those absent were doing, as he says to the Colossians: Though absent in body, present in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order. But this I say, that each one of you says, I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, but I of Cephas. In the person of the apostles he was saying this about the false apostles, who had deceived them through the wisdom of the world, because each one said he belonged to the one whose doctrine he loved, since they had different doctrines; if this must not be said even of the true apostles, how much more of those who were nothing! But I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? A few were saying what all ought to have said. The body is divided when the members disagree. It can be said to those who wish to imitate Abraham by the example of Christ: Was Abraham crucified for you? and that saying of the Lord, in which he teaches that we ought not to seek what he will command to another disciple; for he says to Peter: What is it to thee? follow thou me. Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? They therefore had the sacrament of baptism, but they were turning it into schism through contention and zeal, and by thinking carnally they believed otherwise about God, while by their own carnal sense they fashioned for themselves a God such as they wished, and thus they believed him to be so far different from what God is, as vanity differs from truth; because the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God. Of such he says: And they are carried about with every wind of doctrine.

I give thanks to my God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. But I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And so it came about that I baptized none of you; for perhaps you would have said that I baptized in my own name. Not in wisdom of speech, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power. Those empty the power of the cross who glory in human wisdom, which that cross has condemned. For the word of the cross is the preaching of the Gospel: of Christ crucified. To those who are perishing it is indeed foolishness. To unbelievers and those who do not understand the power of God, it seems foolishness to say that the Son of God was crucified; but the faithful understand that it is the power of God, since he conquered both the devil and death. But to those who are being saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God. By infusing faith he saved them. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. This was fulfilled at the coming of Christ. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? By choosing fishermen, he rejected the philosophers. Where is the inquisitor of this world? He who by his own wisdom inquires with the dogs concerning hidden things, as about secret matters and the natures of individuals.

Whence is this wisdom that God reproves, since all wisdom is from the Lord God? But that wisdom, being of such a kind and secular, is not descending from above but is worldly; therefore it is rejected by the Lord as foolish, because it thinks itself to be something and to know the hidden things of God through its own wisdom; but that wisdom is animal and diabolical. Of such wise men God says, Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since the world did not know God through the wisdom of God, it pleased God. He made all things in wisdom, in which he who made them ought himself to be known, who had also given them wisdom to know him. Through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. Which was considered foolishness among them. Just as the Jews also seek signs. From the custom of the prophets, who, although they ought to have known even without signs, seeing did not believe. And the Greeks seek wisdom. The reasoning of human wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. He shows that their wisdom differs greatly from his teaching. To the Jews indeed a stumbling block. It is a stumbling block to the Jews if we preach that he is the Christ whom they crucified; it is a stumbling block to them to hear that Christ died, as they used to say, We have heard from the law that Christ remains forever. But to the Gentiles foolishness. To those not understanding that it is the mercy of God, which was believed to be foolishness.

For if you have not believed (says the Prophet), you will not understand. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. This wisdom the unbeliever does not understand, for as yet he does not know it; but when he has believed, he understands that what he had thought to be weakness is power, because they understand that the mystery is one of piety while they believe. If Christ is the power of God, therefore He is eternal. Christ is therefore eternal, because it is said elsewhere, His eternal power also, and divinity, and wisdom. Not understanding this, the heretics blaspheme the Father as imperfect, when they say that the Father was at some time without the Son; therefore He was without power, without the Word, without wisdom, without righteousness. How foolishly they say this, let them recognize: the power of God, on account of signs; the wisdom of God, on account of teaching. Because what is foolish in God is wiser than men. Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than all men: because His wisdom is safe. They could not [understand] who were freed through the cross of the Lord: as if you were to say, the rustic speech of an advocate is wiser than the speech of a wise man—no, of a rustic. The foolishness of God was judged, when they heard that God suffered. But this was wiser. And what is weak in God is stronger than men. Death, which not even giants could escape, a man fixed to the cross, taken up in God, overcame. For consider your calling, brothers. Prove in yourselves what I say. Because not many are wise according to the flesh, not many are powerful, not many are noble.

Because few wise men have believed; for through the pride of worldly wisdom, many were unwilling to be subject to the wisdom of God. But God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might confound the wise; God chose the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong, and the base things of the world and the things despised God chose: and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are. That is, God chose the people of the Gentiles, who were not the people of God, that he might destroy the people of the Jews, who gloried that they were God's people. Always the boasting of those three is reproved, as it is written, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches. The Lord also fulfilled in himself, as an example for us, what he had said through the prophet. Finally, in that he is born of a poor woman, he rejects riches; in that he does not learn letters, he refutes the wisdom of the world; in that he is handed over, he does not resist, he who could overthrow the whole world with a single word, yet he showed that human strength is nothing. Hence let them humble themselves before God, if they themselves also wish to be chosen with the rest. But he was saying all these things against those who claimed to be of the priestly lineage, and interpreters of the law, and better than the apostles, and who were seducing them into many errors of doctrines: just as it can be said against the Pelagians, who say that they are saved by their own wisdom. That no flesh may glory in his sight. Carnal are those who glory in their own merits: but they will quickly fall, like the flower of the field.

But you are of him in Christ Jesus. If therefore you are of him, do not admire those whom he did not choose. Who was made wisdom for us from God, and righteousness. That he might make us wise, and righteous, and holy. This passage is directed against the Arians, who say that the Father was at some time without the Son, who is wisdom. And sanctification and redemption. Of our body in the resurrection. That, as it is written: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Not in this world, nor in his own merits, as many do who believe themselves to be Christians and are deceived by the Pelagian error.

CHAPTER II. And I, when I came to you, brothers, came not with sublimity of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of Christ: for I judged not that I should know anything among you. Because he had shown that they ought not to admire human wisdom, he repeats his own example: because he himself had not preached through human wisdom. Save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Which seems foolish among men. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear and much trembling. Not in boasting. And my speech, and my preaching, was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of spirit and power. Because these Corinthians were great disputants, he feared lest they should resist him, or lest this also should seem to them some philosophy, and they should not believe: therefore he showed forth power the more. That your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Human wisdom pleases for a short time, because it is temporal, like man himself; but the power of God is eternal, as God is. Therefore that wisdom remains which has been conferred on man through God's power. We speak wisdom among the perfect. And we have divine wisdom, but you could not yet receive it, because you are still fed with milk and are shown to be little ones in faith. But not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world—whether of kings, or of philosophers, or certainly of the rulers of the Jews, or of opposing strength. They are destroyed, with their wisdom and teaching, when the grace of Christ comes. But we speak the wisdom of God, which is understood to be Christ, who was also foreordained, as he says to the Romans: in a mystery which was hidden, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory—whether in the present, or in the reality before times, or because many prophets desired to see, and although they knew individual things, yet no one knew it fully. Which none of the rulers of this world knew—Pilate and Caiaphas, or certainly all the chief priests. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love him.

The Lord of majesty, both by merit and by nature, has been made Lord of every creature, and Jesus, man, in God, could in some way be crucified; for which reason God also exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, on account of the unity of person; and God is said to have been crucified, and the Son of man to be in the heavens, when the Lord, when he was saying these things, was in the body on earth. Since therefore Christ is true man and true God, from a twofold substance one person, and man God, and the same King of glory and Lord of hosts was not crucified, on account of his inviolable divinity, and was crucified in the man, on account of the unity of person; so in a wondrous and incomprehensible manner God suffered, and did not suffer in his divinity. But God has revealed to us through his Spirit. Not by our merit has he revealed to us, but by his grace, we who through faith in him have received the Holy Spirit, who shows us the will of God. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things that are of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? So also the things that are of God no one has known, except the Spirit of God. Do not doubt that he is God, who is able to know not only human things but also the hidden things of God. But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God. He who thinks worldly things, that is, who entangles and involves himself in worldly things, has the spirit of the world, does not have the Holy Spirit. That we may know the things that have been given to us by God, which also we speak.

Through his advent, passion, and resurrection, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we also announce to you. Hear the gifts, and be silent about merits. Not in learned words of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit. Not taught by philosophers, but by the Spirit of God. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Assuring spiritual things to the spiritual, who can grasp them. But the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God. He who does not have the Spirit of God is natural, because he lives by the manner of animals, who thinks that there is nothing after death, but that he ought to do this, as animals do: that is, to eat, and to live luxuriously, and to die. For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is examined spiritually. It seems foolishness to him that God was first born, suffered, and rose again; secondly, to despise the things that are yours: to offer the cheek; and the rest. But the spiritual man judges all things. He judges that a man of this kind is vain, he approves, he examines, and he himself is understood by no carnal man, and by what spirit each person acts. And he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? Now he fears lest they say, "All this has the mind of God, which you have told us": that is, the mind of God does not fail in me, but the power of hearing in you. But we have the mind of Christ. We who receive the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER III. And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal people. For you were called carnal in a certain manner, now reborn through faith, not as those who were still sold under sin; as if he were saying, you could not receive what I was saying as spiritual people, but as carnal people. For the natural man, that is, the one who is wise according to the man (for the natural man is so called from the soul, the carnal from the flesh, because the whole man consists of soul and flesh), does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, that is, what grace the cross of Christ confers on believers. As little children in Christ, he gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, but neither indeed are you able now; for you are still carnal. He shows that it will come about for those progressing not in carnal age but in faith in Christ, that they may be able, because in them a beginning had already been made spiritually by the grace of the reborn; therefore they were already vessels made for honor, to whom it would still rightly be said: O man, who are you to answer back to God? And if this is rightly said to such people, much more rightly to those who either have not yet been so regenerated, or have even been made for dishonor. Let only this be held fast, that there is no iniquity with God: whether he gives or exacts a debt, neither can he from whom he exacts it rightly complain of iniquity in him, nor ought he to whom he gives it to glory in his own merits. And the one will not fail to render what is owed, and the other has nothing except what he has received.

For when there is jealousy and contention among you, blessed Peter says: "Laying aside therefore all malice and deceit, as newborn infants, desire the rational and guileless milk." If, then, those are called little ones who have laid aside all malice, who have not yet done good things, what are we to think of ourselves, in whom all malice reigns? "Are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to man?" We must consider why they are called carnal: surely not because they act carnally, but because it happens by the sense of the flesh. For when someone says, "I indeed am of Paul, but another, I am of Apollo," are you not men? He who has nothing greater than other men walks according to man. That is, he who loves only the one who loves him, and so on. But in this place, for the defense of individual men, they are called men; he clearly shows that we wish to be more than men. When he reproaches them as men, because he knew they had contentions, he wants us to exceed human nature, while he reproaches them thus: "What then is Apollo? What indeed is Paul? Ministers of him whom you have believed." If we are nothing, how much more are certain ones truly nothing, but false apostles. "And to each one as the Lord gave. I planted, Apollo watered.

This very thing is not from ourselves, but is the gift of God, who works in you, since he also gave grace to us, so that I might perform signs, through which you might believe, and Apollo might confirm you by his teaching; for just as one who plants in dry ground, so every teaching grows, unless the grace of God waters it. If, then, both the planting is God's and the fountain is God's, why do you ascribe to us as though anything were our own? Saying these things, he commends grace. But God gave the increase. See him commending grace; and men dare now to speak blasphemies and to ascribe to themselves the things that are God's, when, if he had not given the increase, every man would labor in vain. Therefore neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. But he who plants and he who waters are one. We are hired laborers, we work with another's tools, nothing is owed to us except the wages of our labor, because we work from the talent received. But each one will receive his own wages according to his labor. Against Jovinian, who says that the reward of all is one. For we are God's helpers: you are God's field. Helpers in word, not in power: the field and the harvest are God's. You are God's building. The building of God's temple. According to the grace of God which was given to me. Not according to my own strength. As a wise master builder. It is the part of a wise master builder to lay the foundation.

Therefore the Apostle first, instilling faith in the Corinthians, laid Christ as the foundation through the grace of God; and if he himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians say that man begins and he completes? I laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. If Christ himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians blaspheme, saying that they came to faith in Christ by their own merits? But let each one see how he builds upon it. So then, that the wall may grow straight and strong, do not, through evil conduct, fall from God's building like stones badly cemented. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. No one can preach to you another Christ besides Jesus, in whom, believing with your whole faith, stand firm. If Christ is the foundation, where are those who say that any good can be possessed without Christ, and arrogantly presume to attribute to themselves the faith by which one believes in Christ, and do not give thanks to God, by whom it is recognized to have been poured into them? But if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, the work of each one will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is tested by fire. There are three kinds of good things in the Church—that is, good, better, best—and three kinds contrary to these—that is, bad, worse, worst—which are compared to wood, hay, and stubble.

Others understand this passage thus: that he builds with gold, silver, and precious stones who, having spent or given away his possessions, either enters a monastery, or lives withdrawn from the activities of the world, or even lives among his own possessions as though not possessing them, possessing them as if they were lent to him by another, and is ready to lose them for Christ's sake; so that if persecution comes for God's sake, he is found unencumbered and ready. On the other hand, those build with wood, hay, and stubble who are indeed Christians and faithful, and use their goods well, but are entangled by an excessive love of their own things; and when either persecution or a command comes that Christians must be deprived of their goods, if they have not denied Christ, they do not value their possessions more than Christ; but because they loved them more than was fitting, when they lose them, they lose them not without grief and distress, and therefore they are saved, as though through fire, that is, through tribulation. And the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is: if anyone's work remains, what he built upon it, he receives a reward. That is, the examination of judgment, or present tribulation, which is very often compared to fire. For gold and silver are made more splendid in fire, but wood, hay, and stubble burn. If anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss. If anyone has taught negligently, whether by example or by word, he loses his labor, because he makes a weak work. But he himself will be saved, in his own righteousness, yet so as through fire.

As if he has the truth, as it is there: As if of an only-begotten from the Father. If that man will be saved through fire who is righteous, why was he not concerned that what he built upon should be strong and stable? What of those who build up by speech but destroy by example? Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Do you not know whose temple you are? But if anyone violates the temple of God—whether in individuals or in the whole Church. Note that here he called the Holy Spirit God, whose temple we are; for we are the temple of him who dwells in us, whom he confesses to be God. God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are. Whether his own body, by sinning, or the people of the Church, by seducing them to evil doctrine, or certainly by destroying them through his own example. The Novatians put this forward in order to exclude repentance. To them it must be answered: If the Corinthians, already baptized, sinned, if repentance is not admitted, to what purpose does he write to them and say, That you may have a second grace? Saint Jerome said to the Galatians: This one thing I know, that he who commits fornication after faith in Christ violates the temple of God. Let no one deceive himself: if anyone seems to be wise among you. Let no one flatter himself, deceived by his own vanity. To be wise in this world. To render evil for evil. Let him become a fool, that he may be wise. He is judged a fool in this world who fulfills the Gospel by not rendering evil for evil. But he becomes a fool by will, not by nature.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Nothing is more foolish than that a man should wish to avenge himself when he cannot, and should not reserve his injury to God; which even he ought to do who is able to avenge himself in this world, if only when he demands a reason from him whom he is commanded to believe. For it is written: I will catch the wise in their craftiness. The craftiness of men profits nothing, by which one might escape the hand of God; the rich man seems wise to himself, but the sensible poor man refutes him. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of men, how they are vain. Wordy eloquence confers nothing useful for salvation. Therefore let no one glory in men, in false apostles, nor in any other, whether king or priest. All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death. We are yours, not you ours. Whether things present or things to come. For all things are yours. All things were created for the saints, as those who rejoice and possess all things. Or if you wish to refer it to freedom: that you may choose, whether death or life, whether things present or things to come. But you are Christ's. And Christ is God's. Christ is God's just as God is Christ's, if you apply it to the divinity; although he treats according to the man, who was anointed.

CHAPTER IV. Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Not as equals of Christ. Here now it is required among stewards that one be found faithful. It is the voice of one asking: that is, do you think that even here you are judging consciences? But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day: but neither do I judge myself. And I have not coveted the day of man, that is, the time. Here "man's day" is not unreasonably taken as the human understanding, or the wise heart, which can judge. For I am conscious of nothing. Nothing evil. But not in this am I justified. In this time, or day, or certainly, if no one reproaches me, I ought not therefore to flatter myself, or be puffed up: or if I have committed no crime, perhaps I have not altogether spared small faults. But he who judges me is the Lord. Before the day of judgment. Therefore do not judge before the time. Hidden thoughts: because man sees the face, but God sees the heart. Until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of hearts. Because the Lord knows me better than either I myself or any man knows. And then praise shall be to each one from the Lord. For he is praiseworthy whom God makes praiseworthy. But these things, brothers, I have transferred to myself and Apollos for your sake, that in us you may learn. That you may take from us an example of humility. Not to be wise above what is written. That is above what is not written. One is puffed up against another, one is inflated on behalf of another.

That is, when contention has arisen, you are puffed up over who is better. For who distinguishes you? Of what account are you? Here he turns to those inflated with the knowledge of speech. Or certainly: Who distinguishes you from the mass of perdition, except God? For not your merits, nor your knowledge. It is said to a man presuming as if of himself: For who distinguishes you, surely from the vessels of wrath, from the mass of perdition, which through one man sent all into condemnation? Who distinguishes you? And as if he had answered, My faith distinguishes me, my purpose, my merit: For what do you have, he says, that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you glory as if you did not receive it? This is, as if it were from yourself that you are distinguished; therefore he distinguishes, who grants the means by which you are distinguished, by removing the debt of punishment and lavishing unowed grace. But what do you have that you did not receive? What do you have of yourself, except perhaps sin? For whether knowledge or any good thing is in you, it is a gift of God: but if you believe it to be from yourself, it will be said to you: What do you have that you did not receive? and there happens to you, if you ascribe anything to yourself and not to God, that saying of the Gospel which is spoken of the ungrateful: For he who does not have, that is, from God, even what he seems to have will be taken away from him. And therefore let us decline pride, and give glory to God, from whom is every best gift: lest, if we believe faith or good works to be from ourselves, we lose what we seem to have. But if you received it, why do you glory as if you did not receive it? As if you had something of your own.

You are already satisfied, you have already become rich; you reign without us. Doctrine or knowledge. This is pronounced with the feeling of one who rebukes, because they ascribed to themselves what they seemed to be. And would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you. You need nothing from us, or you have needed nothing: whether you might reign and we might reign with you, or as companions, if you did not count us as masters. For I think that God has shown us apostles last, as destined for death. As he promised in the Apocalypse, that in the last time he would send two to death: or us already, who have been sent to the nations. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, and to angels and to men. All await our injuries, or our contest, Christians and pagans; or certainly he speaks simply of angels. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We endure all things for Christ: but you wish to be Christians in such a way that you do not lose the wisdom of the world, nor suffer anything for Christ. We are weak, but you are strong in Christ. As if we cannot return the favor, which worldly wisdom can. You are noble, but we are ignoble. Because both their knowledge and the nobility of their birth the false apostles, or some of the believers, preferred. Even to this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are beaten with blows. From the time we began to preach until this present time we have abounded in nothing. And we are unsettled. We have nowhere a seat, or certainly so it seems to you.

And we labor, working with our own hands; we are cursed, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure. Thus he worked, so that all day he taught and at night he labored, so that on the following day he might eat bread—not so that he might lay up coins day and night by spending himself in such work, but so that both he himself and his disciples might live. We are blasphemed, and we entreat—for those who blaspheme us. We have become as the refuse of this world. A just man is unclean in the eyes of the wicked. The offscouring of all things even until now. The lowliest of all, cast down and despised, a mere rag. I write these things not to shame you, but to admonish you as my dearest children. They could be put to shame if he did not console them; I write not for your shame, but for your profit. For though you have ten thousand pedagogues in Christ, yet not many fathers. All who are set over those already born cannot be fathers. For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. You believed when I first preached the Lord. I beseech you, therefore, be imitators of me. It is the mark of good children to imitate their parents in all things. Therefore I have sent Timothy to you, who is my dearest and faithful son in the Lord. The more faithful he is than the rest, the dearer he is to all. Let him remind you—he who would teach you both by my letters and by his own example; for the one without the other cannot be perfect. My ways, which are in Christ. My life, and my course, and my labors. As I teach everywhere in every Church.

The ways, and the teaching, and the conduct in which I walk as an equal to all, and from no one do I accept anything of gain or of present advantage. As though I were not going to come to you, certain ones are puffed up. For as long as he does not come who has true knowledge—not that knowledge which is foolishness before God—someone is puffed up. But I will come to you quickly, if the Lord wills; and I will recognize not the speech of those who are puffed up, but the power. The power of faith, which is in the works of Christ, or in signs. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power, New Testament. What do you wish? A kind teacher, who has placed the correction of his disciples in their own will. If you do not amend, with the rod; but if you do, in consolation. Shall I come to you with the rod, or in love and the spirit of gentleness? With the rod of justice, which rod Peter used against Ananias and Sapphira, and Paul against the Magus; and at the same time it must be considered that that very anger is placed in our power, not we in its; and then it is stirred up, when injury to God is avenged.

CHAPTER 5. It is actually reported that there is fornication among you. In the Church over which you preside. And such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles. He shows why he began with anger. So that someone has his father's wife. He has joined himself to his father's concubine. And you are puffed up. You are puffed up with vain knowledge, or with pride, and you have no care for those who are perishing, that they may be brought together, and either corrected or rejected. And you did not rather mourn. Good shepherds have always wept for the sins of the people, as Jeremiah says: Who will give water to my head, to whom not the will but tears were lacking? That he who did this deed may be taken from your midst. Whether he who did it, or Satan, be taken away, so long as he has no one through whom to work. I indeed, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though present, him who has so acted, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together. Lest he be thought to judge only from hearsay. And with my spirit. By the judgment of my letters. With the power of the Lord Jesus. The power of the Lord will not be lacking. To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That he may have power to receive him, so that even thus he may be converted, when he sees that he will have rest neither of the flesh here nor of the spirit in the future. It must be guarded against: because he who is excommunicated is delivered to Satan. That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. But if Satan has not received power over the spirit, while he corrects, it is reserved to the judgment of the Lord alone. Your boasting is not good.

You who admit such a person in the Church. Do you not know that a little leaven corrupts the whole mass? Do you not know that by the example of one evil man many can perish, and that through the sin of one man, the wrath of God came upon all the people among the people of the Jews? Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, if you are unleavened. Let nothing of your former manner of life remain in you. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. Having been made clean through baptism from the vices of the hoe, let us pass over to the virtues of the Lord. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in the letter, not to associate with fornicators. Not the lamb, which was a figure of Christ, and they indeed ate unleavened bread for seven days; we do so always, if we are simple, because the world was also made in seven days: daily the lamb is slain for us: daily the Passover is celebrated: he who has no leaven of malice and wickedness. Not in the fullness of the belly, which does not pertain to God, but in simplicity of mind and purity of heart. For what is leaven, unless it is the corruption of nature, the very thing made bitter from sweet? Not, to be sure, with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the rapacious, or those who serve idols. Not with the fornicators of the Gentiles. Otherwise you would have had to go out of this world. You would have had to go out in another manner, not thus, or at least if thus, it would have been better for you to die. But now I have written to you, not to associate. This very thing I now write, which I say.

If he who is called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a robber. He is not to be called a brother from the name alone, but from his conduct. But if anyone is named a fornicator, which is also found in the Old Testament: He who joins himself to fornicators will be wicked; rottenness and worms will inherit him. With such a one, not even to eat. For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? Nor is this man common whom I have permitted, if you wish to go with the Gentiles. For God will judge those who are outside. Outside the Church are the Jews, heretics, or Gentiles. Remove the evil from among yourselves. Not from the Gentiles, but from yourselves.

CHAPTER VI. Does any of you dare, having a matter against another. Has anyone dared to come against the command of the Lord who says: If anyone wishes to contend with you in judgment, and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. Here it is understood that they were especially accused because of fornications in the secular court: because he introduced this matter in the midst of a case of fornication. To be judged before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Here it is proved that the judges were Gentiles, because they are called unrighteous. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? As the Savior says: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But what he said to them, he said to all who would imitate them.

For of those twelve, one perished, and another who had not heard him succeeded in his place; and Paul and Barnabas were apostles. And if the world is judged among you, are you unworthy to judge in the smallest matters? Whether through you, or by your example. Do you not know that we shall judge angels? Those angels who sinned against nature will be judged by those who, above nature, have preserved chastity with God's help. How much more the things of this world? Concerning the things of this world. If therefore you have judgments concerning worldly matters, appoint those who are contemptible in the Church to judge. Even those who are least in the Church can judge concerning these things, or at least those who disregard their own injuries. It should be noted that he calls them least who are not instructed in the law of God, but in the law of the world. I say this to your shame. What I am about to say, so that those who are such may blush. Is it so, that there is no one wise among you who can judge between his brother? Is there not? But brother contends with brother in judgment, and that before unbelievers. They double the sin both in that they go to law, and in that they go to law before unbelievers. Indeed, it is already entirely a fault among you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves. First, because you despise the command of Christ, you already have sin. Why do you not rather accept injury? Why do you not rather suffer fraud? He speaks to those who were doing it, not to those who were suffering it: to endure Jezebel, if anyone has done you injury.

But you do injury and defraud, and that to brothers. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not possess the kingdom of God? To whom it is not even permitted to return injury to enemies. Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the soft, nor those who lie with males, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor the drunken, nor the abusive, nor the rapacious will possess the kingdom of God. Do not be seduced, thinking that many sins are to be punished, and not also one. And these things you once were. Do not fear concerning the past; but take care that after baptism you commit nothing criminal. But you have been washed, but you have been sanctified, but you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified through the Holy Spirit. Here understand the whole Trinity. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. Because he is treating of fornication, he wishes to show the matter of fornication. All things are lawful for me, but I will be brought under the power of no one. It is lawful for us to eat and drink, but if we subject ourselves to gluttony, this very thing that is lawful will lead us to what is unlawful, that is, to fornication. And it can be understood concerning marriages, and concerning riches, and other things of this kind, which are not sin, but can lead to the occasion of sins. Food for the belly, and the belly for foods: but God will destroy both this and these. And these two, that is, both the belly and the food, and the man himself who is in these.

But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God is with you, as long as you are with him; but if you have forsaken him, he will forsake you. But God both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up by his power. If he raised up the Lord, he will raise us up also by the same power. If we are his members, therefore we ought to sanctify our members, that we may deserve to remain in him. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? The whole Church is the body of Christ; but individually they are members. Taking therefore the members of Christ, shall I make them members of a harlot? Far be it. He did not say "of a fornicator," but "of a harlot," to show that he is of the same crime and name as the harlot with whom he fornicates, because it seems to men that a man sins less than a woman. At the same time it must be noted that he takes away the members of Christ beforehand who is about to make them the harlot's: in this the fornicator is guilty of a greater crime, because he takes away the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot. Or do you not know that he who cleaves to a harlot becomes one body? For they shall be, he says, two in one flesh. Just as lawfully with a wife, so also with a harlot one flesh is made through illicit love. But he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. Just as he who does the works of the flesh is flesh, so also he who does the works of God is one spirit. Flee fornication. Seeing how grave it is. Every sin, whatever a man may do, is outside the body.

Every sin can be committed by one person, who cannot be called a body but a member; in fornication, however, two perish, and the two can be called a body. It is therefore more serious where two perish than where one does, because the remaining sins can be committed even without a body. But whoever commits fornication sins against his own body. Some think this was said of the body of the Church; but he says, "sins against his own body"—whether he means by this that fornication is more serious, which he knows to be among those things that seemed light to them because it had become customary. Or do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you? Whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought with a great price. He who is not his own ought not to live for himself, but for him whose blood he was purchased with. "Whoever wishes," he says, "to come after me, let him deny himself." If a man demands continuous service from a slave bought for a small sum, how much more does he who had nothing greater to give for us than himself? "Glorify." Do this, that God may be glorified through you and through your works. "And bear the Lord in your body." That we may bear the heavenly image. Note that here he calls God, whom we are commanded to bear, the Holy Spirit, whose temple he testified above that our members are, saying: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." And now he says, "Glorify," and "bear God in your body"—namely, God the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER VII. Concerning the things which you wrote. Being asked, he answers: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. That was good which I proclaimed as best; if therefore it is good for one who has a wife not to touch her, how much better if he had not married! Incontinence is restrained by time and age and infirmity; chastity, however, can always be preserved, with God as helper and guardian. That therefore which is eternal is rather to be sought. Why then, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth"? But now even the earth itself no longer holds men. But, he says, could he not have made all men from the earth? He could, but he would not; for he could have made men winged and horned. But he made all things best according to the plan known to himself. Finally, he would not make Eve herself from the earth, but from a rib. If, however, you think that this is now so in all cases, imitate Cain and the others who took their own sisters. If therefore this was so, let us believe that God ordered all things according to the foreknowledge by which God exists in times. This also is to be believed, that even now those who marry according to the law do not sin; for the law permits marriage for the sake of children, not for the sake of lust. In this men make themselves even worse than animals, that since they do not spare even pregnant women, they show that men have not taken wives for the sake of children.

But one who abstains from his wife only for the sake of children, after she has given birth, and while the infant is nursing, and perhaps in time, when childbirth has ceased, ceases also from the work of marriage: not to touch, according to usage, not according to simple touch. But because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render the debt to his wife; likewise also the wife to her husband. To fornicators he granted that they may marry, lest the incontinent man fornicate: just as if a physician says to a sick man: It was good for you not to eat apples; but he cannot contain himself, so that he wants to eat figs: afterward the physician may grant him hard food, only let him not eat what would kill him. Hence perfection is to be preached; but to one who cannot attain it, the remedy of marriage is to be given. The woman does not have power over her own body, but the husband does. Because she has willingly taken away her own freedom. Likewise also the husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife does. Let husbands recognize that it is not permitted them to know another woman besides their wife, because by an equal lot they are made subject to each other and are debtors. Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may be free for prayer: and again return to the same. He who is incontinent cannot be free for prayer.

But continence is praiseworthy not only in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament: when God was about to descend upon Mount Sinai, he commanded the people to be sanctified by abstaining from women for three days. How much more, then, will he be able to see God who has willed always to be chaste? Likewise David forbade the holy bread to the priest until he knew he was clean from women; and Peter bids us refrain even from things lawful: lest Satan tempt you because of your incontinence. Lest, while one withdraws, another commit fornication, and Satan find an occasion to tempt. But this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command. I would that all men were even as I myself. This I grant to the weak, I do not command it to the perfect, since I would that all men imitate me in all things, who know how much chastity can avail with God. But each one has his own gift from God, one indeed after this manner, and another after that. His own gift, because God divides to each as he wills, since not all receive this word. Otherwise, if all could, how does Scripture say that no one can be continent unless you grant it? A gift from God, one indeed after this manner, and another after that. You hear "gift": let presumption cease. But to the unmarried and to widows I say. He begins concerning those who have no wives, and concerning widows. It is good for them if they remain as I also am. Who can say that is not good which he himself says is good? Who, I ask, could say so, unless perhaps Jovinian? But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry.

Either you will suffer incontinently, or you ought not to marry, if you wish to be continent. For it is better to marry than to burn. Fornication is punished by fire, as Judas says of his daughter-in-law: Let her be brought forth, he says, and let her be burned. In comparison, therefore, with fornication, it is better to marry. But to those who are joined in marriage, I give charge, not I but the Lord. Here he speaks specifically to married persons, that they should not put away their wives and take others, whether beautiful or wealthy, as the Jews were doing. That a wife should not depart from her husband. If anyone puts away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, he makes her commit adultery. But if she has departed, let her remain unmarried. Not to depart in such a way that she marries another: if she has departed for some cause, let her not marry another. Or let her be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord. It is better if she returns to her husband than that she marry another. If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to dwell with her, let her not put away her husband. If one of the two has believed: not that he has permitted an unbeliever not to be joined to a believer, but he speaks of those already joined. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the believing wife. It has often happened that he was gained through the woman.

Therefore the blessed Peter says that if any do not believe the word, through the conduct of their wives, without the word they may be won, when they see sober women instead of drunken, humble instead of proud, and say: Truly this is the law of God, which could thus change ingrained customs. I believe it had already come about that some women came to the faith through believing husbands, and husbands through believing wives; and although he does not name names, he has nevertheless exhorted by examples to confirm his counsel. And the unbelieving wife is sanctified through the believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. If you were both unbelievers, your children would necessarily imitate you; but now perhaps they imitate the believing one, and are holy: because even if they are born of two believers, they are born as if a wild olive from an olive tree. I say wild olive on account of original sin, and on account of this they are under the devil unless they are reborn in Christ: because the devil is the author of guilt, not of nature. Now I believe there were little Christian children who were sanctified either by one of their parents as the author or by both consenting: which would not happen if, when one believed, the marriage were dissolved. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For the husband is not greater than God. For the brother or sister is not subject to slavery. Is it so, then, that she should marry in order to serve and perish on account of another unbeliever? And it is to be noted that they are servants to one another. In this kind. In this kind of matter, or cause. But God has called us in peace.

In freedom: therefore we ought not to learn of our own accord. For how do you know, woman, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, man, whether you will save your wife? Only that to each one as the Lord has divided, each one as God has called. He placed it in doubt; but always, if anything is ambiguous, the understanding is to be led toward the better part. So let him also walk: and as I teach in all the churches. Whether with a wife or without a wife. Whether circumcised or in uncircumcision: whether slave or free. Has anyone been called as circumcised? Let him not draw out the foreskin. Whether he was called with a wife, let him not dismiss her; or without a wife, he has no need to marry, if he acquiesces in that counsel and if he can contain himself. For the circumcised man, since he had a foreskin, cannot recall himself to have been superfluously circumcised, which was needful in its own time: let him not say, it would have been better if I had not been circumcised; let him not live as a Gentile. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Let him not think that the faith of the Lord is a cause of dissension. And circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the observance of the commandments of God. Each one, in the calling in which he was called, let him remain in it with God. Neither does it harm nor profit in this time. Were you called as a slave? Let it not be a care to you. Some wish servitude to be understood as marriage. But even if you can become free, rather use it. Because God does not regard conditions, but the mind and the will: nor let you say, how can I please God, I am a slave?

For he who was called as a slave in the Lord is a freedman of the Lord; likewise he who was called as a free man is a slave of Christ. He who is a slave of a man is free before God, and he who is free among men is a servant of God; therefore both are one. For there is no respect of persons with God. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Let each one, brothers, remain in that in which he was called, before God. Do not serve for the sake of men only in the sight of their eyes, so as to please men, but do all things for the sake of God, believing that you will receive your reward from God. Concerning virgins, however, I have no commandment of the Lord. He responded in writing, because they were saying: Where is virginity commanded?—so as to show that it is superfluous, since what is under a commandment is punished if unfulfilled, but if fulfilled has no reward. He gives counsel, since the Savior says, Not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given. For if it were general, what one can do, all could do. The occasion of chastity is abstinence; the occasion of incontinence, however, is lust. But it is given by God, because it is his own gift, as the prophet says: Since I know that no one is continent except the one to whom you have given it. But I give counsel. He fulfills that saying of the Lord which he spoke to him in the figure of the innkeeper: If you have spent anything more, I will repay it when I come. As one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful. He refers all things to God's mercy, so that by his example he may teach that one must not glory except in God.

A faithful servant is one who, having set everything else aside, is always occupied in the service of his Lord, to which he stirs them on by his own example, so that they may desire to serve him alone. And let no one presume on his own merits, since he testifies that he has obtained the Lord's mercy in order to be faithful. I think, therefore, that this is good. "I think"—not as though it were doubtful, but certain, as it is: "I think that I also have the Spirit of God." "Because of the present necessity"—whether of keeping righteousness or of being free from the world's anxiety. "For it is good for a man so to be." "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release." It is evil, then, not to be so, because he first loses the reward of chastity—not that he sins. "Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife." He speaks thus: not that one must not be bound, in the way that one must not be released. "But if you have taken a wife, you have not sinned." You who are free, if you do not wish to be greater, be at least lesser. "And if a virgin has married, she will not sin." Marriage in itself has no sin, but through the anxiety of the world it often incurs sin. "Yet such will have tribulation of the flesh"—subjecting themselves to the curse of Eve, who therefore received the curse in childbirth because God knew that men would be incontinent, so that at least by fear of pain they might restrain their lust. There are added also the wailing of infants, the deaths of children, and indeed miscarriages. "But I spare you"—because according to indulgence I do not altogether forbid marriage. "This, then, I say, brothers." Here he exhorts all to continence.

The time is short. It remains that even those who have wives should be as though they had none. The time of our life is short, because it will soon be ended by the death of either one or both. This is to be understood thus: because of its brevity, nothing should be considered important in comparison with the things to come. And those who weep, as though not weeping; and those who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and those who buy, as though not possessing; and those who use this world, as though not using it. In this age, because all things will be finished in a short time. Solomon describes the brevity of times: "Time and times"; but we daily see men dying, and we believe that we shall be eternal, as though we were of another nature. For the wise man is corrected by the falls of others. Therefore Solomon says: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fool is in the house of feasting." For the figure of this world passes away. This age is a figure of the future. If the figure is such, what will the truth be? As the star is a figure of the sun. But I would have you to be without solicitude. Therefore one does not marry, so that solicitude for the world may depart, lest thorns choke the seed, and they say: "I have bought a farm, I have bought oxen, I have married a wife," and he cannot dine with the bridegroom. He who is without a wife is solicitous for the things of the Lord, how he may please God. But he who is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. It must be asked whom it profits to please, God or a woman who will die. And he is divided. The unmarried woman and the virgin thinks on the things of the Lord.

If she is divided, she cannot be one: for unity does not admit of division. That she may be holy both in body and in spirit. In body, from sexual relations; in spirit, from anxiety or the desire of thoughts. But she who is married thinks about the things of the world. She who is married, if she thinks about the things of the world, whom she desires to please, that married woman will begin to be preferred to her who has an excuse for thinking about the things of the world, on the occasion of her husband. How she may please her husband. Such a woman is holy neither in body nor in spirit. Furthermore, I say this for your own benefit. Lest he seem to have spoken harshly to the weak, he now excuses himself; but that very excuse must be considered. Not that I may cast a snare upon you. I do not impose necessity on the unmarried, but I give counsel as to what is more expedient for you. But for that which is honorable, and which provides the opportunity to entreat the Lord without hindrance. Therefore what they wanted was neither useful nor honorable. But if anyone thinks that he appears shameful concerning his virgin, because she is past the age of marriage. He will appear shameful if, when she has come to full age, he deliberates on neither course, either to preserve her virginity or to marry; or if, when she wishes to marry, he does not permit it, and she has committed fornication. For if each one refers this to his own flesh, and sees that he cannot preserve virginity, let him marry, lest by fornicating he appear shameful. And so it ought to be done. So it must be, on account of the will of the girl. Let him do what she wishes: he does not sin, if he marries.

Parents indeed ought to guard her until mature age, and to teach chastity. But if she is unwilling, let what is necessary be done; the father of the girl does not sin, nor does the girl herself, if she marries. For he who has determined in his heart is firm. That man is firm who has determined, whose daughter's will has confirmed his will. Not having necessity. From this it is recognized that he has necessity regarding his daughter, of whom he said, But having power over his own will, and he has judged this in his heart, to keep his virgin, he does well. He can do what he wills. Therefore both he who joins his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not join her does better. The concluding collection is: The prudent, indeed, must always pursue the better things. A woman is bound for as long as her husband lives. Here he begins concerning widows: because they had also consulted about them. But if her husband has fallen asleep, she is freed. Let her marry whom she wills, only in the Lord. Made free from the bond of marriage according to the law: if even then she could not contain herself, let her marry whom she wills, only in Christ. She will be more blessed if she remains thus. Having a husband, if she can keep righteousness, and knows her husband only for the sake of children: the widow is more blessed, because she labors more than the married woman, and has the reward of chastity, and can pray daily with a free conscience. The virgin is most blessed, because by brief labor she can arrive at a great reward. According to my counsel. Which I give to virgins. But I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Do not think that what I say comes from me myself: the Spirit of God speaks in me, whom it is not expedient to despise. Here, I think, he signifies no doubt.

CHAPTER VIII. Concerning those things which are sacrificed to idols. And concerning these things they had written to him, as also concerning the matters above, because they were eating in the temples, saying, Every creature of God is good, and an idol is nothing, and by this notion rather than by the truth of reason they were going astray. We know that all. We all; for not those of whom he says, But not in all is knowledge, that is, knowledge given by the Lord. We have knowledge. It has this custom, that first it enters gently, and at the last shows the force of its speech. Knowledge puffs up. And that is foolishness with God. If knowledge puffs up, why does he still wish them to press on further? He himself also says of himself, And even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge, and he prays for the Ephesians, that they may be filled with knowledge. And in this very epistle he gives thanks that they have been filled with knowledge of this kind, knowledge which shows the image rather than the truth of reason: not the knowledge which can be reprehended. But charity edifies. That charity which does not seek the things that are its own, but how through it the body of Christ may profit. Knowledge without charity puffs up, with charity it edifies. If anyone thinks that he knows anything.

If anyone seems wise to himself, he is not wise; for the one who is truly wise considers himself more foolish than all others, and he is truly wise who testifies that whatever good he understands, he has received from God. He has not yet known as he ought to know. Whoever attributes to himself what he knows through foolish presumption does not know how he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. By building up the Church he loves God, because the Lord knows this neighbor of his, since the Lord knows those who are his. But concerning foods sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. He repeats what he had said above—we know—and shows what it means, that an idol is nothing. For even if there are those who are called gods. It can be said that what is called [a god] is not [truly] so. Whether in heaven or on earth: indeed there are many gods and many lords; yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him. Angels and saints, to whom he says, I said, you are gods, and lords, the saints of those whom they will judge. Or thus: gods in heaven, and lords on earth. Here the Arians slander, denying that Christ is God, because he is called only Lord. To them it must be answered: If for this reason he will not be God, because the one God is the Father, then neither will the Father be Lord, because the one Lord is Christ: And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. He who made all things from nothing—here understand the Trinity—but not in all is there knowledge.

Not all know that you do this out of contempt; but they think you do it out of reverence. But some, with conscience of the idol even until now, eat as of an idol-sacrifice; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. They still hold this in their conscience as they did before they believed. But food does not commend us to God: neither if we do not eat shall we fail, nor if we eat shall we abound. As the prophet Haggai says, And if you eat and drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? But see to it lest perhaps this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. This can be said at the same time also of those religious or clerics who destroy by example what they teach by word, while they both brood over riches and are surrounded by precious garments. For if anyone sees him who has knowledge reclining at an idol's table, will not his conscience, being weak, be edified to eat idol-sacrifices? And the weak one perished in your conscience, brother, for whom Christ died. But thus sinning against the brethren, and striking their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Whoever scandalizes one of these little ones, it is better for him that a millstone be hung about his neck and he be cast into the depth of the sea: that which is grave is lighter. Wherefore if food scandalizes my brother, I will not eat flesh forever, lest I scandalize my brother. Not only food and flesh, but all other things.

CHAPTER IX. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? This must be understood as: Am I not? He repeats his own example to them, that when he had all things in his power, he was unwilling to do what was permitted to him, apart from the salvation of others. Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? When he appeared to him on the way. Are not you my work in the Lord? And if I am not an apostle to others, yet to you I am. To others, to whom I was not sent. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. The proof of my apostleship is that you have believed in the Lord through me. My defense to those who question me is this. By these things I am defended as being an apostle. Do we not have the power to eat and drink? From your goods, without our labor. Do we not have the power to lead about a sister, a woman? Who would minister to us. He did not say "to marry," but "to lead about," lest anyone think he had said this of a wife. As also the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas. He does not point them out, but because they preached to the more faithful, they received their daily bread more freely, since this was also the custom of teachers among the Jews. Or is it only I and Barnabas who do not have the power to do this? Who have been sent to the Gentiles. Who serves as a soldier? He gives other examples, by which he proves that this was owed to him. At his own expense ever? And not at public expense. Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? By comparison he here calls the people a vineyard, as there, You brought a vineyard out of Egypt.

Who feeds the flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed you with discipline. Am I saying these things according to man? From myself. Or does the law not say this also? For it is written in the law of Moses: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. He confirms everything by the testimonies of the law. Is God concerned about oxen? How then is God concerned about sparrows, and in Jonah it is said of Nineveh, in which there are more than a thousand men, and many cattle? But even these things were created for man's sake. For when man fails, these things also fail. Or is it certainly for our sake that he says this? For it is certainly for our sake that they were written. Because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of receiving the fruit. He ought to hope for the fruit of his labor, and he who threshes ought to eat from the very threshing floor. So that through this comparison it may be willingly given to those who labor in the word. If we have sown spiritual things for you, it is a great thing. It was not a great thing, we were not burdening you, if we wished to receive, but we do not wish it for your sake. If we reap your carnal things. Whatever things are necessary. If others are partakers of your power, why not rather we? But we have not used this power. He speaks of the false apostles, to whom it was not owed, who had conferred nothing on them. But we endure all things. Both hunger, and thirst, and nakedness. Lest we give any offense to the Gospel of Christ.

Lest our preaching be displeasing in anything, lest those to whom we preach the gospel be offended through us, while adversaries, having taken occasion, devour. Do you not know that those who work in the sanctuary eat what is from the sanctuary? Those who serve at the altar share with the altar. Among the Jews, according to the law. So too the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel live by the gospel. As it says, The worker is worthy of his wages. The Apostle says that it is indeed permitted to him and allowed by the Lord that those who proclaim the gospel live by the gospel, that is, that they have from the gospel the things necessary for this life, but nevertheless that he has not abused this power. For there were many who desired to have an occasion of acquiring and selling the gospel; wishing to cut this off from them, the Apostle bore his own sustenance with his own hands. For concerning these he says in another place: That I may cut off the occasion of those who seek an occasion. Although even as the other good apostles he could, by the Lord's permission, live by the gospel, yet he would not have established the end of evangelizing in that sustenance, so that he would not evangelize for the sake of reaching food, and whatever other such things are necessary; but he would take these things for the sake of fulfilling that, lest he evangelize not willingly but by necessity. But I have used none of these things. Yet I have not written these things so that they may be done in my case. I do not write these things so that what has not been done may be done, but I give you an example of doing.

For it is better for me to die than that anyone should make void my glory. Even if I die of hunger, this glory that I have according to God will not be made void, namely that I receive nothing from you. For if I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me, for necessity is laid upon me. When you have done all things, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done what was our duty to do. For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. I have a penalty. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, a dispensation has been entrusted to me. Then it will be voluntary if even the debt is despised. What then is my reward? That, preaching the gospel, I may set forth the gospel without expense. Whence do I have a reward? And he himself answered himself: that I may preach the gospel freely. So that I do not abuse my power in the gospel. Whether it be that I do not use the power I have received, or that, while I wish to receive, I make my power cheap, when I am thought to teach because of my belly. For when I was free from all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain more. Since I could use my liberty and have no care for the rest, yet I had compassion on all, that I might save them. And I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. When he purified himself in the temple, which in the time of grace he knew to be superfluous. To those who are under the law, as though I were under the law. He shows how he himself was with them as a Jew, so that an occasion of preaching to them might be given to him. Though I myself was not under the law, that I might gain those who were under the law.

He is not under the law, which was given to little ones, who by grace fulfills the law; for the law is not appointed for the just. I became as one without the law to those who were without the law, though I was not without the law of God. From the Gentiles I first sought only faith, as though I did not have the precepts of the law of Christ which I might teach them to observe. But I was in the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who were without the law. This is against the Arians, who deny that Christ is God. For when he says that he is not without the law of God but is in the law of Christ, he confesses that Christ is God. I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak. When among the weak I ate vegetables, though I could have eaten meat without fear. Or this: I judged myself to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified. I became all things to all men. Not seeking for myself anything that is useful to me. That I might make all men saved. It must be considered that God took up man, and though he was without sin, he bore our sins. But we are sinful men. We ought to consider that the sickness, whether of soul or of body, which we see in another man, we also could have had, or can have. Therefore let us show to him whose weakness we wish to bear what we would wish to be shown to us by him, if we were in that weakness and he were not. To this pertains: Bear one another's burdens. But I do all things for the Gospel, that I may be made a partaker of it. That I may have a share in it.

Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all indeed run, but one receives the prize? We ought all to run; for if there one who has conquered receives it, how much more we, who all by the gift of God can conquer, and all alike through his mercy be crowned? So run, that you all may obtain. If it refers to faith, let faith be with works; if to doctrine, let doctrine be confirmed by example. But everyone who contends in the contest abstains from all things. And that one indeed to receive a corruptible crown. From all foods which hinder the course, or by which another is scandalized. So therefore let us run, that we may obtain: for all who run rightly obtain. Not as in a theatrical contest, where all indeed run, but one receives the palm. Let us run by believing, hoping, desiring; let us run by chastising the body, and by almsgiving, in giving good things and forgiving evil things, doing cheerfully and from the heart, and by praying that the efforts of those running be helped, and so let us hear the precepts of perfection, lest we neglect to run to the fullness of charity, and lest we attribute to ourselves what we run. But we an incorruptible one. They run into uncertainty, because they cannot all conquer. I therefore so run, not as into uncertainty. He who preaches for human favor is uncertain of his reward. So I fight, not as one beating the air, but I chastise my body. I do not feign the contest, or fight in vain.

And I bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, through abstinence—like Elijah in his mantle, Isaiah in sackcloth, and others in various ways—I myself should become a castaway. He becomes a castaway who teaches only by word, not by example.

CHAPTER 10. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud. Let no one trust either in baptism, or in spiritual food, or in drink, and think that God will spare him if he has sinned criminally. All things that were done to the people of Israel happened in figure; they come to us in truth: just as they were freed from Egypt through Moses, so we are freed from the world through baptism; then, as catechumens, we are led through the deserts, so that through this training we may forget the pleasure of Egypt and not know how to return to the world; and when we have crossed the sea, Pharaoh dies for us with his army; afterward we receive the manna and the water from the rock; afterward, however, the brightness of knowledge and the refreshment of consolation will be shown to us. But if after all these things we have committed a capital sin, these things do not profit us. But as ungrateful people we shall be subjected to a greater punishment, if we do not wash this away through penitence, as he says to the Hebrews: Anyone who violates the law of Moses is punished without any mercy. How much more one who violates the baptism of Christ? And all passed through the sea. The Red Sea signifies baptism, adorned with the blood of Christ. And all were baptized in Moses.

Moses the leader signifies Christ; the people crossing signifies the faithful; the death of the Egyptians signifies the abolition of sins in the cloud and in the sea, which cloud has moisture, that is, the water of baptism. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. But they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ. In mystery. But God was not well pleased with many of them. For they were laid low in the desert. The manna as a type of the body of Christ. Now these things happened as a figure for us, so that we should not desire evil things, as they also desired. For them at that time it was the truth, but they prefigured our figure. Neither become idolaters, as some of them did, just as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand. On account of those who reclined at idols. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted him, and perished by serpents. Saying, Can God do it? And here Christ is shown to be God, because it is written that God said: And they tempted me. This ten times. Therefore he says that they tempt, just as he says to them: Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? Neither murmur, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. In tribulations.

Now all these things happened to them in figure. All the things that happened to them they indeed received according to their own deeds; but nevertheless they were written for this reason, that we should not think we may sin with impunity: if he did not spare those who were little ones, how much more us, who have received the perfect law, if we do not keep it. But they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Upon whom the whole perfection falls, that is, what they either foretold or prefigured has been completed. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. By the very fact that he thinks he stands, he falls, while he is proud and presumes upon himself. Let no temptation take hold of you except what is human. There are human temptations, when anyone with a good mind, according to human frailty alone, slips in some counsel, or is provoked against a brother out of zeal for correcting him, yet a little more than Christian tranquility demands: of which the Apostle says: Let no temptation take hold of you except what is human. Do not make any temptation for yourselves: if men have compelled you by torments, you ought not to consent so as to withdraw from the faith. Human temptation is the vain presumption of free will, or as he himself said above: For when there is among you zeal and rivalry, are you not men, and walking according to man? What is so human as to think wrongly of the hidden things of men?

so as to believe good, which he does not know to be evil, and again by uncertain opinion to believe evil, which he has not proved to be evil, and to judge before the time what he does not know. Human temptation can be called both a depraved suggestion, which either arises in the soul or is suggested through wicked men, such as to bear false witness, or to intend enmity, or to seek revenge, and other things of this kind. For to think otherwise than is perfect can be called human temptation, and the struggle of the flesh can be called human temptation, while the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. Stand firm, and he will grant you the strength to endure. But with the temptation he will also make a way out, so that you may be able to endure; he will make that come about for you which you will be able to endure, or the profit of the soul from the tribulation itself. Therefore, my beloved, flee from the worship of idols. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. Therefore you ought not to do this even unwillingly. The cup of blessing which we bless. Therefore he named the cup first, because afterward he was going to dispute more about the bread. Is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? As the Savior said: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. And the bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of the Lord? Thus also the bread of idols is a participation in demons.

Because we, the many, are one bread and one body, all who share in the one bread. So too, if we eat of the same bread as the idolaters, we are made one body with them. Israel according to the flesh. Carnal Israel offers carnal sacrifices, spiritual Israel spiritual ones, and just as they are partakers of the altar of God, so the other is of the altar of idols. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What then? Do I say that anything sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? Lest it be answered thus, you say it as if an idol had something, or some malice, since it is without a soul. But what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; but I do not want you to become partners with demons. There are demons who defile these things, who preside over images, to seduce men. You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. You cannot both be partners with God and with demons, because you wish to be partakers of both tables. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? As it is there: They provoke you to jealousy not well. Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. He who did not do these things, if he had known that faith would thereby be proved stronger, would himself have done it, so as to give us an example in this too. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's. Everything that is expedient is lawful, though not everything that is lawful is expedient.

But we, following the example of Christ, ought not to consider what is permitted, but what is expedient for us and edifies others, so that we do not seek what benefits ourselves alone while either not benefiting another or even harming him—things that are not forbidden, because in themselves they have no sin, but they carry an occasion of sin. Eat everything that is sold in the market. What does he mean when he says, It is good not to eat meat and not to drink wine; and again, I will not eat meat forever: how does he command that all things be eaten? But he grants rather that meats may be eaten, only that they not eat things sacrificed to idols. Asking nothing, for conscience's sake. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. If they asked, they would be recognized as Christians, and for the sake of mockery everything would be told them to have been sacrificed. If any unbeliever invites you to a banquet, and you wish to go, eat everything that is set before you, asking nothing, for conscience's sake. But if anyone says, This has been sacrificed to idols, do not eat it, for the sake of the one who indicated it, and for conscience's sake. And this too he placed in their own will: he did not say, Go. For then a Christian ought to go to an unbeliever, if he has some prospect of gain, that is, if he knows he can win him; just as the Savior went for this reason, either to silence or to rebuke the powers; as when he went to a certain Pharisee, and while they were dining, he first taught him that it is not the rich who are to be fed, but the weak. Then he taught the Pharisees that humility must be preserved even at a banquet.

Third, he rebukes the legal experts, who claimed something more for themselves, and neither did they themselves rebuke pride, nor did they permit others to do so. But I speak of conscience, not your own, but another's. Was it so they would not say, How do we avoid sacrificing to idols, as though it were evil, while those men eat, as though it were holy and clean? For why is my freedom judged by another conscience, when it profits me nothing? If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I blasphemed for that for which I give thanks? All things are clean that are received with thanksgiving, but that man does not understand this, and judges me, as though I were pretending to say that it is evil to sacrifice to idols. Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do all things for the glory of God. A Christian must do nothing else but that God be glorified in his every work, nothing superfluous. Be without offense to Jews and to Gentiles and to the Church of God. He was an offense to all these. The Jews were saying: Christians have gone into such madness that they sacrifice to idols; the Gentiles were saying: How do they forbid us from idols, and themselves serve idols with us? But Christians, thinking it lawful, followed the example. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is useful to myself, but what is useful to many, that they may be saved. I present myself in such a way as to please. But if anyone hates me freely, let him know that it is not by my fault.

CHAPTER XI. Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. Christ did nothing for his own sake, nor suffered anything, but for the salvation of all. So too Paul, who does not seek what is useful for himself, but what is useful for many. But I praise you, brothers, that in all things you are mindful of me. What was it that he suddenly praises those whom he had earlier rebuked? Where he does not have the authority of the law, he provokes them to reason by gentle persuasion. And as I handed down to you, you hold fast my precepts. Thus, as if it were a law, because you know that I have the Spirit of God, who spoke in the law and the prophets, But I want you to know. I also want you to hold fast this. That the head of every man is Christ. No man is subject to any human being, except to Christ, who is both man and God. But the head of the woman is the man. The woman ought to be subject both to the man and to Christ, according to the order of nature; otherwise in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but he willed that they be subject. But the head of Christ is God. Of Christ, according to his humanity, whence also he received the name. For his name in the Godhead, according to Solomon, who can know? saying, What is his name? or what is the name of his son? Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head; for it is one and the same as if she were shaved: for if a woman is not veiled, let her be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her veil her head.

A man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. He comes to the reason, because both some men were letting their hair grow long, and women were coming forward in the church with bare heads, and were glorying in their own hair; which was not only dishonorable, but also a scandal. Therefore, he says, a man ought not to have a veil, who has Christ alone as his head. But a woman ought to have a veil, which shows that she is humble and subject to her husband. He notes, moreover, the custom of the Corinthians, that their women were with uncovered head, and the men cultivated long hair, and they ate indiscriminately in the temples, and puffed up with worldly wisdom, they denied the resurrection of the flesh. For the man is not from the woman, but the woman from the man. For indeed the man was not created for the sake of the woman, but the woman for the sake of the man. Therefore the woman ought to have authority upon her head. The example is from Adam and Eve. Because of the angels. Understand angels as priests and ministers of the altar, or the whole clergy, who announce the commandments of God. For angel is the name of an office, not of a nature. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord. Because Christ handed himself over for all. For just as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman. But all things are from God. Judge for yourselves: is it fitting for a woman to pray to God unveiled?

Nor does nature itself teach you that if a man indeed lets his hair grow long, it is a disgrace to him; but for a woman, if she lets her hair grow long, it is a glory to her, since the hair has been given to her as a veil. Just as the first woman came from Adam, so Christ came from the Virgin. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor does the Church of God. But in this I do not praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. That is, we have said what seemed to us honorable and just. But if anyone, unwilling to assent to the truth, seeks what he may answer and on what he may rely, let him know on the contrary that he is unworthy of an answer, because he is more ready to contend than to be taught. First of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. Contentions. For there must be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you. Not that heresies please God, but that through them the faithful, being exercised, may be made manifest to men even as they are known to God, and may become more clearly known. For where will the advocate's skill appear if he pleads no case in which he may be tested? Where will the shipmaster or pilot be praised if the ship always remains in harbor or in calm? When you come together in one place, it is no longer to eat the Lord's supper. For each one takes his own supper first to eat. And one indeed goes hungry, but another is drunk.

Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the Church of God and put to shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you. Among the Corinthians, as some assert, a depraved custom had grown strong, of dishonoring the churches here and there by their feasts, at which they used to eat before the Lord's offering, which they offered as a supper at night; and when the rich came drunk to the Eucharist, the poor were vexed with hunger. But this custom, as they report, came from a still-gentile superstition; whence also in certain places throughout the regions of Egypt or Syria, it is said, on the night of the sabbath after supper, they assemble at the Church. For I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus. From here on, as if forgetful, he recalls how great a sacrament of this mystery he instituted. On the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread. He left us the final commemoration or memorial of himself. And giving thanks, he broke it, and said. Blessing. This is my body, which shall be delivered for you. Do this in commemoration of me. Likewise also the cup, after he had supped, saying. Whoever eats, he says, my body and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him. Therefore, since we have died to the world with him in baptism, as the Apostle says. You have died with Christ, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory.

Therefore do not seek glory or joy here, where you are dead. Here the cup is the new testament, because the old one foretold this through the blood of animals. In my blood. Do this. A testament is dedicated through blood, because it is not firm without death. As often as you drink, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup. God the Savior gave an example, so that as often as we do this, we may keep in mind that Christ died for us all. Therefore it is said to us, the body of Christ, so that when we have remembered this, we may not be ungrateful for his grace—just as if someone dying leaves to the one he loves some pledge, which that person after his death, whenever he sees it, can he hold back tears, if he has loved him perfectly? You will proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. In your hearts, when you hear, the body of Christ. And whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily. The whole world will eat the flesh, and the soul that eats uncleanly will be destroyed. If there you have remembered that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there. And Jeremiah: Will vows and flesh take away your wickedness from you? Every conscience must first be examined, whether it reproaches us in nothing, and so either the offering must be made or communion received. He will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

As if he himself had killed him, because he despises him and counts his body as nothing, as the Jews did. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the cup. If it cannot be put into a vessel of glass or earthenware, and each person does not dare, how much more should it not be received with a defiled heart? which uncleanness God detests above all things, and which alone is done as an injury to his body. For even that just man Joseph wrapped the body of the Lord in a clean linen cloth and buried it in a new tomb. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself. He who approaches unworthily is guilty in two ways, both for sin and for usurpation. Not discerning the body of the Lord. If he receives it as common food. Therefore among you many are weak and sickly, and many sleep. Bodily illnesses come about for three causes: either from temptation, as with Job and Tobit; or from sin, as with Jehoshaphat, who are rebuked by the Apostle in the present; or from negligence, or some intemperance, as with Timothy, and those who are commanded to honor the physician; human medicine can profit this one cause alone, from which also through negligence or some other accident men can die, as it is written: The just man, by whatever death he is overtaken; and again, Do not be stubborn, lest you die not in your time. Although this does not happen without God's permission, it does not happen by his command, but happens by his just judgment.

The rebuke was present then, and it is present now, but we do not understand it, and we think it is a matter of custom that is actually a fault, because many suffer this. But if we judged ourselves, we would certainly not be judged, if we recognized ourselves. Yet while we are judged, we are rebuked by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned with this world. Rebuke is a mark of fatherly devotion, so that we may repent, lest we be condemned forever with the unbelievers of the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. For whoever came first was served, and he ate and went away. So that you may not come together for judgment. They were coming together for judgment, not for sanctification. But the rest I will set in order when I come. Concerning these very mysteries.

CHAPTER XII. Now concerning spiritual gifts. As faith increased, the grace of tongues diminished, which they had received for the sake of unbelievers; hence many, grieved by this, began to envy those who still had this grace, thinking it greater than all the charisms. I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers. You know that when you were Gentiles. I do not want you to be ignorant of the reason. To mute idols. According to the prophet who says, Let those who make them become like them, and those who trust in them, which are voiceless and insensible. As you were led, going. By the magi or soothsayers of the idols. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says anathema to Jesus.

Therefore, so that you may no longer be irrational and unstable: for you ought to change both your conduct and your religion, and to know the reason for your faith. And no one can say, "Lord Jesus," except in the Holy Spirit. How then will the Lord not know the workers of iniquity? For although they have confessed the Lord, the Apostle himself confirms that God is denied by deeds: that is, no one in the Holy Spirit can say "Lord" except one who confesses him wholly and faithfully as God and man, both according to each substance, and as equal to the Father and as less than the Father. But there are divisions of graces, yet the same Spirit. This refers to tongues, or to different things which the Holy Spirit distributes by his own will, as truly God. And there are divisions of ministries, yet the same Lord. Although this properly works against Macedonius, who denies that the Holy Spirit is God: for by always saying "the same," he shows that he is speaking everything concerning the Holy Spirit; yet it is also no slight argument against the Arians, who always cavil at this, that the Father is named first, the Son second, the Holy Spirit third. But here he has changed that order. He wishes here to show that the grace of the divine Spirit is not itself divided, that is, that it bestows the gifts of the ministries of the Church's teaching and of the rest. And there are divisions of operations, yet the same God, who works all things in all. By these, powers were being worked. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for usefulness.

Whether of believers or of unbelievers, so that they may believe. To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom. So that it may appear that he has the Holy Spirit who receives wisdom from God, while he speaks without his own labor and thought, and no one will be able to resist him, as with Stephen. Wisdom is to speak wisely, aptly, and reasonably, and to be able to discuss and teach what one has known; wisdom can be understood as knowing divine things, knowledge as human things. Likewise in another way: by men it is usually distinguished in a probable manner that wisdom pertains to the understanding of eternal things; knowledge truly to those things which we experience by the senses of the heart. But even if the knowledge of God is thus, and not of the same kind as this which is called that of men, just as even that which is called God is far other than the way in which men are called gods: as also when we say the wrath of God, when no perturbation falls upon God: whence in the books against the Academics to Romanianus: For you are not now hearing for the first time that wisdom is the knowledge of human and divine things. Likewise after other things: Or when the knowledge of human things is spoken of, that is spoken of by which each one knows either how many or of what kind of estates we have: or what of gold, what of silver; but that is the knowledge of human things which knows the light of prudence, the beauty of temperance, the strength of fortitude, the holiness of justice.

For these are the things which, fearing no fortune, we dare truly to call our own; and if that Albicerius had learned them, believe me, he would never have lived so luxuriously and shamefully. To another, indeed, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. Knowledge is of the mysteries of the law, or to know past things and to estimate future things. Wisdom seems to me to be, concerning human and divine things that pertain to the blessed life, not knowledge only but also diligent inquiry (from the same book, a little later). If you wish to divide this description, the first part, which holds knowledge, is God's; but this part which consists in inquiry is content to be man's. By that, then, God is blessed; by this, man. Wisdom can be understood as knowing divine things; knowledge, however, as human things, either to recall history and to narrate past things well. Likewise otherwise: wisdom pertains to the understanding of eternal things; knowledge, however, to those things which we seek by the senses of the body. Such wisdom pertains to the blessed life. To another, faith in the same Spirit; to another, the grace of healings in one Spirit. As a grain of mustard, or he set one thing in place of its effect. Here faith is not only for believing but also for wonders, so that fire might fall. To another, the working of powers. Power is to raise the dead, to cleanse lepers. To another, prophecy. To foretell future things, or to discuss obscure things. To another, the discerning of spirits. Of what spirit one comes, or what spirit suggests that something should be done, whether good or contrary. To another, kinds of tongues.

It must be noted that among the other gifts he mentions the kinds of tongues. To another the kinds of tongues, that he may know how to speak in tongues. To another the interpretation of speeches. One could interpret what another was speaking. But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as he wills. He shows that above he spoke entirely of the Holy Spirit alone, and proclaimed him to be God and Lord. But also when he says, as he wills, he thus demonstrates him to be God, who works not by command but voluntarily, who divides as he wills, and is subject to no one. If therefore the one Spirit works all things, why are you grieved that you have received another grace, and envy another, as though he had seized the greater part, when this rests not in our power but in the power of the giver? For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, though they are many, are yet one body. He uses the comparison of the body to show that the functions are different, not the nature of the members, and that no one ought to be concerned about whose function it is, so long as all are animated by one spirit and fitted together into one body. So also is Christ. It must be noted that the Church is called Christ, that is, the body of Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. That we may be one body. Therefore, for those whose spiritual goods are common, their carnal goods also ought to be common, according to his own judgment, whose one God and the same Father they have, unless their possession also is common, they are impious.

Whether Jews or gentiles, whether slaves or free, we have all been given one Spirit to drink. As a draught, he has bestowed it in proportion to each one's capacity, as much as he willed. For also the body. He returns to the example. It is not one member, but many. Therefore the whole body cannot have one function, but each member has that for which it is suited. If the foot should say. The feet can be called the Church—those who walk to intercede, or who preach the Gospel. Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body—is it for that reason not of the body? The hand is the one who does useful works in the body. For they were saying that they were not of the body because they did not have the grace that others had. And if the ear should say. The wise hearer is the ear of the understanding of Scripture, who among others was taken away from Judea. Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body—is it for that reason not of the body? The eye is the one who understands either the future things that he speaks, or the present. If the whole body were an eye, where would hearing be? If all were teachers, where would hearers be? If the whole were hearing, where would smelling be? If all were hearers, who would know how to discern good or evil? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body. Just as the members are fittingly and orderly arranged in the body, so also in the Church each one is ordered by God to that for which he is suited. If all had one grace, where would the rest be? As he willed. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are indeed many members, yet one body.

The will of God is both good and just and holy, and it is not to be disputed but to be admired. Man, who are you to answer back to God and say, "Why then so?" and "Why is that one not so?" and "What is it that he gave to this one and did not give to that one?" The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of your works." Therefore we need one another, so that charity may be preserved. For if one person had everything, he would grow proud against the others. Or again, the head. Here the priest is the head. To the feet, "You are not necessary to me." To the feet, which carry the body. But much more, those members of the body that seem to be weaker are more necessary. Prophecy, which they despised, was of greater usefulness. And those members of the body that we think to be less honorable, we clothe with more abundant honor. Just as in the body one can live without eyes and hands, but not without the inner parts. And those parts of ours that are dishonorable have more abundant honor, in that they are covered more cautiously with clothing and more diligently. But our honorable parts have no need of anything, because they are beautiful and honorable in themselves, like the head and the rest. But God has tempered the body, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked it, granting greater gifts to the lesser, so that the one who is lesser in honor may be greater in grace. So that there may be no division in the body. Since we need one another, we are anxious for one another, lest anyone claim that he is deprived of both grace and honor. But let the members be anxious for one another for the same thing.

The eyes look out for the feet, the hands do the work of the whole body as a road, and all the members serve one another. And if one member suffers anything, all the members suffer with it. If one member is in pain, the whole body is sick, and the rest of the members hasten to its health. Or if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. As Solomon says, When the heart rejoices, the face flourishes. But we, by compassion and congratulation, are changed into the opposite. You are the body of Christ, and members of a member. All are a body, individually members, that is, the Church, as he says elsewhere, From his flesh, and from his bones. It must be noted that we are rightly called the Church. And some indeed God has placed in the Church. He now shows the order of the members. First apostles; second prophets. In the Church, not in the Synagogue, lest we think he spoke of the ancient prophets, but of Agabus and the others. Otherwise he ought also to have named the patriarchs prophets, since those from whom Agabus came were called prophets, not those who prophesied God as about to come in the flesh. Third teachers. And those who explain the obscure things of the prophets, and those who speak consolations to men, are deservedly called teachers, who establish morals honorably, even if they cannot explain mysteries. Then powers. Powers are greater signs, whether of demons or of infirmities. Then gifts of healings, helps. Helps; for it is said to Paul by the Macedonian, Come, help us. Governments, kinds of tongues.

Those who know how to govern individuals. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all powers? Do all have the grace of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? What he said above: if all were one member, where would the body be? But earnestly desire. Strive to imitate. Charismata. Gifts, these are of graces, not of merits, because what is given is not placed in our power, nor is it demanded of us. Like a good life, which we ought to display with God's help. Better. Because these also are good. And yet a more excellent way. Just as a public road is higher than the other roads and paths, so also charity is the direct way, through which one hastens to the heavenly capital. If anyone has the other virtues, unless he has entered upon this way, that is, unless he has charity, which is the more excellent way, he will not be able to enter the city of the Lord. I show you the way. By which you may go to God, that is, charity. He wishes to show that we ought to seek those things which profit unto life rather than signs.

CHAPTER XIII. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love. Not only of men, but even if there are tongues of angels. I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Which produces sound not of itself, but from another's impulse alone, and profits neither itself nor another. But love possesses every fruit. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries. Here prophecy means foretelling things to come; mysteries pertain to wisdom; knowledge, however, means to know all things that have been and are. And all knowledge. It is no wonder that love is preferred to knowledge, since even prophecy and martyrdom are said to be nothing without it. And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains. The Savior says that faith like a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains; but here the Apostle says that it is all faith that removes mountains, whence it is understood that the faith compared to a grain of mustard seed is perfect, and this is added not because of its smallness, but because of its wholeness and fervor. But if I have not love, I am nothing. What will it profit me to have the powers of foreknowledge, if I have not the works of love? For it is said to me: Depart from me, worker of iniquity. And if I distribute all my goods as food for the poor. It must be noted that contempt of the world is joined to martyrdom, against those who excuse it from the Gospel by various arguments. And if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

If it is done not for God but for human glory, or if indeed in martyrdom itself someone holds anger against a brother, despising God who said: Forget the malice of your neighbor: it is not love that is born from martyrdom, but martyrdom from love. Love. Now he describes the members and forms of love: Love is from God, indeed is God, and therefore consists of such great virtues. It is patient, it is kind. Parents, because they love their children, patiently bear all the injuries of their infants. Love does not envy. No one envies the one whom he truly loves, whatever glory or honor he sees him have, but gladly embraces all his happiness as his own. It does not act perversely. It does all things according to order. It is not puffed up; it is not ambitious. For it does not strive to be greater than others, and does not desire to lord it over brothers. It does not seek the things that are its own. It does not seek what is useful to itself, but what is useful to many. It is not provoked, it does not think evil. So that it not only does not think to do evil to friends, but does not return evil for evil even to enemies. It does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices with the truth. It is saddened if it sees anyone either have done or have suffered iniquity. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. It bears injuries, believes one who makes satisfaction, hopes for amendment, waits until you correct. It endures all things; love never falls away; whether prophecies will be emptied out, or tongues will cease.

That is, this alone remains in the future, or certainly what is true is not changed nor does it fall away, because it does all things with a good mind. Whether knowledge shall be destroyed. Without love knowledge puffs up, and therefore it shall be destroyed. For with love it builds up. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. We do not know all things, nor do we prophesy all things. But when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be emptied out. In the future, what has been promised, that is, that it be no longer in part but wholly, because to faith and hope the reality itself now succeeds—not what is to be believed and hoped for, but what is seen and held; but love, which is the greater of these three, is not taken away but increased and fulfilled, having contemplated what it believed and having obtained what it hoped for; in which fullness that precept of love shall be fulfilled: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart. For while there is still something of carnal concupiscence that must be bridled by restraint, God is not loved with the whole soul. When I was a little child, I spoke as a little child, I understood as a little child, I thought as a little child. By the example of a carnal little one he wishes to show spiritual progress. When I became a man, I put away the things that were of a little child. He shows how those things he mentioned above are put away. Now we see. As little children, who cannot with the most serene keenness of heart perfectly perceive the light of truth. Through a mirror in an enigma. Through the mirror of the law, as it were an image of things, we see. But then face to face.

Now I know in part. He says "present" or "clearly." But then I shall know, as I have been known. Then I shall know God, and the things that are God's—insofar, that is, as the human mind can know concerning God; for who can know God as he is? Now there remain faith, hope, and clarity, these three; but the greater of these is love. In the present there are three; in the future there will be only the love of God, and of the angels, and of all the saints. Greater, then, is that which is always needed than that which will at some point cease. For everything that we hope for we also believe; but not everything that we believe do we also hope for.

CHAPTER XIV. Pursue love: with every effort follow after it and hold it, that love which is poured out through the Holy Spirit. Be zealous for spiritual things, but especially that you may prophesy; for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God. I do not forbid you to be zealous for spiritual gifts and to seek them, but rather I urge you to prophesy—that is, to expound—so that others too may be edified. For no one hears, no one understands, except God, and anyone who has the gift of interpretation. But the Spirit speaks mysteries through the grace of the Spirit. For one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation. He has explained the prophecy of which he spoke: whoever therefore does this, prophesies. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself—himself alone. But one who prophesies edifies the Church of God—all. I want you all to speak in tongues, but rather to prophesy. This I do not forbid, that I urge; this I want, that I prefer.

For greater is he who prophesies. He is greater because he seeks this gift, from which many will profit, because this too is a work of love. Than he who speaks in tongues. Which they considered the greatest thing. Unless perhaps he interprets, and the Church receives edification. If he has both, then he will be equal to the one who prophesies. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues. By his own example he dissuades them from seeking as something great that which does not profit the Church. What will it profit you? It will be mere wonder for you, not progress. Unless I speak to you either in revelation. Then I will profit you, if I interpret, or speak plainly, or expound prophecies, or teach moral matters. Or in knowledge. That is, the spiritual sense, that is, discernment of what we ought to do, and how we should correct our habits. By knowledge we can understand the good recounting of things done. Or prophecy. Through allegory, prophecy, that is anagogy, that is, when speech is transferred to invisible things and to things to come, as is that which he declares concerning the resurrection of the dead. Prophecy in this place he calls especially exposition. Or in doctrine. Simple historical narration. Yet those things which are without life and give a voice, whether pipe or lyre, unless they give a distinction of sound. Since these inanimate things, unless they have distinction, will not be sweet, and as. empty and superfluous things will be rejected, how much more you, whose spiritual sweetness ought not to soothe the ears, but the mind?

How will what is sung or what is played on the lyre be known? It will be understood. For even if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle? So also you, through the tongue, unless you give a clear word, how will what is said be known? The sound of the trumpet will be uncertain; whether it is for a solemnity or for war, no one discerns. Therefore your speech must be understood in such a way that it can prepare the soldiers of Christ for spiritual battle. For you will be speaking into the air. There are, for instance, so many kinds of tongues in this world. Even if you speak as many things as there are kinds of tongues, what will it profit, when all things are dissolved into air and profit no one? And nothing is without a voice. Nothing is without the voice of tongues. If therefore I do not know the power of the voice, I will be a barbarian to him to whom I speak, and he who speaks to me will be a barbarian. Every speech that is not understood is barbarous to the hearer. So also you, since you are emulators of spirits. As I said concerning myself. For the edification of the Church, seek that you may abound. As you pursue spiritual gifts. And therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. Let him pray that he may also merit the grace of interpreting, or he ought so to speak that he may interpret. For if I speak in a tongue what I do not understand, as one inspired by the Spirit, I speak in ecstasy. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays. In this place the spirit is to be understood as speech, which sometimes prays while the mind is thinking of other things. Whence the prophet says: My heart has forsaken me. But my mind is without fruit.

Because I do not understand what I say through the spirit. What then is it? I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind: I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind. For he who interprets must first himself understand what he is going to say to others. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit. Everything that is spoken truly and according to God is blessed. Who supplies the place of the unlearned? Who fills the soundness of knowledge in the heart of the unlearned? How does he say, Amen, upon your blessing? Since he does not know what you say, he who answers Amen on behalf of the unlearned, that is, the ignorant. For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified. What he has blessed. I give thanks to God, that I speak in the tongue of all of you. Do not think that I too do not have this grace, and that you are therefore to forbid it. But in the Church I wish to speak five words with my understanding, so that I may also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. But I prefer to speak a few things for profit, than many things which profit no one. Some ask why five words: they are to be asked in turn about the ten thousand. Brothers, do not become children in understanding, but be little ones in malice, yet perfect in understanding. In the law it is written: Since in other tongues, and with other lips, I will speak to this people, and not even so will they hear me, says the Lord. At the same time he shows that no one is perfect in understanding except the little one in malice, because wisdom will not enter a malevolent soul.

Be infants in malice, not in understanding; for one ought to know how long tongues are to last, or why they are given. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to the faithful, but to the unfaithful. It is shown that, as faith grows, the signs cease which were given on account of the unfaithful. But prophecies are not for the unfaithful, but for the faithful. Greater therefore and more useful is that which benefits the faithful, and which is always necessary. If therefore the whole Church comes together into one, and all speak in tongues. That is, if it could be granted to you, because you all wish this. But outsiders or unbelievers enter. Newly believing, or ignorant, less learned. Will they not say that you are insane? But if all prophesy, and some unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all. As the Jews said: They are full of new wine. The hidden things of his heart become manifest. When his conscience is struck through teaching. And so falling on his face he will adore God, declaring that God is truly among you. As Nebuchadnezzar adored Daniel, saying: Your God is truly God himself, after he heard his dream and its interpretation. What then is it, brothers? When you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching. An understanding. Has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. A revelation of mysteries. Let all things be done for edification. Let there be nothing among you that does not edify one another.

Whether anyone speaks in a tongue, by two or at most three, according to the Greeks. And in turn, and let one interpret. Whether those two speak in turn, not at the same time, or one interprets in turn. But if there is no interpreter, let him be silent in the Church. Either himself, or another. But let him speak to himself and to God; let two or three prophets speak, and let the rest judge. Let him hold this grace with his own conscience and the grace of God. But if something has been revealed to another who is seated, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted. He who spoke first, or who is first in honor. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not of dissension, but of peace. Whether the spirit of grace consents to another prophet, or the spirit of humility and charity ought to be in the prophets: because God is not of pride and dissension, who does not dwell in them, but of peace, because the things they prophesy are known to them. As I teach in all the churches of the saints. In all the churches it is so, lest you think I am commanding you something new. Let women be silent in the churches. For it is against the order of nature or of the law that women speak in an assembly of men. For it is not permitted them to speak. How then does he say elsewhere that they ought rightly to teach prudence, so that they may lead in prudence and chastity; but in the matter of sex, and at the same time when he shows the place where they are to be silent, elsewhere he permitted them to speak. But be subject, as the law also said.

Because the man was also made first, and Sara called Abraham lord. But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. Did the word of God proceed from you, or has it come to you alone? If anyone seems to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write to you are the Lord's commands. Lest he seem to have forbidden them even to learn, he shows that they ought to learn at home, but in the church all are to keep silence. It should be noted that men ought to be so learned that they are able to teach their wives and instruct them in the truth of the faith. But if anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored. Therefore, brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but let all things be done honorably and in order among you. When the Apostle was arranging that all things be done honorably and in order, he said: If anyone seems to have prophesied, or is spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write to you are the Lord's commands. But if anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored. If anyone seems to be, and indeed is not; for he who is without doubt recognizes, nor has need of admonition and restraint, because he judges all things, and is judged by no one. Therefore those were making seditions and disturbances in the church who seemed to be what they were not: he teaches these to recognize that it is the Lord's command, because God is not a God of sedition, but of peace.

But if anyone does not know, he will not be known, that is, he will be disapproved; for if you refer it to knowledge, God does not know those to whom he will say: I never knew you, but their disapproval is suggested by this word: Amen I say to you, that I do not know you. And therefore we ought to take care that we be instructed with charity by the gift of God.

CHAPTER 15. But I make known to you, brothers, the Gospel which I preached to you. Among other things, certain of the Corinthians dared even to deny the resurrection of the flesh, whom the Apostle refutes. Which also you have received. Lest he should seem to have preached only to those who do not believe. In which also you stand. In whose doctrine you stand. By which also you are saved. By which also you are saved, if only you believe with faith and fulfill it with works, or because even in the present they are saved from many infirmities. By what reasoning I preached to you, if you hold it, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you in the first place, and received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. He gathers up in summary those things which he had preached to them, and recalls them to memory. And that he was seen by Cephas. Not that he appeared to him first, but that he manifested himself to him in the third appearance. And after this to the eleven. On that same day of the resurrection, late, when Thomas was absent. Then he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at once, of whom many remain until now. Through whom you can, if you wish, know what I say. But some have fallen asleep.

In the Lord. Then he was seen by James; then by all the apostles. And last of all, as by one born out of due time. One born out of due time is so called who is born outside the proper time, or who is brought forth alive after the mother has died. He calls himself one born out of due time, because he believed outside the time of the Lord's preaching. He was seen also by me—when he was on his way to Damascus. For I am the least of the apostles: not in labor, because I labored more than all; but in order. Who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. The whole purpose of our preaching is this, that you believe in the resurrection; for this is the reward of those who serve Christ; otherwise all the labor of fastings and tribulations is superfluous, which in this life, whether prosperous or adverse, appear to be common with unbelievers; as they are accustomed to put before us what more we have than they, and truly, if we do not hope for the reward of these labors in the other life, we are worse than they. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

That is, the grace of God gave me life and restored me, and after these things I labored with the grace of God, and in me it was not in vain. And because he had said: I labored more abundantly than all of them, lest he seem to ascribe anything to himself, he immediately added: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me: because God works in us, and he himself inspires us to labor, and he himself helps those who labor, he himself brings the good work to completion: because from him, and through him, and in him are all things. As he also says elsewhere: He who began a good work in you will himself perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And he himself says: Without me you can do nothing. For also blessed Jerome in the Apologetic to Pammachius sets down this testimony thus: Yet not I, but the grace of God, which is in me. For whether I or they, so we preached, and so you believed. But if Christ is preached that he rose from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ has not risen, our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. But we are found also to be false witnesses of God: because we have said testimony against God, that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, neither has Christ risen: but if Christ has not risen, your faith is also vain, for you are still in your sins. Therefore also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in this life only we are hoping in Christ, we are more miserable than all men. For he burdened none of those to whom he preached the Gospel, but supported his own living by his own hands; where that which he says was more fully fulfilled: I labored more abundantly than all of them; and he adds: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me: so that this too may appear to be ascribed to the grace of God, that both in mind and in body he was able to labor so far more abundantly than all of them, that he neither ceased from preaching the Gospel, nor yet sustained this life from the Gospel. But now Christ has risen from the dead. Which has already been proved. The firstfruits of those who sleep. If the head has risen, it is necessary that the remaining members also follow, because he rose first in incorruptibility. For since death came through a man, and the resurrection of the dead through a man. As through Adam death entered, because he himself was the first to die, so also through Christ the resurrection, because he himself rose first: as that one is the pattern of those who die, so also this one is the pattern of those who rise. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. What dies, this rises again. It is not called to rise again unless it has fallen. For neither is the soul mortal, although it is dead through sin; nor did it lie in its own substance, because it is incorporeal. But the body could otherwise be said to rise rather than to rise again. But each one in his own order. Of time or of honor. Christ the firstfruits.

As he said above: the firstfruits of those who sleep. Then those who are Christ's at his coming. Not only at his coming, but at his coming they will rise. Then the end. When the resurrection of all has come, then will be the end of death. When he has handed over. The Arians slander, saying: If the Son hands the kingdom over to the Father, after he has handed over the kingdom, he himself will then cease to reign. To whom it must be answered: If the Son will not reign for the reason that he is going to hand the kingdom over to the Father, then neither does the Father reign before it is handed over to him by the Son. But if the Father did not first begin to reign then, although he then receives it, so neither will the Son, although he hands over the kingdom, lose it. Again they object that he will be subject to the Father: that those are impious who even now deny that he is subject to the Father in his own body. But subjection does not always involve diminution. For the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, so that God may be not of dissension but of peace. The kingdom. But the handing over of the kingdom is our advantage, that we may have deserved to be wholly of the Son in the Father's kingdom, when he has led his elect, made incorruptible, to that contemplation of which blessed John says: We shall see him as he is. It must first be held that in this place the Apostle is not treating of the Trinity, but of the resurrection, which he confirms by the example of the Lord, that is, of the man assumed. The kingdom.

The kingdom of God is indeed by nature over all things that he himself established; but then God is properly said to reign when those men have been subjected by will, just as they subjected themselves to the kingdom of the devil of their own accord. To God and the Father. To God according to his humanity, to the Father according to his divinity; and therefore he says to God and the Father. When he has abolished every. By abolishing sins, their kingdom will be abolished from us. Principality. Because we were following them, doing their will. And power. Because they were ruling over us. And virtue. Because the enemies were conquering us for themselves. But it is necessary that he reign. He used reign in place of judge. Until he puts all enemies under his feet. When some will be subjected by will, others by necessity. But the last enemy will be destroyed. For there will be nothing else to be destroyed afterward, when this mortal has put on immortality. Death. In the Apocalypse sin and death are called [enemies], because [sin] is the author of death. For he subjected all things under his feet. David says this concerning man. But when he says, all things are subjected to him. On account of the false accusation. Without doubt except him who subjected all things to him. God, who was in the world itself reconciling [it] to himself. Or certainly understand the Father, who assumed no created condition by which he ought to be subject. But when all things have been subjected to him. When both good and evil will have been subjected. Then the Son himself will be subject to him who subjected all things to himself.

Concerning subjection, some say that just as he hungers in the hungry, or is fed in his subjects—that is, in his own body he himself is subjected—or that human nature itself ought to be subject in thanksgiving to that divinity which, already making itself one with it, has subjected all things to it. Otherwise: in judgment it is necessary for him to appear again in the form of humility; but after the judgment he is so subject—that is, conjoined or united, man to God—that now nothing appears but the divinity, as his own word declares: That God may be all in all. Times are to be understood; or certainly because now it is not yet so, since resistance is still offered to his body, while we do not do what we will, because the flesh still lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. That God may be all things. The whole ruler in all: now he is not yet all things in all, because each of the saints has various virtues of his within himself. But then the one will possess all things, and he himself will be all in all. Again, let us see what the holy bishop Augustine thought (Augustine, in the book On Various Questions, question 66): Then the Son himself will also be subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all. It is rightly asked in this place whether the Apostle said this according to the properties of the persons, or according to the assumption of a man.

The circumstances of Scripture are accustomed to illuminate its meaning, when those things that surround the Scripture and bear upon the present question are treated with diligent discussion. We find, then, that the approach to this passage was such that he said above: But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep. For he was dealing with the resurrection of the dead, which was accomplished in the Lord according to the assumption of a man. It is evident, therefore, that this was said according to the assumption of a man. But another question is accustomed to arise in this chapter. First, what was said: When he has handed over the kingdom to God and the Father, as if the Father does not now hold the kingdom; then, what was said: For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, as if afterwards he were not going to reign, and as if what was said above were to this effect: Then comes the end—which heretics, with sacrilegious opinion, take in such a way as if he had said the end, the consummation of his kingdom, although it is written in the Gospel: And of his kingdom there will be no end. Finally, what was said: But when all things have been subjected to him, then even the Son himself will be subject to him who subjected all things to himself—they wish this to be understood as if either something is not now subject to the Son, or he himself is not subject to the Father. The question, therefore, is resolved by the kind of expression used; for Scripture commonly speaks in such a way that what always is is said then to be made in someone, when it has begun to be known by him.

For thus we say in the Lord's Prayer: Hallowed be thy name, not as though it were at some time not holy. Therefore just as "hallowed be" means "let it be known to be holy," so too when he has handed over the kingdom to God and the Father—that is, when he has shown that the Father reigns—so that it may become clear through sight and manifestation what is now believed by the faithful and not thought to be so by the unbelievers. But he will bring to nothing every principality and power, by manifesting, surely, the kingdom of the Father: so that it may be known to all that none of the principalities and powers, whether heavenly or earthly, had of themselves anything of principality and power, but from him from whom are all things, not only that they exist, but also that they are ordered. For in that manifestation no hope will remain for anyone in any prince or in any man: as even now it is sung prophetically: It is better to hope in the Lord than to hope in man. It is a gift to hope in the Lord than to hope in princes: so that by this meditation the soul may already rise up into the kingdom of the Father, neither magnifying the power of anyone besides him, nor most perniciously flattering itself. He hands over, therefore, the kingdom to God and the Father, when through him the Father is known through sight. For his kingdom is those in whom he now reigns through faith.

For the kingdom of Christ is spoken of in one way according to the power of his divinity, whereby all creation is subject to him; and his kingdom is spoken of in another way as the Church, according to the property of the faith that is in him, according as he prays who says: Possess us. For he does not fail to possess all things, according as that also is said: When you were servants of sin, you were free with respect to righteousness. He will therefore empty out every principality and every power and virtue, so that for no one who looks upon the Father through the Son is there any need or desire to rest in the power of any creature, or in his own. For it is necessary that he reign until he places all his enemies under his feet: that is, it is necessary that his kingdom be manifested for so long, until all his enemies themselves confess that he reigns. This is not understood as meaning that his enemies are to be under his feet. But if we take this of the just, they are called enemies for this reason, that they are justified from being unjust, and by believing are subjected to him. But concerning the unjust who do not pertain to the future blessedness of the just, it is to be taken thus, that they too, confounded by the very manifestation of his kingdom, will confess that he reigns. Therefore it is necessary that he reign until he places all his enemies under his feet: this is not said as though, when he has placed his enemies under his feet, he will not reign afterwards; but it is necessary that he reign until he places all his enemies under his feet.

He must, it says, bring his kingdom to such great evidence that his enemies in no way dare deny that he reigns. Meanwhile, the sacred Scriptures use the word "until" for a conjunction, by which "and" or "so that" can be indicated. For it is written: "Until she bore her son," that is, "and she bore her son." It is also written: "Our eyes are toward the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us," that is, "so that he have mercy on us." Yet not for this reason, when he has had mercy on us, ought we to turn our eyes away from him. For our blessedness is to such an extent great as we enjoy the contemplation of him. So therefore this too was said: the intentness of our eyes is not directed toward the Lord except up to the obtaining of his mercy, not so that afterward it be turned away from there, but so that it seek nothing further from there. Therefore "until" is put in place of "so that it understand no more." For to what more, that is, up to what greater manifestation will the kingdom of Christ be manifested, except up to the point where all enemies confess that he reigns? It is one thing, therefore, not to be manifested more, and another thing not to remain more. Not to be manifested more is not to become more manifest; not to remain more is not to become more persistent. But when will the kingdom of Christ be more manifest than when it has shone forth before all enemies? Last of all, the enemy death will be destroyed, for there will be nothing else to be destroyed after this mortal has put on immortality.