Read the Bible

¹ And I say, so long time as the heir is a babe, he differeth nothing from a servant -- being lord of all,² but is under tutors and stewards till the time appointed of the father,³ so also we, when we were babes, under the elements of the world were in servitude,⁴ and when the fulness of time did come, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law,⁵ that those under law he may redeem, that the adoption of sons we may receive;⁶ and because ye are sons, God did send forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, `Abba, Father!'⁷ so that thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

⁸ But then, indeed, not having known God, ye were in servitude to those not by nature gods,⁹ and now, having known God -- and rather being known by God -- how turn ye again unto the weak and poor elements to which anew ye desire to be in servitude?¹⁰ days ye observe, and months, and times, and years!¹¹ I am afraid of you, lest in vain I did labour toward you.

¹² Become as I [am] -- because I also [am] as ye brethren, I beseech you; to me ye did no hurt,¹³ and ye have known that through infirmity of the flesh I did proclaim good news to you at the first,¹⁴ and my trial that [is] in my flesh ye did not despise nor reject, but as a messenger of God ye did receive me -- as Christ Jesus;¹⁵ what then was your happiness? for I testify to you, that if possible, your eyes having plucked out, ye would have given to me;¹⁶ so that your enemy have I become, being true to you?

¹⁷ they are zealous for you -- [yet] not well, but they wish to shut us out, that for them ye may be zealous;¹⁸ and [it is] good to be zealously regarded, in what is good, at all times, and not only in my being present with you;

¹⁹ my little children, of whom again I travail in birth, till Christ may be formed in you,²⁰ and I was wishing to be present with you now, and to change my voice, because I am in doubt about you.

²¹ Tell me, ye who are willing to be under law, the law do ye not hear?²² for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman,²³ but he who [is] of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who [is] of the free-woman, through the promise;²⁴ which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar;²⁵ for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children,²⁶ and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all,²⁷ for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.'<sup>28</sup> And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise,<sup>29</sup> but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now;<sup>30</sup> but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;'³¹ then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.