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Martedi, 7 maggio 2024 - Santa Flavia ( Letture di oggi)

2 Corinthians 11


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KING JAMES BIBLENEW JERUSALEM
1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.1 I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me -- not that you don't do this already.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.2 The jealousy that I feel for you is, you see, God's own jealousy: I gave you all in marriage to a singlehusband, a virgin pure for presentation to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.3 But I am afraid that, just as the snake with his cunning seduced Eve, your minds may be led astrayfrom single-minded devotion to Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.4 Because any chance comer has only to preach a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you haveonly to receive a spirit different from the one you received, or a gospel different from the one you accepted -- andyou put up with that only too wil ingly.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.5 Now, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the super-apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.6 Even if there is something lacking in my public speaking, this is not the case with my knowledge, aswe have openly shown to you at al times and before everyone.
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?7 Have I done wrong, then, humbling myself so that you might be raised up, by preaching the gospel ofGod to you for nothing?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.8 I was robbing other churches, taking wages from them in order to work for you.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.9 When I was with you and needed money, I was no burden to anybody, for the brothers fromMacedonia brought me as much as I needed when they came; I have always been careful not to let myself be aburden to you in any way, and I shall continue to be so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.10 And as Christ's truth is in me, this boast of mine is not going to be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
11 Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.11 Why should it be? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.12 I wil go on acting as I do at present, to cut the ground from under the feet of those who are lookingfor a chance to be proved my equals in grounds for boasting.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.13 These people are counterfeit apostles, dishonest workers disguising themselves as apostles ofChrist.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.14 There is nothing astonishing in this; even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.15 It is nothing extraordinary, then, when his servants disguise themselves as the servants ofuprightness. They wil come to the end appropriate to what they have done.
16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.16 To repeat: let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then treat me as a fool, so that I, too, can do alittle boasting.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.17 I shal not be fol owing the Lord's way in what I say now, but wil be speaking out of foolishness in theconviction that I have something to boast about.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.18 So many people boast on merely human grounds that I shal too.
19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.19 I know how happy you are to put up with fools, being so wise yourselves;
20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.20 and how you wil still go on putting up with a man who enslaves you, eats up al you possess, keepsyou under his orders and sets himself above you, or even slaps you in the face.
21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.21 I say it to your shame; perhaps we have been too weak. Whatever bold claims anyone makes -- nowI am talking as a fool -- I can make them too.
22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So amI.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.23 Are they servants of Christ? I speak in utter fol y -- I am too, and more than they are: I have donemore work, I have been in prison more, I have been flogged more severely, many times exposed to death.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.24 Five times I have been given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews;
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;25 three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked,and once I have been in the open sea for a night and a day;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;26 continual y travelling, I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from brigands, in danger from myown people and in danger from the gentiles, in danger in the towns and in danger in the open country, in dangerat sea and in danger from people masquerading as brothers;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.27 I have worked with unsparing energy, for many nights without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty,and often altogether without food or drink; I have been cold and lacked clothing.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.28 And, besides all the external things, there is, day in day out, the pressure on me of my anxiety for althe churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?29 If anyone weakens, I am weakened as wel ; and when anyone is made to fal , I burn in agony myself.
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.30 If I have to boast, I will boast of al the ways in which I am weak.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus -- who is for ever to be blessed -- knows that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:32 When I was in Damascus, the governor who was under King Aretas put guards round Damascus cityto catch me,
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.33 and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and that was how I escaped from hishands.