Epistle of Barnabas 13.2

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: Rebecca's twins: the greater will serve the lesser.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:386–388

ἀκούσατε οὖν περὶ τοῦ λαοῦ τί λέγει ἡ γραφή· Ἐδεῖτο δὲ Ἰσαὰκ περὶ Ῥεβέκκας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ, ὅτι στεῖρα ἦν· καὶ συνέλαβεν. εἶτα ἐξῆλθεν Ῥεβέκκα πυθέσθαι παρὰ κυρίου, καὶ εἶπεν κύριος πρὸς αὐτήν· Δύο ἔθνη ἐν τῇ γαστρί σου καὶ δύο λαοὶ ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ σου, καὶ ὑπερέξει λαὸς λαοῦ καὶ ὁ μείζων δουλεύσει τῷ ἐλάσσονι.

English · Claude translation

Hear, then, what the scripture says about the people: “And Isaac prayed for Rebecca his wife, because she was barren, and she conceived. Then Rebecca went out to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her: Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples in your belly; and one people will surpass the other, and the greater will serve the lesser.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:386–388 · 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

Gen 25:21 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 25:22 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 25:23 · quotation, high confidence
Rom 9:10 · echo, medium confidence
Rom 9:12 · echo, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Barn. 13.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/13/2/).

Plain text

Barn. 13.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/13/2/).