Epistle of Barnabas 15.9

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: Christians celebrate the eighth day, the day of the resurrection.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:396

διὸ καὶ ἄγομεν τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ὀγδόην εἰς εὐφροσύνην, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν καὶ φανερωθεὶς ἀνέβη εἰς οὐρανούς.

English · Claude translation

For this reason we also keep the eighth day with gladness, the day on which Jesus also rose from the dead, and, having been manifested, ascended into heaven.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 24:396 · 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)
Topics: Christology

Notes

Translation notes

The “eighth day” is Sunday, the day after the Sabbath; one of the earliest witnesses to Christian Sunday observance.
The text seems to place the ascension on a Sunday as well; the sense of the sentence is debated.

Cite this passage

Barn. 15.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/15/9/).

Plain text

Barn. 15.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/15/9/).

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