[1266] Ch. 2:ho kainos nomos tou Kuriou hemon I.Ch., aneu (ater) zugou anankes on

[1266] Ch. 2:ho kainos nomos tou Kuriou hemon I.Ch., aneu (ater) zugou anankes on

[1267] Ch. 4:sunetribe auton he diatheke, hina he tou egapemenou Iesou enkatasphragisthe? eis ten kardian hemon en elpidi tes pisteos autou.

[1268] Cap. 4 at the close: prosechomen mepote, hos gegraptai, polloi kletoi, oligoi de eklektoi heurethomen. From Matt. 22:14. As long as the fourth chapter of this epistle existed only in Latin, the words: "sicut scriptum est" were suspected by Dr. Credner and other critics as an interpolation, Hilgenfeld (1853) suggested that the original had simply kathos phesin, and Dressel, in his first edition of the Apostolic Fathers (1857), remarked in loc: "Voces 'sicut scriptum est' glossam olent." But the discovery of the Greek original in the Sinaitic MS. of the Bible has settled this point, and the Constantinopolitan MS. confirms it. The attempt of Strauss and other sceptics to refer the quotation to the apocryphal fourth Book of Esdras, which was probably written by a Jewish Christian after the destruction of Jerusalem, and contains the passage: 'Many are born, but few will be saved."is only worth mentioning as an instance of the stubbornness of preconceived prejudice.

[1269] Funk (I. 364-366) gives nine quotations from Genesis, thirteen from Exodus, six from Deuteronomy, fourteen from the Psalms, twenty-six from Isaiah, etc., also one from IV. Esdras, four from Enoch. Comp. the list in Anger's Synopsis Evang. (1852), Gebh. and Harn., 217-230.

[1270] See Acts 1:23; 4:37; 9:26 sq.; 11:22, 30; 14:4, 14; 15:2, etc. Clement of Alex. quotes the Epistle seven times (four times under the name of Barnabas), in his Stromtata, Origen, his pupil, three or four times (Contra Cels. I. 63; De Princ. III. 2; Ad Rom. I. 24). Tertullian does not mention the epistle, but seems to have known it (Comp. Adv, Marc. III. 7; Adv. Jud. 14); he, however, ascribes the Ep, to the Hebrews to Barnabas )De Pudic. c. 20). Hefele and Funk find probable allusions to it in Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Ignatius, and Hermas; but these are uncertain. On the life and labors of Barnabas see especially Hefele and Braunsberger (p. 1-135).

[1271] In H. E. III. 25, Eusebius counts it among the "spurious" books (en tois nothois ... he pheromene Barnaba epistole), but immediately afterwards and in VI. 14, among the "doubtful" (antilegomena), and Jerome (De Vir. ill. c. 6), "inter apocryphas scripturas."

[1272] Voss, Dupin, Gallandi, Cave, Pearson, Lardner, Henke, Rördam, Schneckenburger, Franke, Gieseler, Credner, Bleek (formerly), De Wette, Möhler, Alzog, Sprinzl ("genuine, but not inspired "), Sharpe. The interpolation hypothesis of Schenkel (1837) and Heydeke (1874) is untenable; the book must stand or fall as a whole.

[1273] So Ussher, Daillé, Cotelier, Tillemont, Mosheim, Neander, Ullmann, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Hefele, Döllinger, Kayser, Donaldson, Westcott, Müller, Wieseler, Weizsäcker, Braunsberger, Harnack, Funk. Hefele urges eight arguments against the genuineness; but five of them are entirely inconclusive. See Milligan, l. c., who examines them carefully and concludes that the authenticity of the Epistle is more probable than is now commonly supposed.

[1274] Or "sinners above all sin," huper pasan hamartian anomoterous,homines omni peccato iniquiores, c. 5. Paul might call himself in genuine humility " the chief of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), with reference to his former conduct as a persecutor; but he certainly would not have used such a term of all the apostles nor would it be true of any of them but Judas.

[1275] He is also charged with several blunders concerning Jewish history and worship which can hardly be expected from Barnabas the Levite. Comp. chs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 15. But this is disproved by Braunsberger (p. 253 sqq.), who shows that the epistle gives us interesting archaeological information in those chapters although he denies the genuineness.

[1276] He is twice called an apostle, Acts 14:4, 14, being included with Paul in apostoloi.

[1277] So Neander, Möhler, Hefele (1840), Funk, GüdemAnn. On the other hand, Lardner, Donaldson, Hilgenfeld, Kayser, Riggenbach, Hefele (1868), Braunsberger, Harnack contend that Barnabas and his readers were Gentile Christians, because he distinguishes himself and his readers (hemeis) from the Jews chs. 2, 3, 4, 8. 10, 14, 16. But the same distinction is uniformly made by John in the Gospel, and was quite natural after the final separation between the church and the synagogue. The mistakes in Jewish history are doubtful and less numerous than the proofs of the writer's familiarity with it. The strongest passage is ch. 16: " Before we became believers in God, the house of our heart was ... full of idolatry and the house of demons, because we did what was contrary to God's will."But even this, though more applicable to heathen, is not inapplicable to Jews; nor need we suppose that there were no Gentiles among the readers. Towards the close of the second century there were probably very few unmixed congregations. Lipsius and Volkmar seek the readers in Rome, Müller in Asia Minor, Schenkel, Hilgenfeld, Harnack, and Funk in Alexandria or Egypt. There is a similar difference of opinion concerning the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

[1278] Ch. 16 compared with the explanation of Daniel's prophecy of the little horn in ch. 4.

[1279] Hefele, Kayser, Baur, Müller, Lipsius, put the composition between 107 and 120 (before the building of Aelia Capitolina under Hadrian), and Braunsberger between 110 and 137; but Hilgenfeld, Reuss )Gesch. d. N. T, 4th ed., 1864, p. 233), Ewald )Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, VII. 136), Weizsäcker (" in Jahrb. für Deutsch. Theol.," 1865, p. 391, and 1871, p. 569), Wieseler (Ibid. 1870, p. 603-614), and Funk (Prol. p. VI.), at the close of the first century, or even before 79. Wieseler argues from the author's interpretation of Daniel's prophecy concerning the ten kingdoms and the little horn (ch. 4 and 16), that the Ep. was written under Domitian, the eleventh Rom. emperor, and "the little horn" of Daniel. Weiszäcker and Cunningham refer the little hero to Vespasian (79-79), Hilgenfeld to Nerva; but even in the last case the Ep. would have been written before a.d. 98, when Nerva died. Milligan concludes that it was written very soon after the destruction of Jerusalem. But in fresh view of that terrible judgment, we can scarcely account for the danger of apostasy to Judaism. The author's aim seems to presuppose a revival of Judaism and of Jewish tendencies within the Christian Church.