Concerning Itinerant Apostles and Prophets
3 Now concerning the apostles and prophets, deal with them as follows in accordance with the rule of the gospel. 4 Let every apostle who comes to you be welcomed as if he were the Lord. 5 But he is not to stay for more than one day, unless there is need, in which case he may stay another. But if he stays three days, he is a false prophet. 6 And when the apostle leaves, he is to take nothing except bread until he finds his next night’s lodging. But if he asks for money, he is a false prophet. 7 Also, do not test or evaluate any prophet who speaks in the spirit, for every sin will be forgiven, but this sin will not be forgiven. 8 However, not everyone who speaks in the spirit is a prophet, but only if he exhibits the Lord’s ways. By his conduct, therefore, will the false prophet and the prophet be recognized. 9 Furthermore, any prophet who orders a meal in the spirit shall not partake of it; if he does, he is a false prophet. 10 If any prophet teaches the truth, yet does not practice what he teaches, he is a false prophet. 11 But any prophet proven to be genuine who does something with a view to portraying in a worldly manner the symbolic meaning of the church (provided that he does not teach you to do all that he himself does) is not to be judged by you, for his judgment is with God. Besides, the ancient prophets also acted in a similar manner. 12 But if anyone should say in the spirit, “Give me money” or anything else, do not listen to him. But if he tells you to give on behalf of others who are in need, let no one judge him.
10.6 repent Or be converted. • Maranatha Or Our Lord, come! Cf. 1 Cor. 16:22. 10.7 wish Other ancient authorities read wish. And concerning the ointment, give thanks as follows: We give you thanks, Father, for the fragrant ointment that you have made known to us through Jesus your servant; to you be the glory forever. Amen. 11.7 Cf. Matt. 12:31. 11.11 who does something . . . church Or who acts out in an earthly fashion the allegorical significance of the church; Lit. who acts with a view to the earthly mystery of the church. The phrase has never been explained satisfactorily. It may refer to some symbolic action intended to convey spiritual truth, analogous to those performed by some of the OT prophets (e.g., Hosea’s marriage to Gomer), which may have seemed to some members of the community to be of doubtful propriety.
12 Everyone who comes in the name of the Lord is to be welcomed. But then examine him, and you will find out—for you will have insight—what is true and what is false. 2 If the one who comes is merely passing through, assist him as much as you can. But he must not stay with you for more than two or, if necessary, three days. 3 However, if he wishes to settle among you and is a craftsman, let him work for his living. 4 But if he is not a craftsman, decide according to your own judgment how he shall live among you as a Christian, yet without being idle. 5 But if he does not wish to cooperate in this way, then he is trading on Christ. Beware of such people.
13 But every genuine prophet who wishes to settle among you is worthy of his food. 2 Likewise, every genuine teacher is, like the worker, worthy of his food. 3 Take, therefore, all the first fruits of the produce of the wine press and threshing floor, and of the cattle and sheep, and give these first fruits to the prophets, for they are your high priests. 4 But if you have no prophet, give them to the poor. 5 If you make bread, take the first fruit and give in accordance with the commandment. 6 Similarly, when you open a jar of wine or oil, take the first fruit and give it to the prophets. 7 As for money and clothes and any other possessions, take the first fruit that seems right to you and give in accordance with the commandment.
Concerning the Lord’s Day
14 On the Lord’s own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. 2 But let no one who has a quarrel with a companion join you until they have been reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be defiled. 3 For this is the sacrifice concerning which the Lord said, “In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is marvelous among the nations.”
Bishops and Deacons
15 Therefore appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men who are humble and not avaricious and true and approved, for they too carry out for you the ministry of the prophets and teachers. 2 You must not, therefore, despise them, for they are your honored men, along with the prophets and teachers.
12.1 find out . . . false Or (lit.) know, for you will have right and left understanding. 13.1 worthy . . . food Matt. 10:10. 13.2 the worker . . . food Matt. 10:10. 14.3 In every place . . . nations Mal. 1:11, 14.
Call to Follow the Gospel
3 Furthermore, correct one another not in anger but in peace, as you find in the Gospel; and if anyone wrongs his or her neighbor, let no one speak to that person, nor let that one hear a word from you, until he or she repents. 4 As for your prayers and acts of charity and all your actions, do them all just as you find it in the Gospel of our Lord.
16 Watch over your life: do not let your lamps go out, and do not be unprepared, but be ready, for you do not know the hour when our Lord is coming. 2 Gather together frequently, seeking the things that benefit your souls, for all the time you have believed will be of no use to you if you are not found perfect in the last time.
Mini-Apocalypse
3 For in the last days the false prophets and corrupters will abound, and the sheep will be turned into wolves, and love will be turned into hate. 4 For as lawlessness increases, they will hate and persecute and betray one another. And then the deceiver of the world will appear as a son of God and will perform signs and wonders, and the earth will be delivered into his hands, and he will commit abominations the likes of which have never happened before. 5 Then all humankind will come to the fiery test, and many will fall away and perish; but those who endure in their faith will be saved by the accursed one himself. 6 And then there will appear the signs of the truth: first the sign of an opening in heaven, then the sign of the sound of a trumpet, and third, the resurrection of the dead— 7 but not of all; rather, as it has been said, “The Lord will come, and all his saints with him.” 8 Then the world will see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
16.1 Cf. Mark 13:35, 37; Matt. 24:42, 44; Luke 12:35, 40. 16.2 for all the time . . . to you Cf. Barn. 4.9. 16.4 For as lawlessness . . . another Cf. Matt. 24:10–12. • will perform . . . wonders Cf. Mark 13:22. 16.5 will be saved Matt. 24:10, 13. • by . . . himself Or by him who was cursed (cf. Gal. 3:13; in either case the reference is to Christ), or by the curse itself; or (emending the text) from the curse itself, i.e., the grave. 16.6 then . . . signs Cf. Matt. 24:30. • trumpet Cf. Matt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16. 16.7 The Lord . . . him Zech. 14:5; cf. 1 Thess. 3:13. 16.8 will see . . . heaven Cf. Matt. 24:30.
The Epistle of Barnabas
Introduction
The so-called Epistle of Barnabas represents one of the earliest contributions outside the New Testament to the discussion of questions that have confronted the followers of Jesus since the earliest days of his ministry: How ought Christians to interpret the Jewish scriptures, and what is the nature of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism? Writing at a time when the level of competition between church and synagogue still ran high (and perhaps also Jewish Messianic expectations),[1] the anonymous author deals with both of these questions as he seeks to show by means of an allegorical interpretation of scripture that Christians are the true and intended heirs of God’s covenant.
Although Barnabas displays the form of a letter, the epistolary framework (1.1–8; 21.1–9) is largely a literary device. The largest part of the document (2.1–17.2) is a polemical essay that seeks to persuade and convince—something of a “tract for the times.” In it the author shares with his readers gnosis (knowledge) (1.5b)[2] that he himself has received (1.5a)—that is, traditional material—along with what he considers to be his own choicest insights (cf. 9.9).
In 18.1–20.2 the author presents, as “another kind of knowledge [gnosis] and teaching” (18.1), a version of the “Two Ways,” o
ne of light (19.1–12) and one of darkness (20.1–2). The former is comprised almost entirely of dos and don’ts, while the latter is a description of evil actions and persons. This represents a Christian application of a common Jewish form of moral instruction. Material similar to that of the Two Ways section is found in a number of other Christian writings from the first through about the fifth centuries, including The Didache. The connections between the Two Ways sections of The Didache and Barnabas are quite complex. Rather than either one being directly dependent upon the other, it seems much more likely that both are dependent, perhaps indirectly, on a common source, and thus are examples of what Kraft has termed “evolved literature,”[3] in which similar material may be utilized quite differently.[4]
Unifying the two major sections of the document and the epistolary framework is a pervasive ethical concern set within an apocalyptic eschatological perspective. That is, the struggle between good and evil in the “present evil age” (2.1; 4.1; 4.9) will soon (4.9b; 21.3) come to an end with the arrival of the “age to come” (4.1) and its accompanying judgment (4.12; 5.7; 15.5; 21.6), for which Christians must be prepared. This conviction lends a note of urgency to the exhortations found throughout the document: Christians should take nothing for granted (e.g., 2.1; 4.9b; 4.13), unlike Israel (e.g., 4.13–14), which stands as a negative example throughout.
With respect to Israel and God’s covenant, the author of Barnabas asserts that Israel forfeited the covenant because of idolatry (4.8; cf. 16.1–2), disobedience (8.7; 9.4; 14.1–4a), and ignorance (having read the Mosaic laws literally rather than “spiritually,” as intended [10.2, 9]). Now, he claims, Christians are the true and intended heirs of God’s covenant (4.8; 6.19; 13.6; 14.4b–5).
The author achieves this tendentious reading of the Mosaic law and the prophets by means of allegorical exegesis. In so doing he follows an ancient and well-respected tradition of interpretation. Developed by the Greeks, the allegorical method assumes the existence of, and seeks to uncover, the hidden spiritual meaning of a text, which may be quite different from the apparent meaning. This method of interpretation played a role in all known forms of first-century Judaism, and particularly in the writings of Philo, an Alexandrian Jew contemporary with Paul (who himself provides an example of this approach in Gal. 4:21–31). By means of this allegorical approach, the author of The Epistle of Barnabas is able to offer a Christian interpretation of biblical texts that at first glance appear to have nothing to do with Jesus (e.g., 9.7–8) and even to claim that only Christians understand the true meaning of the scriptures (10.12). In short, Barnabas is a good early example of what became the dominant method of interpreting the Bible in the early and medieval church.
Authorship, Place, and Date
The document is the work of an anonymous teacher (6.5, 6.9, 6.10b, 9.7, 13.1, 14.4, 16.1, 17.1) who, though he makes the customary declarations of modesty and self-deprecation (e.g., 1.8, 4.6, 4.9, 21.1), nonetheless considers his efforts to explain the meaning of the scripture to be of no small significance, since they include his choicest insights (9.9). Other than a possible reference to Matthew in Barnabas 4.14 (which is susceptible of other explanations), the author makes no demonstrable use of the documents that came to comprise the New Testament.[5] A connection with the historical Barnabas, though sometimes alleged, is generally held to be extremely unlikely if not impossible.[6]
A lack of information renders difficult any determination regarding location. Nevertheless, Barnabas is widely thought to have originated in Alexandria in view of its numerous affinities in hermeneutical approach and style with Alexandrian Judaism and Christianity and because its earliest witness is Clement of Alexandria (who accorded it the same authority as the Catholic Epistles).[7] It appears to have been written after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 (16.3–5) but before the city was rebuilt by Hadrian following the revolt of AD 132–135. Within these limits it is difficult to be any more precise.[8]
Occasion and Purpose
It has been proposed that Christian literature antagonistic to Judaism does not reflect actual engagement with historical Jews so much as it uses “Jews” as a literary foil in the struggle to achieve self-definition within Christian communities. That is, anti-Jewish documents such as Barnabas, on this view, reflect efforts within the emerging Christian movement to explore or explain how and why they differ from Judaism (the “other”) rather than attacks on real Jewish opponents.[9]
Unpersuaded that such a broad generalization adequately explains the existence of Barnabas, most scholars continue to think that the document’s polemic was generated by specific historical circumstances. Proposals include, for example, anxiety that a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem might result in a Jewish renaissance, or competition from a vibrant Jewish messianic movement.[10] Rhodes, on the other hand, suggests that Barnabas arose out of a low point in Jewish history, namely Hadrian’s plans to build a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish temple—a move that would have crushed any hopes of a renascent Judaism and is closely linked to the disastrous Bar Kochba revolt of 132–135.[11]
Hvalvik proposes that the occasion is real but nonspecific: the ongoing presence of the Jewish religion, “a living and real threat” whose very existence both challenges the theological truth claims of the emerging Christian movement and offers a competing alternative. In such circumstances the author’s purpose, he contends, is to show the superiority of Christianity to Judaism and thereby persuade his readers to make the right choice between the two.[12]
Contra Hvalvik, however, Rhodes argues that the author’s real purpose is “primarily to exhort his own audience to covenant fidelity and eschatological perseverance.”[13] It is worth observing that even though Rhodes’s thesis about the author’s purpose is linked to a claim that Barnabas arises out of a concrete historical setting, nonetheless his understanding of the purpose of Barnabas could be viewed as a specific example of Taylor’s generalization, namely that internal rather than external circumstances prompted the composition of Barnabas and similar “anti-Jewish” literature.
Text
The text of Barnabas has been preserved in the following major witnesses: Codex Sinaiticus (fourth century), the famous Biblical manuscript discovered by Tischendorf, in which Barnabas is found immediately after Revelation and before The Shepherd of Hermas; correctors of this manuscript; Codex Hierosolymitanus (AD 1056); a group of nine late Greek manuscripts, all related, in which the incomplete text of Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians is immediately followed by Barnabas 5.8ff; and the Latin translation (of chaps. 1–17 only; chaps. 18–21 apparently never formed a part of this version). In addition, Clement of Alexandria preserves a relatively large number of quotations.
Bibliography
Commentary
Kraft, Robert A. Barnabas and the Didache. Vol. 3 of The Apostolic Fathers, edited by R. M. Grant. New York: Nelson, 1965.
Studies
Barnard, L. W. “The ‘Epistle of Barnabas’ and Its Contemporary Setting.” ANRW 2.27.1 (1993): 159–207.
———. Studies in the Apostolic Fathers and Their Background. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966.
Carleton Paget, J. N. B. “Barnabas 9:4: A Peculiar Verse on Circumcision.” Vigiliae Christianae 45 (1991): 242–54.
———. “The Epistle of Barnabas.” Expository Times 117, no. 11 (2006).
———. The Epistle of Barnabas: Outlook and Background. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2.64. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994.
———. “The Use of the New Testament in the Epistle of Barnabas.” In The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, edited by Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, 229–49. The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Draper, Jonathan A. “Barnabas and the Riddle of the Didache Revisited.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 58 (1995): 89–113.
Gunther, J. J. “The Epistle of Barnabas and the Final Rebuilding of the
Temple.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 7 (1976): 143–51.
Hvalvik, Reidar. The Struggle for Scripture and Covenant: The Purpose of the Epistle of Barnabas and Jewish-Christian Competition in the Second Century. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2.82. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996.
Lowy, S. “The Confutation of Judaism in the Epistle of Barnabas.” Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (1960): 1–33.
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 2.188. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004.
Richardson, P., and M. B. Shukster. “Barnabas, Nerva and the Yavnean Rabbis.” Journal of Theological Studies 34 (1983): 31–55.
THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS
Greeting and Thanksgiving
1 Greetings, sons and daughters, in the name of the Lord who has loved us, in peace. 2 Seeing that God’s righteous acts toward you are so great and rich, I rejoice with an unbounded and overflowing joy over your blessed and glorious spirits; so deeply implanted is the grace of the spiritual gift that you have received! 3 Therefore I, who also am hoping to be saved, congratulate myself all the more because among you I truly see that the Spirit has been poured out upon you from the riches of the Lord’s fountain. How overwhelmed I was, on your account, by the long-desired sight of you! 4 Being convinced of this, therefore, and conscious of the fact that I said many things in your midst, I know that the Lord traveled with me in the way of righteousness. Above all I too am compelled to do this: to love you more than my own soul, because great faith and love dwell in you, through the hope of his life. 5 Accordingly, since I have concluded that if I care enough about you to share something of what I have received, I will be rewarded for having ministered to such spirits, I have hastened to send you a brief note, so that along with your faith you might have perfect knowledge as well.
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