CHAPTER 13
If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and I have not charity, I am made as brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling. (If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have no love, I am made like a sounding brass, or like a tinkling cymbal.)
And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all cunning, (or all knowing), [or science], and if I have all faith, so that I (can) move hills from their place(s), [or from one place to another], and I have not charity, I am nought. (And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains from one place to another, but I have no love, I am nothing.)
And if I part all my goods into the meats of poor men, and if I betake my body, so that I burn, and if I have not charity, it profiteth to me nothing. (And if I part with, or divide up, all my goods, to provide food for the poor, and if I deliver, or give up, my body, to be burned, but I have no love, it profiteth nothing to me.)
Charity is patient, it is benign; charity envieth not, it doeth not wickedly, it is not blown [with pride], (Love is patient, it is kind; love envieth not, it doeth not wickedly, it is not swollen with pride,)
it is not covetous, [or it is not ambitious, or covetous of worships, (or honours)], it seeketh not those things that be his own [or her own], it is not stirred to wrath, it thinketh not evil,
it joyeth not on wickedness, but it joyeth together to (the) truth; [it joyeth not in wickedness, forsooth it joyeth together with (the) truth;]
it suffereth all things, it believeth all things, it hopeth all things, it sustaineth all things.
Charity falleth never down, whether prophecies shall be voided, either languages shall cease, either science shall be destroyed. (Love never falleth down, whether prophecies shall be made null and void, or strange and ecstatic languages shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.)
For a part we know, and a part we prophesy;
10 but when that shall come that is perfect, that thing that is of part shall be voided. (but when that shall come which is complete, or which is finished, that which is but partial, or is unfinished, shall be done away.)
11 When I was a little child, I spake as a little child, I understood as a little child, I thought as a little child; but when I was made a man, I avoided those things/I voided those things that were of a little child. (When I was a little child, I spoke like a little child, I understood like a little child, I thought like a little child; but when I became a man, I put away those things that were a little child’s.)
12 And we see now by a mirror in darkness, but then face to face; now I know of part, but then I shall know, as I am known. (And we see now by a mirror in the dark, but then face to face; now I know a part, but then I shall know, like I am known by God.)
13 And now dwell faith, hope, charity, these three; but the most of these is charity. (And now remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.)