The Epistle of Barnabas

And again he says to them, Did I command your fathers when they came out of the land of Egypt to offer me burnt offerings and sacrifices?

Nay, but rather did I command them this: Let none of you cherish any evil in his heart against his neighbour, and love not a false oath.

We ought then to understand, if we are not foolish, the loving intention of our Father, for he speaks to us, wishing that we should not err like them, but seek how we may make our offering to him.

To us then he speaks thus: Sacrifice for the Lord is a broken heart, a smell of sweet savour to the Lord is a heart that glorifieth him that made it.[*](The first part of this quotation is Ps. 51, 19; the second part according to a note in C is from the Apocalypse of Adam, which is no longer extant.) We ought, therefore, brethren, carefully to enquire concerning our salvation, in

To them he says then again concerning these[*](Concerning fasting) things, Why do ye fast for me, saith the Lord, so that your voice is heard this day with a cry! This is not the fast which I chose, saith the Lord, not a man humbling his soul;

nor though ye bend your neck as a hoop, and put on sackcloth, and make your bed of ashes, not even so shall ye call it an acceptable fast.

But to us he says, Behold this is the fast which I chose, saith the Lord, loose every bond of wickedness, set loose the fastenings of harsh agreements, send away the bruised in forgiveness, and tear up every unjust contract, give to the hungry thy bread, and if thou seest a naked man clothe him, bring the homeless into thy house, and if thou seest a humble man, despise him not, neither thou nor any of the household of thy seed.

Then shall thy light break forth as the dawn, and thy robes shall rise quickly, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of God shall surround thee.

Then thou shalt cry and God shall hear thee; while thou art still speaking He shall say, ‘Lo I am here’; if thou puttest away from thee bondage, and

So then, brethren, the long-suffering one foresaw that the people whom He prepared in his Beloved should believe in guilelessness, and made all things plain to us beforehand that we should not be shipwrecked by conversion to their law.

We ought, then, to enquire earnestly into the[*](Warning that the final trial is at hand) things which now are, and to seek out those which are able to save us. Let us then utterly flee from all the works of lawlessness, lest the works of lawlessness overcome us, and let us hate the error of this present time, that we may be loved in that which is to come.

Let us give no freedom to our souls to have power to walk with sinners and wicked men, lest we be made like to them.

The final stumbling block is at hand of which it was written, as Enoch says, For to this end the Lord has cut short the times and the days, that his beloved should make haste and come to his inheritance.

And the Prophet also says thus: Ten kingdoms shall reign upon the earth and there shall rise up after them a little king, who shall subdue three of the kings under one.

Daniel says likewise concerning the same: And I beheld

You ought then to understand. And this also I ask you, as being one of yourselves, and especially as loving you all above my own life; take heed to yourselves now, and be not made like[*](The covenant. Christian or Jewish?) unto some, heaping up your sins and saying that the covenant is both theirs and ours.

It is ours: but in this way did they finally lose k when Moses had just received it, for the Scripture says: And Moses was in the mount fasting forty days and forty nights, and he received the covenant from the Lord, tables of stone written with the finger of the hand of the Lord.

But they turned to idols and lost it. For thus saith the Lord: Moses, Moses, go down quickly, for thy people, whom thou broughtest forth out of the land of Egypt, have broken the Law. And Moses understood and cast the two tables out of his hands, and their covenant was broken, in order that the covenant of Jesus the Beloved should be sealed in our hearts in hope of his faith.

(And though I wish to write much, I hasten to write in devotion to you, not as a teacher, but as it becomes one who loves to leave out nothing of that which we have.)[*](It is possible that the odd change of construction is due to some reference to a well known maxim: but the source of such quotation or reference has not been found.) Wherefore[*](Admonition to stedfastness) let us pay heed in the last days, for the whole