even two years later, when Jerusalem had been taken by Vespasian's lieutenant Titus, had not thought it safe to leave his unknown place of retreat, we judge that the cruel law against the Christians was not an edict which was to die with the emperor, but was a law by the senate, which remained in force until it was repealed. Any zealous prefect or proconsul was at liberty to make use of this law; yet as Vespasian was emperor in A.D. 69, and did not countenance religious persecution, and Barnabas says that he hastened to write his Epistle as soon as he safely could, we need not place it later than A.D. 70.

Again, near the beginning of ch. iv. we have the prophecy in Daniel vii. 7, 8, made use of rather violently to tell us that in the reign of Vespasian the world was soon to come to an end. The fourth Beast, wicked and strong above all the Beasts of the earth, is here meant for the Roman monarchy, although in Daniel it was the Greek monarchy. Out of it came ten horns, one of which was a little horn, a side-sprout, which humbled three great horns. This is Vespasian, who followed Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. At no later time could a Roman emperor so properly be called a side-sprout as when the empire had been for a century governed by one family, and when a ruler of a new family had come to the throne.

Here Barnabas is in part following the Book of Revelation, where Vespasian and his son Titus are called the sixth and seventh kings, while Galba, Otho, and Vitellius are passed over (Rev. xvii. 10). Thus, if those three are to be

counted, Vespasian is the ninth; and Barnabas does not say that Vespasian was the tenth, but one of the ten; both writers speak of Titus's succession as assured.

In the first chapter Barnabas says that he hastened to send his advice Karа Juкpov, little by little, meaning perhaps to send several short Epistles. But he may not at once have had the means of sending; and the Epistle shows traces of having been several months in hand. Thus, in the early chapters he is satisfied with the spiritual condition of his flock, and the times are evil, he that worketh has got the power [Nero is emperor]; but in chapter iv. he has heard of his flock's defilement [by idolatry], and Vespasian is on the throne; and again in ch. xvi. the Temple of Jerusalem is in the hands of the Romans.

The date of the Epistle is important, as showing how early the open profession of Gnosticism, or the boast of superior knowledge, had appeared within the Church. It is a justification of Paul's warning Timothy (1 Tim. vi. 20), and the Colossians (Col. ii.) against the "enticing words," and that seductive form of thought, which was soon to break out into open heresy, and to lead to a separation (1 John ii. 19). Barnabas himself shows none of those mischievous opinions which usually accompanied his line of thought, and which had appeared within the church of Corinth (1 Cor. vii., viii.), and which go far towards undermining morality. But perhaps we see something of the Gnostic admiration of the pagan philosophy, and thence the wish to rest good conduct and our happiness on the under

standing rather than on the love of God, when he says in ch. i., "Righteousness of judging is the beginning; and the end is Love, Cheerfulness, and the witness of Joyfulness of works done in righteousness." These words Drs. Roberts and Donaldson omit from their translation, and say in a note, "The Greek is here totally unintelligible; it seems impossible either to punctuate it or construe it." Perhaps while noting how the same words, "beginning and end,” were used in the foregoing line, these translators did not try the effect of a semicolon after the word "beginning," and of introducing a verb into each half of the sentence. We here see the obscurity in which the early writers often left their works for want of punctuation. Well might the Ethiopian say to Philip, of a passage in Isaiah, "How can I understand unless some one guide me?" (Acts viii. 31).

Another interesting passage is in ch. xix. "Thou shalt pacify those that fight, bringing them together; [God] will recognize it in thy sins." These last words Drs. Roberts and Donaldson render "Thou shalt confess thy sins." They possibly are following a different text.

The Epistle marks a step in the exaltation of Jesus which had been taking place in the minds of his disciples ever since the Crucifixion. In the introduction to the Fourth Gospel we read that the Word was with God at the beginning, and was an instrument in the creation of all things; and then that the Word became flesh and dwelt in the body of Jesus. So Barnabas, in chs. vii. and xi. styles Jesus the Vessel which contained the Spirit; and in ch. v. he puts

forth more clearly the doctrine of his pre-existence, saying, that the Lord who suffered for us was present at the creation, when God said to him, "Let us make man after our image."

In Matt. xxiv. 22, the disciples are promised that the days will be shortened so that the Son of Man may come the sooner; and Barnabas says in ch. iv. that the days have been shortened that the Lord might come the sooner to his inheritance; and in ch. xxi. that the Lord is at hand with his reward, and that the day is at hand when the Evil one will perish.

The Epistle also tells us in ch. iv. that the Christian Sabbath was already kept on the eighth day, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. This confirms what we learn from 1 Cor. xvi. 2, Acts xx. 7, and Rev. i. 10, as to Sunday being fixed upon as the Christian Sabbath.

The quotations from the Old Testament are numerous, probably all from the Septuagint, not from the Hebrew. But they are made very carelessly, and applied very fancifully, as the writer was guided by a conceited belief in his own Knowledge, γνωσις, which he sometimes calls ἡ γνωσις, Gnosticism. He also quotes the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Wisdom, and once introduces a passage which we find in Matthew's Gospel, with the important words, " as it is written." But this, as also several other thoughts which we find in that Gospel, may have been taken from the Logia, or Sayings of Jesus, a work mentioned by Justin Martyr, and which was in circulation before any one of the

Gospels was written. We have also thoughts which might have been borrowed from Paul's Epistles, from James, from Hebrews, from the Book of Revelation, and from John's Gospel. All these are noted at the foot of our pages. Many may not have been quotations from any book; they may have been thoughts floating among the Disciples by tradition; but it seems probable that the writer had at least read the Sayings of Jesus and several of Paul's Epistles. Indeed every page of our Epistle reminds us of Paul's writings. This is not remarkable, as Barnabas and Paul had at one time lived in great intimacy; and the stronger and better educated mind of Paul naturally impressed itself on that of Barnabas.

In ch. xxi. Barnabas speaks of "the judgments of the Lord, such as have been written." This would seem to mean a collection of speeches, as the Logia, rather than one of the Gospels; but that Barnabas had read John's Gospel is also probable, though the reasons for so thinking do not amount to a proof. His Epistle shows few signs of original thought, except indeed in his foolish conceits and far-fetched interpretations of passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. When therefore we find thoughts in the Epistle the same as those in the Fourth Gospel, and for which we know of no other source, we are led to trace them to that Gospel as to the original.

In the Introduction to John's Gospel we have two beginnings spoken of. In verse 1 we read, "In the beginning [of this new dispensation] the Word was with God;" and in