Epistle of Barnabas

Posted under Uncategorized on October 10th, 2010 by with no responses 

Whole Epistle –
http://www.purposedriven.ca/library/Epistle_of_Barnabas.html

Epistle of Barnabas
Translated by J.B. Lightfoot.  Adapt. and mod. (c) 1990. ATHENA DATA PRODUCTS
Barnabas 1:1″¨I Bid you greeting, sons and daughters, in the name of the Lord that loved us, in peace.
Barnabas 1:2″¨Seeing that the ordinances of God are great and rich unto you, I rejoice with an exceeding great and overflowing joy at your blessed and glorious spirits; so innate is the grace of the spiritual gift that ye have received.
Barnabas 1:3″¨Wherefore also I the more congratulate myself hoping to be saved, for that I truly see the Spirit poured out among you from the riches of the fount of the Lord. So greatly did the much-desired sight of you astonish me respecting you.
Barnabas 1:4″¨Being therefore persuaded of this, and being conscious with myself that having said much among you I know that the Lord journeyed with me on the way of righteousness, and am wholly constrained also myself to this, to love you more than my own soul (for great faith and love dwelleth in you through the hope of the life which is   His)–considering this therefore, that,
Barnabas 1:5″¨if it shall be my care to communicate to you some portion of that which I received, it shall turn to my reward for having ministered to such spirits, I was eager to send you a trifle, that along with your faith ye might have your knowledge also perfect.
Barnabas 1:6″¨Well then, there are three ordinances of the Lord; *the hope of life, which is the beginning and end of our faith; and righteousness, which is the beginning and end of judgment; love shown in gladness and exultation, the testimony of works of righteousness.*
Barnabas 1:7″¨For the Lord made known to us by His prophets things past and present, giving us likewise the firstfruits of the taste of things future. And seeing each of these things severally coming to pass, according as He spake, we ought to offer a richer and higher offering to the fear of Him. But I, not as though I were a teacher, but as one of yourselves, will show forth a few things, whereby ye shall be gladdened in the present circumstances.
Barnabas 2:1″¨Seeing then that the days are evil, and that the Active One himself has the authority, we ought to give heed to ourselves and to seek out the ordinances of the Lord.
Barnabas 2:2″¨The aids of our faith then are fear and patience, and our allies are long-suffering and self-restraint.
Barnabas 2:3″¨While these abide in a pure spirit in matters relating to the Lord, wisdom, understanding, science, knowledge rejoice with them.
Barnabas 2:4″¨For He hath made manifest to us by all the prophets that He wanteth neither sacrifices nor whole burnt offerings nor oblations, saying at one time;
Barnabas 2:5″¨What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord I am full of whole burnt-offerings, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and of goats desire not, not though ye should come to be seen of Me. or who required these things at your hands? Ye shall continue no more to tread My court. If ye bring fine flour, it is in vain; incense is an abomination to Me; your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot away with.
Barnabas 2:6″¨These things therefore He annulled, that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, being free from the yoke of constraint, might have its oblation not made by human hands.
Barnabas 2:7″¨And He saith again unto them; Did command your fathers when they went forth from the land of Egypt to bring Me whole burnt offerings and sacrifices?
Barnabas 2:8″¨Nay, this was My command unto them, Let none of you bear a grudge of evil against his neighbor in his heart, and love you not a false oath.
Barnabas 2:9″¨So we ought to perceive, unless we are without understanding, the mind of the goodness of our Father; for He speaketh to us, desiring us not to go astray like them but to seek how we may approach Him.
Barnabas 2:10 Thus then speaketh He to us; The sacrifice unto God is a broken heart, the smell of a sweet savor unto the Lord is a heart that glorifies its Maker. We ought therefore, brethren, to learn accurately concerning our salvation, lest the Evil One having effected an entrance of error in us should fling us away from our life.
Barnabas 3:1″¨He speaketh again therefore to them concerning these things; Wherefore fast ye for Me, saith the Lord, so that your voice is heard this day crying aloud? This is not the fast which have chosen, saith the Lord; not a man abasing his soul;
Barnabas 3:2″¨not though ye should bend your neck as a hoop, and put on sackcloth and make your bed of ashes, not even so shall ye call a fast that is acceptable.
Barnabas 3:3″¨But unto us He saith; Behold, this is the fast which I have chosen, saith the Lord; loosen every band of wickedness, untie the tightened cords of forcible contracts, send away the broken ones released and tear in pieces every unjust bond. Break thy bread to the hungry, and if thou seest one naked clothe him; bring the shelterless into thy house, and if thou seest a humble man, thou shalt not despise him, neither shall any one of thy household and of thine own seed.
Barnabas 3:4″¨Then shall thy light break forth in the morning, and thy healing shall arise quickly, and righteousness shall go forth before thy face, and the glory of God shall environ thee.
Barnabas 3:5″¨Then shalt thou cry out and God shall hear thee; while thou art still speaking, He shall say ‘Lo, I am here’; if thou shalt take away from thee the yoke and the stretching forth of the finger and the word of murmuring, and shalt give thy bread to the hungry heartily, and shalt pity the abased soul.
Barnabas 3:6″¨To this end therefore, my brethren, He that is long-suffering, foreseeing that the people whom He had prepared in His well-beloved would believe in simplicity, manifested to us beforehand concerning all things, that we might not as novices shipwreck ourselves upon their law.

Whole Epistle –
http://www.purposedriven.ca/library/Epistle_of_Barnabas.html

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