Epistle of Barnabas 19.5

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 24:402

οὐ μὴ διψυχήσῃς, πότερον ἔσται ἢ οὔ. οὐ μὴ λάβῃς ἐπὶ ματαίῳ τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου. ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὑπὲρ τὴν ψυχήν σου. οὐ φονεύσεις τέκνον ἐν φθορᾷ, οὐδὲ πάλιν γεννηθὲν ἀποκτενεῖς. οὐ μὴ ἄρῃς τὴν χεῖρά σου ἀπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ σου ἢ ἀπὸ τῆς θυγατρός σου, ἀλλὰ ἀπὸ νεότητος διδάξεις φόβου θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

You shall not be double-minded whether it shall be or not. You shall never take the name of the Lord in vain. You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor again kill it when it is born. You shall not withhold your hand from your son or your daughter, but from their youth you shall teach them the fear of God.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:402 · 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

Exod 20:7 · allusion, high confidence
Lev 19:18 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“By abortion” (ἐν φθορᾷ): literally “in destruction”; as in Did. 2.2, abortion and the killing of newborns (exposure) are both condemned.
“Double-minded whether it shall be or not”: probably doubt about God's promises or judgment (compare Did. 4.4).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): υἱοῦ σου ἡ ἀπὸ → υἱοῦ σου ἢ ἀπὸ.

Cite this passage

Barn. 19.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/5/).

Plain text

Barn. 19.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/19/5/).