(4.) In chap. viii. our author's fancy (as Mr. Jones remarks) seems to grow more fruitful and luxuriant. In referring to the red heifer (Num. xix.), he says that men in whom sins are come to perfection (Iv oh &gaffing reXceat) were to bring the heifer and kill it ; that three youths were to take up the ashes and put them in vessels ; then to tie a piece of scarlet wool and hyssop upon a stick, and so sprinkle every one of the people. This heifer is Jesus Christ ; the wicked men that were to offer it are those sinners who brought him to death ; the young men signify those to whom the Lord gave authority to preach his Gospel, being at the beginning twelve, because there were twelve tribes of Israel.' But why (he asks) were there three young men appointed to sprinkle ? To denote Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And why was wool put upon a stick ? Because the kingdom of Jesus was founded upon the cross, etc.
(5.) He interprets the distinction of clean and unclean animals in a spiritual sense. Is it not ("Aga OOK--24 Dr. Hefele's valuable note, p. 85) the command of God that they should not eat these things ?—(Yes.) But Moses spoke in spirit (is rrermart). He named the swine, in order to say, Thou shalt not join those men who are like swine, who, while they live in pleasure, forget their Lord,' etc. He adds—' Neither shalt thou eat of the hyaena : that is, thou shalt not be an adulterer.' If these were the views entertained by Barnabas, how must he have been astonished at the want of spiritual discernment in the apostle Peter, when he heard from his own lips the account of the symbolic vision at Joppa, and his reply to the command—' Arise, Peter, slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth' (Acts xi. 8).
(6.) In chap. ix. he attempts to shew that Abra ham, in circumcising his servants, had an especial reference to Christ and his crucifixion Learn, my children, that Abraham, who first circumcised in spirit, having a regard to the Son (hi 7esum, Lat. Vera.), circumcised, applying the mystic sense
of the three letters (Xapiov rpgaiv ypaggctrtop So-y "Lai-a—den geheimeu S/un dreier Buchstaben an wendend, Hefele). For the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised 318 men of his house. What then was the deeper insight (-yrclus) imparted to him ? Mark first the 18, and next the 3oo. The numeral letters of 18 are I (Iota) and El (Eta), I to, I3 = 8 ; here you have Jesus ; and because the cross in the T (Tau) must express the grace (of our redemption), he names 300 ; therefore be signified Jesus by two letters, and the cross by one.' It will be observed that the writer hastily assumes (from Gen. xiv. 14) that Abraham circumcised only 318 persons, that being the number of the ser vants born in his own house,' whom he armed against the four kings ; but he circumcised his household nearly twenty years later, including not only those born in his house (with the addition of Ishmael), but 'all that were bought with money' (Gen. xvii. 23). The writer evidently was unac quainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, by his com mitting the blunder of supposing that Abraham was familiar with the Greek alphabet some centuries before it existed.
J. P. Lange, Das apostolische Zeitalter, Brauns chweig, 1854, ii. 440.448 ; A new and full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testa ment, by the Rev. Jeremiah Jones, Oxford, 1827, vol. ii. part iii. ch. 37-43 ; Das Sendschreiben des Apostels Barnabas azes Nene untersucht, iibersetzt, and erklart, von Dr. Carl Joseph Hefele, Tubin gen, 184o ; Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, edidit C. J. Hefele, Tubingx, 1839 ; PP. App. Opp., ed. A. R. M. Dressel, Lips. 1857 ; Lardner's Credibility, part ii. ch. i. ; Neander, Gesch. der Christi. Religion rind Kirche, i. 653, too, or, History of the Christian Religion and Church, translated by Jos. Torrey, 1847, vol. ii. pp. 438-440 ; Lives of the most eminent Fathers of the Church, by William Cave, D.D., Oxford, 1840, vol. i. pp. 90405.—J. E. R.
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