Epistle of Barnabas 6.17

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

Summary: Milk and honey are the nourishment of faith and the word.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:362

τί οὖν τὸ γάλα καὶ τὸ μέλι; ὅτι πρῶτον τὸ παιδίον μέλιτι, εἶτα γάλακτι ζωοποιεῖται· οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς τῇ πίστει τῆς ἐπαγγελίας καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ζωοποιούμενοι ζήσομεν κατακυριεύοντες τῆς γῆς.

English · Claude translation

What, then, is the milk and honey? That a child is first nourished with honey, then with milk. So also we, being nourished by faith in the promise and by the word, will live and rule over the earth.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 24:362 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

The author refers to the ancient custom of giving a newborn honey and then milk; honey and milk were also given to the newly baptized in some early churches.

Cite this passage

Barn. 6.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/17/).

Plain text

Barn. 6.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/17/).

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