Epistle of Barnabas 20.1

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.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:406

Ἡ δὲ τοῦ μέλανος ὁδός ἐστιν σκολιὰ καὶ κατάρας μεστή. ὁδὸς γάρ ἐστιν θανάτου αἰωνίου μετὰ τιμωρίας, ἐν ᾗ ἐστιν τὰ ἀπολλύντα τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῶν· εἰδωλολατρεία, θρασύτης, ὕψος δυνάμεως, ὑπόκρισις, διπλοκαρδία, μοιχεία, φόνος, ἁρπαγή, ὑπερηφανία, παράβασις, δόλος, κακία, αὐθάδεια, φαρμακεία, μαγεία, πλεονεξία, ἀφοβία θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

But the way of the Black One is crooked and full of curse. For it is the way of eternal death with punishment, in which are the things that destroy their soul: idolatry, boldness, the arrogance of power, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, adultery, murder, robbery, pride, transgression, deceit, malice, self-will, sorcery, magic, greed, lack of the fear of God.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:406 · 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, Eschatology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing)): ἐν ᾖ ἐστιν → ἐν ᾗ ἐστιν.

Cite this passage

Barn. 20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/20/1/).

Plain text

Barn. 20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/20/1/).