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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Ante-Nicene Fathers – The Epistle of Barnabas – Early Crack-Pot Theology




So I’ve been carting these Ante-Nicene Fathers (the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325) volumes around for a few years.  If you are interested, you can purchase them new for about a hundred dollars.  Of course, they are in the public domain by now, so you can read them online for free.  I was given them by someone who was clearing out their shelves (someone who didn’t want to carry them around any longer…) I prefer to read actual physical books to e-books so I’ve kept them – even if that means that I have to pack them up every so often.

But I’ve never, until now, read through these books. I’ve been carrying them around for a couple of years.  I’ve consulted them and checked in them for information, but I’ve never really read and studied them.  I’m changing that now.  I’ve decided that I will read all 10 volumes.

I have just finished reading The Epistle of Barnabas in volume one.  This epistle should not be confused with either The Gospel of Barnabas or The Acts of Barnabas  and the “Barnabas” of this anonymous epistle should not be confused with Saint Barnabas – the companion of Paul in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  He is sometimes identified as “Barnabas of Alexandria” (but this, too, is a guess.)

It is suggested that this Barnabas is from the Egyptian city of Alexandria for two reasons:  1) he utilizes the system of allegorical interpretation that was popular in Alexandria and 2) the earliest references to it in other works are found in writers from Alexandria.

It’s often difficult to pinpoint a date for ancient texts but The Epistle of Barnabas provides a couple of clues that allow us to locate it in history with some degree of accuracy.  In his discussion about the Temple in Jerusalem “Barnabas” writes: “For through their [the Jew] going to war, it was destroyed by their enemies; and now they, as the servants of their enemies, shall rebuild it.” [i] The city of Jerusalem and the Temple contained within it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., and until the failed revolt of the Jewish rebel Simon bar Kokhba in 132 C.E. the Jewish people held out hope of rebuilding the temple. Using those dates we can bracket The Epistle of Barnabas somewhere between 70 and 131 C.E.  Further, John Dominick Crossan suggests that the epistle’s lack of quotations from New Testament books argues for an earlier date of composition – perhaps even in the first century.[ii]

I struggled to read The Epistle of Barnabas, for a couple of reasons.  First, his writing style is confused; he drifts from topic to topic – sometimes without completing his arguments.  I thought at first that I was struggling with the archaic qualities of the translation – with the thee’s and thou’s – but I didn’t have this difficulty with the other works I’ve read so far.  I discovered online that I’m not the only one to have difficulty with Barnabas’ writing.

From a literary point of view the Epistle of Barnabas has no merit. The style is tedious, poor in expression, deficient in clearness, in elegance, and incorrectness. The author's logic is weak, and his matter is not under his control; from this fact arise the numerous digressions.” [iii]

But even more than that, I struggled against his interpretation of the Old Testament.

The Epistle of Barnabas is written to recent converts to Christianity – known personally by “Barnabas” – who have come under the influence of Jews (or Jewish Christians) who have been telling them that the Mosaic covenant and the rituals and laws of the Jews are still in effect for Christians.  To which Barnabas replies (and here I’m paraphrasing) “The Jewish covenant can’t be still in effect – because they never received it.”

In his own words:

“I further beg of you , as being one of you, and loving you both individually and collectively more than my own soul, to take heed now to yourselves, and not to be like some, adding largely to your sins, and saying, ‘The covenant is both theirs and ours.’  But they finally lost it, after Moses had received it. For Scripture saith, ‘And Moses was fasting in the mount forty days and forty nights, and received the covenant from the Lord, tables of stone written with the finger of the hand of the Lord;’ but turning away to idols, they lost it.  For the Lord speaks to thus to Moses: ‘Moses go down quickly; for the people whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt have transgressed.’ And Moses understood [the meaning of God], and cast the two tables out of his hands; and their covenant was broken, in order that the covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon our heart…”  [iv]

Nearly every part of the Judaic law and tradition is allegorically reinterpreted by Barnabas – away from the Jews and given to the Christians. 

He explains to his readers that the Jewish mark of circumcision was based on a delusion foisted upon them by an evil angel and that the 318 servants that Abraham circumcised in his house was actually a reference to Jesus.  Since Greek letters also served for numerals (like Roman numerals), 318 could be read as IHT - and this is, obviously, the first two letters of Jesus' name in Greek (IH) and his cross (T)!   [v]
  
The kosher dietary laws weren’t actually about meats to avoid but were really about types of people to avoid.  When Moses gave them the law that said “don’t eat swine” what he really meant was “Thou shalt not join thyself to men who resemble swine. For when they live in pleasure, they forget their Lord, but when they come to want, they acknowledge the Lord. And [in like manner] the swine, when it has eaten, does not recognize its master; but when hungry it cries out, and on receiving food is quiet again.”   The prohibition against eating rabbit actually means that we shouldn’t associate with promiscuous people- who breed like rabbits… The prohibition against eating weasel was really against associating with people who practice oral sex. “Thou shalt not be like to those whom we hear of as committing wickedness with the mouth, on account of their uncleanness; nor shalt thou be joined to those impure women who commit iniquity with the mouth.  For this animal conceives by the mouth.” [vi]

Barnabas of Alexandria, like the apostle Paul, uses the allegorical approach to interpreting the Jewish bible in order to find the basis for Christianity [vii].  But this Barnabas does not understand the Apostle Paul at all.  Where Paul found the Gentiles being added to and included with the Jews in order to make up the full people of God, Barnabas found the Christians completely replacing the Jews. 

It’s strange to realize how quickly the fledgling Christian community disassociated itself from its Jewish roots.  There were, of course, numerous reasons for this movement – the increasing number of Gentile converts who had little or no understanding of Judaism, the hostility of traditional Jews to Jewish followers of the Way (Jewish Christians), the desire of Christians to politically disassociate themselves from the Jews who’d attempted an ill-fated rebellion against the Roman Empire, etc,  and etc… But still it’s strange.

We will never – Never- understand what Jesus taught if we do not understand his Jewishness.  Christianity and the Church have not “replaced” Israel as the chosen people of God.  Nor are there two separate peoples of God with distinct and separate covenant relationships with God.  There is one God, one Savior, one faith for Jew and Gentile alike. 

And here’s a lesson:  It’s not a good idea to put the “Early Church Fathers” on some sort of theological pedestal.  Some of them were idiots.  Some of them were crack-pots. Some of them were bitter old men nursing grudges against perceived enemies. 




[i] The Epistle of Barnabas Chap. XVI
[ii]  John Dominic Crossan The Cross that Spoke: The Origins of the Passion Narrative
[iv] The Epistle of Barnabas Chap. IV
[v] Chap. IX
[vi] Chap. X  This strange note about the weasel is based on the erroneous idea that weasels copulate via the mouth
[vii] See Galatians 4: 21 - 31

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