Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 6.18

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: No one yet truly rules creation.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:362

προειρήκαμεν δὲ ἐπάνω. Καὶ αὐξανέσθωσαν καὶ πληθυνέσθωσαν καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων. τίς οὖν ὁ δυνάμενος νῦν ἄρχειν θηρίων ἢ ἰχθύων ἢ πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ; αἰσθάνεσθαι γὰρ ὀφείλομεν, ὅτι τὸ ἄρχειν ἐξουσίας ἐστίν, ἵνα τις ἐπιτάξας κυριεύσῃ.

English · Claude translation

And we said above, “And let them increase and multiply and rule over the fish.” Who, then, is now able to rule over beasts or fish or birds of heaven? For we ought to understand that to rule implies authority, so that one may command and have dominion.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:362 · 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)

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accents)): ἤ ἰχθύων ἤ πετεινῶν → ἢ ἰχθύων ἢ πετεινῶν.

Cite this passage

Barn. 6.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/18/).

Plain text
Barn. 6.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/18/).

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