Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is a Christian work, probably of the early second century, written primarily to dissuade its readers from being influenced by Christian Judaism or even to consider the Jews as sharing in God's covenant. It was written in Greek and currently contain 21 brief chapters, preserved complete in the fourth century Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament.
The epistle goes farther in its anti-Jewish stance than earlier Christian works, by arguing that God's covenant with Abraham and Moses was never established with the Jewish people as a whole, due to their sins. It was ultimately omitted from the New Testament canon, although and it was cited by several early Church Fathers as having scriptural authority. Today, it is included in most collections of the Apostolic Fathers.
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 of the work (chapters 1-5) is a hortatory address. In the evil days that are now at hand, in which the end of the world and the Final Judgment shall soon appear, the faithful are to practice the moral virtues and shun sin. However, the must also free from the bonds of the Jewish ceremonial law. The second part (chapters 5-17) is more speculative, concentrating on the idea of the freedom of Christians from the Mosaic regulations and real nature, in the author's opinion, of the Old Testament. He attempts to demonstration that the ordinances of the Law should be understood allegorically as referring to the Christian virtues and sacraments. He emphasizes passages of the Old Testament which, in his view prefigure, Jesus Christ and the church. The author then enlarges the exhortations of the first part of the epistle by apparently borrowing directly from the Didache the description of the "Two Ways"—the ways of light and darkness (chapters 18-20). Ironically, several experts have proposed that the teaching of the Two Ways (Didache, ch. 1-6), was originally a manual of instruction used for the initiation of proselytes in the Jewish synagogues.[1]
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.
Quotations
- Take heed to yourselves now, and be not made like unto some, heaping up your sins and saying that the covenant is both theirs (the Jews') and ours (the Christians'). It is ours... (4:6-7)
- The circumcision in which they (the Jews) trusted has been abolished. For he declared that circumcision was not of the flesh, but they erred because an evil angel was misleading them. (9:4)
- Moses received three doctrines concerning food and thus spoke of them in the Spirit; but they received them as really referring to food, owing to the lust of their flesh. (10:9)
- "Behold this is the fast which I chose," saith the Lord, "loose every bond of wickedness, set loose the fastenings of harsh agreements, send away the bruised in forgiveness, and tear up every unjust contract, give to the hungry thy bread, and if thou seest a naked man clothe him..." (3:3)
- There are then three doctrines of the Lord: The hope of life is the beginning and end of our faith. Righteousness is the beginning and end of judgment. Love of joy and of gladness is the testimony of the works of righteousness. (1:6)
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Ehrman, Bart D. The Apostolic Fathers. Loeb classical library, 24-25. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780674996083
- Gager, John G. The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780195036077
- Paget, James Carleton. The Epistle of Barnabas: Outlook and Background. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 64. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1994. ISBN 9783161461613
- Rhodes, James N. The Epistle of Barnabas and the Deuteronomic Tradition: Polemics, Paraenesis, and the Legacy of the Golden-Calf Incident. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 188. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. ISBN 9783161483776
- Richardson, Peter, David M. Granskou, and S. G. Wilson. Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity. Waterloo, Ont., Canada: Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780889201965
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. [1]
- 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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