| Quotation |
Scriptum est in sequentibus huius epistolae: Ecce hanc uobis, carissimi, secundam scribo epistolam;
unde constat quia hanc eisdem quibus et priorem epistolam miserat, electis proselitis dispersionis
Ponti, Galatiae, Cappadociae, Asiae, et Bithyniae, epistolam scripsit quos coaequales sibi cognoscit,
non quia circumcisionem ex lege acceperant quam ipse ut natura Iudaeus habebat, sed quia eandem
quam ipse illustrante Christi gratia acceperat sortiti sunt fidem.
Non enim circumcisio legalis sed sola est fides euangelica quae gentium populos antiquae Dei plebi
consociet. |
| Translation |
It has been written in what follows of this Letter, 'Look, dearly beloved, I am writing this second Letter to you.' Hence it is clear that he wrote this Letter to the same ones whom he had also sent the former Letter, to the elect newcomers of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia [Minor] and Bithynia, whom he recognizes as of equal standing with himself, not because they had received circumcision according to the law, which had, being by nature a Jew, but because they obtained the same faith as he himself had received from the enlightening grace of Jesus Christ. For it is not legal circumcision but gospel faith alone that joins the peoples of the gentiles to the ancient people of God. (Trans. David Hurst, The Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 1985, p. 123) |
