8. Text. — Until the discovery of the famous Codex Sinaiticus (K) in 1862, this Epistle was known only in a Latin translation and in eight Greek MS'S. The Latin Version is found in a MS of the 8th cent., but the translation was made from a text supposed by Miiller to be earlier than K. It does not contain the last four chapters. The Greek MSS all lacked exactly the same portion of the Epistle — the first five and a half chapters — and joined the remainder of Barnabas on to the end of the Epistle of Polycarp as though it were all one letter. Being thus plainly de-
U2
BAESABBAS
BAEUCH, APOCALYPSE OF
scended from a common source, they are not in- dependent witnesses for the text. With the publication of h? bj' Tischendorf in 1862 a complete Greek text appeared for the tirst time. In this Codex our Epistle follows Revelation, and is followed by the Shepherd of Hernias. Another complete Greek MS was discovered in Constan- tinople by Bryennios in 1875. A good account of the MSS -will be found in Harnack's Altchristl. Litteratur, i. 58-61, and in Gebhardt-Harnack's Pat. Apost. Op. i. 2, pp. vii-xx.
9. Integrity. — Attempts have been made by Schenkel, Heydecke, J. Weiss, and others to show that the Epistle contains many interpola- tions. Hefele, Hilgenfeld, and Gebhardt-Harnack have maintained the opposite. Of special interest is the relation of our Epistle to the Didache (q.v.) ; for both set forth much the same moral teaching under the title of 'The Two Ways.' Rendel Harris (Teaching of the Apostles, Cambridge, 1888, pp. 17-20) maintains that the writer of Barnabas knew the Didache and quoted it from memory. Harnack, however, seems more successful in show- ing that the writer of the Didache used and im- proved upon our Epistle (cf. Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel, Leipzig, 1884, pp. 81-87).
Literature. — English translations will be found in J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, 1 vol., London, 1891 ; The Writ- i)i{js of the Apostolic Fathers, tr. Roberts, Donaldson, and Crombie ( = Ante-Nicene Christian Library, i.), 97 ff. ; K. Lake, Apostolic Fathers, London, 1912. Reference should also be made to Gebhardt-Harnack, Patrum Apost. Op. i. 2 [Leipzig, 1878], who give a complete list of titles down to 1878 on pp. xlii-xliv ; A. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Litteratur, Leipzig, 1893 ; A. Bardenhewer, Gesch. der altkirchl. Litteratur, Freiburg i. B., 1902-03; J. Donaldson, Apostolical Fathers, London, 1874 ( = new ed. of vol. i. of Crit. Hist, of Christ. Lit. and Doct.) ; W. Cunningham, A Dissertation on the Epistle of St. Barnabas, do. 1877 ; C. J. Hefele, Pat. Apost. Op. iv. S [Tiibingen, 1856] ; S. Sharpe, Epistle of Barnabas, London, 1880 ; G. Salmon, Introd. to the NT^, London, 1892, pp. 513-519; K. Kohler in JE ii. [1902] 537 f.; W. Milligan in DCB i. [1877] 2C0ff. ; J. Vernon Bartlet in £Brii iii. [1910] 408 f. ; J. G. Muller, Erkldrung des Barnabasbriefes, Leipzig, 1869.
Harold Hamilton. BARSABBAS.— See Joseph, Judas.
BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF.— The subject of this article is a Jewish work composed not long after the Destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, and now preserved only in Syriac. This Syriac is a tran.slation from the Greek, of which only a tiny fragment is extant ; the Greek itself seems to have been a translation from an Aramaic or Hebrew original.
The Apocalypse of Baruch was first published as a whole by Ceriani from the Ambrosian MS of the Peshitta OT (6th cent.). The Latin translation appeared in 18G6, and the Syriac text in 1871. An English translation with full critical and explanatory commentary by R. H. Charles appeared in 1896. In Patro- logia Syriaca, vol. ii. [1907] 1055-1306, M. Kniosko gives the Syriac, together with an amended text of Ceriani's translation. The Greek fragment appeared in 1903 in Oxyrhynchxis Papyri, vol. iii. pp. 3-7. By some oversight Kmosko does not notice this important discovery.
1. Contents. — The work professes to be written by Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah, immediately after the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. It does not readily fall into sections, but may be analyzed as follo^\ti :
i.-xx. The capture of Jerusalem, and the vindi- cation of God's power and justice in respect to it.
Baruch is miraculously shown the destruction of the wall of Jerusalem by angels and the hiding of the holy vessels* (vi. vii.), after which the Chaldaeans enter. Baruch laments over Zion (x. 6-xii. 4) ; after seven days God reveals to him that justice will be done on the heathen (xiii. 5-12); the Fall of Jerusalem is a step towards the final judgment (xx. 2).
xxi.-xxxiY. Prayer of Baruch, and first Messianic revelation to him.
* Note that the seven-branched candlestick is not included : that was actually carried in triumph by Titus.
The world will last until all the predestined sons of Adam have been born (xxiii. 4, 5). At the end will come the Messiah, the Manna will descend again, and Behemoth and Leviathan will be there for the saints to eat (xxix.). After that comes the resurrection of the dead (xxx.).
Baruch assembles the people and warns them that Zion will be rebuilt and then again destroyed ; the tribulation at the end of time is the worse (.\xxii. 2, 6).
xxxy.-xIyI. Vision of the cedar and the vine.