Epistle of Barnabas 21.1

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: Walk in the Lord's decrees; there will be resurrection and recompense.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:406–408

Καλὸν οὖν ἐστὶν μαθόντα τὰ δικαιώματα τοῦ κυρίου, ὅσα γέγραπται, ἐν τούτοις περιπατεῖν· ὁ γὰρ ταῦτα ποιῶν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ δοξασθήσεται· ὁ ἐκεῖνα ἐκλεγόμενος μετὰ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ συναπολεῖται. διὰ τοῦτο ἀνάστασις. διὰ τοῦτο ἀνταπόδομα.

English · Claude translation

It is good, then, having learned the righteous decrees of the Lord, as many as are written, to walk in them. For whoever does these things will be glorified in the kingdom of God; whoever chooses those things will perish together with his works. For this reason there is a resurrection; for this reason there is a recompense.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:406–408 · 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

Cite this passage

Barn. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/21/1/).

Plain text

Barn. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/21/1/).