They sent their disciples, with the Herodians, to say to him: "Teacher, we know that you are an honest man, and that you teach the way of God honestly, and are not afraid of any one; for you pay no regard to a man's position.
For false Christs and false Prophets will arise, and will display great signs and marvels, so that, were it possible, even God's People would be led astray.
These men came to him and said: "Teacher, we know that you are an honest man, and are not afraid of any one, for you pay no regard to a man's position, but teach the Way of God honestly; are we right in paying taxes to the Emperor, or not?
"You incarnation of deceit and all fraud! You son of the Devil! You opponent of all that is good! Will you never cease to divert 'the straight paths of the Lord'? Listen!
This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, calling: "These men are servants of the most high God, and they are bringing you news of a way to Salvation."
This man began to speak out fearlessly in the Synagogue; and when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained the Cause of God to him more carefully still.
Some of them, however, hardened their hears and refused to believe, denouncing the Cause before the people. So Paul left them and withdrew his disciples, and gave daily addresses in the lecture-hall of Tyrannus.
This, however, I do acknowledge to you, that it is as a believer in the Cause which they call heretical, that I worship the God of my ancestors. At the same time, I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the prophets;
Let your daily life among the Gentiles be so upright, that, whenever they malign you as evil-doers, they may learn, as they watch, from the uprightness of your conduct, to praise God 'at the time when he shall visit them.'
These men, however, like animals without reason, intended by nature to be caught and killed--these men, I say, malign those of whom they know nothing, and will assuredly perish through their own corruption,
Leaving the straight road, they have gone astray and followed in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on the reward for wrong-doing,
With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives.
It would, indeed, have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy Command delivered to them.
But these men malign whatever they do not understand; while they use such things as they know by instinct (like the animals that have no reason) for their own corruption.
to execute judgment upon all men, and to convict all godless people of all their godless acts, which in their ungodliness they have committed, and of all the harsh words which they have spoken against him, godless sinners that they are!'
For there have crept in among you certain godless people, whose sentence has long since been pronounced, and who make the mercy of God an excuse for profligacy, and disown our only lord and master, Jesus Christ.
Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns near them, which gave themselves up to fornication, and fell into unnatural vice, these angels now stand out as a warning, undergoing, as they are, the punishment of aeonian fire.
Then the great Dragon, the primeval Serpent, known as the 'Devil' and 'Satan,' who deceives all the world, was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.
and in consequence of the marvels which it was allowed to perform under the eyes of the Beast, it is able to deceive all who are living on the earth. It bids those who live on the earth to make a statue in honour of the Beast, who, despite the wound from the sword, yet lived.
All who are living on earth will worship it--all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Lamb that has been sacrificed from the foundation of the world.