Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek treatise with some features of an epistle containing twenty-one chapters, preserved complete in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament. It is traditionally ascribed to the Barnabas who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, though some ascribe it to another apostolic father of the same name, a "Barnabas of Alexandria," or simply attribute it to an unknown early Christian teacher. A form of the Epistle 850 lines long is noted in the Latin list of canonical works in the 6th century Codex Claromontanus [1]. It is not to be confused with the Gospel of Barnabas.
History
In the early church, the Epistle of Barnabas was widely read and included by several of the Church Fathers in their lists of accepted scriptures. Toward the end of the second century Clement of Alexandria cited the Epistle as authoritative, as did by Origen. Eusebius, however, objected to it, and ultimately the epistle disappeared from the scriptural canon. However, in the West the epistle stands beside the Epistle of James in some Latin manuscripts of the New Testament. In the East, a list maintained by the ninth century Patriarch of Jerusalem mentions the Epistle of Barnabas in a list of books that are antilegomena— "disputed"— along with the Revelation of John, the Revelation of Peter and the Gospel of the Hebrews.
Origin and character
The Epistle of Barnabas contains fews clues to its author nor to the specific audience for whom it was intended beyond the fact that they appear to be Christians who may be influenced by Christian Judaism. Although traditionally ascribed to Barnabas, the senior partner of Saint Paul at Antioch, the letter itself nowhere claims to be written by him. The attribution seems to result from the letter's focus on refuting Christian Judaism, which was a major issue at Antioch.
Internal evidence suggests that Barnabas was written after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and before the Bar Kochba Revolt of 132 C.E. The place of its origin remains an open question, although the Greek-speaking territories of the Eastern Mediterranean is most likely.
Although the work is not gnostic in a heterodox sense, the author intends to impart to his readers the type of perfect gnosis (special knowledge). His concern is that his audience may perceive that the Christians, rather than Jews, are the only true people of God's covenant. Like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Barnabas" holds that the Jewish scriptures served to foreshadow Jesus and Christianity. He goes Hebrews, however, by arguing not that the God's covenant with the Jews has been transferred to the Christians, but that the Jewish people had never actually been in a covenant with God.
The author's polemics are, above all, directed against Judaizing Christians. In no other writing of that early time is the separation of the Gentile Christians from observant Jews so clearly insisted upon. The covenant promises, he maintains, belong only to the Christians (e.g. 4:6-8). Circumcision and the entire Jewish sacrificial and ceremonial system are, according to him, due to misunderstanding. Jewish scriptures, rightly understood, contain no such injunctions (chapters 9-10).
Although he is a thorough opponent to Jewish legalism, "Barnabas" is by no means an antinomist. The closing Two Ways section (chapters 18-21), which contains a series of moral injunctions. At many points the Epistle seems quite Pauline, particularly in its concept of atonement.
The author quotes liberally from the Old Testament, including the apocryphal books. He also quotes from the New Testament gospels twice (4:14, 5:9), and is in general agreement with the New Testament presentation of salvation history. He quotes material resembling 4 Esdras (12.1) and 1 Enoch (4.3; 16.5), which did not become part of the Biblical canon in most traditions.
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 theLaw. 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.
Manuscript tradition
The most complete text is in the Codex Sinaiticus (=S; fourth century) and the Codex Hierosolymitanus (=H; eleventh century), which are usually in agreement on variant readings. A truncated form of the text also survives in nine Greek manuscripts (=G; from 11th century onward) in combination with Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians, without any indication of transition.
- Until 1843 eight manuscripts, all derived from a common source (G), were known in Western European libraries: none of them contained chapters 1 to chapter 5.7a.
- The fourth century Codex Sinaiticus, in which the Epistle and the Shepherd of Hermas follow the canonical books of the New Testament, contains a more complete manuscript of the text.
- The eleventh century Codex Hierosolymitanus ("Jerusalem Codex"—relocated from Constantinople), which includes the Didache, is another witness to the full text. This Greek manuscript was discovered by Philotheos Bryennios at Constantinople in 1873, and Adolf Hilgenfeld used it for his edition in 1877.
- There is also an old Latin version of the first 17 chapters which dates, perhaps, to no later than the end of the fourth century and is preserved in a single ninth century manuscript (St Petersburg, Q.v.I.39). This is sometimes significantly shorter than the Greek, often agreeing with the G manuscripts. There are also brief citations from the Epistle in the writings of Clement of Alexandria, and a few fragments of the Two Ways material in Syriac and elsewhere.
External links
- Greek text of Epistle of Barnabas
- Early Christian Writings: Epistle of Barnabas; e-texts of translations and introductions
- Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. i:introduction and text
- Catholic Encyclopedia 1907: Epistle of Barnabas from the official Roman Catholic point-of-view: "the chief importance of the epistle is in its relation to the history of the Canon of the Scriptures."
Sources
- Kraft, Robert A., Barnabas and the Didache: Volume 3 of The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary, edited by Robert Grant. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965. [2]
- Treat, Jay Curry, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 1, pp. 613-614.
- Prostmeier, Ferdinand R., Der Barnabasbrief. Übersetzt und erklärt. Series: Kommentar zu den Apostolischen Vätern (KAV, Vol. 8). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen 1999. ISBN 3-525-51683-5
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