The Koine Bible

For they said within themselves, reasoning not rightly: Our life is short and sorrowful, and there is no healing in the death of a man, and the one who has returned from Hades has not been known.

For we were born by chance, and after this we shall be as though not having existed, for the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and the word is a spark in the stirring of our heart.

when it has been quenched, the body will become ashes, and the spirit will be poured out like thin air

and our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will remember our works, and our life will pass away like traces of a cloud, and like mist it will be scattered, driven away by the rays of the sun and weighed down by its heat

For the passing of our time is a shadow, and there is no returning from our end, because it has been sealed and no one turns back.

Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that exist, and let us use creation as in youth eagerly

Let us be filled with costly wine and perfumes, and let the flower of spring not pass us by.

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

Let none of us go without a share in our insolence; let us leave signs of our rejoicing everywhere, for this is our portion and this our lot.

Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor have regard for the gray hairs of the aged.

Let our strength be the law of righteousness, for what is weak proves useless.

Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is troublesome to us and opposes our deeds, and reproaches us with sins of the law and proclaims against us sins of our training.

He professes to have knowledge of God and calls himself a child of the Lord.

He became for us a reproof of our thoughts; he is burdensome to us, and when seen.

because his life is unlike that of others, and his ways are changed

We are considered by him as counterfeit, and he keeps away from our ways as from uncleannesses; he blesses the ends of the righteous, and boasts of God as his father.

Let us see whether his words are true, and let us test what will happen at his end.

For if the righteous man is son of God, he will take hold of him and will deliver him out of the hand of those who oppose him.

Let us examine him with insult and torture, that we may know his gentleness and test his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for there will be an oversight of him from his words.

These things they reasoned, and they went astray, for their wickedness blinded them.

and they did not know the mysteries of God, nor did they hope for the reward of holiness, nor did they judge a prize for blameless souls

For God created man for incorruptibility, and he made him an image of his own eternity.

But through the envy of the devil death entered into the world, and those who belong to his portion test it.