Epistle of Barnabas 19.7 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:402–404

οὐκ ἔσῃ διγνώμων οὐδὲ γλωσσώδης, ὑποταγήσῃ κυρίοις ὡς τύπῳ θεοῦ ἐν αἰσχύνῃ καὶ φόβῳ· οὐ μὴ ἐπιτάξῃς δούλῳ σου ἢ παιδίσκῃ ἐν πικρίᾳ, τοῖς ἐπὶ τὸν αὐτὸν θεὸν ἐλπίζουσιν, μή ποτε οὐ μὴ φοβηθήσονται τὸν ἐπʼ ἀμφοτέροις θεόν· ὅτι οὐκ ἦλθεν κατὰ πρόσωπον καλέσαι, ἀλλʼ ἐφʼ οὓς τὸ πνεῦμα ἡτοίμασεν.

English · Claude translation

You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued. You shall be subject to masters as to a representation of God, with respect and fear. You shall never give orders in bitterness to your male or female slave, who hope in the same God, lest they cease to fear the God who is over both; for he came not to call people according to their status, but those whom the Spirit prepared.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:402–404 · 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.

Scripture

Eph 6:5 · echo, medium confidence
Eph 6:9 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

As in Did. 4.10–11 and Eph 6:5–9, slavery is assumed, but masters are told that their slaves share the same God and hope.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): δούλῳ σου ἡ παιδίσκῃ → δούλῳ σου ἢ παιδίσκῃ.