writer. There are many things in the New Testament which we should understand better if we had more contemporary Christian writings. Even if they were of little value of themselves for religious instruction, yet they would be of the greatest value as offering us examples of style, of the use of words, and of modes of thought, for comparison with the New Testament. The Epistle of Clement, bishop of Rome, addressed to the Corinthian Church, belongs to a later generation. It was written probably about A.D. 95; and the writer must not be taken for the Clement mentioned in Philipp. iv. 3, who was a fellow worker with Paul at Philippi nearly forty years before, in A.D. 57 or earlier.

The chief peculiarities in the Epistle of Barnabas are:1st. The writer's fondness for a strained interpretation of Scripture; as in finding that the world would come to an end in six thousand years from the creation, because it was made in six days. Yet more fanciful is the finding the Greek name of Jesus and his cross in Abraham's 318 servants, taking the first two letters in his name, IH, as the Greek numerals for 18, and for the cross using the letter T, the Greek numeral for 300. We notice the same peculiarity in a less degree in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in vii. 6 Levi is said to have paid tithes through Abraham. Paul also is not wholly free from this, as when in Gal. iv. he compares the Jews to Abraham's children through the bondwoman, and the Christians to his children through his wife Sarah.

In this matter Philo seems to have been the great mis

leader of his generation, by the forced allegories with which he ventures to explain the Bible. Barnabas had no doubt read his writings; and he so far copies him as often to introduce his fanciful explanation of a text by a question, such "What is the meaning of these words?"

2nd. A conceited claim to superior knowledge, and to the possession of "the Knowledge," or Gnosticism. It was against this conceit that Paul warns the Corinthians in 1 Cor. viii. and warns Timothy in 1 Tim. vi. 20. But Barnabas's Gnosticism does not partake of the mischievous opinions which troubled Paul in the Corinthian church, and at a later time in the Asiatic churches.

3rd. A strong dislike for Judaism and the Jews, while every part of the Epistle shows that he was himself of Hebrew birth and of Jewish or rather Græco-Jewish education. But we must remember that this dislike was as much political as religious. A Levite of Cyprus, when he came up to Jerusalem, was probably treated as an inferior by the proud priests of Jerusalem; and like the Israelites of Galilee, and the common people of Judea, he may naturally have felt some jealousy against that upper portion of the nation who claimed to be the only true Jews. This was shown in the fate of Jesus, whom the common people, his admirers, followed in crowds, while the Jews said "Crucify him." It had been equally shown four centuries earlier, when the people of Jerusalem came up complaining to Nehemiah the Pacha, with "a great cry against their brethren the Jews" (Nehem. v. 1). But in his dislike of

Judaism Barnabas goes beyond the Apostle Paul. Paul advised the Gentiles not to come under circumcision (Gal. v. 2); but Barnabas wishes the practice to be abolished altogether. In a time of revolution, whether political or religious, opinions change very fast; and Barnabas was writing this seven years after the latest of Paul's Epistles, and fifteen years since Paul had written about Judaism.

4th. There are many peculiar thoughts and words the same as in the New Testament. Of the words, we have in ch. xiii. τov μeražu the future, as in Acts xiii. 42, тo μeтažv There are also some few words which are not there

the next.

found. Such are

ó Maкpolvμos, the Forbearing one, a name for God, ch. iii. i Melas, the Black one, the Devil, ch. iv. and xx.

ETIAUTOS, perhaps for eπηλvτos, a proselyte, in a bad sense, one who had fallen away from Christianity, ch. iii. A pervert rather than a convert.

poraw, to live alone, as a monk, ch. iv.

The Eighth Day, meaning the first day of the week, ch. xv. The Holy Age, meaning the life after death, ch. x.

The Vessel of the Spirit, a name for Christ when in the flesh, ch. vii. and xi.

The Excellent or Noble Vessel, the same, ch. xxi.

5th. The Greek is very faulty. The indicative mood is often used for the subjunctive, and the present tense for the future. These are Hebraisms, and they sometimes lead to obscurity, as in èws eor, which I venture to render until it shall be, thus," until the excellent Vessel [the body of Christ]

shall be with you," ch. xxi. This I understand to mean "Until the second coming of Christ."

Drs. Roberts and Donaldson render it "While you are in this fair vessel."

Other Hebraisms are:

akon akovσarw, let him carefully hear, ch. ix.

μveią μvnμovevete, remember carefully, ch. xxi.

.אם... אם or, ch. xiii., like .

...

ap' wr, from where, ch. iv. and xxi., like

D.

For the numeral Seven he writes in ch. xv. e, or in the MS. EZ, not the simple letter Z. Hence we may suppose that Ez, not Zeta, was his name for the latter; as we form names for F, L, M, N, R, S, and X, by the help of a foregoing vowel.

Before the discovery of the Sinaitic manuscript of the Bible by Tischendorf we possessed no perfect copy of this Epistle in the original Greek. The first four chapters and a half were known only in an ancient Latin version. Since Tischendorf published his facsimile of the MS. several editions of this Epistle have appeared, such as one by Dressel in 1863, and one by Hilgenfeld in 1866. These editors in forming their texts have made use of other MSS. also, and of the Latin version; but in the following pages the text is strictly given as it appears in the Sinaitic MS.

This MS. was corrected throughout by a second hand, probably as soon as it was written. These corrections Tischendorf has carefully noted; and I have adopted them as being the text. The words are often badly spelt, which in the case of

reverse.

the diphthongs, and in them alone, I have ventured to correct; as the scribe has often written for El, and e for αι, and the These departures from the MS. I have noted in the margin, while all other seeming faults are left uncorrected. I have never ventured on any conjectures in order to make the quotations better agree with the Septuagint, or to make the words more probable. Thus I leave in ch. v. that on Jesus preaching to Israel "they greatly loved him," not, as some have read, "he loved them." Barnabas may have been thinking of the common people who heard him gladly, not of the Jews who put him to death. I have made no note of where contractions are used in the MS. except in one case, in ch. vii., where we have ro Ovotav. This, I consider, not a mistake, but a contraction for Tо Ovariaσrηpiov, and I have mentioned it in the margin, together with one or two conjectural emendations, to which I am driven by the needs of the translation, but which I have not introduced into the text.

While adding capital letters, stops, and the customary division of the Epistle into chapters, I have also added the aspirate and the Iota subscriptum to those vowels which usually receive them from the printer.

This MS. of our Epistle is important on two accounts: first, because the Epistle there stands as part of the Bible following immediately upon the Book of Revelation, and thereby receives a strong testimony to its genuineness; and secondly, because it gives us in ch. iv. a few words which help us towards a date of when the Epistle was written. These words had been omitted in the ancient Latin version,