Epistle of Barnabas — Chapter 14 — Receiving the covenant
14:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:1 Yes; but let us see whether He gave the covenant He swore to the fathers to give to the people. He gave it; but because of their sins they did not prove worthy to receive it.
Textual & reception notes
14:1 Text: The author answers yes to whether the covenant was given, while denying the recipients’ worthiness to receive it. Both statements remain; the tension is not removed by changing the first answer to no. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:2 For the prophet says: “Moses was fasting on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights to receive the Lord’s covenant for the people. Moses received from the Lord the two tablets written in the Spirit by the finger of the Lord’s hand. Having received them, Moses carried them down to give to the people.”
Textual & reception notes
14:2 Text: Moses fasts forty days and forty nights and receives two tablets. The selected wording adds “in the Spirit” to the writing by God’s finger; that phrase is retained as Barnabas’s form. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:3 The Lord said to Moses: “Moses, Moses, come down quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have acted lawlessly.” Moses understood that they had again made cast images for themselves. He threw the tablets from his hands, and the tablets of the Lord’s covenant were shattered.
Textual & reception notes
14:3 Text: The repeated summons “Moses, Moses” and the cast images lead to the breaking of the tablets. The source’s “again” remains, without inventing an earlier episode beyond its wording. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:4 Moses received it, but they did not prove worthy. Learn how we received it. Moses received it as a servant, but the Lord Himself gave it to us as a people of inheritance, having endured for our sake.
Textual & reception notes
14:4 Text: Moses is a servant, therapōn, while the Lord Himself gives the covenant through His endurance. This contrast remains contextual and does not require labeling Moses an enslaved person here. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:5 He appeared so that they might reach the full measure of their sins, and we might receive the covenant through the Lord Jesus who inherits it. He was prepared for this purpose: appearing Himself and redeeming from darkness our hearts, already consumed by death and handed over to the lawlessness of deception, He might establish a covenant in us by a word.
Textual & reception notes
14:5 Text: The purpose includes both the opponents’ full measure of sins and the readers’ receiving the covenant. Redemption from darkness precedes establishment of the covenant “by a word,” whose precise theological expansion is left open. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:6 For it is written how the Father commands Him, after redeeming us from darkness, to prepare a holy people for Himself.
Textual & reception notes
14:6 Text: The Father commands the Son to prepare a holy people after redeeming them. The distinct agents and order are retained rather than collapsing Father and Son into an unspecified subject. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:7 The prophet says: “I, the Lord your God, called You in righteousness. I will grasp Your hand and strengthen You. I gave You as a covenant for a people, as a light for nations, to open blind eyes, to bring the shackled out of bonds and those sitting in darkness out of prison.” We therefore know from where we were redeemed.
Textual & reception notes
14:7 Text: The Isaiah 42:6–7 form names covenant, light, opened eyes, broken bonds, and release from prison. Barnabas applies the speech to the Son; divine capitalization reflects that stated application. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:8 Again the prophet says: “Look, I have set You as a light for nations, so that You may be salvation to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the God who redeemed You.”
Textual & reception notes
14:8 Text: The light-to-nations quotation extends salvation to the earth’s end. The closing address identifies the Lord as the addressee’s Redeemer; the translator retains this wording within the author’s Christological setting. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.
14:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
14:9 Again the prophet says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to proclaim good news of grace to the lowly. He sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to announce an acceptable year of the Lord and a day of repayment, to comfort all who mourn.”
Textual & reception notes
14:9 Text: The Isaiah 61 passage includes grace to the lowly, healing the brokenhearted, sight, release, and a day of repayment. These are Barnabas’s selected clauses and are not shortened to the form quoted in Luke 4. Reception: No later section-specific reception verified in this review.