Epistle of Barnabas 10.11

Anonymous · Epistle of Barnabas · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · place unknown · Read in context

Traditional ascription rejected: The letter names no author. From Clement of Alexandria (late second century) onward it was ascribed to Barnabas, Paul's companion (Acts 4:36), but its date and its hostility to Jewish practice make that unlikely; modern scholars treat it as anonymous.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:378

πάλιν λέγει Μωϋσῆς· Φάγεσθε πᾶν διχηλοῦν καὶ μαρυκώμενον. τί λέγει; ὅτι τὴν τροφὴν λαμβάνων οἶδεν τὸν τρέφοντα αὐτὸν καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἀναπαυόμενος εὐφραίνεσθαι δοκεῖ. καλῶς εἶπεν βλέπων τὴν ἐντολήν. τί οὖν λέγει; κολλᾶσθε μετὰ τῶν φοβουμένων τὸν κύριον, μετὰ τῶν μελετώντων ὃ ἔλαβον διάσταλμα ῥήματος ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ, μετὰ τῶν λαλούντων τὰ δικαιώματα κυρίου καὶ τηρούντων, μετὰ τῶν εἰδότων, ὅτι ἡ μελέτη ἐστὶν ἔργον εὐφροσύνης, καὶ ἀναμαρυκωμένων τὸν λόγον κυρίου. τί δὲ τὸ διχηλοῦν; ὅτι ὁ δίκαιος καὶ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ κόσμῳ περιπατεῖ καὶ τὸν ἅγιον αἰῶνα ἐκδέχεται. βλέπετε, πῶς ἐνομοθέτησεν Μωϋσῆς καλῶς.

English · Claude translation

Again Moses says, “You shall eat every animal that divides the hoof and chews the cud.” What does he mean? That the one who receives food knows the one who feeds him, and resting upon him seems to rejoice. He spoke well, looking to the commandment. What, then, does he mean? Cling to those who fear the Lord, to those who meditate in their heart on the exact meaning of the word they have received, to those who speak and keep the Lord's righteous decrees, to those who know that meditation is a work of gladness and who chew over the word of the Lord. And what is the divided hoof? That the righteous man both walks in this world and awaits the holy age. See how well Moses legislated.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:378 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 340–407 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

Lev 11:3 · quotation, high confidence
Deut 14:6 · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong letter)): τὰ διδαιώματα → τὰ δικαιώματα.

Cite this passage

Barn. 10.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/11/).

Plain text

Barn. 10.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/11/).