The Fall of Mankind

3 Now ^(A)the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “^(B)From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; ³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” ^4 (C)The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! ⁵ For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and ^(D)you will ^[a]become like God, knowing good and evil.” ^6 (E)When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they ^(F)knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.

⁸ Now they heard the sound of ^(G)the Lord God walking in the garden in the ^[b]cool of the day, ^(H)and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “^(I)Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “^(J)I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ¹¹ And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” ^12 (K)The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “^(L)The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

¹⁶ To the woman He said,

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

²⁰ Now the man named his wife ^[j](W)Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of ^(X)Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from ^(Y)the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So ^(Z)He drove the man out; and at the ^(AA)east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the ^(AB)cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to ^(AC)the tree of life.

Healing Crowds

^29 (A)Departing from there, Jesus went along ^(B)the Sea of Galilee, and after going up on the mountain, He was sitting there. ³⁰ And ^[a]large crowds came to Him bringing with them those who were limping, had impaired limbs, were blind, or were unable to speak, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and ^(C)He healed them. ³¹ So the crowd was astonished as they saw those who were unable to speak talking, those with impaired limbs ^[b]restored, those who were limping walking around, and those who were blind seeing; and they ^(D)glorified the God of Israel.

Four Thousand Men Fed

^32 (E)Now Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “^(F)I feel compassion for the ^[c]people, because they ^[d]have remained with Me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” ³³ The disciples *said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?” ³⁴ And Jesus *said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” ³⁵ And He directed the ^[e]people to ^[f]sit down on the ground; ³⁶ and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and after ^(G)giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ³⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large ^(H)baskets full. ³⁸ And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

³⁹ And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into ^(I)the boat and came to the region of ^(J)Magadan.

Pharisees and Sadducees Test Jesus

16 ^(K)The ^(L)Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and putting Jesus to the test, they ^(M)asked Him to show them a ^[g]sign from heaven. ² But He replied to them, “^[h](N)When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ ³ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ ^(O)You know how to discern the ^[i]appearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times? ^4 (P)An evil and adulterous generation wants a ^[j]sign; and so a ^[k]sign will not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

⁵ And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. ⁶ And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and ^(Q)beware of the ^[l]leaven of the ^(R)Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷ They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” ⁸ But Jesus, aware of this, said, “^(S)You men of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet understand nor remember ^(T)the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you picked up? ¹⁰ Nor ^(U)the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you picked up? ¹¹ How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you about bread? But ^(V)beware of the ^[m]leaven of the ^(W)Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the ^[n]leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the ^(X)Pharisees and Sadducees.

Cain and Abel

4 Now the man ^[a]had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have obtained a male child with the help of the Lord.” ² And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now ^(A)Abel was ^(B)a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground. ³ So it came about ^[b]in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. ^4 (C)Abel, on his part also brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And ^(D)the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; ⁵ but ^(E)for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So ^(F)Cain became very angry and his face ^[c]was gloomy. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “^(G)Why are you angry? And why is your face ^[d]gloomy? ^7 (H)If you do well, ^[e]will your face not be ^[f]cheerful? ^(I)And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, ^(J)but you must master it.” ⁸ Cain ^[g]talked to his brother Abel; and it happened that when they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and ^(K)killed him.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “^(L)Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ Then He said, “What have you done? ^(M)The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ Now ^(N)you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ^12 (O)When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; ^(P)you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.” ¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to endure! ¹⁴ Behold, You have ^(Q)driven me this day from the face of the ground; and I will be hidden from Your face, and ^(R)I will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth, and ^(S)whoever finds me will kill me.” ¹⁵ So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him ^(T)seven times as much.” And the Lord ^[h](U)placed a mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him.

¹⁶ Then Cain left the presence ^(V)of the Lord, and ^[i]settled in the land of ^[j]Nod, east of Eden.

The Gospel Exalted

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, ^[a](A)called as an apostle, ^(B)set apart for ^(C)the gospel of God, ² which He ^(D)promised beforehand through His ^(E)prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born ^(F)of a ^[b]descendant of David ^(G)according to the flesh, ⁴ who was declared ^(H)the Son of God with power according to the ^[c]Spirit of holiness ^[d]by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and ^(I)apostleship ^[e]to bring about the ^(J)obedience of faith among ^(K)all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, ⁶ among whom you also are the ^(L)called of Jesus Christ;

⁷ to all who are ^(M)beloved of God in Rome, called as ^[f](N)saints: ^(O)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ First, ^(P)I thank my God through Jesus Christ ^[g]for you all, because ^(Q)your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹ For ^(R)God, whom I ^(S)serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly ^(T)I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers requesting if perhaps now, at last by ^(U)the will of God, I will succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(V)I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be ^[h]established; ¹² that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ^13 (W)I do not want you to be unaware, ^(X)brothers and sisters, that often I ^(Y)have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some ^(Z)fruit among you also just as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (AA)I am ^[i]under obligation both to Greeks and to the ^[j](AB)uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to ^(AC)preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ^(AD)ashamed of the gospel, for ^(AE)it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the ^(AF)Jew first and also to ^(AG)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(AH)the righteousness of God is revealed ^[k]from faith to faith; as it is written: “^[l](AI)But the righteous one will live by faith.”

Unbelief and Its Consequences

¹⁸ For ^(AJ)the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who ^(AK)suppress the truth ^[m]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because ^(AL)that which is known about God is evident ^[n]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For ^(AM)since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ^(AN)being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[o]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became ^(AO)futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ^22 (AP)Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they ^(AQ)exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and ^[p]crawling creatures.

²⁴ Therefore ^(AR)God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be ^(AS)dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[q](AT)falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, ^(AU)who is blessed ^[r]forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason ^(AV)God gave them over to ^(AW)degrading passions; for their women exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature, ²⁷ and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations ^[s]with women and burned in their desire toward one another, ^(AX)males with males committing ^[t]shameful acts and receiving in ^[u]their own persons the due penalty of their error.

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit ^[v]to acknowledge God, ^(AY)God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, ²⁹ people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are ^(AZ)gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, ^[w](BA)haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, ^(BB)disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, ^(BC)unfeeling, and unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of ^(BD)death, they not only do the same, but also ^(BE)approve of those who practice them.