Whether this Epistle was written by Bamabas, the companion of St. Paul, has been a subject of controversy almost ever since its publication in the seventeenth century. Its first editors, Usher and Menard, took the negative, and Vossius the affir mative side of the question. Of modern critics, Hug, Ullman, Neander, Winer, Hefele, and Dres sel agree with the former, and Rosenmiiller, Giese ler, Bleek, Henke, and Rordam with the latter. The external evidence for its genuineness, it may be allowed, is considerable ; but besides some con flicting testimonies, criteria furnished by the Epistle itself lead to the opposite conclusion. We shall present a view of both as succinctly as possible.
I. The first writer who alludes to this Epistle is Clement of Alexandria. I. He quotes a sentence from the tenth chapter, and adds, ' These things saith Barnabas' (Strom. ii. 15. sec. 67, vol. ii. p. 165, ed. Klotz. Lips. 1831). 2. A sentence from chap. xxi., of which he says, Bamabas truly speaks mystically' (Strom. ii. 18, sec. 84, vol. ii. p. 174). 3. Again, quoting chap. x., Barnabas says' (Strom. v. 8. sec. 52, vol. iii. p. 38). 4. After quoting two passages from chap. i. and ii., he calls the author the apostle Barnabas (Strom. ii. 6. sec. 31, vol. ii. p. 142). 5. He cites a passage from chap. iv. with the words `the apostle Barnabas says' (Strom. ii. 7. sec. 35, vol. ii. p. 144). 6. He prefaces a passage from chap. xvi. with ' I need not say more, when I adduce as a witness the apostolic Barnabas, who was one of the Seventy, and a fellow-labourer with Paul' (Strom. ii. 20. sec. 116, vol. ii. p. 192). 7. He makes two quotations from chap. vi., which he introduces with these words : ' But Barnabas also, who proclaimed the word with the apostle, in his ministry among the Gentiles' (Strom. v. 10. sec. 64, vol. iii. p. 46). The name of Barnabas occurs in another passage (Strom. vi. 8. sec. 64, vol. iii. p. 136), but probably by a lapse of memory, instead of Clemens Ro menus, from whose first Epistle to the Corinthians a sentence is there quoted. There is also an evident allusion to the Epistle of Barnabas in Podag ii. io. sec. 83, vol. i. p. 245, and in some other passages, though the author's name is not mentioned.
II. Origen quotes this Epistle twice. 1. The sentence in chap. v. respecting the apostles, which he says is written in the Catholic Epistle of Bar nabas' (Contr. Gels. i. 49). 2. A passage from chap. xviii. : To the same purpose Barnabas speaks in his Epistle, when he says, that there are two ways, one of light, the other of darkness,' ' etc. (De I'rincip. iii. 2).
On these testimonies it has been remarked, that both these Alexandrian fathers have quoted works unquestionably spurious without expressing a doubt of their genuineness : thus Clement refers to the Revelation of Peter, and Origen to the Shepherd of Hermas, which he believed to be inspired (` quze scripture valde mihi utilis videtur, et, ut puto, divinitus inspirata,' In Ep. ad Rom. Comment. lib.
x.) ; and though Clement speaks of the apostolic Barnabas, he evidently does not treat this Epistle with the same deference as the canonical writings, but freely points out its mistakes. Tertullian calls all the seventy disciples apostles, and in this infe rior and secondary sense, as Dr. Lardner observes, Clement terms Barnabas an apostle.
III. Ensebius, in the noted passage of his Eccle siastical History (iii. 25), quoted at length (in the original) by De 'Bette, in his Lehrblich der histo risch-krilischen Einleitung in die Bibel, etc., Berlin, 184o, Theil. i. sec. 32, and translated by Lardner, Credibility, part ii. chap. 72), says, The Epistle reputed to be written by Barnabas is to be ranked among the books which are spurious' — Ev TOES vbOow Kantrercix06.: . . . i7 Ba.pvc0a okr) ; and elsewhere, 'He (Clement of Alexandria) makes use of testimonies out of those scriptures that are controverted (chrO .1-6)v ypa0c2n,), that called the Wisdom of Solomon, and of Jesus the Son of Sirach, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and that of Barnabas and of Clement, and of Jude' (Hist. Eccles. vi. 13). lle also observes of. Cle ment, ' In his book called Hypotyposes, he gives short explications of all the canonical Scriptures (irdcrns. epOta07)Kou ^ypacbijs),* not neglecting even the controverted books (ra.s. civrAryobtepas), I mean that of Jude and the other Catholic Epistles, the Epistle of Barnabas, and that called the Reve lation of Peter.' IV. Jerome, in his work on illustrious men, or Catalogue of Ecclesiastical .Writers, thus speaks of Bamabas : Bamabas of Cyprus, called also Joseph, a Levite, was ordained, with Paul, an apostle of the Gentiles : he wrote an Epistle for the edification of the church, which is read among the Apocryphal scriptures' (fatal. Vic. illust. cap. vi.) ; and in his Commentary on Ezekiel xlii. 19, Many parts of the Scriptures, and especially the Epistle of Barnabas, which is reckoned among the Apocryphal Scriptures,' etc. In another place he quotes, as the words of Ignatius, the passage rela tive to the apostles, which is cited by Origen from the Epistle of Bamabas (Lardner's Credibility, pt. ii. ch. 114).