Epistle of Barnabas 16.5

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.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:396

πάλιν ὡς ἔμελλεν ἡ πόλις καὶ ὁ ναὸς καὶ ὁ λαὸς Ἰσραὴλ παραδίδοσθαι, ἐφανερώθη. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή· Καὶ ἔσται ἐπʼ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν, καὶ παραδώσει κύριος τὰ πρόβατα τῆς νομῆς καὶ τὴν μάνδραν καὶ τὸν πύργον αὐτῶν εἰς καταφθοράν. καὶ ἐγένετο καθʼ ἃ ἐλάλησεν κύριος.

English · Claude translation

Again, it was revealed that the city and the temple and the people of Israel were to be handed over. For the scripture says, “And it will come to pass in the last days that the Lord will hand over the sheep of the pasture and the fold and their tower to destruction.” And it happened as the Lord said.

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)

Extrabiblical texts

1 En. 89.56 (1 Enoch) · allusion, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is not in the Old Testament; it resembles 1 En. 89.56–66, where the tower stands for the temple.

Cite this passage

Barn. 16.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/5/).

Plain text

Barn. 16.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/5/).