Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is attributed to the highly intelligent early disciple Barnabas, a Hellenized Jew, who was for a while a travel companion of Paul until they permanently parted ways due to a "sharp disagreement" Acts 15:36–41 over whether to take John Mark on their second missionary journey (Barnabas wanted to give John Mark a second chance). The intellectual respect for Barnabas is so great that some consider him to have been the anonymous author of the masterpiece Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle discusses the Two Ways towards its end, in chapters 18 to 21, similar to the Essenes' view of themselves as the "sons of light" fighting against the "sons of darkness" as included in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
This Epistle was written in Koine Greek between, 70 and 135 AD, possibly in Alexandria, Egypt. Many Church Fathers considered it to be authentic.
There is a strong pro-life statement in the Epistle of Barnabas, at Barnabas 19:5:
| “ | Thou shalt not doubt whether a thing shall be or not be. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thine own soul. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born. Thou shalt not withhold thy hand from thy son or daughter, but from their youth
thou shalt teach them the fear of God.[1] |
” |
also translated as:
| “ | You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born. - Epistle of Barnabas XIX[2] | ” |
The Epistle of Barnabas is not typically part of the Bible today, but is included at the end of the Codex Sinaiticus, after the Book of Revelation and prior to the Shepherd of Hermas.[3]
This is not the so-called "Gospel of Barnabas," which is not authentic and was not written until the 13th century or later.
See also
References
- ↑ https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html (emphasis added).
- ↑ https://nearemmaus.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/reading-the-fathers-12-22-2012/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPro%2DLife%E2%80%9D%20Ethics:,%E2%80%9D%20%28Epistle%20of%20Barnabas%20XIX%29
- ↑ https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/content.aspx