Barnabae Epistula

The Epistle of Barnabas is an early Christian text written in Greek, probably in Alexandria, sometime between 70 and 132 AD — most likely around 96–100 AD. Its author is unknown; the attribution to Barnabas, Paul's companion in Acts, is ancient but almost certainly incorrect.

The letter — really a theological treatise in epistolary form — argues that the Jewish scriptures, properly understood through allegorical interpretation, were always intended for Christians rather than Jews. The author reads Mosaic law as a system of spiritual symbols: the dietary laws, for example, are not about food but about moral behaviour. This radical allegorism was not unique to the author — it was widespread in Alexandrian Jewish and Christian circles — but the Epistle is one of its most systematic early expressions.

The work was highly regarded in some early Christian communities. Clement of Alexandria treated it as near-canonical, and it appears in the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus alongside the books of the New Testament. Its exclusion from the final canon was gradual rather than decisive.