In the Orthodox Church, we are currently in the period of the Apostles’ Fast (Νηστεία των Αγίων Αποστόλων). This is a period of fasting in preparation for the great feast of Saints Peter and Paul the Holy Apostles on June 29. The fasting for this period is not as strict as during Great Lent (Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή).
Given that we are in this fasting period, I would like to share some posts here with various quotations from Saints Peter and Paul’s respective Epistles in the New Testament, as well as some other things concerning them.
The Biblical quotations in English will be from the New King James Version and the original Greek that I will have here is courtesy of www.myriobiblos.gr, the Online Library of the Church of Greece.
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The following is from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nore life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor thing to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39).
“τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; θλῖψις ἢ στενοχωρία ἢ διωγμὸς ἢ λιμὸς ἢ γυμνότης ἢ κίνδυνος ἢ μάχαιρα; καθὼς γέγραπται ὅτι ἕνεκά σου θανατούμεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν· ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς. ἀλλ’ ἐν τούτοις πᾶσιν ὑπερνικῶμεν διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς. πέπεισμαι γὰρ ὅτι οὔτε θάνατος οὔτε ζωὴ οὔτε ἄγγελοι οὔτε ἀρχαὶ οὔτε δυνάμεις οὔτε ἐνεστῶτα οὔτε μέλλοντα, οὔτε ὕψωμα οὔτε βάθος οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα δυνήσεται ἡμᾶς χωρίσαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Θεοῦ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν.”
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“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:14-15).
“εὐλογεῖτε τοὺς διώκοντας ὑμᾶς, εὐλογεῖτε καὶ μὴ καταρᾶσθε. χαίρειν μετὰ χαιρόντων καὶ κλαίειν μετὰ κλαιόντων.”
