Letter B

B

BALAAM, son of Beor, of the region of Ammonitis, by profession a diviner and soothsayer, whose vaticinations Moses wrote down in the book of Numbers, is believed to have left books of his divinations to his posterity. Concerning which Origen, in the thirteenth homily on Numbers, writes thus ^{1 2}: IF the Prophecies of Balaam are inserted by Moses into the sacred volumes, how much more were they written down by those who then inhabited Mesopotamia — among whom Balaam was held in high renown, and whose disciples it is agreed were [masters] of his art? From him, finally, the race and institution of the Magi is reported to flourish in the parts of the Orient; who, having among themselves all the things described which Balaam had prophesied, had also this written, that A STAR SHALL RISE OUT OF JACOB, AND A MAN SHALL ARISE OUT OF ISRAEL. These writings the Magi had among themselves; and therefore, when Jesus was born, they recognized the star, and understood the prophecy to be fulfilled — more than they [themselves knew], since the people of Israel despised to hear the words of the holy prophets. They, therefore, out of these only which Balaam’s writings had left, recognizing that the time was at hand, came; and, seeking him, straightway adored him. The author of the Imperfect Work on Matthew, chapter 2, subscribing to Origen, says: I HAVE READ, in a certain author, that these Magi received, out of the books of Balaam the diviner, the knowledge of this star that was to appear — whose divination is placed in the old testament: A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel, and shall rule over all nations.

THE DOCTRINE OF BALAAM cited in the 2nd chapter of the Apocalypse — this, as some falsely suppose, is not a certain hidden scripture, but the wicked counsel by which he himself admonished king Balac: that, if he wished to destroy the nation of the Jews, he should draw the sons of Israel to fornication and the worship of idols, sending to them most beautiful women who might allure and inflame them to lust, and by this pact lead the allured into the rites of the gentiles. See this history in Numbers, chapter 24.

BARNABAS the Cyprian (who [is] also Joseph the Levite, one of the seventy-two disciples of the Lord, ordained with Paul an Apostle of the gentiles, and afterward separated from Paul on account of John the disciple, who was also called Marcus) ³ exercised the work of evangelical preaching enjoined upon him until the seventh year of Nero; in which he fell, crowned with martyrdom by his own Cyprians. ⁴ Clement the Roman pontiff, in the first book of the Recognitions, writes that he came into Italy; and Dorotheus, bishop of Tyre, in the Synopsis, testifies that he was the first bishop of the city of Milan. He wrote one epistle pertaining to the edification of the church; out of which, in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria, I found these fragments, or testimonies, scattered here and there:

Fragments of the Epistle which is attributed to Barnabas

MORE SIMPLY I write to you, that ye may understand. May God, who is Lord of the whole world, give to us also wisdom and understanding, knowledge, and the cognition of his justification, and tolerance. Before we believed God, the habitation of our heart was obnoxious to destruction, and weak — truly a temple built by hand, because it was full of the worship of idols, and was a house of demons, in that it did whatsoever things are contrary to God. Take heed, that the temple of the Lord may be gloriously built: learn ye to have received the remission of sins, and to have hoped in [his] name. Wherefore in our habitation God dwells; in us is the word of faith, the calling of his promise, the wisdom of the justifications, and the mandates of the doctrine. With your faith, therefore, that ye may have also perfect knowledge — let fear and tolerance be co-adjutors of faith. But those which bring help to these are longanimity and continence; with which, abiding chastely, together with them rejoice wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and cognition.

THESE things out of Clement; whose disciple Origen, in the third book Periarchon [Of principles], writes thus: BARNABAS, in his epistle, declares that there are two ways, one of light, the other of darkness; over which he says that certain angels preside — over the way of light, indeed, the angels of God; but over the way of darkness, the angels of Satan. Thus much concerning the epistle of Barnabas — besides which, Tertullian thinks that [the epistle] which is inscribed under the name of Paul to the Hebrews was composed by him. ^{5 6} He also translated the Gospel of Matthew from Hebrew into Greek; of which Theodorus the reader, in the second book of the Collectanea, makes mention in this manner: THE RELICS of Barnabas the Apostle were found in Cyprus, under a carob tree, having under the breast the Gospel of Matthew, written by the hand of Barnabas himself. ⁷ On which occasion the Cyprians came off victors — that their metropolis should have a free episcopate, and not be subjected to the jurisdiction of the Antiochene bishop. But that Gospel the emperor Zeno reserved in his own palace. There is also another gospel under the name of Barnabas, which, by Gelasius, distinction 15, is computed among the Apocrypha.

BARTHOLOMEW the Apostle, who delivered the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew letters, to the Indians who are called Fortunati [the Fortunate], ⁸ is thought to have written a Gospel; and out of it Dionysius the Areopagite, at the beginning of the Mystical Theology, is thought to have brought forth a testimony in these words: IF THEREFORE the divine Bartholomew says that theology is both much and least, and the gospel broad and great, and again narrow — to me indeed he seems, understanding [it] supernaturally, [to mean] that [God] is at once the most eloquent cause of all things, and brief of speech, and without word. Gelasius, distinction 15, together with the other Apocryphal writings, decrees that this gospel be avoided.

THE BOOK OF THE WARS OF THE LORD, in Hebrew ספר מלחמת יהוה, called Sepher Milchamoth Iehova, is cited in the book of Numbers, chapter 21; ⁹ and out of it Moses brought forth a testimony, to demonstrate the things which had been done at the torrents of Arnon, in the borders of the Moabites, in these words: WHENCE it is said in the book of the Wars of the Lord: As he did in the Red Sea, so he did at the torrents of Arnon: the rocks of the torrents were bowed, that they might rest at Arnon, and lie down in the borders of the Moabites. ¹⁰ This book Rabbi Menachem says was the narration of God which had been revealed to Moses — to whom [God] had made manifest that he would do the same at the torrents which he had once done at the Red Sea. Aben Ezra thinks it to be the book of Judges, because in it many wars waged against the Amorrheans are read. There are also those among the Jews who suppose this to be the very book of Numbers, because ספר sepher [book], which our interpreter [our] *inter-*preter translated “book,” signifies also “Numbering,” as Lyranus says it is [there] called — because in it are narrated wars, done by the Lord through the hands of the Hebrews. Augustine, bishop of Chisamum, judges the Book of the Wars of the Lord to be not some volume in which wars are written together, but a certain narration which was then told among the Hebrews by the common mouth and voice of all: because that which Jerome rendered “book” is in Hebrew called ספר sepher — which signifies not so much “book” as “narration” and “enumeration,” from the verb ספר sipher, that is, “he narrated,” “he numbered.” And that word, “It is said” [Dicitur], which with us is put in the present, among the Hebrews is put in the future, יאמר ieamar, that is, “It shall be said” — which indicates that Moses speaks not of a thing already written, but of a thing to be narrated hereafter: so that the sense of his words is, Whence it shall be said in the book of the Wars of the Lord — that is, when the wars of God shall be reviewed by posterity, this also shall be said, that as God did in the Red Sea, so he did at the torrents of Arnon. But the divine Augustine, in the eighteenth book of the City of God, says that it is not to be denied that this book, together with very many others, was written even before the times of Moses.

THE BOXWOOD BOOK, or the Scripture engraved on a boxwood tablet, is commemorated by God himself, who, in Isaiah chapter 30, ¹¹ thus commands the prophet: WRITE for them upon boxwood, and in a book diligently engrave it; and it shall be, in the last day, for a testimony unto eternity. In which words, for that which is in Hebrew על לוח אתם al luach itam, the seventy interpreters translated ἐπὶ πυξίου, that is, “on boxwood”; Symmachus, ἐπὶ πλατεῖ [epi platei], that is, “Upon a very broad tablet”; Pagninus, “On a tablet with them”; but some, “on their tablets.” And these think that by these words neither boxwood tablets, nor of any other wood, are signified, but that, by a periphrasis and idiom of the Hebrew tongue, this sacred book of the prophecies of Isaiah is described. ¹² Jerome, however, believes that God commanded the prophet to write on tablets, and those especially of boxwood, ¹³ because the box is a tree of perpetual green foliage, whose wood, on account of its most firm solidity, is almost imputrescible, and remains through many ages: that in these the divine predictions might be extant for everlasting time — by which God threatened perpetual and irreparable destruction to the ungrateful and unbelieving Jews, who would not hear the prophets warning them well, and despised their vaticinations. For God willed them to remain written for eternal time, that after they were fulfilled, the Jews might, to their own great harm, at last perceive those to have been true oracles which he had commanded to be written on the tablets, or in the codices, of his prophets. And let it not escape thee that this precept, concerning the writing of tablets, is expounded by divers expositors in divers ways: some think it was commanded by God to Isaiah the Prophet, as he was entering to his people; others — and the Hebrews especially — judge this to be a precept of God to Jeremiah, that when he shall have entered Egypt with the other fellow-captives, he should write these things. And, lest it seem absurd to any that God speaks to Jeremiah, who was not yet born, [remember that] before God — who calls the things which are not, as though they were, and before whom all times are joined together — even Jeremiah, though he was not yet, was as present. But howsoever that be, it matters not much, since the spirit and sense of the mandate is one and the same, accommodated to whichever of these prophets thou wilt.