Epistle of Barnabas 9.3

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: God circumcised our hearing so that we might hear and believe.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:370

καὶ πάλιν λέγει· Ἄκουε οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου γῆ, ὅτι κύριος ἐλάλησεν ταῦτα εἰς μαρτύριον. καὶ πάλιν λέγει· Ἀκούσατε λόγον κυρίου, ἄρχοντες τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου. καὶ πάλιν λέγει· Ἀκούσατε, τέκνα, φωνῆς βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. οὐκοῦν περιέτεμεν ἡμῶν τὰς ἀκοάς, ἵνα ἀκούσαντες λόγον πιστεύσωμεν ἡμεῖς.

English · Claude translation

And again he says, “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken these things as a testimony.” And again he says, “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of this people.” And again he says, “Hear, children, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” So he circumcised our hearing, so that we might hear the word and believe.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:370 · 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

Isa 1:2 · quotation, high confidence
Isa 1:10 · quotation, high confidence
Isa 28:14 · allusion, medium confidence
Isa 40:3 · allusion, high confidence

Cite this passage

Barn. 9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/9/3/).

Plain text

Barn. 9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/9/3/).