| OLD TESTAMENT | NEW TESTAMENT | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 7 Books | Old Testament History | Wisdom Books | Major Prophets | Minor Prophets | NT History | Epistles of St. Paul | General Writings | |||
| Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuter. Joshua Judges | Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chron. 2 Chron. | Ezra Nehem. Tobit Judith Esther 1 Macc. 2 Macc. | Job Psalms Proverbs Eccles. Songs Wisdom Sirach | Isaiah Jeremiah Lament. Baruch Ezekiel Daniel | Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah | Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi | Matthew Mark Luke John Acts | Romans 1 Corinth. 2 Corinth. Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians | 1 Thess. 2 Thess. 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews | James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation |
| 1 Παρακαλῶ |
1 Here, then, is one who wears chains in the Lord’s service, pleading with you to live as befits men called to such a vocation as yours. 2 You must be always humble, always gentle; patient, too, in bearing with one another’s faults, as charity bids; 3 eager to preserve that unity the Spirit gives you, whose bond is peace. 4 You are one body, with a single Spirit; each of you, when he was called, called in the same hope; 5 with the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism; 6 with the same God, the same Father, all of us, who is above all beings, pervades all things, and lives in all of us.[1] 7 But each of us has received his own special grace, dealt out to him by Christ’s gift. 8 (That is why we are told, He has mounted up on high; he has captured his spoil; he has brought gifts to men.[2] 9 The words, He has gone up, must mean that he had gone down, first, to the lower regions of earth. 10 And he who so went down is no other than he who has gone up, high above all the heavens, to fill creation with his presence.)[3] 11 Some he has appointed to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, or pastors, or teachers. 12 They are to order the lives of the faithful, minister to their needs, build up the frame of Christ’s body, 13 until we all realize our common unity through faith in the Son of God, and fuller knowledge of him. So we shall reach perfect manhood, that maturity which is proportioned to the completed growth of Christ;[4] 14 we are no longer to be children, no longer to be like storm-tossed sailors, driven before the wind of each new doctrine that human subtlety, human skill in fabricating lies, may propound. 15 We are to follow the truth, in a spirit of charity, and so grow up, in everything, into a due proportion with Christ, who is our head.[5] 16 On him all the body depends; it is organized and unified by each contact with the source which supplies it; and thus, each limb receiving the active power it needs, it achieves its natural growth, building itself up through charity. | 1 Obsecro itaque vos ego vinctus in Domino, ut digne ambuletis vocatione, qua vocati estis, 2 cum omni humilitate, et mansuetudine, cum patientia, supportantes invicem in caritate, 3 solliciti servare unitatem Spiritus in vinculo pacis. 4 Unum corpus, et unus Spiritus, sicut vocati estis in una spe vocationis vestræ. 5 Unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma. 6 Unus Deus et Pater omnium, qui est super omnes, et per omnia, et in omnibus nobis. 7 Unicuique autem nostrum data est gratia secundum mensuram donationis Christi. 8 Propter quod dicit: Ascendens in altum, captivam duxit captivitatem: dedit dona hominibus. 9 Quod autem ascendit, quid est, nisi quia et descendit primum in inferiores partes terræ? 10 Qui descendit, ipse est et qui ascendit super omnes cælos, ut impleret omnia. 11 Et ipse dedit quosdam quidem apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, alios vero evangelistas, alios autem pastores et doctores, 12 ad consummationem sanctorum in opus ministerii, in ædificationem corporis Christi: 13 donec occurramus omnes in unitatem fidei, et agnitionis Filii Dei, in virum perfectum, in mensuram ætatis plenitudinis Christi: 14 ut jam non simus parvuli fluctuantes, et circumferamur omni vento doctrinæ in nequitia hominum, in astutia ad circumventionem erroris. 15 Veritatem autem facientes in caritate, crescamus in illo per omnia, qui est caput Christus: 16 ex quo totum corpus compactum et connexum per omnem juncturam subministrationis, secundum operationem in mensuram uniuscujusque membri, augmentum corporis facit in ædificationem sui in caritate. |
| 17 |
17 This, then, is my message to you; I call upon you in the Lord’s name not to live like the Gentiles, who make vain fancies their rule of life. 18 Their minds are clouded with darkness; the hardness of their hearts breeds in them an ignorance, which estranges them from the divine life; 19 and so, in despair, they have given themselves up to incontinence, to selfish habits of impurity.[6] 20 This is not the lesson you have learned in making Christ your study, 21 if you have really listened to him. If true knowledge is to be found in Jesus, you will have learned in his school 22 that you must be quit, now, of the old self whose way of life you remember, the self that wasted its aim on false dreams.[7] 23 There must be a renewal in the inner life of your minds; 24 you must be clothed in the new self, which is created in God’s image, justified and sanctified through the truth. | 17 Hoc igitur dico, et testificor in Domino, ut jam non ambuletis, sicut et gentes ambulant in vanitate sensus sui, 18 tenebris obscuratum habentes intellectum, alienati a vita Dei per ignorantiam, quæ est in illis, propter cæcitatem cordis ipsorum, 19 qui desperantes, semetipsos tradiderunt impudicitiæ, in operationem immunditiæ omnis in avaritiam. 20 Vos autem non ita didicistis Christum, 21 si tamen illum audistis, et in ipso edocti estis, sicut est veritas in Jesu, 22 deponere vos secundum pristinam conversationem veterem hominem, qui corrumpitur secundum desideria erroris. 23 Renovamini autem spiritu mentis vestræ, 24 et induite novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in justitia, et sanctitate veritatis. |
| 25 |
25 Away with falsehood, then; let everyone speak out the truth to his neighbour; membership of the body binds us to one another. 26 Do not let resentment lead you into sin; the sunset must not find you still angry.[8] 27 Do not give the devil his opportunity. 28 The man who was a thief must be a thief no longer; let him work instead, and earn by his own labour the blessings he will be able to share with those who are in need. 29 No base talk must cross your lips; only what will serve to build up the faith, and bring a grace to those who are listening;[9] 30 do not distress God’s holy Spirit, whose seal you bear until the day of your redemption comes. 31 There must be no trace of bitterness among you, of passion, resentment, quarrelling, insulting talk, or spite of any kind; 32 be kind and tender to one another, each of you generous to all, as God in Christ has been generous to you. | 25 Propter quod deponentes mendacium, loquimini veritatem unusquisque cum proximo suo: quoniam sumus invicem membra. 26 Irascimini, et nolite peccare: sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram. 27 Nolite locum dare diabolo: 28 qui furabatur, jam non furetur: magis autem laboret, operando manibus suis, quod bonum est, ut habeat unde tribuat necessitatem patienti. 29 Omnis sermo malus ex ore vestro non procedat: sed si quis bonus ad ædificationem fidei ut det gratiam audientibus. 30 Et nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Dei: in quo signati estis in diem redemptionis. 31 Omnis amaritudo, et ira, et indignatio, et clamor, et blasphemia tollatur a vobis cum omni malitia. 32 Estote autem invicem benigni, misericordes, donantes invicem sicut et Deus in Christo donavit vobis. |
[1] Some of the best Greek manuscripts omit the word ‘us’ at the end of the sentence; nor does the Greek text make it clear whether the reference in the last three clauses is to men or to things.
[2] Ps. 67.19. The Hebrew should more probably be rendered, ‘he has received gifts among men’.
[3] vv. 9 and 10: The exact sense of this passage is much disputed. If we understand ‘the lower regions of earth’ as meaning simply ‘this lower earth’, St Paul is saying that our Lord’s Ascension presupposes his coming down to earth at his Incarnation. If we understand ‘the lower regions of earth’ as meaning the grave, or the Limbus Patrum, then St Paul is saying (verse 9) that the Descent into Hell is presupposed by the Resurrection, after which our Lord gave gifts to men (Mk. 16.17; Jn. 20.22); it is only in verse 10 that he refers to the Ascension. Some manuscripts and versions omit the word ‘first’ in verse 9; if we adopt that reading, a third interpretation becomes possible, namely, that St Paul speaks of our Lord as going up in his Ascension, and coming down in the Mission of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. v. 10: ‘To fill creation with his presence’; others would translate ‘to bring all things (i.e. prophecies) to fulfilment’.
[4] The last clause of this verse is variously interpreted. But the thought seems to be, that as Christ, who is our head, grew up to the perfect age of manhood when Incarnate, so his Church has to grow up to a corresponding perfection of holiness.
[5] ‘Into a due proportion with Christ’; the Latin here has simply ‘in Christ’, but it seems probable that St Paul is continuing his metaphor (taken from nature) of the body which grows up to the scale of its head.
[6] ‘In despair’; the best Greek manuscripts read ‘past all feeling’.
[7] ‘Wasted its aim on false dreams’; literally, ‘became corrupt according to the appetites of error’, a phrase which is variously interpreted.
[8] Ps. 4.5.
[9] ‘To build up the faith’; some Greek manuscripts read ‘to edify others as opportunity arises’.
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd
