Fratres: Puto, quod Deus nos Apóstolos novíssimos osténdit, tamquam morti destinátos: quia spectáculum facti sumus mundo et Angelis et homínibus. Nos stulti propter Christum, vos autem prudéntes in Christo: nos infírmi, vos autem fortes: vos nóbiles, nos autem ignóbiles. Usque in hanc horam et esurímus, et sitímus, et nudi sumus, et cólaphis cædimur, et instábiles sumus, et laborámus operántes mánibus nostris: maledícimur, et benedícimus: persecutiónem pátimur, et sustinémus: blasphemámur, et obsecrámus: tamquam purgaménta hujus mundi facti sumus, ómnium peripséma usque adhuc. Non ut confúndam vos, hæc scribo, sed ut fílios meos caríssimos móneo. Nam si decem mília pædagogórum habeátis in Christo: sed non multos patres. Nam in Christo Jesu per Evangélium ego vos génui.
Brethren: I think God has set forth us the Apostles last of all, as men doomed to death, seeing that we have been made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are without honor! To this very hour we hunger and thirst, and we are naked and buffeted, and have no fixed abode. And we toil, working with our own hands. We are reviled and we bless, we are persecuted and we bear with it, we are maligned and we entreat, we have become as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now! I write these things not to put you to shame, but to admonish you as my dearest children. For although you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, through the gospel, did I beget you.