Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 4.14

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: Israel was abandoned despite great signs: many are called, few chosen.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:352–354

ἔτι δὲ κἀκεῖνο, ἀδελφοί μου, νοεῖτε· ὅταν βλέπετε μετὰ τηλικαῦτα σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα γεγονότα ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, καὶ οὕτως ἐγκαταλελεῖφθαι αὐτούς· προσέχωμεν, μήποτε, ὡς γέγραπται, πολλοὶ κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἐκλεκτοὶ εὑρεθῶμεν.

English · Claude translation

And consider this also, my brothers: when you see that after such great signs and wonders were done in Israel, even so they were abandoned, let us take heed lest, as it is written, we be found “many called, but few chosen.”

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:352–354 · 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
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • “As it is written”: a saying of Jesus (Matt 22:14) introduced as scripture.

Cite this passage

Barn. 4.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/4/14/).

Plain text
Barn. 4.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/4/14/).

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