Epistle of Barnabas 6.18

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

Summary: No one yet truly rules creation.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:362

προειρήκαμεν δὲ ἐπάνω. Καὶ αὐξανέσθωσαν καὶ πληθυνέσθωσαν καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων. τίς οὖν ὁ δυνάμενος νῦν ἄρχειν θηρίων ἢ ἰχθύων ἢ πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ; αἰσθάνεσθαι γὰρ ὀφείλομεν, ὅτι τὸ ἄρχειν ἐξουσίας ἐστίν, ἵνα τις ἐπιτάξας κυριεύσῃ.

English · Claude translation

And we said above, “And let them increase and multiply and rule over the fish.” Who, then, is now able to rule over beasts or fish or birds of heaven? For we ought to understand that to rule implies authority, so that one may command and have dominion.

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

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accents)): ἤ ἰχθύων ἤ πετεινῶν → ἢ ἰχθύων ἢ πετεινῶν.

Cite this passage

Barn. 6.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/18/).

Plain text

Barn. 6.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/barnabas/6/18/).

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