Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 19.10

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: Remember the judgment; seek the saints; work to save souls or give for your sins.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:404

μνησθήσῃ ἡμέραν κρίσεως νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, καὶ ἐκζητήσεις καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν τὰ πρόσωπα τῶν ἁγίων, ἢ διὰ λόγου κοπιῶν καὶ πορευόμενος εἰς τὸ παρακαλέσαι καὶ μελετῶν εἰς τὸ σῶσαι ψυχὴν τῷ λόγῳ, ἢ διὰ τῶν χειρῶν σου ἐργάσῃ εἰς λύτρωσιν ἁμαρτιῶν σου.

English · Claude translation

You shall remember the day of judgment night and day, and you shall seek out every day the company of the saints, either laboring by word and going to exhort and striving to save a soul by the word, or working with your hands for a ransom for your sins.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:404 · 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
Eschatology, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “A ransom for your sins”: giving from one's labor (alms) as atonement for sins, as in Did. 4.6.

Cite this passage

Barn. 19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/10/).

Plain text
Barn. 19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/10/).

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