Epistle of Barnabas 8

The Heifer, the Ashes, and the Hyssop

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The Figure of the Heifer

8:1What figure do you think is intended when Israel is commanded that men whose sins are complete should offer a heifer, slaughter it and burn it, and that children should then take the ashes and put them into vessels, place scarlet wool upon a piece of wood—see again the figure of the cross and the scarlet wool—and hyssop, and thus sprinkle the people one by one so that they may be purified from their sins?

8:2Understand how plainly He speaks to you. The calf is Jesus; the sinful men offering it are those who offered Him for slaughter. Then they are no longer men; the glory no longer belongs to sinners.

8:3The children who sprinkle are those who proclaimed to us forgiveness of sins and purification of the heart. He gave them the authority of the good news to proclaim it. They were twelve as a testimony to the tribes, because Israel has twelve tribes.

8:4Why are there three children sprinkling? As a testimony to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because these are great before God.

8:5Why is the wool upon the wood? Because the kingdom of Jesus is upon a tree, and those who hope in Him will live forever.

8:6Why are the wool and hyssop together? Because in His kingdom there will be evil and filthy days, in which we shall be saved; for a person suffering bodily pain is also healed through the filth of the hyssop.

Clear to Us, Obscure to Them

8:7Because these things happened in this way, they are clear to us but obscure to them, because they did not hear the Lord’s voice.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.