Epistle of Barnabas 16.4

Anonymous · Epistle of Barnabas · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · place unknown · Read in context

Summary: The temple destroyed by enemies will be rebuilt by their servants.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:396

γίνεται, διὰ γὰρ τὸ πολεμεῖν αὐτοὺς καθῃρέθη ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν· νῦν καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ὑπηρέται ἀνοικοδομήσουσιν αὐτόν.

It is happening. For because they went to war it was torn down by their enemies; now the very servants of their enemies will build it up again.

Source: Lake, LCL 24:396 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 340–407 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

This refers to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans in AD 70. The rebuilding may refer to Hadrian's plan (ca. 130) to build a pagan temple on the site, which would date the letter to about that time; the reference is disputed.
Or: “now they themselves, as servants of their enemies, will rebuild it.” The manuscripts differ here, and the reading affects the letter's date: either the Jews hoped to rebuild the temple with Roman permission, or the Romans would build their own temple on the site.

Barn. 16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/4/).

Plain text

Barn. 16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/16/4/).