Epistle of Barnabas 19.2

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: Love, fear, and glorify God; hate hypocrisy.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:400–402

ἀγαπήσεις τὸν ποιήσαντά σε, φοβηθήσῃ τόν σε πλάσαντα, δοξάσεις τόν σε λυτρωσάμενον ἐκ θανάτου· ἔσῃ ἁπλοῦς τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ πλούσιος τῷ πνεύματι· οὐ κολληθήσῃ μετὰ τῶν πορευομένων ἐν ὁδῷ θανάτου, μισήσεις πᾶν, ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀρεστὸν τῷ θεῷ, μισήσεις πᾶσαν ὑπόκρισιν· οὐ μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃς ἐντολὰς κυρίου.

English · Claude translation

You shall love the one who made you; you shall fear the one who formed you; you shall glorify the one who redeemed you from death. You shall be simple in heart and rich in spirit. You shall not join those who walk in the way of death. You shall hate everything that is not pleasing to God; you shall hate all hypocrisy. You shall never abandon the commandments of the Lord.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:400–402 · 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

Deut 6:5 · echo, medium confidence
Matt 5:3 · echo, low confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Barn. 19.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/2/).

Plain text

Barn. 19.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/2/).