Sophia Scriptura

Epistle of Barnabas 5.9

Anonymous · Epistle of Barnabas · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · place unknown · Read in context

Summary: Christ chose sinners as apostles to show he came for sinners.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:356

ὅτε δὲ τοὺς ἰδίους ἀποστόλους τοὺς μέλλοντας κηρύσσειν τὸ εὐαγγέλιον αὐτοῦ ἐξελέξατο, ὄντας ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἁμαρτίαν ἀνομωτέρους, ἵνα δείξῃ, ὅτι οὐκ ἦλθεν καλέσαι δικαίους, ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλούς, τότε ἐφανέρωσεν ἑαυτὸν εἶναι υἱὸν θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

And when he chose his own apostles, who were to preach his gospel, men who were lawless beyond all sin, so that he might show that he came not to call the righteous but sinners, then he revealed himself to be the Son of God.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:356 · 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
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Lawless beyond all sin”: a striking exaggeration, to stress that Christ called sinners.

Cite this passage

Barn. 5.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/5/9/).

Plain text
Barn. 5.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/5/9/).

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