Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 3.5

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.

Summary: God will answer those who show mercy.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:346–348

τότε βοήσεις, καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐπακούσεταί σου, ἔτι λαλοῦντός σου ἐρεῖ· Ἰδοὺ πάρειμι· ἐὰν ἀφέλῃς ἀπὸ σοῦ σύνδεσμον καὶ χειροτονίαν καὶ ῥῆμα γογγυσμοῦ, καὶ δῷς πεινῶντι τὸν ἄρτον σου ἐκ ψυχῆς σου καὶ ψυχὴν τεταπεινωμένην ἐλεήσῃς.

English · Claude translation

Then you will call out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking he will say, ‘Behold, here I am’: if you take away from yourself the bond and the pointing of the finger and the word of grumbling, and give your bread to the hungry from your soul, and have mercy on a humbled soul.”

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:346–348 · 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
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “The pointing of the finger” (χειροτονία): literally “stretching out the hand”; in Isa 58:9 it is a gesture of contempt.

Cite this passage

Barn. 3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/3/5/).

Plain text
Barn. 3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/3/5/).

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