Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 16.10

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 believer is a spiritual temple built for the Lord.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:398–400

ὁ γὰρ ποθῶν σωθῆναι βλέπει οὐκ εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλʼ εἰς τὸν ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικοῦντα καὶ λαλοῦντα, ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἐκπλησσόμενος, ἐπὶ τῷ μηδέποτε μήτε τοῦ λέγοντος τὰ ῥήματα ἀκηκοέναι ἐκ τοῦ στόματος μήτε αὐτός ποτε ἐπιτεθυμηκέναι ἀκούειν. τοῦτό ἐστιν πνευματικὸς ναὸς οἰκοδομούμενος τῷ κυρίῳ.

English · Claude translation

For the one who longs to be saved looks not to the man but to the one who dwells and speaks in him, amazed at him, that he has never heard such words from the speaker's mouth, nor ever himself desired to hear them. This is a spiritual temple being built for the Lord.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:398–400 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The first sentence is compressed; it seems to describe a hearer who is amazed that God speaks through a Christian preacher.

Cite this passage

Barn. 16.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/10/).

Plain text
Barn. 16.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/10/).

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