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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > B > Epistle of Barnabas


EPISTLE OF BARNABAS

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AUTHORITIES FOR THE TEXT AND EDITIONS

There is a triple tradition of the Greek text of this document. Up to 1843 eight
manuscripts of the Epistle of Barnabas were known to be in Western libraries.
These manuscripts were all derived from a common source, and no one of them
contained chapters i-v, 7a. Since then two complete manuscripts of the texts
have been discovered that are independent of each other and of the preceding
group of texts, namely: the famous Codex Sinaiticus of the Bible (fourth
century), in which the Epistle of Barnabas and "The Pastor" follow the books of
the New Testament, and the Jerusalem Codex (eleventh century), which includes
the Didache. There is also an old Latin version of the first seventeen chapters
which is, perhaps, of the end of the fourth century (St. Petersburg, Q., I, 39).
This version is a very free one and can hardly serve for the restoration of the
text. The same is true for the citations from the epistle in the writings of
Clement of Alexandria, or Origen, and others. The text authority for the text is
the Codex Sinaiticus.




CONTENTS

The Epistle of Barnabas contains no clue to its author nor to those for whom it
was intended. Its aim is to impart to its readers the perfect wisdom (gnosis),
that is an exact knowledge of the economy of salvation. It is made up of two
parts, the subject of each being announced in verses 6 and 7 of the first
chapter. The first part (ch. i-v, 4) is hortatory; in the evil days that are now
at hand in which the end of the world and the Judgment shall appear, the
faithful, freed from the bonds of the Jewish ceremonial law, are to practise the
virtues and to flee from sin. The second part (ch. v, 5-xvii) is more
speculative, although it tends, owing to the nature of the argument, to
establish the freedom of Christians in respect to the Mosaic regulations. The
author wishes to make his readers comprehend the real nature of the Old
Testament. He shows how the ordinances of the Law should be understood as
referring allegorically to the Christian virtues and institutions, and he pauses
to make plain by a series of symbolical explanations, that are often singular,
how the Old Testament prefigures Christ, His Passion, His Church, etc. Before
concluding (ch. xxi) the author repeats and enlarges the exhortations of the
first part of the epistle by borrowing from another document (the Didache or its
source) the description of the two ways, the way of light and that of darkness
(xviii-xx).


USE OF ALLEGORY

The epistle is characterized by the use of exaggerated allegory. In this
particular the writer goes far beyond St. Paul the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and St. Ignatius. Not content with regarding the history and
institutions of the Jews as containing types of Christianity, he casts aside
completely the transitory historical character of the old religion. According to
many scholars he teaches that it was never intended that the precepts of the Law
should be observed in their literal sense, that the Jews never had a covenant
with God, that circumcision was the work of the Devil, etc.; thus he represents
a unique point of view in the struggle against Judaism. It might be said more
exactly that he condemns the exercise of worship by the Jews in its entirety
because in his opinion, the Jews did not know how to rise to the spiritual and
typical meaning which God had mainly had in view in giving them the Law. It is
this purely material observance of the ceremonial ordinances, of which the
literal fulfilment was not sufficient, that the author holds to be the work of
the Devil, and, according to him, the Jews never received the divine covenant
because they never understood its nature (ch. vii, 3, 11, ix, 7; x, 10; xiv).


INTENT

The Epistle of Barnabas is not a polemic. The author takes no notice of
paganism. Although he touches on different points that had relations to the
doctrines of the Gnostics, still he has no knowledge of these latter. The
perfectly composed manner in which he expounds the wisdom he desires to impart
shows that another, heretical wisdom (gnosis) is not in his thoughts. Moreover,
the way in which he speaks of the Old Testament would not be explicable if he
had known the wrong use that a Basilides or a Marcion could make of it. Besides,
there was nothing in the Judaizing theories to alarm his faith. He speaks of
Judaism only in the abstract, and nothing in the letter excites the suspicion
that the members of his flock had been exposed to the peril of falling again
under the yoke of the Law. No clear situation is described in the letter. In
short, it should be regarded rather as the peaceful speculations of a catechist
and not as the cries of alarm of a pastor. Consequently, it cannot be admitted
that the author may have wished to take part in the struggle against the
Judaizers either at Jerusalem or at Rome.


DATE

This abstract discussion of Judaism is the sign of an epoch when the Judaizing
controversies were already a thing of the past in the main body of the Church.
In settling the date of the letter reference is often made to verses 3-5 of
chapter four, where the writer, it is believed, finds the fulfilment of the
prophecy of Daniel (Dan. 7:7, sqq.) in the succession of the Roman Emperors of
his time. Starting from this, some critics place the composition of the epistle
in the reign of Vespasian, others in the reign of Domitian, and still others in
the reign of Nerva. But there is nothing to prove that the author considers the
prophecy to be already accomplished. Besides, he might have taken the words of
the prophecy to mean a series of kingdoms instead of a line of kings. It is
necessary, therefore, to fall back on verses 3-5 of chapter xvi. Reference is
here made to the command given by Adrian in A.D. 130 for the reconstruction, in
honour of Jupiter, of the Temple at Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by
Titus. Adrian had also forbidden the Jews to practise circumcision. The writer
of the letter makes allusion to this (ch. ix, 4). The epistle must,
consequently, have been written in A.D. 130-131.




GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

In what befell Jerusalem and the Temple the author saw the refutation by events
of the errors of the Jews, or rather of the Ebionites, for it is the latter that
he has in mind whenever his language grows more definite (ch. iv, 4, 6; v, 5;
xii, 10; xvi, 1). His flock are not in danger of falling into these errors.
Therefore, he never attacks them directly. He simply takes advantage of the
opportunity that occurrences offer him to give his opinions as to the position
and nature of Judaism and its Law. Hence the epistle, in its general character,
is more like a treatise or a homily than a letter. However, the epistolary form
is not entirely fictitious. The author is not writing to Christians in general,
but to a particular church in which he has exercised the office of a didaskalos
and from which he finds himself separated (ch. i, 2, 4; xxi, 7, 9).

From a literary point of view the Epistle of Barnabas has no merit. The style is
tedious, poor in expression, deficient in clearness, in elegance, and
incorrectness. The author's logic is weak, and his matter is not under his
control; from this fact arise the numerous digressions. These digressions,
however, afford no reason for doubting the integrity of the letter, or for
regarding as interpolations either entire chapters, or a consecutive number of
verses or parts of verses in each chapter. One scholar, Wehofer, thought that he
had discovered, in the arrangement of the epistle, an adherence to the laws of
the Semitic strophe. But the phenomena noted are found in all authors who work
out their thought without being able to subordinate the argument to the rules of
literary style.

From the dogmatic point of view the chief importance of the epistle is in its
relation to the history of the Canon of the Scriptures. It cites, in fact, the
Gospel of St. Matthew as Scripture (ch. 4:14), and even recognizes as in the
Canon of the Sacred Books (gegraptai), along with the collection of Jewish
writings, a collection of Christian ones (ch. v, 2), the contents of which,
however, cannot be determined. The author regards several apocryphal books as
belonging to the Old Testament--probably IV Esdras (ch. xii, l) and without
doubt Henoch (ch. iv, 3; xvi, 5). In his Christology, his soteriology and his
doctrine concerning justification the author develops the ideas of Paul with
originality. It has been wrongly said that he regards the pre-existent Christ as
only a spirit in the image of God. Without explicitly asserting the
consubstantiality and the true sonship, he evidently acknowledges the Divine
nature of Christ from before the Creation. The eschatological descriptions are
decidedly moderate. He is a millenarian, but in speaking of the Judgment to come
he simply expresses a vague belief that the end is approaching.


NATIONALITY OF THE AUTHOR AND HISTORY OF THE EPISTLE

The extremely allegorical character of the exegesis leads to the supposition
that the author of the letter was an Alexandrian. His way of constantly placing
himself and his readers in opposition to the Jews makes it impossible to believe
that either he or the larger part of his readers were of Jewish origin. Besides,
he is not always familiar with the Mosaic rites (cf. ch. vii). The history of
the epistle confirms its Alexandrine origin. Up to the fourth century only the
Alexandrians were acquainted with it, and in their Church the epistle attained
to the honour of being publicly read. The manner in which Clement of Alexandria
and Origen refer to the letter gives confirmation to the belief that, about the
year A.D. 200, even in Alexandria the Epistle of Barnabas was not regarded by
everyone as an inspired writing.




ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Ladeuze, P. (1907). Epistle of Barnabas. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02299a.htm

MLA citation. Ladeuze, Paulin. "Epistle of Barnabas." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02299a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Janet Grayson.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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