Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 10.6

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.

Summary: The hare stands for corrupters of boys.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:376

ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν δασύποδα οὐ φάγῃ. πρὸς τί; οὐ μὴ γένῃ, φησίν, παιδοφθόρος οὐδὲ ὁμοιωθήσῃ τοῖς τοιούτοις, ὅτι ὁ λαγωὸς κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν πλεονεκτεῖ τὴν ἀφόδευσιν· ὅσα γὰρ ἔτη ζῇ, τοσαύτας ἔχει τρύπας.

English · Claude translation

But you shall not eat the hare either. Why? You shall not, he means, become a corrupter of boys, nor become like such people, because the hare gains an extra orifice every year; for as many years as it lives, so many holes it has.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:376 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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)
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Corrupter of boys” (παιδοφθόρος): one who sexually abuses boys; compare Did. 2.2. The claim about the hare is ancient folklore.

Cite this passage

Barn. 10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/6/).

Plain text
Barn. 10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/6/).

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