¹² for there are eunuchs who from the mother's womb were so born; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who kept themselves eunuchs because of the reign of the heavens: he who is able to receive `it' -- let him receive.'

³ Nor speak let a son of the stranger, Who is joined unto Jehovah, saying: `Jehovah doth certainly separate me from His people.' Nor say let the eunuch, `Lo, I am a tree dried up,'

⁴ For thus said Jehovah of the eunuchs, Who do keep My sabbaths, And have fixed on that which I desired, And are keeping hold on My covenant:

⁵ have we not authority a sister -- a wife -- to lead about, as also the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

⁷ and of thy sons who come forth from thee, whom thou begettest, they take, and they have been eunuchs in a palace of the king of Babylon.'

³² And I wish you to be without anxiety; the unmarried is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord;

³³ and the married is anxious for the things of the world, how he shall please the wife.

³⁴ The wife and the virgin have been distinguished: the unmarried is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, and the married is anxious for the things of the world, how she shall please the husband.

³⁵ And this for your own profit I say: not that I may cast a noose upon you, but for the seemliness and devotedness to the Lord, undistractedly,

³⁶ and if any one doth think `it' to be unseemly to his virgin, if she may be beyond the bloom of age, and it ought so to be, what he willeth let him do; he doth not sin -- let him marry.

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.

¹⁵ And I have used none of these things; neither did I write these things that it may be so done in my case, for `it is' good for me rather to die, than that any one may make my glorying void;