The Epistle of Barnabas

Translator’s note. The author writes as one who has been among his readers (“having spoken among you,” 1.4). Nothing in the letter says where they live.

Translator’s note. “Knowledge” (gnōsis) is a key word for the author. He mainly means a right understanding of the Scriptures, especially how they point to Christ.

Translator’s note. The Greek word is dogmata, “decrees” or “teachings.” The sentence is compressed and its meaning is debated. The three are hope, righteousness and love.

Translator’s note. The Greek says literally “the one who is at work,” meaning the devil. Compare Ephesians 2:2, “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”

Translator’s note. The quotation is from Isaiah 1:11–13, in the Greek (Septuagint) form, shortened and reworded a little.

Scripture: Isaiah 1:1-15

Translator’s note. Here the author goes beyond the prophets. He says God abolished the sacrifices, not merely that God disliked sacrifice offered in the wrong spirit. Later (chapters 9–10) he argues that the Jews misread the Law from the start by taking it literally.

Translator’s note. Jeremiah 7:22, quoted loosely. Jeremiah is usually understood as rebuking empty ritual rather than denying that God gave laws about sacrifice.

Scripture: Jeremiah 7:22-23

Translator’s note. Compare Zechariah 8:17.

Translator’s note. The first line echoes Psalm 51:17. The second line is not found in the Old Testament, and its source is uncertain.

Translator’s note. Sections 3.1–3.5 quote Isaiah 58:4–10, in a form close to the Greek (Septuagint).

Scripture: Isaiah 58:4-5

Translator’s note. The author applies this passage to “us,” the Christians, as opposed to “them,” the Jews (compare 3.1).

Translator’s note. Where the Greek Isaiah (58:8) has “your healing” (iamata), Barnabas’s text has “your garments” (himatia). The two words look alike, and the change may come from the author’s copy of Isaiah or from later copyists.

Translator’s note. “The pointing finger” translates cheirotonia, literally “stretching out the hand.” The Hebrew of Isaiah 58:9 speaks of “the pointing of the finger,” a gesture of scorn or accusation.

Translator’s note. “His Beloved” is Jesus. The word for “converts” (epēlytoi) means newcomers who join a people from outside, much like “proselytes.”

Translator’s note. Compare Jesus’ saying that the days will be cut short (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20).

Translator’s note. This is a loose paraphrase of Daniel 7:24, not Daniel’s exact wording. The author applies it to the end of the age.

Translator’s note. A free quotation of Daniel 7:7–8.

Scripture: Daniel 7:7

Translator’s note. Whether the covenant belongs to both Jews and Christians is a central question of the letter. The author’s answer is that it is “ours” alone, and that Israel lost it (4.7–8; 14.1–4).

Translator’s note. This draws on Exodus 31:18 and 34:28, and most closely on Deuteronomy 9:9–11, which has both the forty days and nights and the tablets written by God’s finger.

Translator’s note. See Exodus 32:7, 19 and Deuteronomy 9:12–17. The author claims the broken tablets mean Israel lost the covenant for good. The Old Testament itself records that God renewed the covenant with Israel after the golden calf (Exodus 34).

Translator’s note. “The Black One” is a title for the devil. It appears again in 20.1.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 5:21.

Scripture: Isaiah 5:21

Translator’s note. The quotation matches Matthew 22:14. Some scholars see it as the earliest quotation of a Gospel as “Scripture” (“it is written”), though Barnabas could be drawing on oral tradition.

Scripture: Matthew 20:16

Translator’s note. Isaiah 53:5, 7.

Translator’s note. Proverbs 1:17, quoted from the Greek Old Testament. The Hebrew says something different: it is useless to spread a net while the bird is watching.

Translator’s note. Genesis 1:26. Barnabas reads “Let us make” as the Father speaking to the Son. This reading, that the Son was with God at creation, is common in the early Fathers.

Translator’s note. The saying is from Matthew 9:13 (and Mark 2:17). The claim that the apostles were “lawless beyond every kind of sin” goes beyond anything the Gospels say.

Translator’s note. The Greek verb for “saved” can also mean “kept safe.” So the author may mean that no one could have survived seeing him unveiled, just as no one can stare at the sun.

Translator’s note. Compare Matthew 23:31–32 and 1 Thessalonians 2:15–16.

Translator’s note. This is from Zechariah 13:7, but in a form that differs from the Greek Old Testament and from Jesus’ quotation in Matthew 26:31 (“I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered”).

Translator’s note. The first quotation is close to Psalm 22:20 (21:21 in the Greek). “Nail my flesh” comes from Psalm 119:120 (118:120 in the Greek), where the Greek reads “nail my flesh with the fear of you.” The rest echoes Psalm 22:16 (21:17 in the Greek). The author combines these lines and reads them as the voice of Christ.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 50:6–7.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 50:8. In Isaiah the line ends “let him come near to me.” The words “the servant of the Lord” (pais) are not in 50:8, though compare “his servant” in 50:10. The author reads the servant as Christ.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 50:9 and 28:16. Peter quotes the same stone passage (1 Peter 2:6).

Scripture: Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:6

Translator’s note. Isaiah 28:16 (Greek) reads “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame”; the words “will live forever” are not in Isaiah. The last line adapts Isaiah 50:7, “I have set my face like solid rock.”

Translator’s note. Psalm 118:22, 24 (117:22, 24 in the Greek). The psalm says simply “This is the day that the Lord has made.” The words “great and wonderful” are the author’s addition, though “wonderful” appears in the verse before.

Translator’s note. The Greek word (perípsēma) literally means “scrapings” or “offscouring.” Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 4:13. Here it is a conventional expression of humble devotion.

Translator’s note. The author combines Psalm 22:16 (21:17 in the Greek), Psalm 118:12 (117:12), and Psalm 22:18 (21:19), and reads them as describing Christ’s crucifixion. John 19:24 applies the last line to the soldiers at the cross.

Translator’s note. The quotation is from Isaiah 3:9–10 in the Greek form, which differs from the Hebrew. Wisdom of Solomon 2:12 is similar.

Scripture: Isaiah 3:9-10

Translator’s note. This is not a single verse. It is a summary of the land promise, closest to Exodus 33:1–3.

Translator’s note. “Knowledge” is the author’s word for the spiritual understanding of Scripture. Barnabas reads “the good land” as pointing to Christ and to the new creation. This kind of reading is called allegory.

Translator’s note. Genesis 1:26, 28. That God was speaking to the Son is the author’s interpretation.

Scripture: Genesis 1:26; Genesis 1:28

Translator’s note. The saying about “the last things like the first” does not match any known verse of Scripture. In the Greek, “be master of it” is the same verb God uses in Genesis 1:28 (“subdue it”). So the author links the promise of the land to the first creation and treats it as a promise of new creation in Christ.

Scripture: Matthew 19:30; Matthew 20:16

Translator’s note. Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26.

Translator’s note. The second quotation loosely adapts Psalm 22:22 (21:23 in the Greek), which Hebrews 2:12 also applies to Christ; Barnabas’s wording differs from the psalm.

Translator’s note. The author takes the Day of Atonement, Isaac’s offering, and the cross as one picture. This way of reading is called typology. Here, and in the verses that follow, Barnabas builds on details that the Old Testament itself does not contain.

Translator’s note. Neither quotation is found in the Old Testament. In fact, Leviticus 16:27 orders the Day of Atonement sin offerings to be burned outside the camp, not eaten. Where Barnabas got this wording is unknown.

Translator’s note. Compare Leviticus 16:7–9. Leviticus does not say the goats must be fine and alike, and it calls the Lord’s goat a sin offering, not a burnt offering. Later Jewish tradition did require the two goats to look alike (Mishnah, Yoma 6:1).

Translator’s note. Leviticus 16 does not call the goat sent into the wilderness cursed. Compare Galatians 3:13, where Christ becomes “a curse for us.”

Translator’s note. The “rachē” is probably a bramble, such as the blackberry, which explains the thorns mentioned in 7.11.

Translator’s note. Barnabas has Christ’s return in mind. Compare Zechariah 12:10 (“they will look on me whom they pierced”) and Revelation 1:7. For the robe down to the feet (Greek podērē), compare Revelation 1:13.

Translator’s note. These words are presented as Jesus’ own but are not found in the Gospels. Compare Acts 14:22: “through many hardships we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Translator’s note. This is the red heifer of Numbers 19. Numbers says nothing about sinful men or boys. A man who is ceremonially clean gathers the ashes and does the sprinkling (Numbers 19:9, 18).

Scripture: Numbers 19

Translator’s note. In Numbers 19 the one who burns the heifer is not described as sinful, so the identification is Barnabas’s own.

Translator’s note. The twelve are the apostles. The “boys who sprinkle” come from Barnabas’s retelling of the red heifer ritual in 8.1, not from Numbers 19 itself.

Translator’s note. “The wood” here means the cross.

Translator’s note. Barnabas links the “filthy” days to the “filth” of the hyssop by using related Greek words. What he means by the hyssop’s “filth” is unclear. It may refer to its juice or sap, which was used as a remedy.

Translator’s note. The quotations come from Psalm 18:44, Isaiah 33:13 and Jeremiah 4:4. Some are quoted closely and some loosely.

Scripture: Isaiah 33:13

Translator’s note. The second quotation is not found in this form in Scripture. It seems to blend Psalm 34:12 (“Who is the one who desires life?”) with Isaiah 50:10 (“Let him obey the voice of his servant”).

Translator’s note. The sources are Isaiah 1:2 (Barnabas adds “as a witness”), Isaiah 28:14 (“rulers of this people”) and Isaiah 40:3. In the last one he adds “Hear, children” before “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” and leaves out the rest of the verse.

Scripture: Isaiah 1; Isaiah 1:10

Translator’s note. Here Barnabas departs from Scripture twice. Genesis 17:10–14 plainly commands circumcision of the flesh. The Bible also nowhere says that an evil angel misled Israel into practicing it. The New Testament does teach that true circumcision is of the heart (Romans 2:28–29; Colossians 2:11), and so does the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4). But these passages do not deny that God gave the physical command.

Translator’s note. The quotations are from Jeremiah 4:3–4, Deuteronomy 10:16 and Jeremiah 9:25–26.

Translator’s note. Paul also calls circumcision a “seal” (Romans 4:11). He calls it the seal of the righteousness Abraham had by faith.

Translator’s note. Greek letters also served as numbers: iota (Ι) is 10, eta (Η) is 8, and tau (Τ) is 300. The first two letters of Jesus’ name in Greek are ΙΗ, and the letter T is shaped like a cross. The number 318 comes from Genesis 14:14, where it counts Abraham’s trained servants in a battle. The circumcision of his household is a different story (Genesis 17:23–27), and it gives no number. Barnabas joins the two. The word-play works only in Greek letters, not in the Hebrew of Genesis. Clement of Alexandria repeated this reading, but it is a clever symbol, not a sound reading of the text.

Translator’s note. “Planted” here translates the Greek adjective *emphytos* (“implanted”), which describes the gift. James uses the same word for “the implanted word” (James 1:21).

Translator’s note. The list gathers items loosely from the food laws of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. In the passage that follows, Barnabas treats these laws as moral lessons only, not as real rules about food. This differs from the rest of the Bible. There the food laws are real commands given to Israel, and the New Testament explains that in Christ they no longer bind believers (Mark 7:19; Acts 10; Colossians 2:16–17).

Translator’s note. No verse of Deuteronomy matches these words exactly. The language resembles passages such as Deuteronomy 4:1–14.

Translator’s note. The Greek uses the same word (kyrios) for “the Lord” and the pig’s “master,” which makes the comparison sharper.

Translator’s note. Leviticus does not name these creatures. Barnabas includes them as examples of water creatures without scales (Leviticus 11:10–12).

Translator’s note. The ban on eating the hare is in Leviticus 11:6 and Deuteronomy 14:7. The reason given here comes from ancient animal folklore; Pliny the Elder reports a similar claim. It is not true, and it is not in the Bible.

Translator’s note. The hyena is not among the unclean animals in Leviticus 11 or Deuteronomy 14. The belief that it changes sex was ancient folklore; Aristotle already rejected it.

Translator’s note. The weasel is listed as unclean in Leviticus 11:29. The idea that it conceives or gives birth through the mouth was ancient animal lore; Aristotle mentions it and rejects it. Barnabas seems to be speaking indirectly of oral sex.

Translator’s note. Psalm 1:1. “The pestilent” follows the Greek Old Testament; the Hebrew has “scoffers.”

Scripture: Psalm 1

Translator’s note. Leviticus 11:3; Deuteronomy 14:6.

Translator’s note. The claim that Israel never grasped the true meaning of the Law runs through this letter. Paul does speak of a veil over Israel’s reading (2 Corinthians 3:14–16). But he also says Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:2) and that the Law is holy (Romans 7:12). He does not treat its literal commands as a misunderstanding.

Translator’s note. Jeremiah 2:13 is behind this: they dug “broken cisterns” for themselves.

Translator’s note. A loose quotation of Jeremiah 2:12–13. Where Jeremiah has “broken cisterns,” Barnabas has “a pit of death.”

Translator’s note. Based on the Greek of Isaiah 16:1–2, where the mountain is Zion. Barnabas has “Sinai.”

Translator’s note. Isaiah 45:2–3.

Scripture: Isaiah 45:2-3

Translator’s note. Isaiah 33:16–18.

Translator’s note. Psalm 1:3.

Translator’s note. Psalm 1:4–6.

Translator’s note. Barnabas reads the tree beside the water in Psalm 1 as the cross, and the water as baptism. Paul also links baptism with Christ’s death (Romans 6:3–4).

Translator’s note. In 7.3 Barnabas calls Christ’s body “the vessel of the Spirit,” so the “land” here probably means Christ’s flesh.

Translator’s note. Based on Ezekiel 47:1–12. Compare Revelation 22:1–2.

Scripture: Ezekiel 47:1-12

Scripture: Ezekiel 47:9

Translator’s note. This saying is not in our Old Testament, and its exact source is unknown. The words about blood dripping from wood closely resemble 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 5:5, a Jewish book from around the end of the first century.

Translator’s note. This is the battle with Amalek in Exodus 17:8–13. There Moses stands on a hilltop holding the staff of God and raises his hands. Exodus does not mention shields. Early Christian writers such as Justin Martyr saw Moses’ outstretched hands as a pattern of the cross.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 65:2 (quoted also in Romans 10:21). The Greek Old Testament speaks of a people “who did not walk in a true way”; “my righteous way” is Barnabas’s own adaptation.

Translator’s note. This is the bronze serpent of Numbers 21:4–9, which Jesus himself compared to his being lifted up (John 3:14).

Translator’s note. The words “all things are in him and for him” echo Colossians 1:16–17 and Romans 11:36. In Numbers 21 the serpent is set on a pole, and the bitten simply look at it. Barnabas says “tree” (wood), the same word used for the cross in Acts 5:30, which makes the connection plainer.

Scripture: Numbers 21:8-9

Translator’s note. In Greek, “Joshua” and “Jesus” are the same name (Iēsous). The Greek Old Testament spells Nun as “Naue.” Numbers 13:16 says Moses renamed Hoshea “Joshua,” and Barnabas sees this as a hint about Jesus.

Translator’s note. Compare Exodus 17:14. There God tells Moses to write down that Amalek will be blotted out and to recite it to Joshua, after the battle with Amalek. Barnabas has Moses tell Joshua to write it when he sends him to spy out the land. The words “Son of God” and “last days” are also Barnabas’s own.

Translator’s note. Psalm 110:1. Jesus uses the same verse in Mark 12:35–37.

Scripture: Matthew 22:42-49

Translator’s note. Isaiah 45:1. In the Greek Old Testament the verse speaks of the Lord’s “anointed” (christos) Cyrus. By a slight change of one word (kyriō, “Lord,” for Kyrō, “Cyrus”), Barnabas makes the verse speak of Christ. The closing remark about David refers back to Psalm 110 in the previous section.

Translator’s note. Genesis 25:21–23; Paul uses the same passage in Romans 9:10–12.

Scripture: Genesis 25:22-23

Translator’s note. Genesis 48:11, 9.

Translator’s note. A free retelling of Genesis 48:13–19. The words “the greater will serve the lesser” do not come from Genesis 48. They come from the oracle about Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25:23, which the author quoted at 13.2.

Scripture: Genesis 48:18-19

Translator’s note. Paul makes a similar point in Romans 4:9–12. Paul also insists that God has not rejected his people Israel (Romans 11:1–2), a point this author does not make.

Scripture: Genesis 15:6; Genesis 17:4-5

Translator’s note. A free combination of Exodus 24:18, 31:18 and 34:28 (compare Deuteronomy 9:9–11). Here “the prophet” is Moses. The words “in the Spirit” are the author’s own addition.

Scripture: Exodus 24:18

Translator’s note. Compare Exodus 32:7–19 and Deuteronomy 9:12–17. The author told this same story earlier, at 4.7–8.

Scripture: Exodus 32:19; Deuteronomy 9:12-17

Translator’s note. Calling Moses God’s “servant” (θεράπων) comes from Numbers 12:7. Hebrews 3:5–6 uses the same word to contrast Moses the servant with Christ the Son, though we cannot be sure the author knew Hebrews.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 42:6–7.

Scripture: Isaiah 49:6-7

Translator’s note. Isaiah 49:6–7.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 61:1–2. Jesus read this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18–19), but he stopped before “the day of repayment,” which this author includes.

Translator’s note. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8–11 and Deuteronomy 5:12–15 do not contain the words “clean hands and a clean heart.” Barnabas likely blends the commandment with Psalm 24:4.

Translator’s note. These words are not found in our Old Testament. They loosely resemble the promises attached to Sabbath-keeping in Jeremiah 17:24–25 and Isaiah 58:13–14.

Translator’s note. Genesis 2:2–3.

Translator’s note. The quoted saying is close to Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 but matches neither exactly. Other early writers, such as Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.28.3), also read the six days of creation as six thousand years of world history.

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:8

Translator’s note. Isaiah 1:13. In Isaiah, God rejects Sabbaths kept by people who practice injustice. Barnabas reads the verse as setting aside the Jewish Sabbath itself in favor of God’s future rest and “eighth day.” That reading is his own and goes beyond what Isaiah says.

Translator’s note. Barnabas seems to link the ascension with Sunday as well. In Acts 1:3, Jesus appears to his disciples over forty days before he ascends.

Translator’s note. The last phrase (ὡς ὄντα οἶκον θεοῦ) can also be read to mean that God himself is the true house of God; the masculine participle ὄντα may refer back to God, so the Greek allows either reading.

Translator’s note. Isaiah 40:12 and 66:1. Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1–2 against trust in the temple in Acts 7:48–50.

Scripture: Isaiah 40:12

Translator’s note. This appears to be a loose form of Isaiah 49:17 in the Greek Old Testament, which says that Zion “will soon be built by those who tore you down.” The Hebrew reads differently. Barnabas applies the verse to the temple.

Translator’s note. The Romans destroyed the temple in AD 70. This verse is a key clue for dating the letter, but its meaning is disputed. Many scholars connect it with the time of Hadrian, around AD 130, when a Roman temple was planned for the site. Others think of hopes for a Jewish rebuilding early in Hadrian’s reign, and some argue for an earlier date.

Translator’s note. No Bible verse matches this quotation. It resembles 1 Enoch 89 (the “Animal Apocalypse”), where the Lord gives his sheep and their tower over to destruction, but the wording is not exact. Barnabas calls it “Scripture,” though it is not in the Bible.

Translator’s note. The source of this quotation is not certain. It may draw on 1 Enoch 91:13, where a house is built “in glory” for the Great King at the end of a “week,” or on Daniel 9:24–27, the “seventy weeks.”

Scripture: Daniel 9:24-27

Translator’s note. Compare the New Testament teaching that believers are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Ephesians 2:21–22).

Translator’s note. The Two Ways section (chapters 18–20) closely parallels the first part of the Didache (chapters 1–6), which speaks of the ways of life and death. Many scholars think both drew on an older Jewish teaching of the Two Ways. Barnabas’s order and wording differ considerably.

Translator’s note. “Quiet … tremble at the words” echoes Isaiah 66:2 in the Greek Old Testament, which speaks of the one who is “humble and quiet and trembles at my words.”

Translator’s note. The wording is plain. The early church condemned abortion and the killing of newborns, including leaving unwanted infants out to die, which was common in the Roman world. The Didache (2.2) has almost the same words.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:11

Translator’s note. Compare Ephesians 6:5–9 and Colossians 3:22–4:1, and the very similar wording in the Didache (4.10–11). Slavery was a normal part of the ancient world, and this teaching asks both masters and slaves to answer to the same God.

Scripture: Psalm 18

Translator’s note. The idea that good works and giving can “ransom” sins has roots in the Old Testament and in Jewish teaching (Daniel 4:27; Tobit 12:9); compare Didache 4.6. The New Testament says that Christ’s death is the ransom for sin (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 1:18–19).

Translator’s note. “Neither adding nor taking away” echoes Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32.

Translator’s note. “The Black One” is the author’s name for the devil (also in 4.9).

Translator’s note. “What God has formed” most likely refers again to unborn or newborn children, linking back to the ban on abortion in 19.5.

Scripture: Isaiah 1:23

Translator’s note. Compare Isaiah 40:10 and Revelation 22:12, where the Lord comes with his reward.

Translator’s note. The Greek can mean either “for one another” or “for yourselves.”

Translator’s note. The Greek says only “so that you may be found on the day of judgment”; “approved” is added to bring out the implied sense of being found acceptable.

Translator’s note. The “good vessel” most likely means the body, that is, while you are still alive. The phrase is not certain, and some take it differently.

Translator’s note. “Farewell” translates a Greek word that literally means “be saved.” It was a usual way to close a letter, but here it may also carry its fuller meaning.