The Koine Bible

Again, preparing a voyage and about to travel over wild waves, he cries out to a piece of wood that carries him, more rotten than the ship itself

For that one, indeed, craving for gains devised, but skillful wisdom prepared it.

But your providence, O Father, governs it, because you gave both a way in the sea and a safe path in the waves

showing that you are able to save from everything, so that even without skill someone may embark upon it

And you do not will the works of your wisdom to be idle; therefore also men trust souls to a very small piece of wood, and having passed through a surge by a raft, they were saved safely

And from the beginning, when arrogant giants were being destroyed, the hope of the world, having fled to a raft, left to the age a seed of generation, governed by your hand

For blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes to be

But the thing made by hands is itself cursed, both it and the one who made it, because the one indeed labored at it, but the perishable thing was named god.

For equally hateful to God are both the ungodly man and his ungodliness.

For even the thing done will be punished along with the one who did it.

Therefore even among the idols of the nations there will be a visitation, because they became an abomination in the creation of God, and for stumbling blocks to the souls of men and for a snare to the feet of the foolish.

For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols, and the discovery of them is corruption of life.

For neither was it from the beginning, nor shall it be unto eternity.

For through the vanity of men it entered into the world, and because of this their end was devised to be short.

For a father, being worn down by untimely grief over a child quickly taken away, having made an image of the once dead man, now honored him as a god, and handed down mysteries and rites to those under his hand

Then in time the impious custom, strengthened, was kept as law

and by the commands of tyrants the carved images were worshiped, whom men, not being able to honor in sight because they lived far away, having made an visible likeness from far-off sight of the honored king, made, in order that they might flatter as present the absent one through zeal

and for the extension of religion, the ambition of the craftsman urged on even those who did not know

For he, wanting to please the one who perhaps had authority, forced by his craft the likeness toward the better thing

But the multitude, drawn on by the pleasantness of the work, considered the man who had been honored a short time before now an object of reverence.

And this became for life a snare, because men, having served either calamity or tyranny, assigned the unshared name to stones and wood:

Then it was not enough to go astray about the knowledge of God, but also, while living in a great war of ignorance, they call such great evils peace

For whether they celebrate child-killing rites or secret mysteries or mad revels from strange customs, leading festal processions

nor do they still keep lives or marriages pure; but one by ambush kills another, or by adulterating pains him

and everything is full of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, unfaithfulness, disturbance, perjury

Confusion of good things, forgetfulness of grace, defilement of souls, change of birth, disorder of marriages, adultery and licentiousness

For the worship of nameless idols is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.

For either, while rejoicing, they have gone mad, or they prophesy lies, or they live unjustly, or they swear falsely quickly

For trusting in soulless idols, having sworn wickedly, they do not expect to be wronged.

And both the just things will come upon them, because they thought wickedly concerning God, giving heed to idols, and they swore unjustly in deceit, having despised holiness.

For not the power of those who swear, but the punishment of those who sin, always goes after the transgression of the unrighteous.