THE SUPPRESSED GOSPELS AND EPISTLES OF THE ORIGINAL NEW TESTAMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST

AND OTHER PORTIONS OF THE ANCIENT HOLY SCRIPTURES. NOW EXTANT, ATTRIBUTED TO HIS APOSTLES, AND THEIR DISCIPLES, AND VENERATED BY THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES DURING THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES, BUT SINCE, AFTER VIOLENT DISPUTATIONS FORBIDDEN BY THE BISHOPS OF THE NICENE COUNCIL, IN THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE AND OMITTED FROM THE CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANT EDITIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY ITS COMPILERS

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL TONGUES, WITH HISTORICAL REFERENCES TO THEIR AUTHENTICITY,

BY ARCHBISHOP WAKE AND OTHER LEARNED DIVINES

THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF BARNABAS.

CHAPTER I.

Preface to the Epistle.

ALL happiness to you my sonsand daughters, in the nameof our Lord Jesus Christ, wholoved us, in peace.

2 Having perceived abundanceof knowledge of the great andexcellent laws of God to be in you,I exceedingly rejoice in your blessedand admirable souls, because yehave so worthily received thegrace which was grafted in you.

3 For which cause I am full ofjoy, hoping the rather to be saved;inasmuch as I truly see a spiritinfused into you, from the purefountain of God:

4 Having this persuasion, andbeing fully convinced thereof,because that since I have begun tospeak unto you, I have had a morethan ordinary good success in theway of the law of the Lord, whichis in Christ,

5 For which cause brethren, Ialso think verily that I love youabove my own soul; because thattherein dwelleth the greatness offaith and charity, as also the hopeof that life which is to come.

6 Wherefore considering this,that if I shall take care tocommunicate to you a part of whatI have received, it shall turn tomy reward, that I have served suchgood souls. I gave diligence towrite in a few words unto you;that together with your faith, yourknowledge also may be perfect.

7 There are therefore threethings ordained by the Lord; thehope of life, the beginning, andthe completion of it.

8 For the Lord hath bothdeclared unto us, by the prophets,those things that are past; andopened to us the beginnings ofthose that are to come.

9 Wherefore, it will behove us,as he has spoken, to come moreholily, and nearer to his altar.

10 I therefore, not as a teacherbut as one of you, will endeavourto lay before you a few things bywhich you may, on many accounts,become the more joyful.

CHAPTER II.

That Clod has abolished the legal sacrifices, to introduce the spiritual righteousness of the Gospel.

SEEING then the days areexceeding

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