¹ And concerning the things of which ye wrote to me: good `it is' for a man not to touch a woman,

⁸ And I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good for them if they may remain even as I `am';

²⁶ I suppose, therefore, this to be good because of the present necessity, that `it is' good for a man that the matter be thus: --

²⁷ Hast thou been bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; hast thou been loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

³⁷ And he who hath stood stedfast in the heart -- not having necessity -- and hath authority over his own will, and this he hath determined in his heart -- to keep his own virgin -- doth well;

³⁸ so that both he who is giving in marriage doth well, and he who is not giving in marriage doth better.

⁶ And God saith unto him in the dream, `Yea, I -- I have known that in the integrity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I withhold thee, even I, from sinning against Me, therefore I have not suffered thee to come against her;

⁹ thine eyes `are' on the field which they reap, and thou hast gone after them; have not I charged the young men not to touch thee? when thou art athirst then thou hast gone unto the vessels, and hast drunk from that which the young men draw.'

²⁹ So `is' he who hath gone in unto the wife of his neighbour, None who doth touch her is innocent.

¹⁰ His disciples say to him, `If the case of the man with the woman is so, it is not good to marry.'

¹¹ And he said to them, `All do not receive this word, but those to whom it hath been given;