Epistle of Barnabas 10.9

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: Israel misread spiritual teachings as rules about food.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:376

περὶ μὲν τῶν βρωμάτων λαβὼν Μωϋσῆς τρία δόγματα οὕτως ἐν πνεύματι ἐλάλησεν· οἱ δὲ κατʼ ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς σαρκὸς ὡς περὶ βρώσεως προσεδέξαντο.

English · Claude translation

Concerning foods, then, Moses received three teachings and spoke thus in the Spirit; but they, because of the desire of the flesh, accepted them as though they concerned food.

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; 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)

Cite this passage

Barn. 10.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/9/).

Plain text

Barn. 10.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/10/9/).

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