1 Corinthians (1 Co) 10

1 For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea,

2 and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe,

3 also they all ate the same food from the Spirit,

4 and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah.

5 Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.

6 Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did.

7 Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as theTanakhputs it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”

8 And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day.

9 And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes.

10 And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

11 These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in theacharit-hayamim.

12 Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful not to fall!

13 No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

14 Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry!

15 I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying.

16 The “cup of blessing” over which we make theb’rakhah— isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? The bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah?

17 Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

18 Look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

19 So, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself?

20 No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons!

21 You can’t drink both a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons.

22 Or are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?

23 “Everything is permitted,” you say? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted?” Maybe, but not everything is edifying.

24 No one should be looking out for his own interests, but for those of his fellow.

25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,

26 for the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.

27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal, and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without raising questions of conscience.

28 But if someone says to you, “This meat was offered as a sacrifice,” then don’t eat it, out of consideration for the person who pointed it out and also for conscience’s sake —

29 however, I don’t mean your conscience but that of the other person. You say, “Why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?

30 If I participate with thankfulness, why am I criticized over something for which I myself bless God?”

31 Well, whatever you do, whether it’s eating or drinking or anything else, do it all so as to bring glory to God.

32 Do not be an obstacle to anyone — not to Jews, not to Gentiles, and not to God’s Messianic Community.

33 Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not looking out for my own interests but for those of the many, so that they may be saved;

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 11

1 try to imitate me, even as I myself try to imitate the Messiah.

2 Now I praise you because you have remembered everything I told you and observe the traditions just the way I passed them on to you.

3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of the Messiah is God.

4 Every man who prays or prophesies wearing something down over his head brings shame to his head,

5 but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame to her head — there is no difference between her and a woman who has had her head shaved.

6 For if a woman is not veiled, let her also have her hair cut short; but if it is shameful for a woman to wear her hair cut short or to have her head shaved, then let her be veiled.

7 For a man indeed should not have his head veiled, because he is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the glory of man.

8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man;

9 and indeed man was not created for the sake of the woman but woman for the sake of the man.

10 The reason a woman should show by veiling her head that she is under authority has to do with the angels.

11 Nevertheless, in union with the Lord neither is woman independent of man nor is man independent of woman;

12 for as the woman was made from the man, so also the man is now born through the woman. But everything is from God.

13 Decide for yourselves: is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God when she is unveiled?

14 Doesn’t the nature of things itself teach you that a man who wears his hair long degrades himself?

15 But a woman who wears her hair long enhances her appearance, because her hair has been given to her as a covering.

16 However, if anyone wants to argue about it, the fact remains that we have no such custom, nor do the Messianic communities of God.

17 But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you meet together it does more harm than good!

18 For, in the first place, I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques; and to a degree I believe it

19 (granted that there must be some divisions among you in order to show who are the ones in the right).

20 Thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the Lord;

21 because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk!

22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or are you trying to show your contempt for God’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? What am I supposed to say to you? Am I supposed to praise you? Well, for this I don’t praise you!

23 For what I received from the Lord is just what I passed on to you — that the Lord Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread;

24 and after he had made theb’rakhahhe broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this as a memorial to me”;

25 likewise also the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant effected by my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, as a memorial to me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.

27 Therefore, whoever eats the Lord’s bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the Lord!

28 So let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup;

29 for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.

30 This is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died!

31 If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment.

32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined, so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

33 So then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat, wait for one another.

34 If someone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it will not result in judgment.

As for the other matters, I will instruct you about them when I come.

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 12

1 But, brothers, I do not want you to go on being ignorant about the things of the Spirit.

2 You know that when you were pagans, no matter how you felt you were being led, you were being led astray to idols, which can’t speak at all.

3 Therefore, I want to make it clear to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, “Yeshua is cursed!” and no one can say, “Yeshua is Lord,” except by theRuach HaKodesh.

4 Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them.

5 Also there are different ways of serving, but it is the same Lord being served.

6 And there are different modes of working, but it is the same God working them all in everyone.

7 Moreover, to each person is given the particular manifestation of the Spirit that will be for the common good.

8 To one, through the Spirit, is given a word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit;

9 to another, faith, by the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of healing, by the one Spirit;

10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the ability to judge between spirits; to another, the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues; and to yet another, the ability to interpret tongues.

11 One and the same Spirit is at work in all these things, distributing to each person as he chooses.

12 For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah.

13 For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 For indeed the body is not one part but many.

15 If the foot says, “I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body.

16 And if the ear says, “I’m not an eye, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body.

17 If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If it were all hearing, how could it smell?

18 But as it is, God arranged each of the parts in the body exactly as he wanted them.

19 Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be?

20 But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body.

21 So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you”; or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be less important turn out to be all the more necessary;

23 and upon body parts which we consider less dignified we bestow greater dignity; and the parts that aren’t attractive are the ones we make as attractive as we can,

24 while our attractive parts have no need for such treatment. Indeed, God has put the body together in such a way that he gives greater dignity to the parts that lack it,

25 So that there will be no disagreements within the body, but rather all the parts will be equally concerned for all the others.

26 Thus if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; and if one part is honored, all the parts share its happiness.

27 Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah, and individually you are parts of it.

28 And God has placed in the Messianic Community first, emissaries; second, prophets; third, teachers; then those who work miracles; then those with gifts of healing; those with ability to help; those skilled in administration; and those who speak in various tongues.

29 Not all are emissaries, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? or teachers? or miracle-workers?

30 Not all have gifts of healing, not all speak in tongues, not all interpret, do they?

31 Eagerly seek the better gifts.

But now I will show you the best way of all.

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 13

1 I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels;

but if I lack love, I have become merely

blaring brass or a cymbal clanging.

2 I may have the gift of prophecy,

I may fathom all mysteries, know all things,

have all faith — enough to move mountains;

but if I lack love, I am nothing.

3 I may give away everything that I own,

I may even hand over my body to be burned;

but if I lack love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful,

5 not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered,

and it keeps no record of wrongs.

6 Love does not gloat over other people’s sins

but takes its delight in the truth.

7 Love always bears up, always trusts,

always hopes, always endures.

8 Love never ends; but prophecies will pass,

tongues will cease, knowledge will pass.

9 For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy partial;

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child,

thought like a child, argued like a child;

now that I have become a man,

I have finished with childish ways.

12 For now we see obscurely in a mirror,

but then it will be face to face.

Now I know partly; then I will know fully,

just as God has fully known me.

13 But for now, three things last —

trust, hope, love;

and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 14

1 Pursue love!

However, keep on eagerly seeking the things of the Spirit; and especially seek to be able to prophesy.

2 For someone speaking in a tongue is not speaking to people but to God, because no one can understand, since he is uttering mysteries in the power of the Spirit.

3 But someone prophesying is speaking to people, edifying, encouraging and comforting them.

4 A person speaking in a tongue does edify himself, but a person prophesying edifies the congregation.

5 I wish you would all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you would all prophesy. The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless someone gives an interpretation, so that the congregation can be edified.

6 Brothers, suppose I come to you now speaking in tongues. How can I be of benefit to you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

7 Even with lifeless musical instruments, such as a flute or a harp, how will anyone recognize the melody if one note can’t be distinguished from another?

8 And if the bugle gives an unclear sound, who will get ready for battle?

9 It’s the same with you: how will anyone know what you are saying unless you use your tongue to produce intelligible speech? You will be talking to the air!

10 There are undoubtedly all kinds of sounds in the world, and none is altogether meaningless;

11 but if I don’t know what a person’s sounds mean, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker will be a foreigner to me.

12 Likewise with you: since you eagerly seek the things of the Spirit, seek especially what will help in edifying the congregation.

13 Therefore someone who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit does pray, but my mind is unproductive.

15 So, what about it? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

16 Otherwise, if you are giving thanks with your spirit, how will someone who has not yet received much instruction be able to say, “Amen,” when you have finished giving thanks, since he doesn’t know what you are saying?

17 For undoubtedly you are giving thanks very nicely, but the other person is not being edified.

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you,

19 but in a congregation meeting I would rather say five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue!

20 Brothers, don’t be children in your thinking. In evil, be like infants; but in your thinking, be grown-up.

21 In theTorahit is written,

“By other tongues,

by the lips of foreigners

I will speak to this people.

But even then they will not listen to me,”

saysAdonai.

22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

23 So if the whole congregation comes together with everybody speaking in tongues, and uninstructed people or unbelievers come in, won’t they say you’re crazy?

24 But if you all prophesy, and some unbeliever or uninstructed person enters, he is convicted of sin by all, he is brought under judgment by all,

25 and the secrets of his heart are laid bare; so he falls on his face and worships God, saying, “God is really here among you!”

26 What is our conclusion, brothers? Whenever you come together, let everyone be ready with a psalm or a teaching or a revelation, or ready to use his gift of tongues or give an interpretation; but let everything be for edification.

27 If the gift of tongues is exercised, let it be by two or at most three, and each in turn; and let someone interpret.

28 And if there is no one present who can interpret, let the people who speak in tongues keep silent when the congregation meets — they can speak to themselves and to God.

29 Let two or three prophets speak, while the others weigh what is said.

30 And if something is revealed to a prophet who is sitting down, let the first one be silent.

31 For you can all prophesy one by one, with the result that all will learn something and all will be encouraged.

32 Also, the prophets’ spirits are under the prophets’ control;

33 for God is not a God of unruliness but ofshalom.

As in all the congregations of God’s people,

34 let the wives remain silent when the congregation meets; they are certainly not permitted to speak out. Rather, let them remain subordinate, as also theTorahsays;

35 and if there is something they want to know, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for a woman to speak out in a congregational meeting.

36 Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?

37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or is endowed with the Spirit, let him acknowledge that what I am writing you is a command of the Lord.

38 But if someone doesn’t recognize this, then let him remain unrecognized.

39 So, my brothers, eagerly seek to prophesy; and do not forbid speaking in tongues;

40 but let all things be done in a proper and orderly way.

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 15

1 Now, brothers, I must remind you of the Good News which I proclaimed to you, and which you received, and on which you have taken your stand,

2 and by which you are being saved — provided you keep holding fast to the message I proclaimed to you. For if you don’t, your trust will have been in vain.

3 For among the first things I passed on to you was what I also received, namely this: the Messiah died for our sins, in accordance with what theTanakhsays;

4 and he was buried; and he was raised on the third day, in accordance with what theTanakhsays;

5 and he was seen by Kefa, then by the Twelve;

6 and afterwards he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, though some have died.

7 Later he was seen by Ya‘akov, then by all the emissaries;

8 and last of all he was seen by me, even though I was born at the wrong time.

9 For I am the least of all the emissaries, unfit to be called an emissary, because I persecuted the Messianic Community of God.

10 But by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain; on the contrary, I have worked harder than all of them, although it was not I but the grace of God with me.

11 Anyhow, whether I or they, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.

12 But if it has been proclaimed that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised;

14 and if the Messiah has not been raised, then what we have proclaimed is in vain; also your trust is in vain;

15 furthermore, we are shown up as false witnesses for God in having testified that God raised up the Messiah, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

16 For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either;

17 and if the Messiah has not been raised, your trust is useless, and you are still in your sins.

18 Also, if this is the case, those who died in union with the Messiah are lost.

19 If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone.

20 But the fact is that the Messiahhasbeen raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died.

21 For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man.

22 For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive.

23 But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming;

24 then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power.

25 For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy to be done away with will be death,

27 for “He put everything in subjection under his feet.” But when it says that “everything” has been subjected, obviously the word does not include God, who is himself the one subjecting everything to the Messiah.

28 Now when everything has been subjected to the Son, then he will subject himself to God, who subjected everything to him; so that God may be everything in everyone.

29 Were it otherwise, what would the people accomplish who are immersed on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not actually raised, why are people immersed for them?

30 For that matter, we ourselves — why do we keep facing danger hour by hour?

31 Brothers, by the right to be proud which the Messiah Yeshua our Lord gives me, I solemnly tell you that I die every day.

32 If my fighting with “wild beasts” in Ephesus was done merely on a human basis, what do I gain by it? If dead people are not raised, we might as well live by the saying, “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

33 Don’t be fooled. “Bad company ruins good character.”

34 Come to your senses! Live righteously and stop sinning! There are some people who lack knowledge of God — I say this to your shame.

35 But someone will ask, “In what manner are the dead raised? What sort of body do they have?”

36 Stupid! When you sow a seed, it doesn’t come alive unless it first dies.

37 Also, what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare seed of, say, wheat or something else;

38 but God gives it the body he intended for it; and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

39 Not all living matter is the same living matter; on the contrary, there is one kind for human beings, another kind of living matter for animals, another for birds and another for fish.

40 Further, there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the beauty of heavenly bodies is one thing, while the beauty of earthly bodies is something else.

41 The sun has one kind of beauty, the moon another, the stars yet another; indeed, each star has its own individual kind of beauty.

42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. When the body is “sown,” it decays; when it is raised, it cannot decay.

43 When sown, it is without dignity; when raised, it will be beautiful. When sown, it is weak; when raised, it will be strong.

44 When sown, it is an ordinary human body; when raised, it will be a body controlled by the Spirit. If there is an ordinary human body, there is also a body controlled by the Spirit.

45 In fact, theTanakhsays so: Adam, the first man, became a living human being; but the last “Adam” has become a life-giving Spirit.

46 Note, however, that the body from the Spirit did not come first, but the ordinary human one; the one from the Spirit comes afterwards.

47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.

48 People born of dust are like the man of dust, and people born from heaven are like the man from heaven;

49 and just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so also we will bear the image of the man from heaven.

50 Let me say this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, nor can something that decays share in what does not decay.

51 Look, I will tell you a secret — not all of us will die! But we will all be changed!

52 It will take but a moment, the blink of an eye, at the finalshofar. For theshofarwill sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed.

53 For this material which can decay must be clothed with imperishability, this which is mortal must be clothed with immortality.

54 When what decays puts on imperishability and what is mortal puts on immortality, then this passage in theTanakhwill be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 “Death, where is your victory?

Death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin; and sin draws its power from theTorah;

57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah!

58 So, my dear brothers, stand firm and immovable, always doing the Lord’s work as vigorously as you can, knowing that united with the Lord your efforts are not in vain.

1 Corinthians (1 Co) 16

1 Now, in regard to the collection being made for God’s people: you are to do the same as I directed the congregations in Galatia to do.

2 Every week, onMotza’ei-Shabbat, each of you should set some money aside, according to his resources, and save it up; so that when I come I won’t have to do fundraising.

3 And when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the people you have approved, and I will send them to carry your gift to Yerushalayim.

4 If it seems appropriate that I go too, they will go along with me.

5 I will visit you after I have gone through Macedonia, for I am intending to pass through Macedonia,

6 and I may stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me continue my travels wherever I may go.

7 For I don’t want to see you now, when I am only passing through; because I am hoping to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows it.

8 But I will remain in Ephesus untilShavu‘ot,

9 because a great and important door has opened for my work, and there are many people opposing me.

10 If Timothy comes, see that he has nothing to be afraid of while he is with you; for he is doing the Lord’s work, just as I am.

11 So let no one treat him with disrespect. Help him on his way in peace, so that he will return to me, for the brothers and I are expecting him.

12 As for brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to go and visit you along with the other brothers; and although it was not at all his desire to come at this time, he will come when he has the opportunity.

13 Stay alert, stand firm in the faith, behave like amentsh, grow strong.

14 Let everything you do be done in love.

15 Now, brothers, you know that the household of Stephanas were the first people in Achaia to put their trust in the Messiah, and they have devoted themselves to serving God’s people.

16 I urge you to submit yourselves to people like these and to everyone who works and toils with them.

17 I am glad that Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus are here, because they have helped make up for your not being here.

18 They have refreshed my spirit, just as they have yours. I want you to show appreciation for people like these.

19 The congregations in the province of Asia send greetings to you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you in union with the Lord, as does the congregation that meets in their house.

20 All the brothers send you their greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

21 Now, I Sha’ul, greet you in my own handwriting.

22 If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him! Marana, ta!

[Our Lord, come!]

23 May the grace of the Lord Yeshua be with you.

24 My love is with you all, in union with the Messiah Yeshua.

Romans (Rom) 1

1 From: Sha’ul, a slave of the Messiah Yeshua, an emissary because I was called and set apart for the Good News of God.

2 God promised this Good News in advance through his prophets in theTanakh.

3 It concerns his Son — he is descended from David physically;

4 he was powerfully demonstrated to be Son of God spiritually, set apart by his having been resurrected from the dead; he is Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.

5 Through him we received grace and were given the work of being an emissary on his behalf promoting trust-grounded obedience among all the Gentiles,

6 including you, who have been called by Yeshua the Messiah.

7 To: All those in Rome whom God loves, who have been called, who have been set apart for him:

Grace to you andshalomfrom God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

8 First, I thank my God through Yeshua the Messiah for all of you, because the report of your trust is spreading throughout the whole world.

9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit by spreading the Good News about his Son, is my witness that I regularly remember you

10 in my prayers; and I always pray that somehow, now or in the future, I might, by God’s will, succeed in coming to visit you.

11 For I long to see you, so that I might share with you some spiritual gift that can make you stronger —

12 or, to put it another way, so that by my being with you, we might, through the faith we share, encourage one another.

13 Brothers, I want you to know that although I have been prevented from visiting you until now, I have often planned to do so, in order that I might have some fruit among you, just as I have among the other Gentiles.

14 I owe a debt to both civilized Greeks and uncivilized people, to both the educated and the ignorant;

15 therefore I am eager to proclaim the Good News also to you who live in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile.

17 For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in his sight; and from beginning to end it is through trust — as theTanakhputs it, “But the person who is righteous will live his life by trust.”

18 What is revealed is God’s anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth;

19 because what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them.

20 For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse;

21 because, although they know who God is, they do not glorify him as God or thank him. On the contrary, they have become futile in their thinking; and their undiscerning hearts have become darkened.

22 Claiming to be wise, they have become fools!

23 In fact, they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for mere images, like a mortal human being, or like birds, animals or reptiles!

24 This is why God has given them up to the vileness of their hearts’ lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other’s bodies.

25 They have exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, by worshipping and serving created things, rather than the Creator — praised be he for ever.Amen.

26 This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural;

27 and likewise the men, giving up natural relations with the opposite sex, burn with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with other men and receiving in their own persons the penalty appropriate to their perversion.

28 In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things.

29 They are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and vice; stuffed with jealousy, murder, quarrelling, dishonesty and ill-will; they are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God; they are insolent, arrogant and boastful; they plan evil schemes; they disobey their parents;

31 they are brainless, faithless, heartless and ruthless.

32 They know well enough God’s righteous decree that people who do such things deserve to die; yet not only do they keep doing them, but they applaud others who do the same.

Romans (Rom) 2

1 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, passing judgment; for when you judge someone else, you are passing judgment against yourself; since you who are judging do the same things he does.

2 We know that God’s judgment lands impartially on those who do such things;

3 do you think that you, a mere man passing judgment on others who do such things, yet doing them yourself, will escape the judgment of God?

4 Or perhaps you despise the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience; because you don’t realize that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to turn from your sins.

5 But by your stubbornness, by your unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself on the Day of Anger, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed;

6 for he will pay back each one according to his deeds.

7 To those who seek glory, honor and immortality by perseverance in doing good, he will pay back eternal life.

8 But to those who are self-seeking, who disobey the truth and obey evil, he will pay back wrath and anger.

9 Yes, he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile;

10 but glory and honor andshalomto everyone who keeps doing what is good, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.

11 For God does not show favoritism.

12 All who have sinned outside the framework ofTorahwill die outside the framework ofTorah; and all who have sinned within the framework ofTorahwill be judged byTorah.

13 For it is not merely the hearers ofTorahwhom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of whatTorahsays who will be made righteous in God’s sight.

14 For whenever Gentiles, who have noTorah, do naturally what theTorahrequires, then these, even though they don’t haveTorah, for themselves areTorah!

15 For their lives show that the conduct theTorahdictates is written in their hearts. Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them

16 on a day when God passes judgment on people’s inmost secrets. (According to the Good News as I proclaim it, he does this through the Messiah Yeshua.)

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest onTorahand boast about God

18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from theTorah;

19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness,

20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in theTorahyou have the embodiment of knowledge and truth;

21 then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? Preaching, “Thou shalt not steal,” do you steal?

22 Saying, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts?

23 You who take such pride inTorah, do you, by disobeying theTorah, dishonor God? —

24 as it says in theTanakh, “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by theGoyim.”

25 For circumcision is indeed of value if you do whatTorahsays. But if you are a transgressor ofTorah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!

26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of theTorah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

27 Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys theTorahwill stand as a judgment on you who have had ab’rit-milahand haveTorahwritten out but violate it!

28 For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.

29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.

Romans (Rom) 3

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being circumcised?

2 Much in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God.

3 If some of them were unfaithful, so what? Does their faithlessness cancel God’s faithfulness?

4 Heaven forbid! God would be true even if everyone were a liar! — as theTanakhsays,

“so that you, God, may be proved right in your words

and win the verdict when you are put on trial.”

5 Now if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what should we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict his anger on us? (I am speaking here the way people commonly do.)

6 Heaven forbid! Else, how could God judge the world?

7 “But,” you say, “if, through my lie, God’s truth is enhanced and brings him greater glory, why am I still judged merely for being a sinner?”

8 Indeed! Why not say (as some people slander us by claiming we do say), “Let us do evil, so that good may come of it”? Against them the judgment is a just one!

9 So are we Jews better off? Not entirely; for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are controlled by sin.

10 As theTanakhputs it,

“There is no one righteous, not even one!

No one understands,

11 no one seeks God,

12 all have turned away

and at the same time become useless;

there is no one who shows kindness, not a single one!

13 “Their throats are open graves,

they use their tongues to deceive.

Vipers’ venom is under their lips.

14 Their mouths are full of curses and bitterness.

15 “Their feet rush to shed blood,

16 in their ways are ruin and misery,

17 and the way ofshalomthey do not know.

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Moreover, we know that whatever theTorahsays, it says to those living within the framework of theTorah, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God’s adverse judgment.

20 For in his sight no one alive will be considered righteous on the ground of legalistic observance ofTorahcommands, because whatTorahreally does is show people how sinful they are.

21 But now, quite apart fromTorah, God’s way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although theTorahand the Prophets give their witness to it as well —

22 and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile,

23 since all have sinned and come short of earning God’s praise.

24 By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua.

25 God put Yeshua forward as thekapparahfor sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God’s righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past;

26 and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua’s faithfulness.

27 So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind ofTorahexcludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, aTorahthat has to do with trusting.

28 Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance ofTorahcommands.

29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles;

30 because, as you will admit, God is one. Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting.

31 Does it follow that we abolishTorahby this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirmTorah.