Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 18.1

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 Two Ways: light and darkness, with their angels.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:400

Μεταβῶμεν δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ ἑτέραν γνῶσιν καὶ διδαχήν. Ὁδοὶ δύο εἰσὶν διδαχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας, ἥ τε τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ ἡ τοῦ σκότους. διαφορὰ δὲ πολλὴ τῶν δύο ὁδῶν. ἐφʼ ἧς μὲν γάρ εἰσιν τεταγμένοι φωταγωγοὶ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐφʼ ἧς δὲ ἄγγελοι τοῦ σατανᾶ.

English · Claude translation

But let us pass on also to another knowledge and teaching. There are two ways of teaching and of power, the one of light and the other of darkness. And there is a great difference between the two ways. For over the one are set light-bearing angels of God, and over the other angels of Satan.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:400 · 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)
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • Chapters 18–20 contain a form of the “Two Ways” teaching also found in the Didache (1–5). Both probably draw on a common earlier source.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing and accent)): ἐφʼ ἦς δὲ → ἐφʼ ἧς δὲ.

Cite this passage

Barn. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/18/1/).

Plain text
Barn. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/18/1/).

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