Epistle of Barnabas 16.9

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: God dwells in us and leads us into the incorruptible temple.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:398

πῶς; ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ τῆς πίστεως, ἡ κλῆσις αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἡ σοφία τῶν δικαιωμάτων, αἱ ἐντολαὶ τῆς διδαχῆς, αὐτὸς ἐν ἡμῖν προφητεύων, αὐτὸς ἐν ἡμῖν κατοικῶν, τοὺς τῷ θανάτῳ δεδουλωμένους ἀνοίγων ἡμῖν τὴν θύραν τοῦ ναοῦ, ὅ ἐστιν στόμα, μετάνοιαν διδοὺς ἡμῖν, εἰσάγει εἰς τὸν ἄφθαρτον ναόν.

English · Claude translation

How? His word of faith, his calling of promise, the wisdom of the righteous decrees, the commandments of the teaching, he himself prophesying in us, he himself dwelling in us: opening for us who were enslaved to death the door of the temple, which is the mouth, and giving us repentance, he leads us into the incorruptible temple.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:398 · 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. 16.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/9/).

Plain text

Barn. 16.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/9/).