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Catecharium

The Epistle of Barnabas

Chapter 20

2 sections

Traditionally attributed to Saint Barnabas

Transcribed from a dated scan; artifacts may remain. Edition notes

But the Way of the Black One is crooked and full of cursing, for it is the way of eternal death with punishment, and in it are the things that destroy their soul: idolatry, frowardness, arrogance of power, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, adultery, murder, robbery, pride, transgression, fraud, malice, selfsufficiency, enchantments, magic, covetousness, the lack of the fear of God;

persecutors of the good, haters of the truth, lovers of lies, knowing not the reward of righteousness, who “cleave not to the good,” nor to righteous judgment, who attend not to the cause of the widow and orphan, spending wakeful nights not in the fear of God, but in the pursuit of vice, from whom meekness and patience are far and distant, “loving vanity, seeking rewards,” without pity for the poor, working not for him who is oppressed with toil, prone to evil speaking, without knowledge of their Maker, murderers of children, corrupters of God’s creation, turning away the needy, oppressing the afflicted, advocates of the rich, unjust judges of the poor, altogether sinful.

Trans. Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, Volume I (Loeb Classical Library), 1912. Public domain.

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