In the Epistle of Barnabas, 1 Enoch is quoted as if it is scripture. Examples include 4:3 and perhaps 16:5:
The final stumbling block is at hand of which
it was written, as Enoch says, "For to this end the Lord has cut short the
times and the days, that his beloved should make haste and come to his
inheritance. (Kirsopp Lake translation)
Again, it
was made manifest that the city and the temple and the people of Israel were to
be delivered up. For the Scripture says, "And it shall come to pass in the
last days that the Lord shall deliver the sheep of his pasture, and the
sheep-fold, and their tower to destruction." And it took place according
to what the Lord said. (Kirsopp Lake translation)
Commenting on the use of Enochic literature in the epistle,
Lookadoo wrote that:
. . . the
reference to Enoch points to another matter that must be considered when
examining Barnabas’s use of scripture, namely, the uncertainty of the precise
borders surrounding his understanding of scripture. The blurriness of the edges
around Barnabas’s list of authoritative writings can be illustrated in three
ways. First, the reference to Enoch as a speaker is not differentiated from
other introductory formulae so that Enoch appears to have an equally authoritative
voice. (4.3). Enochic tradition may lie behind the citation from scripture (γραφη)
in 16.5. While discussing the temple, Barnabas notes that the Lord will hand
the sheep, sheepfold, and tower to destruction. These words appear to come from
the Enochic Animal Apocalypse (1 En 89.56, 66) or from a similar text. (Jonathon
Lookadoo, The Epistle of Barnabas: A Commentary [Apostolic Fathers
Commentary Series; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2022], 47)
Lookadoo also noted that:
. . .
Barnabas also quotes texts that are difficult to pinpoint with certainty,
suggesting that he may have had access to texts or versions other than those
that remain extant. The citation in 12.1 serves as a good example. It is a
two-part quotation attributed to an unknown prophet who asks when these things
will be completed. The question is answered with a citation that appears to be
from the same text. Things will be completed whenever two qualifications are
met. First, the tree will be laid down and raised up. Second, blood will drip
from the tree. The orign of these words is unclear. On the one hand, the text
appears similar to words that are found in 4 Ezra 5.4-9 and 6.21-24. Menahem
Kister has argued different about the origins of Barnabas’s citation, proposing
instead that Barnabas appeals here to an Ezekiel apocryphon. Drawing upon questions
about when the Lord’s word will be fulfilled and images of a tree standing up
in 4Q385 2, Kister posits that Barnabas is drawing upon a similar Ezekiel
tradition in Barn. 12.1. (“Barnabas 12:1,” 63-67). Kister’s argument is strengthened
by the presence of imagery in Barn. 11.9-11 that is reminiscent of Ezek 40-48
and may come from an Ezekiel apocryphon. Whether Barn. 12.1 stems from 4 Ezra,
an Ezekiel apocryphon, or another source, the edges around which writings are authoritative
prove difficult to outline with clarity.
The answer
to the question posed on Barn. 12.1 is introduced as something that the Lord
says, and this illustrates a third way in which the borders of the texts that
Barnabas regards as authoritative are blurry. Barnabas appeals to Jesus’s words
as authoritative, but it is not always clear where those words have come from.
Although 12.1 finds Jesus’s words within another prophetic word, Barn. 7.11
quotes Jesus’s words directly. At the end of his discussion of the Day of Atonement,
Barnabas appeals to an otherwise unknown saying of Jesus: “’Thus,’ he says, ‘those
who want to see me and touch my kingdom ought to receive me by being oppressed
and suffering’’” This saying from Jesus is not attested in this form elsewhere
in early Christian literature. Although James Hardy Ropes argued that 7.11
should not be construed as a reference to Jesus’s words, (Hardy Ropes, Sprüche Jesu, 17-18), the formula with which Barnabas introduces this reference
strongly suggests that Barnabas appeals to something that Jesus purportedly
said in order to strengthen his arguments. (Ehrman and Pleše, “Agrapha,” 358-59) One may rightly question the historical
value of Barnabas’s citation of Jesus’s words, but 7.11 should nonetheless be recognized
as a citation of Jesus’s words from the second century. (Ibid., 47-48)
