I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly. 13 And I saw that wisdom has as much profit over folly as light has over darkness. 14 Wise people have eyes in their heads, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I knew that the same lot befalls both.  15 So I said in my heart, if the fool’s lot is to befall me also, why should I be wise? Where is the profit? And in my heart I decided that this too is vanity. 16 The wise person will have no more abiding remembrance than the fool; for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies like the fool! 17 Therefore I detested life, since for me the work that is done under the sun is bad; for all is vanity and a chase after wind. 18 And I detested all the fruits of my toil under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who is to come after me. 19 And who knows whether that one will be wise or a fool? Yet that one will take control of all the fruits of my toil and wisdom under the sun. This also ...

I said in my heart, “Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.” See, this too was vanity. 2 Of laughter I said: “Mad!” and of mirth: “What good does this do?” 3 Guided by wisdom, I probed with my mind how to beguile my senses with wine and take up folly, until I should understand what is good for human beings to do under the heavens during the limited days of their lives. 4 I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards; 5 I made gardens and parks, and in them set out fruit trees of all sorts. 6 And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland. 7 I acquired male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the treasures of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and delights of men, many women. 9 I accumulated much more ...

We, who are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, 16 [yet] who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 17 But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? Of course not! 18 But if I am building up again those things that I tore down, then I show myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Paul addresses the Jewish Christians w...

And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong. 12 For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised. 13 And the rest of the Jews [also] acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not on the right road in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all, “If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” There was tension within the early Christian community regarding the relationship between Jewish and Gentile believers.  Paul reflects on a confrontation he had with Peter in Antioch.  Kephas is Peter’s Aramaic name.  Table fellowship was a concern in the early Christian community.  Peter, who had previously shared...