Epistle of Barnabas 4.12

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 judges without favoritism; each receives according to deeds.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:352

ὁ κύριος ἀπροσωπολήμπτως κρινεῖ τὸν κόσμον. ἕκαστος καθὼς ἐποίησεν κομιεῖται. ἐὰν ᾖ ἀγαθός, ἡ δικαιοσύνη αὐτοῦ προηγήσεται αὐτοῦ· ἐὰν ᾖ πονηρός, ὁ μισθὸς τῆς πονηρίας ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ·

English · Claude translation

The Lord will judge the world without partiality. Each will receive according to what he has done. If he is good, his righteousness will go before him; if he is wicked, the wages of wickedness will be before him.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:352 · 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
Eschatology

Cite this passage

Barn. 4.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/4/12/).

Plain text
Barn. 4.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/4/12/).

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