s, is quite late
and untrustworthy. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was probably
no longer living when Acts was written (_c._ A.D. 75-80).

His was essentially a mediating role. He filled a position intermediate
between Jewish and Pauline Christianity--one characteristic of Christian
Hellenists generally. Hence he is spoken of with respect in the
Clementines; while Paul, as a radical in relation to the Law, is
discountenanced. If we could confidently credit him with the authorship of
the epistle to the Hebrews, we could conceive his theological standpoint
more exactly. But, in any case, the Barnabas of history was a greater man
than the Barnabas of modern tradition.

See W. Cunningham, _Epistle of Barnabas_, pp. xlvii.-lxii.; O.
Braunsberger, _Der Apostel Barnabas, sein Leben ..._ (Mainz, 1876);
articles _s.v._ in _Ency. Biblica_ and Hastings's _Dictionary of the
Bible_.

THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS is one of the apocryphal books of the New
Testament. At the end of the _Codex Sinaiticus_ of the 4th century, as a
sort of appendix to the New Testament, there stands an "Epistle of
Barnabas." Here it is followed by the _Shepherd of Hermas_, while in an
11th-century MS., which contains also the _Didach[=e]_, it is followed by
two writings which themselves form an appendix to the New Testament in the
_Codex Alexandrinus_. This means that it once enjoyed quasi-canonical
authority, a fact amply borne out by what Eusebius (_H. E._ iii. 25) says
as to its standing in the ancient Church. It was at Alexandria that its
authority was greatest. Clement comments on it, as on the canonical
scriptures, in his _Hypotyposes_; Origen cites it in the same spirit as
scripture (_C. Celsum_, i. 63, _De Princ._ iii. 2, 4, 7). Clement, too,
ascribes it to "the apostle" or "the prophet" Barnabas (_Strom._ ii. 6, 31,
cf. ii. 20, 116), with explicit reference to Paul's fellow-apostle.
Internal evidence makes this ascription impossible, nor does the epistle
itself lay any claim to such authorship. Lightfoot, indeed, suggests that
its author was "some unknown namesake" of the famous Barnabas: but it is
simpler to suppose that it was fathered upon the latter by the Alexandrian
Church, ready to believe that so favourite a writing was of apostolic
origin.

"That Alexandria, the place of its earliest reception, was also the place
of its birth, is borne out by the internal evidence of style and
interpretation, which is Alexandrian throughout" (L