Epistle of Barnabas 13.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:388

καὶ προσήγαγεν Ἐφραὶμ καὶ Μανασσῆ, τὸν Μανασσῆ θέλων ἵνα εὐλογηθῇ, ὅτι πρεσβύτερος ἦν· ὁ γὰρ Ἰωσὴφ προσήγαγεν εἰς τὴν δεξιὰν χεῖρα τοῦ πατρὸς Ἰακώβ. εἶδεν δὲ Ἰακὼβ τύπον τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ λαοῦ τοῦ μεταξύ· καὶ τί λέγει; Καὶ ἐποίησεν Ἰακὼβ ἐναλλὰξ τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐπέθηκεν τὴν δεξιὰν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν Ἐφραίμ, τοῦ δευτέρου καὶ νεωτέρου, καὶ εὐλόγησεν αὐτόν. καὶ εἶπεν Ἰωσὴφ πρὸς Ἰακώβ· Μετάθες σου τὴν δεξιὰν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν Μανασσῆ, ὅτι πρωτότοκός μου υἱός ἐστιν. καὶ εἶπεν Ἰακὼβ πρὸς Ἰωσήφ· Οἶδα, τέκνον, οἶδα· ἀλλʼ ὁ μείζων δουλεύσει τῷ ἐλάσσονι, καὶ οὗτος δὲ εὐλογηθήσεται.

English · Claude translation

And he brought Ephraim and Manasseh, wishing Manasseh to be blessed, because he was the elder; for Joseph brought him to the right hand of his father Jacob. But Jacob saw in the Spirit a type of the people to come. And what does it say? “And Jacob crossed his hands and put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the second and younger, and blessed him. And Joseph said to Jacob, Move your right hand onto the head of Manasseh, for he is my firstborn son. And Jacob said to Joseph, I know, child, I know; but the greater will serve the lesser, and this one too will be blessed.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:388 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 340–407 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Scripture

Gen 48:13 · allusion, high confidence
Gen 48:14 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 48:18 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 48:19 · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing accent)): Οἰδα, τέκνον → Οἶδα, τέκνον.

Cite this passage

Barn. 13.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/13/5/).

Plain text

Barn. 13.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/13/5/).