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The Epistle of Barnabas
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Chapter 7: Fasting and the Dismissed Goat as Symbols of Christ.
UNDERSTAND: then, children of gladness, that the good Lord has shown us everything in advance, so that we know to whom we should give thanksgiving and praise for everything. If, therefore, the Son of God, who is Lord of all and will judge the living and the dead, suffered to give us life through His wounds, let us believe that the Son of God could not have suffered except for our sake.
Furthermore, when He was fixed to the cross, they gave Him vinegar and gall to drink.
Listen to how the priests of the people foreshadowed this. The Lord commanded that anyone who did not keep the fast should be put to death, because He Himself was to offer the vessel of the Spirit as a sacrifice for our sins, so that the pattern established in Isaac when he was offered on the altar might be fully realized. What, then, does He say in the prophet? “And let them eat of the goat which is offered, with fasting, for all their sins.” Pay attention: “And let all the priests alone eat the inner parts, unwashed with vinegar.” Why? Because to me, who am to offer my flesh for the sins of my new people, you are to give gall with vinegar to drink: you priests eat alone, while the people fast and mourn in sackcloth and ashes.
These things were done to show that it was necessary for Him to suffer for them. How, then, did the commandment run? Pay attention. Take two goats of goodly appearance, and similar to each other, and offer them. Let the priest take one as a burnt-offering for sins. And what should they do with the other? “Accursed,” He says, “is the one.” Notice how the type of Jesus now emerges. “And all of you spit upon it, and pierce it, and wrap its head with scarlet wool, and then let it be driven into the wilderness.” When all this has been done, the person who takes the goat into the desert removes the wool from it and places it on a shrub called Rachia, whose fruits we also eat when we find them in the field.
Of this kind of shrub alone, the fruits are sweet. Why is this? Pay attention. You see “one on the altar, and the other accursed;” and why is the accursed one crowned? Because they shall see Him on that day having a scarlet robe about His body down to His feet; and they shall say, Is not this He whom we once despised, pierced, mocked, and crucified? Truly this is He who declared Himself to be the Son of God.
For how like is He to Him! With this in mind, He required the goats to be similar and of good appearance so that when they see Him coming, they may be amazed by the likeness to the goat. Behold, then, the type of Jesus who was to suffer.
But why place the wool among thorns? It is a type of Jesus shown to the Church. They place the wool among thorns so that anyone who wishes to bear it away may have to suffer much, because the thorn is formidable, and obtain it only through suffering.
Thus also, He says, “Those who wish to see Me and lay hold of My kingdom must obtain Me through tribulation and suffering.”
Hear the Scriptures cited in The Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas quotes or alludes to these Bible chapters more than any others. Each link opens the free audio Bible, where the chapter is read aloud alongside the text, cross-references, and what other early Christian writers said about it.
- Hear James 1 (audio Bible) — cited 3 times in this work
- Hear Psalms 22 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Psalms 118 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Isaiah 1 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Daniel 7 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear John 12 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Romans 1 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Romans 2 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Hebrews 9 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Genesis 14 (audio Bible)
- Hear Genesis 22 (audio Bible)
- Hear Genesis 25 (audio Bible)