Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 6.9

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 “good land” is Jesus in the flesh; man is suffering earth.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:360

τί δὲ λέγει ἡ γνῶσις; μάθετε. ἐλπίσατε, φησίν, ἐπὶ τὸν ἐν σαρκὶ μέλλοντα φανεροῦσθαι ὑμῖν Ἰησοῦν. ἄνθρωπος γὰρ γῆ ἐστιν πάσχουσα· ἀπὸ προσώπου γὰρ τῆς γῆς ἡ πλάσις τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἐγένετο.

English · Claude translation

But what does knowledge say? Learn: “Hope,” it says, “in Jesus, who is about to be manifested to you in the flesh.” For man is earth that suffers; for the forming of Adam was from the face of the earth.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:360 · 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
  • Gen 2:7 · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Knowledge” (γνῶσις): the deeper sense of scripture; here the author gives his allegorical reading of the promised land as Christ's flesh.

Cite this passage

Barn. 6.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/9/).

Plain text
Barn. 6.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/9/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage