Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 5.13

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: The Psalms foretold his suffering on a tree.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:356

αὐτὸς δὲ ἠθέλησεν οὕτω παθεῖν· ἔδει γάρ, ἵνα ἐπὶ ξύλου πάθῃ. λέγει γὰρ ὁ προφητεύων ἐπʼ αὐτῷ· Φεῖσαί μου τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ ῥομφαίας, καί· Καθήλωσόν μου τὰς σάρκας, ὅτι πονηρευομένων συναγωγαὶ ἐπανέστησάν μοι.

English · Claude translation

But he himself willed to suffer thus, for it was necessary that he suffer on a tree. For the one who prophesies of him says, “Spare my soul from the sword,” and, “Nail my flesh, for the assemblies of evildoers have risen up against me.”

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:356 · 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
  • Ps 22:20 (21:21 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 119:120 (118:120 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 22:16 (21:17 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 86:14 (85:14 LXX) · echo, low confidence
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Nail my flesh”: from Ps 119:120 LXX (118:120), read as a prophecy of the crucifixion.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip: part of a word was repeated; punctuation slip in the digital text (a quotation follows)): ἐπʼ αὐτῷ. Φεῖσαί → ἐπʼ αὐτῷ· Φεῖσαί; ἐπανέστησάν νέστησάν μοι → ἐπανέστησάν μοι.

Cite this passage

Barn. 5.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/5/13/).

Plain text
Barn. 5.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/5/13/).

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