Third Letter to the Corinthians (Correspondence of Paul and the Corinthians) (complete)

1. Stephanus and all the elders who are with him, Daphinus, Eubulus, Theophilus and Zenon, to Paul their brother in the Lord, eternal greeting. 2. Two men have come to Corinth, a certain Simon and Cleobius, who are overturning the faith of some with corrupt words; 3. test these things yourself. 4. For we have never heard such things from you … 5–6. … in the flesh … 7. … us. 8. For we believe, as it was revealed to Theonoe, that the Lord has delivered you from the hand of the lawless one. We ask you to write back to us. 9. For these are the things they say and teach: 10. that one must not, they say, believe the prophets; 11. that God is not […]; 12. that there is no resurrection of the flesh; 13. that man is not the handiwork of God; 14. that Christ did not come in the flesh, nor was he born of Mary; 15. and that the world is not God's, but the angels'. 16. Therefore we ask you, brother, make every effort to come to us, so that the church of the Corinthians may not remain in offence, and the folly of these men may be shown to be empty. Farewell in the Lord.

1. Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ, to those who are in Corinth, brothers in the Lord, greeting. 2. Since I am in many troubles, I do not wonder that the teachings of the evil one are spreading so fast. 3. For my Lord Jesus Christ will hasten his coming, and will bring to nothing those who corrupt his word. 4. For from the beginning I handed on to you what I also received, which was handed on to me by the Lord and by the apostles who were before me and were with Christ Jesus at all times: 5. that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary, of the seed of David according to the flesh, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven by the Father into her through the angel Gabriel, 6. so that Jesus might come into this world in the flesh, and by his birth set free all flesh, and raise us from the dead in our bodies, as he himself showed us in his own person as a pattern. 7. For man was formed by his Father; 8. therefore, when he was lost, he was sought by him, so that he might be given life by the Son's creation. 9. For the God of all, who holds all things, who made heaven and earth, first sent prophets to the Jews, to draw them away from their sins. 10. For he purposed to save the house of Israel; so, giving a portion of the Spirit of Christ, he sent it into the prophets, who declared the worship of God and the birth of Christ, preaching for many ages. 11. For the unjust ruler, wishing to be God himself, laid hands on them and killed them, and bound all the flesh of men to his own will, and the end of the world was drawing near to judgment. 12. But God almighty, since he is just, not willing to cast off his own creature, had mercy. 13. From heaven he sent the Holy Spirit into Mary in Galilee, 14. who believed with her whole heart and received the Holy Spirit in her womb, so that Jesus might come into the world, 15. so that through the very flesh in which the evil one had prevailed, he might be shown conquered, and not to be God. 16. For by his own body Jesus Christ … 17–19. … but sons … wisdom, saying without faith that heaven and earth and all that is in them are not the Father's works. 20. They, then, are children of wrath, for they hold the accursed faith of the serpent. 21. Drive them away from you, and flee from their teaching! 22. For you are not children of disobedience, but of the most beloved church. 23. For this reason the time of the resurrection has been proclaimed. 24. As for those who tell you there is no resurrection of the flesh, for them there will be no resurrection to life, but to judgment, 25. because they do not believe in him who rose from the dead, neither believing nor understanding. 26. For they do not know, men of Corinth, about the seeds of wheat and of other seeds, that they are cast bare into the ground and, having decayed below, rise by the will of God with a body and clothed. 27. And not only does the body that was sown rise, but it is blessed with manifold increase. 28. And if we must not draw a comparison from seeds alone, but from nobler bodies: 29. you see that Jonah, son of Amittai, when he would not preach to the Ninevites but fled, was swallowed by the sea monster; 30. and after three days and three nights God heard the prayer of Jonah from the deepest depth, and nothing of him was corrupted, not a hair nor an eyelid. 31. How much more will he raise you, you of little faith, and those who have believed in Christ Jesus, as he himself rose? 32. If … a dead man was cast by the sons of Israel upon the bones of the prophet Elisha and rose again, body and soul and bones and spirit, how much more will you, of little faith, rise from the dead on that day with sound flesh, as Christ rose? 33. Likewise concerning the prophet Elijah: he raised the widow's son from death; how much more will the Lord Jesus raise you from death at the sound of the trumpet, in the twinkling of an eye, as he himself rose from the dead? For he showed us a pattern in his own body. 34. But if you receive anything else, God will be witness against you, and let no one trouble me. 35. For I bear the marks of Christ in my hands, that I may gain Christ, and the marks of his cross in my body, that I may come to the resurrection from the dead. 36. And whoever keeps the rule he received through the blessed prophets and the holy gospel will receive a reward, and when he rises from the dead will obtain eternal life. 37. But whoever transgresses these things, fire is with him and with those who go before him in this way. 38. They are men without God, a brood of vipers. 39. Drive them away in the power of the Lord. 40. And peace, grace and love will be with you. Amen.