¹³ even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,^(A)

³ But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.^(A)

⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit^{(A) 5} and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come^{(B) 6} and then have fallen away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and are holding him up to contempt.^{(C) 7} Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.^{(D) 8} But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.^(E)

¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem,

²¹ For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{(A) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

and,

²⁶ For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins^{(A) 27} but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.^{(B) 28} Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”^{(C) 29} How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?^(D)

¹⁶ Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

¹⁷ “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.^(A)

³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.”^{(A) 40} Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”^{(B) 41} Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.^(C)