Notes on the Epistle of Barnabas

Dated to around 130 AD.

• Based on who cites the document
• Based on what is cited in the document.
• "Furthermore He saith again; Behold they that pulled down this temple themselves shall build it. So it cometh to pass; for because they went to war it was pulled down by their enemies. Now also the very servants of their enemies shall build it up." (Barnabas 16:3-4)
  • References the destruction of the Temple and the attempt to rebuild it, which happened AD 132-135.

The author is not named.

The audience is not named.

While numerous historical characters are mentioned, nothing in the letter mentions a living person at that time or mentions a place. There was a lack of verifiable evidence when the letter first appeared.

Quotes from the Book of Enoch, a book known to be fraudulent, and calls it Scripture. Barnabas 4:3 mentions I Enoch 80:2. "The last offense is at hand, concerning which the scripture speaketh, as Enoch saith. For to this end the Master hath cut the seasons and the days short, that His beloved might hasten and come to His inheritance." (Barnabas 4:3).

It looks for hidden meaning in the Scriptures. "For the scripture saith; And Abraham circumcised of his household eighteen males and three hundred. What then was the knowledge given unto him? Understand ye that He saith the eighteen first, and then after an interval three hundred In the eighteen 'I' stands for ten, 'H' for eight. Here thou hast JESUS (IHSOYS). And because the cross in the 'T' was to have grace, He saith also three hundred. So He revealeth Jesus in the two letters, and in the
remaining one the cross." (Barnabas 9:7).

• "The problem with allegorical interpretation is that the “discovered” meanings are not simply deeper understandings that come through the progress of revelation (such as you might find in observing biblical patterns and themes), they regularly fall into the category of foreign meanings imposed upon texts that neither the original author nor any other later reader aware of the canonical context could access." [Kenneth Berding, "The So-Called Epistle of Barnabas and the Problem of Allegorical Interpretation: Apostolic Fathers #6," Biola University, 16 July 2012].

Failed prophecy: "Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end." (Barnabas 15:3-4).

• At the time the Epistle of Barnabas was written, some early church writers divided history into 7 1000 day periods; thus, predicting the end of the world around 1000 AD.
• Confused message. Just after predicting the end (which Jesus say was not predictable), the Epistle of Barnabas gives two days of rest. "And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day. Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone utterly astray. But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first. Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world. Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens." (Barnabas 15:5-9). It seems to claim the seventh "day" as the Judgment and the eighth "day" as heaven, but that is a guess.

Denies that Jesus is the son of man or the son of David. "Behold again it is Jesus, not a son of man, but the Son of God, and He was revealed in the flesh in a figure. Since then men will say that Christ is the son of David, David himself prophesieth being afraid and understanding the error of sinners; The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on My right hand until I set thine enemies for a footstool under Thy feet." (Barnabas 12:10).

• However, the author does admit that Jesus came in the flesh. "Therefore the Son of God came in the flesh to this end, that He might sum up the complete tale of their sins against those who persecuted and slew His prophets" (Barnabas 15:11).

The author says he is not a teacher.

• "For the Lord made known to us by His prophets things past and
  present, giving us likewise the firstfruits of the taste of things future. And seeing each of these things severally coming to pass, according as He spake, we ought to offer a richer and higher offering to the fear of Him. But I, not as though I were a teacher, but as one of yourselves, will show forth a few things, whereby ye shall be gladdened in the present circumstances." (Barnabas 1:7).
• "But though I would fain write many things, not as a teacher, but as becometh one who loveth you not to fall short of that which we possess, I was anxious to write to you, being your devoted slave. Wherefore let us take heed in these last days. For the whole time of our faith shall profit us nothing, unless we now, in the season of lawlessness and in the offenses that shall be, as becometh sons of God, offer resistance, that the Black One may not effect an entrance." (Barnabas 4:9).